Category: The Writing Life

Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival – NY Times Bestselling Author Meagan Church

In yesterday’s blog post, https://janetswritingblog.com/2026/03/25/mt-pleasant-literary-festival-cathy-pickens-writers-workshop/) I introduced to you the second annual Mt. Pleasant (North Carolina) Literary Festival.

If you are a writer or you are curious about what makes a writer want to write, please read yesterday’s post and visit Cathy Pickens’ website, https://cathypickens.com/.

For the little village of Mt. Pleasant to attract famous authors is a feat for which the festival’s organizers deserve great praise. It started a couple of years ago as an idea. It has grown beyond their wildest imaginations. I can’t wait to see what the third annual festival holds in store for us in 2027!

This year’s festival attracted 16 authors. I’m still kicking myself that I was too late to register for Kate Quinn’s presentation on Friday night.

Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival 2026

After Cathy Pickens’ Writer’s Workshop, I was excited to attend a presentation by New York Times Bestselling Author Meagan Church.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Meagan Church and seeing her in person on Thursday evening. I read her first two novels and blogged about them (The Girls We Sent Away in my September 2, 2024 blog post, Books I Read in August 2024 and The Last Carolina Girl in my May 1, 2023 post, Some of the Books I Read in April 2023.)

The Girls We Sent Away, by Meagan Church
The Last Carolina Girl, by Meagan Church

I have much less time to read now than I did several years ago. I unable to read much of Meagan’s Church New York Times Bestseller, The Mad Wife, before it had to go back to the public library. I’m on the waitlist again so I can finish it.

She mainly talked about The Mad Wife and what led her to do the research and write it. She talked about the history of the term “hysteria” and how it has always been relegated to women.

The Mad Wife, by Meagan Church

She talked about how nervous or excitable women and women with such ailments as multiple sclerosis were misdiagnosed through the years as “just being hysterical.”

The most gut-wrenching part of her talk was when she addressed how rampant lobotomies were in the first half of the 20th century and the gruesome ways one particular man used an ice pick through a woman’s eye socket to perform a lobotomy. This led many women in vegetative states which, unfortunately, was the objective.

Meagan Church, during her presentation on March 19, 2026, at the Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina

She talked about how women have traditionally been omitted from medical studies – particularly drug studies – in spite of the fact that women tend to react differently biologically than men from certain drugs. She mentioned how women’s symptoms are often different from a man’s . It was only in the last 30 years that medical science began to acknowledge that and make a few exceptions in research.

It was a fascinating presentation, and the author and audience members were careful to avoid “spoilers” for those of us who have not read or finished reading the novel.

In a nutshell, Lulu is expected to be the perfect housewife in the 1950s in American suburbia. She collects Green Stamps (are you old enough to remember them? I am!) and tries to maintain her home just so for her husband, but cracks begin to appear in her life… and therein lies the story of The Mad Wife.

If you have not read any of Meagan Church’s books, I highly recommend them! Please visit her website, https://www.meaganchurch.com/.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival – Cathy Pickens’ Writer’s Workshop

I had two delightful experiences last Thursday at the first day of the second annual Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. The public library staff and The Friends of the Mt. Pleasant Library are real go-getters!

Mt. Pleasant is a quiet little town, more of a village than a town originally settled by German immigrants in the mid-1700s. It is in eastern Cabarrus County.

The Bernheim Literary Society (named for the literary society for the students of Mont Amoena Female Academy, located in Mt. Pleasant from 1859 until 1927), The Friends of the Mt. Pleasant Library, the Cabarrus Arts Council, and individual and commercial sponsors make this annual literary festival possible for the public – free of charge.

Schedule for the 3-Day event

This second annual event attracted such authors as Kate Quinn and Meagan Church! I understand some authors have already been signed on for next year’s festival. I can’t wait to find out who’s coming!

I was too late registering for Kate Quinn’s presentation. Lesson learned for future festivals!

The first event I attended on Thursday was a 90-minute Writer’s Workshop with author and professor Cathy Pickens. She has an impressive history as a lawyer, a professor, and a writer, so I was privileged to have the opportunity to finally attend one of her workshops.

Cathy Pickens, teaching a Writer’s Workshop at the Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival, March 19, 2026

She led us through a systematic series of writing prompts to help us clarify the roots of our creativity and why we want to write what we want to write.

Workshop attendees were in various stages along our writing journeys. The first thing she had us write about was our “pinprick.” What was the pinprick that set in motion my desire to write the story I want to write? I knew immediately what the pinprick was for the series of historical novels I’m writing. It was a banjo from Africa.

(That’s all I will tell you about that banjo for now. You will need to continue to read my blog posts and subscribe to my e-newsletter if you want to find out later just how that came about. It seemingly came “out of the blue,” but maybe it is deeply connected to the historical fiction I want to write.)

Back to the workshop… I was able to quickly write an entire page about that banjo as my inspiration or “pinprick” as she called it.

Ms. Pickens talked about how it was sometime between the ages of eight and eleven that something happened that influenced the paths our lives take. Whether or not we are aware of it at the time, something happened that set us on a path to writing.  Our worldview begins to shift, and you start to try to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. She asked us to write down everything we could remember from those years of our life.

I was surprised at how many things I remember and in minute detail and how each of those incidents made me feel. As I wrote, it became clear to me that my lifelong interest in the colonial era of United States history and what unbeknownst to me put me on the path to majoring in political science and minoring in history in college started when I was in Miss Judy Ford’s fourth grade class at Harrisburg School in Harrisburg, North Carolina.

Miss Ford made Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg come alive to us, although we lived a long way from those places and had no hopes of visiting them in the foreseeable future. I’ll never forget that Colby Cochran’s father, Dan, built a pillory for the class so we could in some small way experience what that public form of punishment and humiliation was like for our nation’s colonial ancestors.

As you can see, Ms. Pickens’ questions and writing prompts triggered a flood of memories for me and helped me piece together why in later life I want to write historical fiction.

She talked about how creative young children are, but usually when we are in our teens peer pressure kicks in and most of us begin to stifle our creativity. We’re told to pursue occupations or fields of study to lead us to a way to make a living.

Being a writer is not the occupation one should choose in order to make a living!

CREATE! by Cathy Pickens

Ms. Pickens talked about the writing process. Different participants in the workshop shared what their process is. She asked us what holds us back in our writing. (No one was pressured to voice their answers to any of her questions; it was a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.)

Ms. Pickens recommended that we set a goal to write a certain length of time or a certain number of words each day. Even if it’s only 15 minutes, slow and steady seemed to be her advice.

I recently revealed in my February 27, 2026 blog post (My new discovery: I’m a binge writer!) that I’d had the epiphany that I am a binge writer when it comes to my novel(s). I find it easy to work on a blog post or two each day, but when it comes to writing fiction I have not been able to discipline myself to write every day of the week.

Ms. Pickens advised us to be very specific in categorizing what we are writing. She pointed out that the Library of Congress categorizes books in more specific details than the Dewey Decimal System. She suggested that we look inside the front covers of books in the genre in which we write to familiarize ourselves with how the Library of Congress labels books.

She suggested that instead of asking a writer, “How long did it take you to get your book published?” a better question is, “How long did it take you to get your book publishable?”

The road to traditional publishing is typically years and years long.

Ms. Pickens ended by saying that the secret to success is discipline – time, place, and goal. To read more about Cathy Pickens, visit her website, https://cathypickens.com/. She has written a Blue Ridge Mountains series of cosy mysteries, a book of Charleston mysteries, nine true crime books, and CREATE! — a book for writers.

Tune in tomorrow for my blog post about author Meagan Church’s presentation.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

My new discovery: I’m a binge writer!

Every weekend, I make to-do lists for each of the next seven days. I am a list-maker. I can’t help it. I get great satisfaction when I get to check an item off my list as “done.”

Some tasks on my list appear every single day. Some pertain to daily habits for my health, some pertain to social media, some are book marketing, some of writing, some are categorized as “household.” There is even a “decluttering” category.

Unfortunately, I haven’t checked anything off my decluttering list in several weeks. That section of my list is like a black cloud hanging over my head. Until I feel the urgency in checking those items off, they will continue to just be moved to the next day and then to the next week.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

It is the “writing” category on my to-do list that worries me the most. If I don’t finish the first draft of my historical novel, I will suffer with guilt feelings. I want to finish it, get it published, and move on to the next book. I have told people I’m writing a novel. They’re getting tired of asking me, “How’s your novel coming? When are you going to finish writing your novel?”  

I enjoy writing, and I enjoy doing the research to back up my historical fiction writing. Where am I getting this wrong? Why can’t I finish writing that book?

I subscribe to Janice Hardy’s Fiction University Narrative Nuggets email. I trust her writing recommendations. She makes things easy to understand. Of course, the problem lies in putting them into practice.

Her “Narrative Nuggets” on Tuesday hit me between the eyes. She addressed the fact that all writers have slumps. We all hit a wall. We all get discouraged. We all get stuck. We all beat ourselves up when this happens; however, Janice Hardy said on Tuesday that “we” might not be the problem. The problem might lie in our process.

Most writers who write or speak about their writing process tell us that we must write every day. Some tell us that we should treat our writing as a job, putting ourselves on a daily 8 to 5 schedule with a lunch break, if we must.

That does not work for me. For one thing, at my age, I no longer want to maintain an 8 to 5 workday schedule. For another thing, chronic fatigue syndrome and other health issues have completely wrecked my circadian clock. Since I rarely go to sleep before 3:00 a.m., it would be useless for me to sit down at my computer at 8:00 a.m. sharp and expect to write anything worth reading.

Janice Hardy gave me permission to stop feeling guilty for not following someone else’s writing schedule. She said I need to find what works for me.

I’ve read that before, but it really resonated with me this time.

Ms. Hardy wrote:

“Do you swear you’ll write every day, then only produce on weekends? Maybe you’re a binge writer who needs longer stretches full of sprints, not daily sessions.”

Thank you, Janice Hardy! Thank you for taking away the guilt I feel when I move “Write Scene 48 – Sarah meets Betty Jackson” from today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s and even to next week’s list.

Ms. Hardy nailed it! I am a binge writer, and it’s high time for me to admit it, accept it, and go forward with it!

I hope you have a good book to read. If you are a writer, I hope you have learned what your writing process is so you don’t have to feel guilty for not following someone else’s schedule.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

“with liberty and justice for all”

I don’t know if the Pledge of Allegiance is still recited in public school classrooms like it was in the 1950s and 1960s.

Photo by Cris Constantin on Unsplash

I will be 73 years old this week, and I remember standing beside my desk in elementary school, facing the American flag that hung from a wooden dowel at an angle from the wall of the classroom, putting my right hand over my heart, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I did it even before I understood the words we were saying.

I pledged my allegiance to the flag and to the republic it represented.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

My generation learned from an early age to revere the flag and to revere the ideals the United States of America strives to attain and uphold.

We were born after World War II. Yes, we are the “boomers” who the Gen X-ers make fun of. We did not yet know or comprehend the horrors of war. We had no concept of liberty and justice. We were too young to know that our country was special and unlike any other country in the world.

We slowly learned those things. We learned that all American citizens did not enjoy the same rights and privileges that we in an all-white school took for granted. We learned about civil rights by living through the Civil Rights Movement and school desegregation. We learned that all people are the same, regardless of skin pigment.

Somehow, the 31 simple – yet profound – words of the Pledge of Allegiance settled into our bones and our minds and our souls.

I might not remember what I ate for breakfast this morning, but the words of the Pledge of Allegiance still easily roll off my tongue.

Did Donald Trump ever learn the words of the Pledge of Allegiance? Perhaps it was not taught and recited in the prestigious private schools he attended in New York. I don’t know.

Did James Donald Bowman recite the Pledge of Allegiance in his school in Ohio? My hunch is that he did, even though he seems to have forgotten. You probably know him as James David “J.D.” Vance. (I still think it is a stretch to call the northeastern suburbs of Cincinnati “Appalachia,” but I digress.)

What about Kristi Noem? Was she taught the Pledge of Allegiance in the school she attended in South Dakota? Surely, she was. I know nothing about the political science department at South Dakota State University, but I question the validity of her Bachelor’s degree.

And what about Gregory Bovino? Did he learn the Pledge of Allegiance as a young student in California? I am appalled to report that he graduated from Western Carolina University and received a Master’s degree from my alma mater, Appalachian State University. This sickens me. I don’t know what his degrees are in. I pray they are not in political science. His buzzcut, his olive-green uniform, his practice of hurling tear gas canisters at protesters have allowed him to become the poster child for the crackdown on illegal immigration that the Trump regime espouses. The cross body strap his uniform includes is reminiscent of Hitler’s “brown shirts.” This is not a look that we are accustomed to seeing in the United States. On Saturday, Bovino adamantly told us that the federal agents in Minneapolis had followed their training that morning when they killed Alex Pretti. Before Mr. Pretti’s bullet-riddled body was cold, Bovino claimed that Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” That’s how afraid members of the Trump regime are of a Veterans Administration ICU nurse armed with a cell phone.

What about Stephen Miller? It is ironic that he allegedly campaigned to get the Pledge of Allegiance said in his high school in California. Most of the things he says about our rights as Americans call into question the political science education he received at Duke University.

Karoline Leavitt is of a younger generation, so perhaps she never learned the Pledge of Allegiance. She often wears a necklace from which hangs a cross – a symbol of Jesus Christ. It is offensive when people wear cross necklaces or verbally claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, yet the truth is not in them.

What has happened to these people? Did the Pledge of Allegiance not settle in their bones and their souls?

The Pledge of Allegiance does not mention telling lies. That comes from the Bible. The Eighth Commandment instructs us to “not bear false witness.’ In other words, it tells us not to lie.

When a person is raised in a home where the truth is always told, that commandment becomes second nature. It becomes a core value. Telling the truth is what you do. You don’t have to pause and decide whether to tell the truth. It’s just what you do.

When a person is exposed to lies in their home or in their work place, perhaps the telling of lies becomes second nature to them.

I don’t know much about the private lives of the people in the Trump Administration, but I know they are feeding the American people and the world a lot of lies about what transpired on Saturday morning in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They are telling me not to believe my eyes and ears.

Two days after the murder, members of the Trump regime are still defiant. They will defend the actions of the ICE and Border Patrol Officers until the end. Until the end of our democracy. They told us weeks ago that Trump’s federal agents are above the law.

They seem to have lost sight of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Ten Commandments.

The United States is a country rooted in the rule of law and the ideals proclaimed in our founding documents. The political party to which Donald Trump and his regime belong claims to be rooted in the Bible. They don’t pay much attention to the New Testament, but they claim to love the Old Testament.

That’s where the Ten Commandments are found. It is in the Old Testament that we are instructed not to tell lies.

I suggest that Trump and the members of his regime take a few minutes to sit quietly and read the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Ten Commandments. All of this might be new literature for them, but I think taking time to read these documents and Bible verses might be beneficial for them and the nation they vowed to serve and protect.

My faith in what is being taught in the political science departments at the public and private universities in the United States is being shaken. I fear the students who were born after my college days are not being taught the tenets of democracy that I was taught in school and on the university level. I fear they are not being taught to serve the public with integrity and honesty.

I fear they were not taught that the government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

I would have much preferred to have written scene 43 in my historical novel this afternoon, but I’ve spent several hours contemplating and writing this blog post. And yet, people wonder why it is taking me so long to write my novel. My brain is being torn between 2026 and 1768.

The irony is not lost on me. The people I’m writing about who were living in North Carolina in 1768 were also rebelling against tyranny. That’s not what the novel is about, but the colonists’ patience with the English Crown was already growing thin.

Janet

The government should be afraid of its citizens, not the other way around.

Great publicity I got today in Spain!

Francisco Bravo Cabrera graciously featured me and my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories on his e-zine in Spain (LatinosUSA (English Edition/Masticadores) this morning at 8:00 a.m. Madrid Time!

Francisco Bravo Cabrera is a bit of a Renaissance man. He is an artist, a poet, a writer, and a musician. He is based in Valencia, Spain, but has also lived in Miami, Florida. His blog, JaZzArt en Valencia, can be found at https://paintinginvalencia.com/, and his work can also be found on https://www.fineartamerica.com.

I cut and pasted Francisco’s magazine article about my new book below, but two of the photographs did not copy. Here’s the link, if you want to see the original for yourself: https://latinosenglishedition.wordpress.com/?p=8436.

New Historical Fiction by Janet Morrison (Editor Francisco Bravo Cabrera)

Published by valenciartist on 3 de diciembre de 2025

(Photo: Janet Morrison/provided by Janet Morrison)

As a big fan of history and novels, there is no genre that fascinates me more than «historical fiction,» therefore I would like to feature today a historical fiction writer from North Carolina (US), Janet Morrison, who has just released a new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories. I am sure it can easily be found in Amazon or in your neighbourhood book store.

I have asked Janet to bring us a synopsis of the 13 stories included in the book. And although she thought it a bit tricky, I think she has covered them in a concise way.

Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison, will transport you from 17th century Scotland to 20th century America! The more than one dozen short stories are set in Scotland, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Each story includes author’s notes, so you will learn what inspired the story, how the story is based in history but is a work of fiction.

There are stories set in Colonial America and the American Revolutionary War Era. One story is the fictitious letter an American Civil War soldier wrote to his parents. Another story follows a slave who contemplates escaping. A couple of the stories are set in the southern Appalachian Mountains – one during a blizzard in the 1870s and involves a dog and a bear during The Great Depression. There is one ghost story. In another story, a girl in foster care discovers the dignity a suitcase can bring. The final story in the book is told by an old farmhouse that remembers the family it sheltered in the 1800s.

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Janet Morrison’s educational background is in political science and history. She has worked as a local government administrator, a travel agent, and a newspaper columnist. She enjoys writing historical fiction and local history at her home in North Carolina. Her vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina was published in 2015. Since then, she has published two local history books, a devotional book, and a cookbook. Janet uses her blog, https://www.janetswritingblog. com, as a platform to write about the books she reads, events in history, and politics. The most rewarding thing about her blog is that it has made it possible for her to make friends around the world. When she has spare time, she loves researching her genealogy and learning to play the dulcimer. Be sure to visit https://www. janetmorrisonbooks.com to learn more about her books and to subscribe to her newsletter.

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I would like to thank Janet so much for her participation in today’s episode and to remind her that she is welcome here any time. I am sure that we will all enjoy reading this historical fiction book as well as the other books she has written.

AND

If you are a writer, a poet or an artist (in any of the arts) and would like to appear in our magazine LatinosUSA (English Edition), please contact me, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, editor: ArribaPamplona@gmail.com

(Editor: Francisco Bravo Cabrera)

CHEERS

Muchas gracias, Francisco, for giving me and my book such great publicity today!

Janet

It’s been one of those weeks

Sometimes the best-laid plans just don’t pan out. Such is life.

This is Janet’s Writing Blog, so today I start my post with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into my life this week as a self-published writer.

If you read my blog on Tuesday, Traveling Through History is released today!, you know I was celebrating the release of the e-version of my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, but I mentioned that the paperback was not being released that day as planned.

Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison

I thought I had everything in place for the paperback’s release worldwide by Ingram-Spark.

I sent handwritten notes to various independent bookstores along with a detailed information sheet about the book. I told them they would be able to order the book from Ingram-Spark and have it in stock in their stores on November 4 or very shortly thereafter.

The e-book is available – and I’m over the moon about that! But as of today, I still don’t know what the hold-up is for the paperback. Perhaps I will learn something today.

I decided to go ahead and self-publish the paperback on Amazon in the United States, and I expect it to be available here on November 11. I hope Ingram-Spark will release it for worldwide distribution next week – which will include Amazon in countries other than the U.S. — but that remains to be seen. Bookstores will not order it from Amazon. I needed Ingram-Spark for that.

Such is the life of a self-published author! This glitch is not the end of the world. It was just something I had hoped to get checked off my to-do list on November 4.

Thank you to those of you who have congratulated me on the release of the e-book. And a huge thanks to those of you who have purchased the book! I understand that Ingram-Spark has distributed the e-book to Amazon.UK, so I assume it is also available on the worldwide e-markets of Amazon.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC…

The government shutdown continues as I write this on the night of November 6. One result of the shutdown is that the air traffic controllers and TSA agents who keep the flying public safe are not being paid. They are expected to show up for work and give their undivided attention to all the details their jobs entail… without pay.

To try to force Congress to do its job and pass a federal budget, the White House gave the airlines less than 24 hours’ notice that they had to start cancelling flights at the forty busiest airports in the country. A certain percentage of flights must be cancelled with each passing day beginning today.

But none of this will interfere with Trump’s weekly trip to play golf in Florida.

Since an alleged “businessman” is President of the United States, it baffles me that the order came from the White House (or what’s left of it) with no regard for the chaos such a sudden order will cause airlines, airports, passengers, and the employees of the airlines and airports.

It appears “President Marie Antoinette” knows no more about business than he knows about a democratic government. Throwing a Great Gatsby-themed party at his mansion in Florida last week while federal employees are not receiving paychecks is the height of being tone deaf. He is completely out-of-touch with the average American.

President Antoinette says commercial aviation in the U.S. is “100% safe,” even though air traffic controllers work without pay and some have had to take a second job and are working exhausted.

And why was a large “The Oval Office” sign installed at what’s left of the White House this week? Can President Antoinette not find his office?

Yesterday, the President announced that he will force the price of weight-loss drugs down because they are too expensive. Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs announced that Americans will lose 135 billion pounds before the mid-term elections next November. I’m not good at math, but the population of the United States is around 343 million. That means every American would have to lose 394 pounds to make Dr. Oz’s statement true.

Something is very, very wrong in Washington, DC, and it is being denied by the members of Congress and by what’s left of the White House.

A cheaper Thanksgiving Dinner?

Trump and various Republicans in Congress have bragged this week that they talked to the CEO of Walmart and he told them that everyone’s Thanksgiving Dinner will be 20% cheaper this year than it was last year while Joe Biden was US President.

What Trump and none of the Republicans have explained is that the Walmart CEO based that on the fact that this year Walmart decreased the number of items it considers to be a Thanksgiving dinner. Slick move, Walmart!

Of course, Trump has changed the 20% to 25% because that is what he does. He exaggerates or decreases statistics in whichever way serves his purpose.

The Walmart CEO’s hocus-pocus with the facts has led many Republican lawmakers who have never set foot in the grocery store to announce that grocery prices have plummeted since Trump took office on January 20, 2025. They really do think American citizens are stupid and will believe the politicians instead of their own wallets.

Until my next blog post

I will be caring for my sister as she recovers from surgery over the coming weeks, so I might not blog as often as I have in the recent past. We expect everything to go smoothly, but I will have added responsibilities vying for my time and attention.

The time you take to read my rants and blog posts is appreciated more than you know. Your “likes” and comments are what keep me going.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

I’m grateful that I still have the freedom of speech guaranteed to me by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I am very aware that some of the people reading my blog in other countries cannot imagine having the freedoms we have in America. Even though our form of government is under attack from within, I believe there are enough of us who love democracy to save our country and put things right someday.

Janet

Traveling Through History is released today!

I am excited to tell you that my new book, Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, will be released today as an e-book on Amazon! I thought the paperback would be released today, but there have been some bumps in the road over the last several days. I hope the paperback will be available in a few days.

Photo of the cover of Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison
Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories, by Janet Morrison

In a week or two, look for it at your favorite independent bookstore, such as Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC. I will give shout-outs to other bookstores as they let me know they’ve ordered the book.

Here’s a list of the stories in Traveling Through History:

The Tailor’s Shears – A 1600s Scottish Story;

You Couldn’t Help But Like Bob – A Colonial Virginia Short Story;

To Run or Not to Run – George’s Story;

Making the Best of a Tragedy – Elizabeth Steele’s Story;

From Scotland to America – A 1762 Immigration Story;

Whom Can We Trust? – A Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence Short Story;

Go fight, Johnny! – A Story of a Battle of King’s Mountain Veteran;

A Letter from Sharpsburg – An American Civil War Letter;

Slip Sliding Away – A Southern Appalachian Short Story;

A Plott Hound Called Buddy – A Great Depression Era Southern Appalachian Short Story;

Secrets of a Foster Child – Dignity in a Simple Suitcase;

Ghost of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse – An American Revolutionary War Ghost Story; and

If This House Could Talk – Recollections of an Old Farmhouse.

Do some of these story titles pique your interest? I certainly hope they do!

Each story is followed by Author’s Notes that give you such information as background information, what inspired the story, and what’s truth and what’s fiction.

Traveling Through History: A Collection of Historical Short Stories is available for your Kindle from Amazon.

Thank you for supporting my writing!

Janet

Why losing subscribers isn’t the end of the world

I’ve had a net loss of three of my 1,297 blog subscribers in the last two weeks. I don’t know why, but I have a hunch it is because I have either stepped on some toes with my criticisms of Trump, or perhaps the individuals who hit the “unsubscribe” button just did not want to read about Trump anymore.

I understand, if they left for either reason. If I thought Donald Trump hung the moon and the stars and was sent by God to save the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

If I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the rapid dismantling of democracy in the United States, I wouldn’t want to read my blog either.

I get it.

I don’t want to write about the Trump Administration every day. That’s why I took a break from it last week. I only blogged twice.

That break freed up time for me to work on the companion journal/diary I’m creating to go along with my I Need The Light! devotional book.

I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison

It gave me time to edit most of the historical short stories I plan to publish as a collection later this year.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I needed to take time to do those things for my mental and physical well-being. I hope to have more weeks in which I only blog a couple of times.

When I started blogging more than a decade ago, I was encouraged over every subscriber milestone. The numbers are not that important to me now, but I noticed I was on the verge of having 1,400 subscribers. Then, my numbers started going down. I needed to evaluate the situation and determine if I was doing something wrong.

I concluded that after a decade I have started fearlessly speaking my mind. Perhaps some of my subscribers liked the old me – the me who just blogged once-a-week about the craft of writing or the books I read. The old me struggled to think of something to blog about once-a-week.

But that’s not me anymore. I’m older, but not necessarily wiser. I’m in a place in my life’s journey where I am no longer afraid that I will offend someone who sees politics or other major issues differently than I do.

I am no longer afraid that if I blog about politics I will alienate someone who would have otherwise purchased one of my books.

I blog because it has become part of my identity. I blog because I am deeply concerned about what is happening to and in the government of the United States. I cannot turn my back on my political science degrees and my sense of patriotism.

But most of all, I blog because I thoroughly enjoy forming online relationships with other bloggers and subscribers. Readers and subscribers will come and go. Perhaps I’m finally finding my voice and my niche, and I no longer attempt to reach the masses.

What I write about will not and cannot appeal to everyone. That is a good lesson for me to remember when I publish a book!

Photo by Luis Morera on Unsplash

In conclusion, it’s not really about the numbers. It’s about the relationships I have made and will continue to make through my blog. If my subscribers dwindle down to 100, it won’t bother me now because I have come to understand that it’s just about the relationships and exchange of ideas.

Thank you for being my friends.

Janet

I Need The Light! Hot off the press!

I am thrilled to announce that my book, I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter is now available!

I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison

Even if you love the fall and winter, I think you will benefit from reading this book.

Why I Wrote I Need The Light!

I wrote it from a place of physical challenges in cold weather, so I think people who have such illnesses and conditions as Seasonal Affective Disorder, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis will be able to identify.

I settled on writing 26 weekly devotionals because with the onset of fall, I start dreading winter. Seasonal Affective Disorder affects me half the year.

What Does the Title I Need The Light! Mean?

To help me combat the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder and sleep problems, my former physician’s assistant told me that I needed to get out in the natural light early every morning. I needed natural sunlight.

I’m not a morning person, so I had to force myself out of bed and outdoors in the morning – even in cold weather. As I walked, I repeated in my head the words, “I need the light. I need the light. I need the light. I need the light.” On about the fifth repetition, I had an epiphany: I realized I also needed The Light – Jesus Christ – “The Light of the World.”

I’ve been a Christian all my life, so it wasn’t a new concept for me that I needed Jesus Christ in all aspects of my life, but the sudden connection between “the light” and “The Light” was startling! It was then and there that God planted the idea in my mind and heart to write a book about the light and The Light.

That day, I started looking for all the references to light and The Light in the Bible.

Format of I Need The Light!’

Each week’s devotional follows this basic pattern:

The week’s Scripture reference is stated.

“Setting the Stage” in which I give a little background for that Scripture.

The week’s Scripture is then presented from The Message, The Good News Bible, The Living Bible, The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version), and TouchPoint Bible. The second week has the bonus of including the Bible verse from my great-great-grandmother’s 1849 The Psalms of David in Metre.

Insight from a Bible commentary, such as the series by Rev. William Barclay.

“My Thoughts” – Then, I usually share my thoughts about the Scripture.

“Remember” – one sentence of encouragement to ponder.

“Thought Pattern Interrupter” – One sentence to help you put a positive spin on that week.

“Activity Suggestion” – An activity you might choose to do that week to get you out of your own head/situation.

“Comfort Recipe” – A recipe that I consider a fall or winter “comfort food” from my own experience.

How to Use I Need The Light!

Readers are encouraged to read the devotional book as they choose. You don’t have to read it over a 26-week period. And each week, you can read the entire chapter in one sitting, or you can string it out over the week. It’s totally up to you to read the book in the way that best helps you.

Where to Find I Need the Light!

If you think I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter would help you, or if you know someone who might benefit from the book, it can be purchased at your favorite independent bookstore. If you don’t find it there, please ask them to order the book from IngramSpark.

The book is available in paperback and as an e-book.

Photo of a woman's hand holding a e-book of I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison
Available as an e-book!

Here’s how to order through my website:

  1. Go to https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com.
  2. Click on “Books.”
  3. Click on “Read more” under the photo of the book cover.
  4. At the end of the book’s description there, click on the BookShop.org buy button, which takes you to BookShop.org (a site that supports independent bookstores throughout the U.S.)
  5. Put my book in your basket.
  6. Select the independent bookstore you wish to support.
  7. Place your order and have the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting an independent bookstore!

So far, Second Look Books in Harrisburg, NC; Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville, NC; and Highland Books in Brevard, NC have been very supportive of my book so I’ll give them a shout-out.

Photo of I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter, by Janet Morrison, on a cell phone beside an apple pie.
Available for your cell!

The book is also available on Amazon and from Barnes & Noble.

Here’s a Sneak Peek at I Need The Light!

From Week 12, here’s the “Setting the stage” introduction to that week’s devotional about the Parable of the Lost Coin:

“In Halley’s Bible Handbook, Henry H. Halley describes the fifteenth chapter of Luke as ‘the calm before the storm’ in Luke 14. In the fourteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush as He talks about the price people will pay for following Him. He goes on to explain that He must be first in our lives. We must love Him more than we love anyone else. It’s enough to make a person question the wisdom of following Jesus!

“But then we come to Luke 15. It is a beautiful chapter about the tender, forgiving grace of Jesus. The chapter includes the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the passage we’re looking at this week: The Parable of the Lost Coin.”

Does this sound like something you or a friend would like to read?

I wrote I Need The Light! 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through Winter in a conversational tone as I imagined I was talking one-on-one with a good friend. If this approach to the Bible appeals to you, I hope you will look for my book.

I’m not an “in your face” kind of Christian. I’m a lifelong Presbyterian, so I’m not going to scare you into being a Christian. That’s not the Presbyterian way!

Even if fall and winter are your favorite seasons of the year, I believe you will find something of benefit in my 188-page devotional book.

I invite you to look for it!

If you read it and like it, your rating and/or brief review on such sites as Goodreads.com and Amazon will be greatly appreciated.

Janet

#ineedthelight!

#INTL!

Alex Haley’s Birthday, 1921 – his influence on my writing

When I read Centennial, by James A. Michener, I remember thinking, I’d like to write a book like that someday! When I read Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, I thought, I’d like to write a book like that someday!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Photo of the cover of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley
Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley

In 1996, my sister and I published three Morrison genealogy books. Talk about something being a labor of love! I have been interested in my family’s history all of my adult life, so I was drawn to Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, for its writing and its sense of genealogy.

Alex Haley’s Life Before Roots

Today would have been Alex Haley’s 104th birthday.

Haley was born in Ithaca, New York. He lived in Henning, Tennessee, until the age of five, when his family moved back to Ithaca. His father was a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University. His mother was from Henning.

After two years of college, Alex Haley joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He had a 20-years career in that branch of the military. His reputation as a self-taught writer spread among his fellow service members. They often asked Haley to compose love letters for their sweethearts.

After retiring from the Coast Guard, Haley pursued life as a writer. He served as a senior editor for Reader’s Digest magazine. Throughout the 1960s, Haley conducted interviews with famous people for Playboy magazine. It was as a writer for Playboy that he interviewed Muhammad Ali; Sammy Davis, Jr.; Jim Brown; Johnny Carson; Quincy Jones; and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was Haley who interviewed George Lincoln Rockwell for Playboy. Rockwell was the leader of the American Nazi Party, and he kept a gun on the table throughout Haley’s interview.

When Haley was writing an article about the Nation of Islam for Reader’s Digest, he met Malcolm X. The two met again was Haley interviewed him for Playboy. Haley’s first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family in 1976. It is a noel based on Haley’s genealogy. He traced his mother’s ancestry back to The Gambia. Haley was a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, a young black man kidnapped in The Gambia in 1767 and brought to Maryland to be sold as a slave.

It took Haley 12 years to do the research for Roots: The Saga of an American Family. He traveled to The Gambia and heard stories of Kunta Kinte’s capture. He went to Annapolis, Maryland, and had the emotional experience of standing where his ancestor had been taken from a slave ship.

It is said that Haley enjoyed sitting at the Savoy (a bistro) in Rome to listen to the piano music and write Roots on a yellow legal tablet. A painting of Haley writing on his legal pad hangs at a special table at the Savoy in honor of the time he spent there and the great work of literature he partially wrote there.

The writing of Roots earned Haley a special Pulitzer Prize in 1977. That was the same year that ABC adapted the book into a miniseries that drew a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers.

Misgivings about Haley’s research

Some genealogists have disputed Haley’s genealogical research and the validity of his story of Kunta Kinte.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is quoted as saying, “Most of us feel it’s highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship.”

Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

Sadly, Haley was successfully sued for plagiarism and copyright infringement by Harold Courlander. Courlander accused Haley of taking passages from his book, The African, and using them in Roots. The case was settled out of court in 1978 and Courlander was awarded $650,000. Haley’s biographer, Robert J. Norrell, maintains that Judge Robert Ward was hostile to Haley and did not think Haley was capable of writing Roots.

Posthumus novel

At the time of his death in 1992, Haley was writing a novel based on another branch of his family. At his request, David Stevens completed the novel, Alex Haley’s Queen, in 1993 and it was adapted as a television miniseries by that name.

Haley’s property

Haley lived on a farm at Clinton, Tennessee during his last years. After his death, the Children’s Defense Fund purchase the property and it is used as a national training center and retreat.

In conclusion

I had forgotten the controversies surrounding Alex Haley after his acclaim for Roots: The Saga of an American Family until I started doing research for writing this blog post.

Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that I was inspired by reading Roots and watching it’s TV adaptation. Along with James A. Michener’s Centennial, it was Roots that planted the seed in my head that I might write books someday.

Hurricane Helene Weekly Update

As of Friday, of the 1,457 roads that were closed in western North Carolina last September due to Hurricane Helene, 35 were closed, which is one more than the number reported the week before. The NC Department of Transportation reports 39 roads have just partial access, which is a decrease of one road since the previous Friday.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Alert Update

On Saturday, August 2, US-441/Newfound Gap Road – the only road that crosses the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was closed due to heavy rainfall causing the undercutting of a section of the road in Tennessee by Walker Prong Camp Creek between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Marker 13.

By the next day, a portion of Newfound Gap Road from near Cherokee, North Carolina into the park reopened; however, the National Park Service announced on Friday that the Tennessee portion of Newfound Gap Road will remain closed until early October so repairs can be made at the site of the washout/landslide.

The stated detour route is I-40, which is still just two lanes and 35 mph due to the massive damage done last September by Hurricane Helene.

This road closure in the most-visited park in the United States is yet another blow to the tourism-dependent economy of the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Janet