Beneath the Same Stars has received a “BIG 5-STAR” review from Chick Lit Café. “A historical fiction masterpiece…. This novel deserves to win awards…. highly recommended to all historical fiction readers.” Read the full review…

This past Saturday I drove down to Flandreau, South Dakota, to meet some Dakota friends who are advising me on the novel I’m writing about the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. At the end of our…
A little celebration today: I just completed another major portion of my novel-in-progress about Sarah Wakefield. Onward and upward! As a little marker in this climb, I thought I’d share with you this photograph of…
Sarah Brown Wakefield For those of you who enjoy photographs and are interested in the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, here’s a heads-up! I’ve just started “Sarah Wakefield Fictional Biography Project,” a Pinterest board where…
Yesterday I received word of the death of Elden Lawrence, a Dakota elder who has sometimes assisted me in my research on my historical novel-in-progress. Elden’s Dakota great-grandfather, Lorenzo Towanetiton Lawrence, led to safety three…
This is a fun photo from today’s Brookings Register, the newspaper in the town where our family resides. It shows Brookings as it appeared sometime during the 1890s. We were able to locate our house…
You might recall that I’m currently working on a novel about the life of Sarah Wakefield, who wrote a book about her captivity among the Dakota Indians during the US-Dakota War of 1862. If you’d…
Henry Sibley oversaw the military commission. On this date, November 5, in 1862, a military commission concluded the trials of more than 300 Dakota men and condemned them to death for participating in the US-Dakota…
Note: This is a continuation of a post of last week titled, “Introducing Sarah Wakefield, My Friend and Hopefully Yours (Someday).” Sarah Wakefield Early on August 18, 1862, when war broke out in and…
Finally: I’m ready to cross the line between researching my historical novel and writing it. I’m not completely done with my research, but I know enough now to put pen to paper. Getting to this…
A couple of weeks ago, I shared some reflections on my recent research swing through Minnesota, a trip in support of a historical novel I’m working on that is related to the U.S.-Dakota War of…
Caption: While walking the trails around the Lower Agency, the site of the first planned attack by the Dakota in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, I found my way blocked by a massive fallen tree….