Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 6

Kin Types by Luanne Castle–Inspiration for Meadowlark Songs

Kin Types by Luanne Castle was the first book that intrigued me about writing short pieces about ancestors. What a creative way to approach genealogy. I kept returning to this one, which was an early inspiration for Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy.

The stories of ancestors help keep their memories alive. Luanne Castle does that regularly on her blog called The Family Kalamazoo That’s where I learned about her Kin Types, a slim volume of 19 poems and flash prose, in which she captures individuals with a vignette or glimpse of well-chosen details that give you goosebumps, even a lump in your throat. They are poignant stories, even difficult ones.

I especially enjoyed one about family resemblances in old photographs, noting the names, dates, and places as her forebears crossed the ocean from The Netherlands and Germany and settled in Michigan.

What a clever name for this book. Tintypes are old photos on metal, usually small ones. I’ll bet the one on the cover of Luanne’s book is from a tintype.

Luanne Castle

Eric Hoffer Award Finalist, Kin Types is a collection of lyric poetry, prose poetry, and flash prose that imaginatively retells the lives of private individuals from previous generations. Using family history research, the writer has reconstructed the stories of women and men from Michigan to Illinois to the Netherlands. Read together, the pieces create a history of women dealing with infant mortality, vanity, housewife skills, divorce, secret abortion, the artist versus mother dilemma, mysterious death, wife beating, and a brave heroine saving a family’s home. 

Luanne has written other compelling books. Several of her poems have been published by online publications. Here’s her author website, and her Amazon Author Page.

Luanne’s Kin Types is featured in Meadowlark Songs on page 141 under Favorite Resources.

The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems by Greg Seeley–Inspiration for Meadowlark Songs

The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems by Greg Seeley is the book that encouraged me to begin writing nuggets about my own ancestors, which has become Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy.

Greg chose his fatherline, chronicling the struggles and triumphs of three generations of an Iowa farm family over a 125-year period.

The “story” begins with a soldier coming home from the Civil War and setting foot for the first time on his newly-purchased farm and ends when the land next changes hands in the early 1990s. The book is the story of the family, their friends, and their neighbors as they try to adapt to the changing world around them. Their lives and personal aspirations are shaped by two world wars, a harsh climate, the dust bowl, and the Great Depression. They seek to meet this adversity and thrive through love, self-reliance, work, faith, and a strong sense of community.

The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems is divided into the three generations, with the poems accompanied by winsome photos. I especially enjoyed the poems called “His Rocker,” “Fraternity of the Soil,” and the two about aging–“Two Shall Be As One” and “It’s Getting Gray.”

When I contacted Greg, I told him it was his fault that I was immersed in stories of my motherline because of his Horse Lawyer stories. He said he’d gladly take the blame.

Greg Seeley was raised on a farm north of Afton, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa (about four years after I graduated from there) with a major in history and received his Master’s Degree from the University of Iowa. Greg is a retired CPA and lives in Overland Park, Kansas with his wife Carolyn, a retired math teacher.

Greg also wrote Tractor Bones and Rusted Trucks: Tales and Recollections of a Heartland Baby Boomer, which is a collection of poetry and short stories. He also written three Civil War stories. I’m reading the latest one now!

Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy – debut

Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy has joined the throng of new books being published this spring! I’m amazed and humbled. I’m also exhausted. Alas, no launch party for Meadowlark Songs, no blog hop, no library visits. If you wouldn’t mind sharing posts and reviews about the book, I’d be mighty grateful. 

A motherline connects us to lives past, while living in the present and offering strength and resilience for the future. 

What do we inherit from our grandmothers besides mtDNA? Heirlooms? Character? Does the past shape our future? The legacy of a small log church was nurtured through my motherline and woven into the blessing and mystery of my own inheritance. Glimpses into the lives of these women, along with cameo appearances of the men they married, reveal a legacy of faith and hope while navigating challenging times through seven generations. (Leora herself is the fifth generation!) 

Paperback, hardback, and ebook (available soon) are carried by Amazon.com. 

Look for autographed copies locally by May 1 at Art on State in Guthrie Center, the Urbandale Machine Shed Restaurant, and Beaverdale Books in Des Moines (shipping offered 515-279-5400). Hey, an idea for Mother’s Day!

Why Plant Potatoes on Good Friday?

Clabe and Leora Wilson always planted their potatoes on Good Friday, just like their parents and grandparents had before them.

 “My Grandpap Jordan always had an abundance of all kinds of apples (early to late),” Leora wrote in her memoir, “berries of all kinds, plums, every fruit that would grow in Iowa. His apple bins in the basement were always full in the fall and he gave away fruit for the picking. I don’t think he ever sold any. He always had a wonderful vegetable and early garden. He planted by the Moon Signs.”

From Leora’s Dexter Stories: “Each house the Wilsons lived in had a good-sized garden spot. Leora was glad to see wrinkled rhubarb leaves emerge at the new place in the spring, about planting time for onion sets and lettuce seed. They sowed “by the moon,” checking for the best dates to plant each crop. Dates were listed in The Old Farmer’s Almanac, but basically crops that matured below ground were to be planted in the dark of the moon or when it was waning, and crops that ripened above the soil should be planted when the moon was waxing or nearly full. Sprouted potatoes, saved from the year before, were cut in quarters, then nestled into the soil on Good Friday, according to The Almanac.”

Founded in 1792, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is still published today.

But is it just folklore or tradition, or is there something to planting crops by the moon’s phases?

The basic idea is that the phases of the Moon affect plant growth. Just as its gravitational pull causes tides to rise and fall, it also affects moisture in the soil.

It’s said that seeds absorb more water during the full Moon and the new Moon when more moisture is pulled to the soil surface. This causes seeds to swell, resulting in greater germination and better-established plants. Well, what do you know?

The date of Easter is calculated each year as the first Sunday after the full Moon on or after the spring equinox, so on Good Friday the moon is waning. So that’s why my ancestors planted their potatoes that day.

Do you know anyone who still gardens by the suggested dates in The Old Farmer’s Almanac?

Easter Sunday, 100 Years Ago

Ready for Sunday School. Delbert (9), Doris (6), Donald (8), Easter–April 12, 1925Green Pongee

Leora Wilson made good use of her treadle machine,
which she ordered through the Sears Roebuck catalog.
She sewed Doris an Easter dress
from light green pongee, soft with shiny figures in it. 

She ordered new suits for Delbert and Donald,
with knickers that could be lengthened as they grew,
and newsboy caps.

Doris’s straw hat also came from the catalog. Cherries
dangled from the brim. Could she wear it to school?
Yes, but no one told her not to wear it
while riding on the giant strides.
The precious cherries were lost.

From Meadowlark Songs: A Motherline Legacy, which will debut this month.

Selfies with other authors!

I cherish the times I’ve been able to meet up with other authors, and to have selfies with them to enjoy later.

Patti Stockdale

Patti Stockdale with me, Cedar Falls, Iowa

Patti Stockdale took a selfie with me at the Cedar Falls Christian Writers Conference, probably 2019, before either of us had published a book. Her Three Little Things is one of my favorite books, based on the WWI letters of her grandparents. Patti’s latest book has been out just a couple of weeks, His Unforgettable Bride (of the Bride Ships New Voyages books). (Jody Hedland is getting Patti started with Sunrise Publishing, but I predict that soon Patti have another book with just her name on it!)

David LaBelle

Dave LaBelle with me, Guthrie Center Library, 2022

I attended an online conference where photojournalist David LaBelle was one of the presenters. I asked how to get a copy of his Bridges & Angels: The Story of Ruth, since it wasn’t listed on Amazon. I ordered it from him while he still lived in Ohio. Since then, he and his wife have moved to Dyersville, Iowa. He was so taken by Leora’s Letters that he called one day and a friendship formed, possibly because we both wrote books about such catastrophic losses. When I gave a talk at the Guthrie Center Library in 2022, he showed up. What a gift! I especially enjoy his books about photography because of his ideas behind capturing poignant people and moments.

Diane Holmes

I’m with Diane T. Holmes at Beaverdale Books, Des Moines, Iowa

Author Diane T. Holmes and I were invited to be part of an Indie Author’s Day at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines. I was scheduled much earlier, but she came to meet me. What a delight she is! So are her books, which she sells well and regularly at book signings and craft shows. Uprooted: Family is Where You Find It is her memoir. Two Sisters’ Secret is absorbing historical fiction about her grandmother’s immigration to Iowa.

Craig Matthews

Craig Matthews went with us to our favorite Machine Shed Restaurant, March, 2025. (My Harry Potter scar is healing nicely.)

I “met” Craig Matthews on LinkedIn a couple of years ago. He’d posted videos of making maple syrup in his own Michigan area. When I learned he was an author, I checked out his books and have been a fan ever since. So much so that I became a beta reader for his third and fourth books. He recently made a research trip (for a sequel for his first book) to Kansas City and stopped to meet us. We adjourned to the Machine Shed Restaurant for supper, and the end of a too-short visit. With four terrific books published, and another nearly ready, Craig just getting started!

Robin Grunder

Robin was my coauthor on Leora’s Letters, which was published in 2019. Since then, she’s formed her own Legacy Press Books to help people self-publish their books. I hired her for the next four books, including Meadowlark Songs, which will be out soon. (I just ordered a proof copy!) Robin has been a delight to work with, but we didn’t meet in person until just recently.

Robin has also published her own book, Memoir in the Margins of Psalms.

How I Became a Nitpicker

I plead guilty to nitpicking. I was trained long ago in the Office of Revisor of Statutes at the Colorado State Capitol. The office lawyers worked on amendments, which had to be justified with existing law and proofread. If the legislature was in session, we had to be in the office, even late at night.

One of my jobs there was proofreading. Out loud, to another person. Including punctuation.

I guess that’s why a missing “close quote” will jump out at me. And other picky details.

But why is it that other writers’ typos are easier to notice than my own?

My kid sister Gloria, a retired junior high art teacher, is my biggest nitpicker. She circles mistakes in the newspaper, and also does crossword puzzles in ink.

Dad flew the B-17 “Hell’s Angels” in Training

In early 1945, because the USAAF didn’t need many more pilots, several instructors began Transition Training in four-engine planes. Dad (1st Lt. Warren Neal) had been an Advanced Instructor at Marfa AAF Base since earning his wings there two years earlier.

He was first ordered to Williams Field, AZ, in February, where he flew B-17 Fortresses while the AAF waited for enough B-29 Superforts to come off the production line. He flew the famous “Hell’s Angels” B-17 on April 7, 1945.

Dad sent a letter, dated April 8, 1945, to his sister, Nadine (Neal) Shepherd, whose husband was in the Coast Guard but she was in Iowa, expecting a baby during the summer.  Toward the bottom of this section he wrote, “I flew ‘Hells Angels’ yesterday, still a pretty good airplane. In her first 8 missions over Germany, she had 26 different engines. Guess they burnt them up on some pretty fast trips back to England.”

On May 13th, 1942, the B-17F Hell’s Angels (#41-24577) became the first heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions in the European Theater.  This Flying Fortress was assigned to the 358th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group (H) and flew from RAF Molesworth. After completing her 25th mission, “Hell’s Angels” remained in theater until 1944 and flew a total of 48 mission without any crewman injured or being forced to turn back.  “Hell’s Angels” returned to the United States in January 1944, covered with written inscriptions by men of the 303rd BG. The bomber was featured on a war bond tour, then was used to train pilots in flying multiple engines.  It’s too bad that after the war, “Hell’s Angels” was sold for scrap in August 1945.

The B-17 “Hell’s Angels,” with written inscriptions. USAAF photo

Dad eventually became the commander of a B-29. When the war ended, his crew had orders for Saipan that September. That fall, he had enough “points” to be discharged from the AAF.

—–

B-17 Fortress at War by Roger A. Freeman, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977

Meeting Robin, finally!

Robin Grunder, who lives in eastern Iowa has been involved in all five of my books, but I’d never met her until today. We both deal with debilitating health issues, but one of her daughters recently moved to central Iowa, where I live.

I was a member of an online writers group, Write That Book, for a couple of years. We unpublished writers enjoyed regular speakers who shared an aspect of writing and publishing. One of them was Robin Grunder. As she got acquainted with us, I could tell that she really connected with my grandmother’s WWII story. I asked if she’d help me with it.

She became my coauthor on Leora’s Letters. Since then, she’s formed her own Legacy Press Books to help people with self-publishing, shepherding my next four books through publication. She’s been such a godsend.

We had lunch at the Machine Shed, and lots of catching up.

First Blog Post 10 years ago

My first blog post was published ten years ago this week, through Weebly. I used Weebly a couple of years but it was so hard to manipulate so when the local school system offered a couple of classes for WordPress, I signed up.

WordPress is much easier to use and I enjoy getting feedback on posts. I’ve met such delightful people, which is a godsend for someone mostly homebound.

I also WordPress’s analytics, which tell how many people visited each one, which countries they’re from, even what device they use to read a post. I was surprised to learn that most (72 percent) of my followers read blog posts on a mobile unit–their cellphones!

That first blog post is a favorite, Needle in Her Hand. I still remember where I was sitting when Mom revealed the story behind the old photo. The story became Chapter 28 (The Imbedded Needle) in Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

Isn’t this surprising?