CK Van Dam's Blog, page 3
November 29, 2024
Podcast questions: What’s your favorite book?
Part of marketing a book includes being a guest on podcasts. I must admit that it’s kinda fun. The podcast questions have also given me a new insight into myself. One of the questions that podcasters like to ask authors is “What’s your favorite book?”
The answer is easy: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
While there are a number of authors whom I enjoy reading — and even look forward to their upcoming books — there is one book that stands out. I was a bit surprised to realize that my favorite book is “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle. It’s categorized as a sci-fi fantasy novel for readers 9 to 12. But it’s so much more.
Yes, I first read A Wrinkle in Time when I was in elementary school. At the time, the book was a wonderful adventure story with a (wait for it…) strong, smart female protagonist. That’s one of the reasons I always loved the book. Meg Murry, her genius younger brother Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe (a neighbor boy whom Meg has a huge crush on) embark on a journey to find the Murry children’s missing father.
I’ve since read A Wrinkle Time as an adult and found it just as engaging — perhaps more so. The story is like an onion with layer upon layer of themes and life lessons. As I re-read the book, I was in awe of how L’Engle structured the universal theme of good versus evil. The plot lines seemed so familiar in today’s splintered world.
In 1963 the book won the Newbery Medal for excellence in children’s literature — and the judges really got it right. A Wrinkle in Time has stood the “test of time” on so many levels.
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November 17, 2024
Historical Novel Society reviews Lone Tree Claim
Book reviews, both reader reviews and professional reviews, are the lifeblood of authors.
Reader reviews on sites like Amazon Books and GoodReads provide other readers with impressions about the book: Did the reviewer like the book or not? These reviews are vitally important – especially on Amazon, where my books average 4.4 stars out of 5 stars.
Professional reviews, on the other hand, are critical assessments written by reviewers who follow guidelines such as:
A basic summary of the book.What are the strengths and weaknesses of the book?Is it appropriate for the intended audience?Are the characters well-developed?Is the plot or storyline engaging?
The Historical Novel Society recently reviewed Lone Tree Claim: On the Dakota Frontier. You can find the review, written by Janice Derr, in the November 2024 issue of the Historical Novels Review magazine. The Society describes itself as a community of historical fiction lovers. Members include established and yet to be published authors, readers and publishers.
After summarizing the plot and analyzing the characters, Derr wrote:
Katie is tested repeatedly by nature and the constant dangerous tension between sheepherders and cattle ranchers, but nothing dampens her determination. The novel is full of adventure and moves along at a quick pace. There is a violent scene that some readers may find triggering, but overall, the book is warm and uplifting. Fans of found family stories and strong female characters will enjoy this one.
Thank you to Ms. Derr and the Historical Novel Society for reviewing Lone Tree Claim. I’m proud that the publication included my novel in the magazine’s reviews.
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November 11, 2024
Medicine Creek Claim Christmas on the prairie
In some ways, Christmas on the frontier looked very different from today’s holiday. It was less commercial, but some traditions have endured.
Medicine Creek Claim’s story spans four years with the Ward sisters, beginning with their last Christmas on the family farm in Missouri in 1862. The sisters found comfort in family traditions they’d known since childhood.
They were going to attend Christmas services at the church in St. Joseph, but a heavy snowfall changed that plan.
“It’s odd having just the two of us for Christmas,” Charlotte said.
“I miss Mama, Papa, and Max, too,” Lizzy said. “But I can’t think of anyone else that I would rather celebrate the season with. Charlotte, you’ve made a delicious holiday dinner. We’ll sing carols, and then we’ll exchange gifts, just as we’ve always done.”
The following spring, Charlotte and Lizzy packed their wagons and journeyed to Dakota Territory. The first year on the frontier was filled with challenges. As the year came to a close, the sisters prepared to celebrate Christmas on the prairie. But in 1863, the circle of friends had grown, and new traditions were started.
When he entered Charlotte’s soddy, Luke was carrying what looked to be a tree branch. “I found this scrub cedar on the way here, and thought it would make a good Christmas tree,” he explained.
Upon further inspection, Charlotte saw the branch had roots. “You uprooted an entire tree?” she said.
“Well, it’s not much of a tree…” he began.
“It will be a beautiful Christmas tree,” Lizzy said. “I have just the thing to hold it.” She found a pottery crock and “planted” the cedar in it. “There, now we can decorate it.”
Just as in all aspects of frontier life, the pioneers on Medicine Creek Claim adapted to change and “made do.” The tree was decorated with strings of popcorn, rosehips, twists of paper, and hair ribbons.
The second year on the claim saw more family members celebrating the holiday.
Like the previous year, Luke brought a small cedar tree to decorate. Nellie was thrilled and took charge of decorating. In addition to popcorn and berries, she found several abandoned bird nests and added those to the holiday tree.
By now, Charlotte and Lizzy considered themselves “old homesteaders” and were comfortable in their frontier home. While they still exchanged small gifts, a book for Lizzy and sewing shears for Charlotte, they agreed to expand the farms by purchasing a more reliable plow and additional breeding stock.
These traditions were carried on in future holidays, sometimes as reminders of leaner years.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the folks at Medicine Creek Claim.
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October 21, 2024
Art has value
At a recent book fair, an author at a neighboring table offered to give me one of her books. Instead, I insisted on purchasing the book. “Art has value,” I said, handing her the cash.
In another conversation, a friend suggested I use AI (artificial intelligence) for an upcoming design project. Again, I declined, using the same reason: Art has value.
Throughout my career in advertising and marketing, I sold the value of art – whether it was graphic design, illustration, photography, or copywriting. There is something magical about original art and literature that AI can’t replicate. It’s the human touch that sparks emotions.
Amazon differentiates between “AI-generated” works and “AI-assisted” works. In September 2023, Amazon and the Authors Guild announced a new policy regarding AI-generated works. In the announcement, the Authors Guild wrote, The new policy comes after months of discussions between the Authors Guild and KDP leadership on the need for safeguards against AI-generated books flooding the platform and displacing human authors and to protect consumers from unwittingly purchasing AI-generated texts. We are grateful to the Amazon team for taking our concerns into account and enacting this important step toward ensuring transparency and accountability for AI-generated content.
It’s a significant step toward protecting the written word. Other organizations are enacting similar policies that will protect imagery.
These are important measures to ensure that art continues to have value.
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October 9, 2024
Research for When the Chokecherries Bloom
Every historical fiction book requires a certain amount of research. As a novelist and historian, I take pride in ensuring that my books are historically accurate. But I felt that When the Chokecherries Bloom, required special attention to detail. After all, I’m shaping young minds (Ok – a bit of an exaggeration). Still, I needed to do more research and I needed a sensitivity reader who was an expert in Lakota culture.
Even before the sensitivity reader was engaged, I immersed myself in Lakota culture and mythology. I also studied the habits of prairie birds and animals through online resources and several key research books.
Tracking is important to the plot. I relied on the Falcon Guide to Animal Tracks for this information. The guide’s illustrations helped me describe the tracks that Shining Water was seeing. It was one of my go-to research sources.
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve’s Sioux Women: Traditionally Sacred provided an indepth look at the critical roles that Lakota women play in their culture. I used this resource for Proving Her Claim, as well.
Since Shining Water’s father, Two Hawks MacKenzie, participates in the 1868 Treaty of Laramie, I read Red Cloud: Oglala Legend by John D. McDermott. Red Cloud was the last tribal leader to sign the Treaty. McDermott’s book is an excellent biography of this extraordinary leader.
And, in order to write about education in the 1860s, I relied on McGuffey’s Primer. McGuffey Readers were the most widely used reading book of that era.
Finally, I found myself referring back to passages in my first book, Proving Her Claim, to ensure I was accurately describing characters, dwellings and plot developments. It would have been embarrassing to describe Anna’s lavender eyes in the first book, and blue eyes in When the Chokecherries Bloom!
After the last words were written – and edited – the manuscript went to a sensitivity reader to ensure the story was true to Lakota culture. After he gave me the thumbs up, it was ready to publish.
As I wrote in an earlier post, When the Chokecherries Bloom was inspired by a reader. After reading Proving Her Claim (which is a little spicy), the reader said, “I wish there was a version of this book for my granddaughter.”
I hope her granddaughter, as well as other young readers, will enjoy Shining Water’s story.
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September 23, 2024
What are you reading during Banned Books Week?
What do Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and George Orwell’s 1984 have in common? If you answered “they’re all banned books,” you win. Or maybe we all lose.
I read those three books when I was in elementary school and junior high — along with a good number of other books that have made it on to someone’s “naughty list.” I didn’t read them because they were “banned.” I read them because they made me think.
Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28, puts a light on the vast numbers of books that have been banned because of crude language, references to witchcraft, racial stereotypes, violence and a myriad of other violations that have made someone uncomfortable.
At a time when more and more books are being challenged or outright banned, the American Library Association writes: As we gear up for Banned Books Week 2024 (September 22-28), with the theme “Freed Between the Lines,” we’re reminded how much is at stake. The freedom to explore new ideas and different perspectives is under threat, and book bans don’t just restrict access to stories—they undermine our rights. Now is the time to come together, celebrate the right to read, and find freedom in the pages of a book. Let’s be “Freed Between the Lines.”
Books open worlds to readers young and old. Books are time machines. Books show us how other people live, learn and think. And that’s a good thing.
What are you reading?
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September 15, 2024
Women Doctors in Dakota Territory
In my South Dakota Humanities Council presentation, Women Tamed the Frontier, I describe how women were “tradition keepers and tradition breakers.”
Charlotte Ward, from Medicine Creek Claim, certainly belongs in the latter category. Charlotte was always a “healer” – on the family farm, in the Union Army field hospitals, and on the Dakota Frontier. During that time, there were very few licensed women doctors. The story of Dr. Mary Atwater, known as “Dr. Mollie” to her patients, proved insightful. In the biography Pioneer Doctor: The Story of a Woman’s Work, Mary’s granddaughter chronicles her grandmother’s journey to become a respected physician in both Montana and later California.
My research included other stories about women doctors on the frontier. Dr. Flora Stanford was the first female doctor in Deadwood, SD. She and her daughter, Emma, came to the mining town in 1888 in search of “fresh, mountain air” to help treat her daughter’s consumption (tuberculosis).
But Dr. Stanford wasn’t the first woman doctor in Dakota Territory. In 1885, Dr. Emma Bertha Cross became the first licensed physician in Dakota Territory. That was a banner year for female physicians in the Territory. Dr. Cross was one of eight women to be licensed to practice medicine in southern Dakota Territory in 1885.
Some women doctors got their start in the medical field through nursing, such as Dr. Alma Bennett. She served as a nurse in the US Christian Commission during the Civil War. According to South Dakota History, Vol. 45, published by the SD Historical Society, Alma and her husband, also a physician, settled near Elk Point, Dakota Territory, in 1866. Alma received her medical degree in 1881.
But it was still an unconventional career path for women. In 1871, American Medical Association President Alfred Stille stated that women were “morally unfit” to be physicians. Stille said women were “ignorant, inexact, untrustworthy, unbusinesslike, laking in sense and mental perception, and contemptuous of logic.”*
And yet, they persisted.
By 1880, there were 2432 female doctors in America, and by 1900, there were 7387.
* South Dakota State Historical Society, Volume 45, No. 1
* Martha R. Clevenger, “From Lay Practitioner to Doctor of Medicine: Women Physicians in St. Louis, 1860-1920,” Gateway Heritage 8, No. 3 (1987).
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September 4, 2024
Introducing When the Chokecherries Bloom
An idea or a concept inspired each of my books — except my newest novel, When the Chokecherries Bloom.
Proving Her Claim began with a statistic. While 42% of women (unmarried or widowed) homesteaders proved their claims, only 37% of men (single or married) proved their claims.
Lone Tree Claim was inspired by a museum exhibit: Sheep were for the Cash – Cattle were for the Prestige.
Medicine Creek Claim started with another book about two sisters: Land of the Burnt Thigh.
When the Chokecherries Bloom was inspired by a reader. After reading Proving Her Claim (which is a little spicy), the reader said, “I wish there was a version of this book for my granddaughter.”
That was the beginning of Shining Water’s story. When the Chokecherries Bloom picks up where Proving Her Claim ends. It’s not a sequel, so readers don’t need to be familiar with Anna Olson, Two Hawks, or Shining Water to enjoy this story.
When the Chokecherries Bloom is a year in the life of Shining Water, the daughter of Two Hawks MacKenzie. It’s written from the perspective of a pre-teen girl…for pre-teen girls. As I wrote in an earlier column, this was written for younger readers, although I think almost anyone can relate to the challenges that Shining Water faces.
The story relies on Lakota language and customs. Each chapter is named for a month — a moon — in the Lakota calendar. It begins and ends with the Moon When the Chokecherries are Ripe. It’s a year of discovery and growth for Shining Water and her family.
I had never written in this genre or for this age group, but it was an enjoyable experience.
I hope my readers agree.
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August 31, 2024
Civil War Reenactment Brings the Era to Life
The Civil War Days came to South Dakota when nearly 150 re-enactors spent two days in August on a field near Canton, SD.
Civil War re-enactors from across the midwest participated in the Action of Mark Mills and the Second Battle of Newtonia. Since all three On the Dakota Frontier books are set during or immediately after the Civil War, I was excited to visit with people who immerse themselves in this time period. And “immerse” is an understatement. They live and breathe the Civil War era, from actual uniforms and encampments, to campfires and cannons.
The Confederates won the Action of Mark Mills on Saturday, just as they did during the real engagement on April 25, 1864, in Cleveland County, Arkansas. The Union soldiers came back the next day to defeat the Rebs at the Second Battle of Newtonia, which took place on October 28, 1864, in Missouri. The soldiers fought with enthusiasm and energy during both battles. The roar of the cannons really brought the battles to life!
However, just as the Civil War was about more than battles, the Civil War Days event presented historical programs, including speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. On Sunday, the day began with a ceremony at Forest Hill Cemetery, where many Civil War veterans are buried.
Thank you to all the participants and attendees who stopped by to talk about and purchase copies of my books. A special thanks to the Civil War Days organizers, Dave Renli and Bill Peterson, who invited me to the event and kept things running with military efficiency.
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August 14, 2024
Editing is both an art and a science
Before I was a published author, I understood that copyediting is both an art and a science.
As a Journalism major at SDSU, I completed my required internship on the copy desk at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul. The copyeditors were responsible for proofreading and editing news and feature stories written by veteran newspaper reporters. It was intimidating to know I had the “final word” on a story before it went to press – even though the Copy Chief reviewed my work before sending it off.
During my career in marketing, I wrote and edited advertising copy. Sometimes, I edited my own copy – not ideal, but sometimes it was necessary. Other times, I edited the work of staff copywriters and creative directors. I truly believe that copyeditors are necessary to polish and improve the written word.
A good copyeditor is more than a proofreader. Yes, they catch typos and grammatical errors – that’s the “science” of copyediting.
However, an editor’s “real job” is to improve the flow and readability of the story. I rely on my developmental editor to ensure I’m maintaining the proper Point of View (I’ve been accused of “head hopping” more than once) and creating a storyline that will engage readers. There’s an art to that.
A developmental editor brings insights into my stories and characters that I haven’t considered. It’s refreshing to hear from an editor that they liked the direction the plot took or were amused by the dialogue between two characters. But it’s vitally important to learn from them as well.
Is the plot line clear and well-developed?
Does the timeline work?
Does the ending make sense, and is the timing right?
But there’s more to copyediting than checking the above boxes. There’s a give-and-take relationship where writers and editors discuss storylines and character development.
As I write this column, I’m waiting for my editor to return the manuscript for my next book, When the Chokecherries Bloom. Since this is a new genre and audience for me, I chose to work with an editor who specializes in editing books written for younger readers. I’m looking forward to receiving her insights and suggestions for this novel.
And to any copyeditors or developmental editors reading this column, your influence and suggestions are invaluable for every author. Thank you!
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