Jennifer Bohnhoff
  • Home
  • Upcoming Events, Presentations, and Classroom Visits
  • In the Shadow of Sunrise
  • Summer of the Bombers
  • Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series
  • A Blaze of Poppies
  • On Fledgling Wings
  • The Bent Reed
  • Code: Elephants on the Moon
  • The Anderson Chronicles
  • The Last Song of the Swan
  • Raven Quest
  • Thin Air: My Blog About Writing and My Books
  • Store

Spring Break: Books, Soldiers, and  Peanut Blossoms through the generations

3/26/2018

0 Comments

 
Although we are in different school districts, my granddaughter and I lucked out and had our spring breaks at the same time this year. To celebrate, she spent the night. When my granddaughter spends the night. We have a routine that is almost inviolate. We read stories and play games, take walks, and always, at her insistence, we bake cookies.
Picture
Last night, when I asked her which book she wanted to read, I wasn't surprised when she said "Nana, I want the one with the soldiers and the squirrel." Miss Suzy is an oldie, but a goodie, and it's one of her favorite books. It was one of my favorites when I was a child, and my sons enjoyed it a generation later, so it's no wonder my copy is falling apart. A book that's been handled, read and loved for three generations is a real keeper.

PictureMy granddaughter at my son's graduation from West Point, 2015
I think one of the reasons my granddaughter loves Miss Suzy is because of the brave toy soldiers who run off the thuggish red squirrels who had invaded Miss Suzy's home. My granddaughter loves soldiers, or more accurately, one soldier in particular: her Uncle John.

​When my son graduated from West Point in 2015, my granddaughter was quite taken with his uniform. She gazed up at him and said "You are my tin soldier, and I am your ballerina." This grandma was proud, not only for  her son's accomplishment or the love between family members, but for my then three year old granddaughter's ability to make literary allusions. I'm sure Hans Christian Andersen was smiling down from heaven.

PictureThe author and her Uncle Jerry.
This grandma understands a young girl's fascination with a man in uniform because she had her own love for a soldier, and like my granddaughter, my love was for an Uncle. My Uncle Jerry, my father's younger brother, was a bigger than life character to me. He was handsome and dashing, with a big laugh and a great sense of humor. He told fabulous stories and always seemed to be getting into situations that were both hilarious and a bit frightening. He was rough and tough, but gentle and sweet at the same time. 

PictureUnwrapping the kisses.
This morning we made a batch of Peanut Blossoms. Like Miss Suzy, these cookies have stood the test of time. They won the Pillsbury Bake-Off in 1957, and have been loved by generations of cookie fans. They are the favorite cookie of both my granddaughter and my soldier son. She made them for him while he was deployed, but just because he's returned to the states doesn't mean she'll stop making them for him.  She'll be taking some home with her for her mom and dad. Some will end up in my husband's cookie jar and lunch bag. And some will be mailed to Fort Hood, where my son is currently stationed. I hope that you'll enjoy them, too. Oldies but goodies need to be shared.

Peanut Blossoms

Pictureputting on the kisses
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
​1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
​1/2 cup peanut butter
2 TBS milk
​1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

​Mix all ingredients in a mixer at low speed until a stiff dough forms. Roll into 1" balls. Roll in sugar and place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

​Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven press a chocolate candy kiss into its middle, but not so hard as to split the cookie. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack long enough for the kisses to reharden.

0 Comments

An Interview With The Author

3/13/2018

3 Comments

 
Picture
Recently a high school student sent me an email requesting an interview. She needed to talk with someone who worked in a field in which she was interested. Here are her questions, and my answers. Let me know if you think I didn't explain the writer's life well enough. I'd love to learn how your answers would vary.

1. What made you decide to become a writer?
I don't think anyone decides to become a writer. Writers are compelled - driven by the stories that keep playing in their heads. They can't help themselves, and if they deny their writing it drives them crazy.
 
I started writing really young, like middle school, but I didn't start taking it seriously until I was a stay at home mom. Writing enabled me to go far, far away without having to hire a sitter.
 
2. I know becoming an author is a tricky job financially when you just get out of school because of getting your name out. Do you think newly graduated writers should work part time as a writer or submerge them self in their work?

 
I don't know anyone who was able to just submerge him or herself in writing. You either have to keep a day job, or find someone who will support you, or perhaps win the lottery. The exceptions to this are people who go into commercial writing, like copy editing, advertising, or journalism.
 
You mentioned an interest in editing, and that's a great way to break into the field, especially if you're willing to move to New York City. These days editors get paid a piddly salary to start out, but they make a lot of contacts and they're close to the big movers and shakers. Many editors write books to fill the "gaps" in their house's line, so they are both editors and writers.
 
3. What kind of experience did you have, or recommend, before going to college?
 
Live fully, travel widely, love deeply. And take lots of pictures to help jolt your memory later. I regret I did little of any of this before going to college.

4. How do you get out of creative blocks?

 
I've never had one. I've always had way more I wanted to write than time to write it in.
 
5. How do you pull yourself out of procrastination?

 
I usually don't. There's usually a reason why I'm not writing, and I respect that and do other things until I'm ready again. The story will start to beat on the inside of my head if I ignore it awhile, and usually when I procrastinate what I'm really doing is other stuff I need to get done (like laundry and weeding) while working out kinks in the plot twists.
 
6. What is your favorite genre to write in and why?

 
I love historical fiction, because I love researching the period and learning what was going on, how people lived, how they thought, and what they wanted. Some human feelings are universal. Others are not. That's always a surprise when I read primary sources.
 
7. Do you think living in New Mexico impacts your writing?

 
New Mexico is a cultural backwater in some respects, but the internet has opened the world up so much that it doesn't matter as much as it used to. And there's so much beauty here and so many untold stories. I think just looking out the window is inspiring.
 
8. Do you expand your creativity from just story book?
 
I'm not sure what you're asking here. Do I do other creative things besides writing? I'm a pretty fair cook, and I sing in the church choir but am not a fine enough talent in either to make a go of it professionally.

9. Are you self employed or do you work under a company?
 
Most writers don't work for companies. They are freelance, and when they've completed a novel (or other kind of book, fiction or nonfiction) they send it to editors of publishing houses and agents. Or, they self publish, which is what I do, because I gathered over 1,000 rejects and finally decided I didn't want to wait anymore and play the game. Getting published is hard. For every 10,000 manuscripts a publishing house gets, they're going to make an offer on one or two.
 
10. Do you see writing more as a serious or a fun job?

I have yet to have a serious job in my life. I won't do it if I can't find the fun in it. That being said, writing is rarely fun. It's hard work. Editing and rewriting is even harder. And getting rejected hurts. Deeply. But if you're meant to be a writer you do it anyway. And while not always fun, it can be thrilling and deeply satisfying.

3 Comments

A Fort With Many Functions

3/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture My husband and I with Rocky, one of the historical interpreters at Ft. Bayard
As some of you know, my husband, Hank Bohnhoff, is a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals, and he has to run for election this year in order to keep his seat on the bench. Part of running for election is getting out and meeting constituents, and so we've been doing a lot of road trips this past year.

Last month we visited the southwestern part of the state, and I had the joy of getting to make a short stop at Fort Bayard. I am always grateful when a trip includes a little history.


The Fort was named for General George D. Bayard, a West Point graduate who had been killed at Fredericksburg. Begun in 1866, the first fort constructed on the site was a collections of tents and crude adobe buildings thrown up by Company B the 125th United States Colored Infantry. Many of the soldiers stationed here were Buffalo Soldiers. 
Picture
Picture US soldiers were still using the heliograph in 1898, when this photo was taken.
 The fort protected settlements in Southern New Mexico from raids by the various Apache tribes who roamed the rugged mountains of the Gila. It was also one of 24 heliograph stations, which relayed messages between forts by means of the sun and a mirror that was used to flash out Morse code signals. Although less technologically advanced, the heliograph system worked better than the newly installed telegraph system, because the Apaches could cut telegraph wires but they could not meddle with the sun. It is of interest that the man charged with establishing the heliograph stations was a young Second Lieutenant named John J. Pershing, who would go on to become the famous Blackjack Pershing.

Picture Some of the officer's housing.
Once the Indian Wars were over, Fort Bayard became the first military sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis. Doctors at the time believed that high elevation, clean air, abundant sunshine and low humidity were all beneficial to the treatment of this disease.  The Fort's population grew during World War I, when soldiers who had suffered from poisonous gas attacks crowded the wards. The nurses' quarters, which housed a matron responsible for the moral well-being of the women who tended the sick and injured, was relocated a distance from the other buildings after many nurses fell in love with patients.

​During WWII, German Prisoners of War lived here, repairing buildings, tending the orchard, and caring for the burial grounds that became a National Cemetery in 1976. The fort continued to serve as a long-term care facility for veterans and civilians alike after it was transferred from Federal to State control in 1965. Finally, in 2010, a more modern medical facility was built just down the road.

​Fort Bayard is set in a beautiful, mountainous setting, with wide, blue skies and big vistas. The buildings are in disrepair but to me, it is a glorious place, filled with historical narratives. It could be the setting for a "wild west" story, a love story between a young gas victim and a nurse, a story of longing for home by a young German POW. The possibilities are endless.


Picture
My husband in Fort Bayard's cemetery. We found gravestones from the Spanish American War, World War I and II, Vietnam, and more recent conflicts.
0 Comments
    Picture

    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Blaze Of Poppies
    Ambrose Bierce
    Animal Stories
    Baking
    Baking Mixes
    Baltimore
    Baseball
    Beowulf
    Biography
    Bobbed Hair
    Cemeteries
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Classic Western Writer
    Code Talkers
    Cookies
    Cowgirls
    D Day
    Dickens
    Drummer Boy
    Educators
    Exclusion
    Famous Americans
    Famous Women
    Fathers Day
    Feisty Women
    Fiction
    Folsom
    Fort Craig
    France
    Gabriel Rene Paul
    George McJunkin
    Gettysburg
    Ghost Story
    Glorieta
    Graphic Novels
    Great Depression
    Hampton Sides
    Hiking
    Historical Fiction
    Historical Novels
    History
    Horses
    Howitzer
    Isle Royale
    Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
    Juvenile Novels
    Karen Cushman
    Kit Carson
    Lewis And Clark
    Lindenmeier
    Middle Ages
    Middle Grade
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Middle Grade Novels
    Mother's Day
    Muffins
    Mules
    Museums
    Nanowrimo
    Native Americans
    Nazi
    Neanderthal
    New Mexico
    New Mexico History
    Normandy
    Paddy Graydon
    Pancho Villa
    Poetry
    Poets Corner
    Pony Express
    Poppies
    Prejudice
    Presidents
    Pumpkin Bread
    Punitive Expedition
    Race
    Rebels Along The Rio Grande
    Religious Persecution
    Sacajawea
    Scottish Americans
    Sleepy Hollow
    Song Writers
    Southwest
    Sports
    Spur Award
    St. Bernard Pass
    Swiss Alps
    The Last Song Of The Swan
    The Worst Enemy
    Travel
    Valentines Day
    Valverde
    Vichy Regime
    Western Writers Of America
    Where Duty Calls
    Wildfires
    World War 1
    World War Ii
    World War Two
    Writing
    Ya
    YA Fiction

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014


Web Hosting by iPage