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The best place in America to Look back at World War I

6/29/2015

Last month I had the joy of visiting the National WWI Museum and Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. If you are at all interested in the war that changed the world a hundred years ago, this is the place to visit in America.

The Liberty Memorial was created in the 1920's through the subscription of Kansas City's citizens. Perched high on a grassy hill, this Beaux Arts and Egyptian Revival memorial consists of a 266 ft tower topped by four 40 foot tall figures who are the Guardian Spirits. Each figure holds a sword. They represent Honor, Courage, Patriotism and Sacrifice.

Two sphinxes flank the tower. "Memory" faces east, towards the battlefields of France. "Future" faces west. Both shield their eyes with their wings: one hiding from the horrors of war, the other symbolizing that the future is unknown and unseen.

Two halls face toward the tower. One is Memory Hall, which has some of the most beautiful friezes I have ever seen. Exhibit hall houses some of the collection of the museum, which rests underground, beneath the Memorial.

Liberty Memorial is noble and somber. It is epic in scale. But what rests beneath it in the museum is even more awe-inspiring.

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Eating in a Different Era

6/23/2015

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When I toured the National World War I Museum in Kansas City last month, I ate at their museum cafe. It was a different kind of experience.

Most museums have cafes for their patrons. Most serve the same, ubiquitous dinning room food: cold wraps or sandwiches from a glass case, salads, bags of chips. Some of the fancier ones might have a grill that serves up burgers. But this cafe was different.

The Menu for the Over There Cafe had a little symbol in its upper right corner: an orange circle with a helmet. It said that the helmet next to a menu item meant that the food was similar to that served to soldiers during World War I. Minus, of course, the bugs and dirt.

I had to choose between chipped beef on gravy over toast (which my WWI grandfather called "shit on a shingle," a mix of corned beer, turnips and carrots called trench stew, cabbage soup, or army goulash: a mix of hamburger, pork and beans, oregano and tomato sauce.

I ordered a cup of coffee and trench stew, which came with a side of WWI slaw and a biscuit served on a tin plate. The stew came in a glass-covered sauce pot. Perhaps serving the stew and coffee in battered tin cups would have been more authentic.

Recently I sent a recipe for triple ginger cookies to people on my friends, family and fans email list. One friend wrote back, suggesting that I incorporate period recipes in my historical novels. I think she may be on to something.

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liberty born in a swamp!

6/15/2015

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Today marks the 800th anniversary of the western world's concept of liberty. The idea was born in a swamp.

On June 15, 1215, in a place called Runnymede, King John signed the Magna Carta, the Latin name for the Great Charter that Daniel Hannan calls "the most important bargain in the history of the human race." Not only did the charter formalize the notion of freedom of an individual against the arbitrary authority of a despot, but it instituted a from of conciliar rule that was the progenitor of England's Parliament and America's Legislative Branch.

The Magna Carta was written by a group of rebellious barons who wanted to protect their rights and property from the overzealous taxation of the cash-poor King John. Before he was king, England's coffers were emptied by those seeking to ransom John's brother, Richard the Lionheart, who had been captured by a German prince on his way back to the Holy Land. Once crowned, John threw himself into battle with France in an attempt to regain the lands traditionally held by his family, the Angevins. John was not a good military leader, and suffered a series of staggering blows that resulted in the loss of all French lands for he English crown

When the defeated John returned from the Continent, he tried to rebuild his coffers by demanding scutage, a fee paid in lieu of military service, from the barons who had not joined him in war. The barons refused, and 40 joined in open rebellion. After they captured London, the barons forced John to meet with them at Runnymede and put his seal to the charter that protected their feudal rights.

Attribution: WyrdLight.com

Runnymede isn't really a swamp, but a water-meadow in what is called the 'Thames Basin Lowland.' 20 miles south and west of London, this area of gently rolling hills and vales is filled with ponds, meadows, and heath.

Its name comes from a combination of the Anglo-Saxon word 'runieg,' which means regular meeting, and 'mede,' which means meadow. During the time of Anglo-Saxon rule, from the 7th to 11th centuries, the Witan, or King's Council, met in the open air at Runnymede. It is not surprising, then, that John's Barons would choose this site to reassert their ancient rights and privileges.

The Barons didn't really care about the interests of the common man when they had John place his seal on their charter. But two principles expressed in the Magna Carta resonated with the founders of America. Both "No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land" and "To no one will We sell, to no one will We deny or delay, right or justice" sound awfully American to most ears.

For a translation of the Magna Carta in to English, click here.

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Thunder reverberates

6/10/2015

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Towards the end of the school year I was visiting with a fellow teacher when I noticed a book on her book rack. The cover was so intriguing that I had to borrow the book and take it home to read.

The book was entitled Thunder at Gettysburg, and it was written by Patricia Lee Gauch in the 1970's. Ms. Gauch went on to become a prominent and very influential editor. During her career she edited three Caldecott books: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr, Lon Po Po by Ed Young and So You Want to Be President by Judith St. George, illustrated by David Small. She authored 39 book of her own. And although I'm sure she doesn't remember it, she rejected my manuscript for The Bent Reed, my Gettysburg novel intended for a slightly older readership, back in 2004.

Thunder at Gettysburg is a simple little chapter book written for elementary-age students who have mastered easy readers. It is tells the story of one girl's experience and is based on the memoir of Tillie Pierce, who witnessed the Battle of Gettysburg when she was a young girl. More than 20 years after the battle, she wrote her memoir, which I read as part of my research. Tillie actually shows up in a crowd scene in my book: she is named in a group of girls who went to the ladies seminary,which was a finishing school, and are waving flags during a Union parade through town. I got the description of the parade from her memoir.

It's fun to read two works based on the same primary source. When you do so, if you come across a scene or turn of phrase that is common to both, it's a safe bet that the words or the scene came from the original material. Ms. Gauch's main character is Tillie, and her book is not a work of fiction but a retelling of the biography on a very simple level. My book is a work of fiction. The McCombs family doesn't exist, although most of their neighbors did. I set the fictitious family's farm right in the thick of the action, between two real farms that took a beating with actual artillery. Almost everything that happened in The Bent Reed actually did happen, but to other, real people. One of those people was Tillie Pierce.

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The best place in America to Look back at World War I

Eating in a Different Era

What do you think? Should I include recipes in my historical novels? post them on my blog? Send them to people who are on or Sign up for my friends, family and Fans email list?

liberty born in a swamp!

Thunder reverberates

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