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A Fort With Many Functions

3/6/2018

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.

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.

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.

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.

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A Crockpot of Comfort

2/27/2018

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"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." Calvin Trillin

I admit it; I love cooking with leftovers. I often cook more than I need, just so I'll have leftovers to turn into something else. For instance, turkey leftovers become enchiladas, several kinds of soup, crepes, and various casseroles, all of which I love more than the original roasted turkey.

I often cook two or three times as much rice as I need for a meal, just so I can have it for other recipes.

All this plan ahead cooking should give me more time to write, right?

I've toyed for years with the idea of coming out with a cookbook called Serial Cooking, which would be filled with recipes that piggyback off of other recipes - a series of meals much like Trillin's mother made.

One of the times all that extra rice comes in handy is cold mornings, when I like to wake up and know that I've got something warm and comforting to entice me out from under the covers. One of my favorite go-to recipes for those kind of mornings is rice pudding. The Pokey Little Puppy ate rice pudding for desert, but for the Bohnhoffs, it's usually a comforting replacement for breakfast cereal.

Now that it's just my husband and me at home, I make it in a little crock pot that, I suppose, was intended for queso and other warm dips. I load it up after dinner and plug it in when I go to bed. In the morning my rice pudding is cooked and ready for me to spoon into a bowl. I pour milk over it and sprinkle sugar on top, then eat it like cereal.

If your family is larger, you can easily double or triple the recipe and use a standard sized crock pot.

Little Crockpot Rice Pudding

1 cup cooked, leftover rice (white or brown will work!)
3/4 cup milk (I use nonfat, but you can use whole milk for a richer taste.)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 T melted butter
1 T vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins, crasins, or other small dried fruit (cherries are good!)

Mix all together and pour into a lightly greased crock pot. Cover and cook on low overnight.

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Why thin air?

2/20/2018

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I sell the majority of my books at craft shows. Often a shopper will stop to study the banner that hangs along the front of my table, then ask the question "Why Thin Air Books?"

Good question.

I created Thin Air Books to market my self published books after a group of other writers came to the conclusion that books sold better if they came from a publishing house. There are a number of reasons why I chose the name that I did.

When I started Thin Air Books, I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

While Denver is known as the Mile High City, Albuquerque is also a mile above sea level. The air up here is pretty thin. It is even thinner on the top of the Sandias, the mountains that lay just east of Albuquerque. I used a picture of the snow covered Sandias, taken from my backyard, as the backdrop for the banner on the top of my website.

Since then, I have moved into those mountains. I live at nearly 8,000 feet - in rarefied air, indeed. The air is thin and dry enough that it cools off quickly at night. A bazillion stars spangle the heavens on a clear night. From my balcony I can see the lights of Santa Fe, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond.

The view from my balcony.

I do not pull my stories from thin air like a sleight-of-hand magician. The original concepts may come from my imagination, from an offhand comment in a conversation, or a single photograph, but I engage in a lot of research before my stories hit the market. For Swan Song, for instance, I had to follow the most current research on Neanderthal development and culture. Although

the Neanderthals have been long dead, who they were and what they were capable of is currently a topic of hot debate among scientists. The research was interesting and evolving as I wrote. I also researched Beowulf commentary, recent terrorist activity, and date rape drugs. Authors have to know a lot of strange things if they want their books to ring true.

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a link in the chain

2/13/2018

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Two birthdays ago, my sister- in-law Krista gave me the bookmark that is hooked over this aluminum vase. The bookmark has a golden hook to insert into a book, and a chain of pearls and golden beads to dangle along the outside spine. The chain ends with a tiny locket shaped like a bible.

It's a lovely bookmark, and I enjoy using it, but a couple of things make it even more special to me.

First, my sister-in-law made this

bookmark for me. To me, handmade gifts show a measure of thoughtfulness and care that store-bought gifts often don't. I know that as she selected the components of this bookmark and put them together, she was thinking about me. Krista "customized" her gift by inserting the bookmark into a book that she had chosen for me. It happened to be The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry., I very much enjoyed reading this novel. Looking at this bookmark will always bring it to mind.

But the real reason this bookmark is so special is the components from which it was assembled. Krista's mother - my mother-in-law - had given Krista a box of trinkets and nick-knacks from her mother and mother-in-law - Krista's maternal and paternal grandmothers. Krista took apart some of those things and reassembled them into this bookmark. The tiny bible locket belonged to my husband's paternal grandmother who had passed away before I was born. The pearls used to grace the neck of my husband's maternal grandmother, whom I met when my husband and I were dating, but passed away before our marriage. I know this because Krista was kind enough to include a note explaining this to me.

This bookmark isn't just a reminder of my sister-in-law's kindness in making it for me. It is a link to women two generations back, uniting me in a chain of women that flow back through the ages, and forward through ages to come. Someday i will pass it on, either to one of my daughters-in-law or to a granddaughter.

And the chain will remain unbroken.

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Bent's Fort: Important Historical Landmark

2/6/2018

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My husband and friend approach the fort.

One of the historical places of interest I visited this summer was Bent's Old Fort. Located outside of La Junta, Colorado, the fort, originally built by Bent, St. Vrain & Company in 1833, was rebuilt by the National Park Service in 1975, faithfully following sketches made by James W. Abert, an Army officer who stayed at the fort while recovering from an illness.

The fort was built just north of the Arkansas River, which at the time was the boundary between the United States and Mexico. Spain had lost control of Mexico in 1821, and Mexico had opened trade with America.

Charles and William Bent, sons of a St. Louis judge, had come west to earn their fortunes in the fur trade. Together with Ceran St. Vrain, the son of French aristocrats who had come to America to escape the French Revolution, they formed a trading company and built the fort to be its base of operations. The fort traded for beaver pelts and buffalo hides brought in by the Indians, for hardware, glass, silver, blankets, axes, firearms, horses, and mules. The company dominated the Indian trade on the southern plains and was an important stop on the newly opened Santa Fe Trail.

A beaver hat sitting on a pile of beaver pelts.

Looking into the interior.

The fort's trading post.

In 1835, the fort was the site of a peace council between the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and their old enemies, the Pawnee. The fort was also instrumental in getting much of Mexican territory into American hands. In 1848, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny used the fort as an advance base for his invasion of New Mexico.

Going to the fort now is like stepping back in time. Visitors are greeted by a guide in 19th century clothes. The smell of a cottonwood campfire decreases the heady smell that comes from the stables at the back of the fort. Blacksmiths and others go about their day to day duties.

It is open year round and has special events scheduled seasonally.

Bent's Fort is a great place to experience what it was like to live on the plains in the middle 1800s.

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Writing in thin air

1/30/2018

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The view from my living room on an unusual foggy morning.

I began writing in 1992. By 2014 I had over a dozen manuscripts and a thousand rejections to show for my work. Some editors and agents said they loved the characters but not the plots. Others loved the plots but not the characters. Some suggested that historical fiction wasn't selling, and if I would add some supernatural elements - a ghost, or time travel, or perhaps a werewolf, then they would reconsider by submissions.

In 2014 I decided that the definition of insanity - doing the same thing

and expecting a different result - was probably right. It was time for me to do something different.

I began self publishing my books in 2014. That first year I released Code: Elephants on the Moon, a midgrade novel set in Normandy just before D-Day, and The Bent Reed, a midgrade novel featuring a family living in Gettysburg at the time of the Civil War battle. 2015 saw On Fledgling Wings, a midgrade coming of age story set in 13th century England, added to my list.

But self publishing is difficult. Not only did I have to write my books, I had to edit and format them, and advertise and market them. I quickly realized that it's easier to write a book than sell it. When a group of my author friends said that they were banding together to form a publishing house because it was easier to market and sell books that had a publishing house associated with them, I decided to try it myself, and Thin Air Books was born.

Thin Air Books now has 7 books on its list, and still features just one author: me. Has it helped sales? It's hard to know, but I doubt it. No independent book sellers have offered to put my books on their shelves because they come from a publishing house, and no editors or agents have decided that I'm a better prospect because of my self publishing and marketing efforts. I continue to slog along, happy to be producing and sharing my work with the world, although my sales are almost as thin as the mountain air I breathe.

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Bohnhoff's Birthday Book Bonanza!

1/23/2018

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Between Christmas and my early January birthday, this past month has been quite the book bonanza for me!

I love books. Most of the time, I borrow what I read from the library. This year, I borrowed a few titles that I loved so much that I was tempted to "lose" them and pay the fines just to keep them. Luckily for me, my dear family came through for me,preventing me from entering a life of crime.

Susan G. Purdy's Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudes is an absolute must for those of us who live up where the air is thin, but it is good for you flat-landers as well. Each of Purdy's recipes features adaptations for altitudes between sea level and 10,000 feet, plus an analysis of why she changes what she changes. I tend to be one of those cooks who uses a teaspoon to measure anything between 1/4 and 1 tsp and found her meticulousness daunting, but so far I've used three recipes and all have turned out quite well.

Combat-Ready Kitchen is a fascinating look at how the U.S. military's quest for nutritious, shelf-stable, readily portable food has driven the eating habits of normal Americans. I never knew before reading this that the rise of aluminum foil in America's kitchens is a bi product of the enormous metal surplus after America stopped producing bombers, or that macaroni and cheese and Cheetos were both created to use up surplus cheese powder. There's a lot of food for thought in this book,

particularly when Saucedo discusses the quest for bread that stayed fresh, and how that might have affected our nutrition and digestion.

A Thousand Years over a Hot Stove is another book so filled with interesting tidbits that I checked it out of the library numerous times before putting it on my wish list. Laura Schenone provides a history of American women that also provides a pithy look into the commercialization of food in Amer-

ica. It's interesting to read how, for the sake of convenience, women gave up more and more of their kitchen work to big companies, then took it back when natural became fashionable again.

But the book that really made my heart leap for for wasn't on my wish list. One of my sons (or his wife) found this 1889 edition of a biography of Kit Carson and gave it to me. It is not one of those dime-store Westerns that seeks to make him into an American icon, but an

honest and fairly accurate work, and I look forward to using it the next time I get to teach New Mexico history.

This has been a very good month for me, as far as books go. How about you? Did you get any treasures over the holidays? I'd love to hear what new tomes are gracing your shelves.

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Some of My Favorite Gifts, Part 1

1/16/2018

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Last August, as I began work at a new school, one of my former students came to visit, and she brought me this orchid.

Alexa is one of my most successful former students. She came from an immigrant family that spoke limited English, but she has a great amount of personal drive. She's worked hard, and is now in a joint bachelors/MD program.

I taught Alexa when she was in 6th grade. She continued to keep in touch with me, returning throughout

her high school years to let me know how she was doing, and occasionally to get advice on papers she was writing. I had the honor of writing recommendations for her a few times. But I can't claim any credit for her successes. She's worked hard and earned everything she's received in life.

What makes this orchid so special is that she was willing to drive way out in to the country to give it to me. That was a big effort, and I appreciated it. The orchid she left me is a continual reminder that what I do is important. Not many of my students will be like Alexa, but there are plenty who are listening to what I say, and will take what little I can give and grow it into a good career and a good life. Even though the flowers have faded and grown papery, it continues to remind me that students who have a strong foundation can grow into something beautiful and lasting.

Thank you, Alexa, for the reminder, and for the inspiration of your life.

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Turning a New Place Mat

1/1/2018

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Some people turn over a new leaf at the start of the new year. I turn over the place mats.

I have a friend named Jessica Bonzen who is a quilter. She sells her beautiful handiwork at some of the same craft shows where I sell my books.

Sorry for the fuzzy image.

A few years ago I commissioned her to make some place mats just for me. Jessica created sets of four, specially shaped to fit the round table in the corner of my living room closest to the big picture window. When my husband and I sit there, it's like sitting on the edge of the world, looking out over God's glory.

One of the sets Jessica made me features red and white poinsettias. I wish the picture was clearer so that you could see how beautiful it is, but my camera and I seem to not be on speaking terms this new year.

Besides the beautiful fabrics and quality workmanship Jessica puts into her products, one of the features I love the most is that her place mats are double-sided. Turn them over, and discover a new design! My Christmas place mats reverse into a wintry snow scene with cardinals and white aspen trees.

I'm ringing in the new year by turning over my place mats. Good bye, Christmas. You were wonderful, but it's time for a new year.

However you plan to commemorate the beginning of 2018, I wish you health and happiness.

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Great Christmas Reads for Middle Grade Readers

11/30/2017

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Everyone loves a good Christmas read. Here's a short list of some of the best for middle grade readers.

The main character in Richard Peck's A Season of Gifts is twelve year old Bob, the son of a preacher and new kid in town, but the heart of this sequel to the Newbery Award winning A Long Way to Chicago and the Newbery Honor book A Year Down Yonder is the eccentric Mrs. Dowdel, an elderly, grumpy, gun-wielding woman who claims to have no interest in neighboring or in church, but has special gifts to share with both her neighbors and their new church.

Set in 1958, this heartwarming tale will remind you a bit of the innocence of the 1983 movie, A Christmas Story,

Children of Christmas has six stories by the Newbery Honor winning author Cynthia Rylant that are perfect for reading aloud, if you can control your emotions. Like Hans Christian Andersen's Little Match Girl, these poignant stories of lonely and desperate people are are guaranteed to make you cry, yet her exquisite writing also conveys the special joy of the season, Stories include one of a lonely man who raises Christmas trees, a stray cat who finds shelter, an elderly widower missing his wife, an Appalachian boy who waits each year for a train bringing gifts, and more.

How was Christmas celebrated in 13th century England? Nathaniel Marshall, the son of a knight, spends Christmas at Glastonbury Abbey in my novel On Fledgling Wings. Nathaniel waits to see if the legend that the animals will speak at midnight is true, wonders if the saints looking down on him from the church friezes are watching him, and gets to serve the roast boar at the Christmas day banquet.

But all too soon the peace of the season will pass, and Nathaniel will be embroiled in a battle for power at the manor house.

From Anna, by Jean Little, begins in Germany in 1933. Anna Solden is the youngest and clumsiest in a large family that treats her like the incompetent baby. After they immigrate to America to escape the worsening political scene, the family discovers that Anna can barely see. A new pair of glasses and a special class for the visually impaired helps her blossom into a proficient and confident child. The climax features a Christmas during the depression that might have been dismal had it not been for the pluck and cheerfulness of the family, and at which Anna comes into her own and proves to her family - and herself - that she can do anything she sets her mind to.

And finally, new this Christmas, Jingle Night, the second in The Anderson Chronicles, my series of contemporary novels for middle grade readers. Hector Anderson just can't get in the holiday spirit. He's loaded down with homework, and too broke to buy presents for his family or his heart throb, Sandy. Meanwhile, sister Chloe wants to be the angel of death in the holiday play, a role as silent as younger brother Calvin's been since the loss of his hand puppet, Mr. Buttons.

As if reenacting the game of Clue, an old inn that's usually quiet at Christmastime fills with a hodge-podge of quirky guests, all of whom seem to be searching for the answer to a different mystery, which they share in a series of fireside stories. Twelve-year-old Milo, the innkeepers' adopted son, turns into the sleuth who must solve them all. This story is part mystery, part folk tale, part ghost story, with enough twists and turns to keep even the most finicky reader entertained.

Little brother Stevie can only remember four words from the song he must sing at the Little Leapers Preschool Pageant, but he uses his slingshot to spread Christmas cheer, which Hec's perfectionist Father doesn't appreciate.

Hec is determined to solve his problems, and while Mom tries to eggnog and carol everyone into the Christmas spirit, he and his best buddy Eddie embark on a madcap plan to solve Hec's Christmas dilemma.

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and happy reading this holiday season.

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