The World of the Blue Bells Trilogy

Elections

2026-11-05T22:20:26.933-06:00

I've posted here entirely on the politics of the fourteenth century versus our own. But I'm going to switch centuries for a minute. I've watched politics closely for decades. The last twenty years or more have become increasingly contentious. It wasn't this ugly in the 80s or even 90s to the point we now have violence in our streets, in our schools, in our churches. We have political

Mason Bees

2026-11-03T22:00:22.875-06:00

To my knowledge, mason bees have nothing to do with lodges. It's just a name.Somewhere along the way, as we worked on learning how to do better with our garden and the fruit trees and chestnut trees I've planted. we came across a video about the importance of bees to pollinating plants and trees. So we set out to get some. Last spring,

Halloween Reflections

2026-11-01T01:26:28.007-05:00

There is, today, a lot of controversy about Halloween: should it be celebrated at all, should it be celebrated as a fun dress-up without the gore, is it good with any costumes? How does it being All Hallow's Eve play into the discussion?We spent the evening, unintentionally, at the most haunted restaurant in Cumberland Gap. Tennessee. To be fair, I think there are only two actual restaurants in

On Aging

2026-10-21T15:10:03.496-05:00

They say age is just a number. I believe there's a lot of truth to that, although genetics, life choices, and health play a role. Through my life, I've almost always found myself in groups with people 20-30 years older than me: in my young mother's group with my first children; in the big band I played in, in my writers' group where I and two others, were the 'youngsters' in our late thirties and

It All Started with Pride....

2026-10-13T16:09:10.279-05:00

Recently, 'hikers who died' type videos have started coming up in my YouTube algorithm. I listen to videos while I'm cleaning up inside or feeding the animals or weeding or any of the other 100 jobs I do before sitting down to write each day. So I've been hearing a lot of stories about people who have died on hikes in state parks, scaling cliffs, or white-water rafting. These particular

Did We Leave the World a Better Place?

2026-10-07T22:21:33.347-05:00

In the end, do you want to be one who makes the world a better place or a worse place? Do you want to make someone's day better or make someone's day worse? Can we make the world a kinder place?That's what this post is about. Four events this week tie into it:A personal attack on me on social mediaA discussion with my husband about the couple who bought our house in Duluth and how they have

Protecting the Harp

2026-10-05T23:33:48.378-05:00

Once upon a time...I lived in a house with seven boys and two girls, a grand piano and a large cumbersome harp that tipped backwards very easily. Not necessarily the best combination--especially given we had a typical house of those built by the millions in the late '70s. The lower floor flowed from the living room to the left of the front door, into the dining room, which circled into the

Authors Around the World on Books & Brews Light

2026-09-21T22:01:16.395-05:00

I am always interviewing authors on Books and Brews and Books and Brews Light. Our most recent guests were both Authors Around the World and write very different books.Dr. Efrat Ron writes on living with trauma. She talks briefly about her own traumatic experiences but more importantly, what things help us heal and move on from traumatic experiences, to live our fullest, happiest lives, to move

Inside the Mind of AI

2026-09-10T19:57:27.775-05:00

I use AI for research. These days I can do in thirty minutes what it might have taken me a week to learn when I used the library, or three days or more to learn when I was hunting through sites one by one, seeking the right combination of search terms to narrow things down t what I really needed. I use it to create images. I've used it for several other things. I love AI. But I'm also

Talking Legend & Lore with SB Darkmoor

2026-08-29T21:52:01.846-05:00

One of the fun parts of my life has been hosting Books & Brews, since 2017. Wow, nine years! It's hard to believe it's been that long! In those years, I've interviewed about 175 authors and poets--at the radio station where Michael and I started, at Barnes & Nobles cafe in Edina's Galleria where we interviewed authors live with guests sampling beer flights, on our monthly podcast since

The Ending Writes Itself: a review

2026-08-27T17:45:35.260-05:00

With managing our farm, writing, publishing, and marketing, I rarely have time to read these days, which is bad because writers should read, just as musicians should listen to music. It helps us think about our own writing and hone our own craft.Luckily, my husband took some vacation time, and we had most of a week at a lake. We hit a couple of bookstores and I found a book with the

On Dolly Parton

2026-08-26T00:32:33.569-05:00

Dolly Parton died today, August 25. She was an icon of my childhood, in music and movies. It was by dumb luck that this air force brat mostly-sort of from Minnesota was in her Tennessee hometown on the day of her passing.We learned of her death about 12:30 p.m. while on our vacation. We were in an antique store in Sevierville right next to her hometown of Pigeon Forge, where we'd already bought

Can I Get an Answer?

2026-08-09T22:56:57.894-05:00

As an author, I routinely get messages--in my email, at my various Facebook pages, at instagram, at LinkedIn, and probably places I've forgotten--offering me services. I easily get a dozen or more a week and some authors get far more than that--dozens a day.Let me talk about my day. In addition to my writing work, I am currently writing for someone else, and also responsible for the

Clarkson's Farm

2026-07-31T12:30:16.507-05:00

A couple of months ago, someone mentioned Clarkson's Farm to us. I had never heard of Jeremy Clarkson but knowing he is doing pretty much what we're doing--learning a whole new way of life--we decided to watch it. In one way, it felt like watching my own life, so at first I didn't find it exactly riveting. However, I very much enjoyed the sheep episode, given our personal experience with sheep,

Three Authors Featured at Books & Brews this Month

2026-07-25T22:24:14.365-05:00

July has been a busy month. We had a wedding at the end of June. With the warm weather, planting kicked into high gear. Also--weeding. When plants grow, weeds grow! This year we introduced raised garden beds, which have greatly helped with the never-ending weeding issue in our rather large garden.We've also been dealing with predators who took several of our newborn bunnies and six of our

Meeting Marilyn OR Start with the Man in the Mirror

2026-07-24T00:36:58.083-05:00

A Jeep in Lexington, Kentucky with the name MARILYN on it and the world's oldest maternity hospital: I promise you there's a connection! I may take the scenic route to get there!My oldest son was born in Dublin, Ireland at the world's oldest maternity hospital--the Rotunda. They've been delivering babies since 1745. The nurses there wore uniforms straight out a mid-20th century history book

Bruce & Edward: Forever Linked

2026-07-11T00:26:53.501-05:00

Happy 752nd birthday, Robert the Bruce! In a world of 9 billion, I'm not going to presume I'm the only one to still recognize his birthday, but if there's anyone else, I'd love to know. What I find interesting about the Bruce's birthday, of July 11, is that his arch-nemesis, King Edward I, died only 4 days before his (Bruce's) 33rd birthday, on July 7, 1307. He died at Burgh on Sands, looking

When Books & Brews Meets Homesteading

2026-07-01T21:53:27.579-05:00

On my podcast, Books & Brews, I interview authors. Today, my interview with author Sara F. Hathaway went live. I really enjoyed talking with her in particular because she has a great deal of knowledge and experience in homesteading skills, having grown up in the country, and taken her farming skills farther as an adult. She went on to write The Changing Earth series, in which

History is Closer Than We Think

2026-06-25T23:04:05.588-05:00

As I work on the IV Leake Mysteries, I've been computing family lines and the historical events and eras they knew. If I'm writing about a character today, is it going to be his grandfather or great-grandfather who was a young adult during Prohibition? I recently wrote about my grandfather, whose life spanned from before the last wagon train headed west to three decades after space travel began.&

A Tale of Two Edwards

2026-06-25T09:20:26.120-05:00

There are days of the year that seem to attract great events. It's perhaps not as mysterious as some might make it. For instance, many battles cluster around dates from late spring to early autumn for the simple reason that, historically, it was hard to do battle in two feet of snow. The campaign season tended to gear up again as forests and roads became easier for cavalry and men on foot to

History, Family, Legacy

2026-06-17T22:26:21.434-05:00

As I write the IV Leake Mysteries, I somehow keep coming back to family stories. In THE IHOP AFFAIR, there's an incident in the 1970s that impacts the small town of Sholda, Alabama, unknown to the 400 residents there. In THE KITCHI-GAMMI CAPERS, the family story goes much farther back. In HAWAAIAN HIJINKS (working title), I find myself once again writing mysteries and crimes that

Banter with a Bomb Tech

2026-06-09T00:24:08.806-05:00

Accountant by day...sniper, bomb tech, and FBI field agent arresting America's most wanted by night!Okay, that's not one hundred percent accurate. Barry Black switched by weeks or months from his life as an FBI accountant tracking down financial crimes, to working as a sniper, bomb tech, and chasing down dangerous criminals. Growing up in Alabama, Barry ended up traveling the world, visiting

Surive! on an Alien Planet with Books & Brews Guest Dr. Charles P. Graham

2026-05-29T13:40:03.739-05:00

Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!In January of 2017, I started Books and Brews with Michael Agnew, Minnesota's first beer cicerone. Our first six episodes aired from AM 950 in the Twin Cities. The next four were live at Edina's Galleria Barnes & Noble. From there, we launched our podcast. Michael's life eventually took turns that made it difficult to continue devoting

Chasing Sheep

2026-05-27T12:54:49.888-05:00

Chasing SheepAny day may bring surprises on a farm. There have been plenty of days where I think I'm going to have hours at my desk getting writing and editing done and then....something happens! One day it was Maisy, one of our blackbelly ewes, with sheep 'polio.' Sheep often die from this. With help from a friend who came rushing to my aid, we got Maisy, who must weigh 120-150 pounds, up our

The Misnamed Miracle: Jerusalem Artichoke

2026-04-22T09:45:00.001-05:00

Medicinal and Nutritional Benefits The Jerusalem Artichoke--neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke. Ah, the fun of language! There are many theories as to how a sunflower native to central and eastern North America ended up with its complete misnomer of a name. One theory is that early Italian settlers called it girasole, which means sunflower and, like any good game of Telephone, it