Brief History of Veterans Day

Today marks the 96th year that Veterans Day has been officially recognized in the U.S. as a day to remember and honor those who have served in the military. This day was originally called Armistice Day. It was changed to Veterans Day in 1954.

 [Disclaimer: The following information is taken mostly verbatim from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website: http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp]

World War I, which was known at the time as “The Great War”, officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

Furthermore, the original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

The Uniform Holiday Bill was signed on June 28, 1968, and was intended to ensure three-day weekends for Federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. With regards to Veterans Day moving to a Monday observance, this turned out to be an increasingly unpopular situation over the years. So, on September 20th, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of November 11, beginning in 1978.

 The official spelling of this day is without the apostrophe, because, "...it is not a day that 'belongs' to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans."

Images: www.va.gov and http://www.freeallimages.com/veterans-day-2015-poster/
 
Until next time,

Kaye

Writing the West, one romance at a time
www.kayespencer.com

Four Corners Area of the United States

By Kristy McCaffrey

Four Corners is a popular tourist destination in the southwestern U.S. Here, one can occupy Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado at once. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but tourists don't stand on the actual spot. The geographic coordinates lie inaccessible in the nearby rocky desert.

My husband and I at Four Corners on New Year's Day
a few years ago.

Within this expanse are four prominent landmarks: Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, the Painted Desert, and Shiprock.

Monument Valley is located on the Arizona-Utah border on the Colorado Plateau, and the Navajo have preserved the area as a vast tribal park. The iconic sandstone buttes and spires rising from the ground have become famous worldwide, due in part to filmmaker John Ford who featured the area in many western movies in the 1940's and 1950's.

Monument Valley

Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de shay) National Monument is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. Rock art and other excavations reveal human habitation for at least 4,500 years, encompassing not just the Navajo but the ancient Anasazi as well. In the 18th century this became a major stronghold of the Navajo—the high canyon walls offered protection and the streams helped grow corn crops and peach trees. Today, Navajo still live here.

Canyon de Chelly

The Painted Desert, approximately 120 miles long and 60 miles wide, is composed of stratified layers of easily erodible siltstone, mudstone, and shale. The layers of rock contain an abundance of iron and manganese, which cause the varied colors of the region. This area also includes the Petrified Forest National Park, a landscape frozen in time for more than 220 million years, revealing colorful petrified wood and animal fossils. How does wood become petrified? Long-ago floods carried timber onto a plain, then, over time, minerals in the water replaced the wood cells, filling the spaces with quartz and jasper crystals.

Painted Desert

Located in northwestern New Mexico, Shiprock rises 1,583 feet on a desolate plain and is visible in all directions for many miles. It has great religious and historical significance to the Navajo people.

Shiprock

The Four Corners region is a vast and somewhat desolate location but rich in history and geology.

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My short novella The Crow and the Coyote takes place in Canyon de Chelly.

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In Arizona Territory, Hannah Dobbin travels through Cañon de Chelly, home to the Navajo, in search of a sorcerer who murdered her pa. Bounty hunter Jack Boggs is on the trail of a vile Mexican bandito, but with the shadows of Hallowtide descending, more dark magic is at hand than either of them know.

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Give Me Those Old Time Western Writers

I’ve been trying to think of the very first western I ever read—but I can’t remember back that far!  Growing up I was a TV western junkie—Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Virginian… You remember the ones. I know you do.

But there were (and are) some writers who picked up where the dime novels left off, who shaped our genre and set it on the path to where we are now, and beyond.

 

Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour and William Johnstone (who was from southern Missouri!) are three favorites, but even they had many predecessors.

 

Andy Adams – Born in Indiana in 1859. He began writing at the age of 43, publishing his most successful book, The Log of a Cowboy, in 1903 The Log of a Cowboy is an account of a five-month drive of 3,000 cattle from Brownsville, Texas, to Montana during 1882 along the Great Western Cattle Trail. Although the book is fiction, it is based on Adams's own experiences, and it is considered by many to be literature's best account of cowboy life.

 

Owen Wister – Born July 14, 1860 is considered the "father" of western fiction. Best remembered for The Virginian, published in 1902, Wister never wrote about the West again.

 

B. M. Bower -- Bertha Muzzy Sinclair  was born November 15, 1871. She wrote novels, short stories and screenplays featuring cowboys of the Flying U Ranch in Montana. She wrote 57 western novels, several of which were turned into films. 

 

Willa Sibert Cather – Born December 7, 1873. She achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains. Willa won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for One of Ours (1922), a novel set during World War I. Other well-known works include O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918).

 

And, of course--

James Fenimore Cooper – Born September 15, 1789. Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature.

 

According to William W. Johnstone:  “The Western is one of the few true art forms that is 100% American….the Western has helped to shape the cultural landscape of America.”

Just for fun, let’s all add to the list. Introduce me to another of those amazing writers and tell me just a bit about them and which book of theirs I should read.

Neighborhood Stores, Community Life, and Hazard, Wyoming by Sarah J. McNeal

(Mom standing in front of the house where I grew up)

I remember when the word community meant knowing your neighbors, going to the same church and school with the people you knew. Central to the community, was the little neighborhood store. The store was always small, but had a little bit of everything including gasoline pumps outside. And, by the way, I remember when gas was 15 cents a gallon.

The store had grocery items like flour, sugar, shortening, eggs, usually from a local farmer, along with shelves of canned goods. Behind the counter was the kid magnet rows of candy usually for pennies. There was always the big metal drink box that kept bottled drinks super cold with circulating ice water. There were no canned drinks back then. A kid could make money by gathering up all the glass drink bottles in the neighborhood. No neighborhood store was complete without cleaning items, brooms, mops, laundry detergent and so on as well as cleaning supplies for humans like soap and shampoo.

No matter when I went to the store, usually running errands for my mother, I would meet someone I knew. I felt a part of the community in those days. I knew the owners and their daughter very well because they went to my church across the street from their store. The wife was my Sunday school teacher. Once a person has known life on a small scale like that, it sticks in the mind and heart forever.

Now that my town has grown into a metropolitan city with an international airport, a bunch of huge banks downtown that have taken the place of department stores like Belk’s, Ivey’s, and Sears and Roebuck, there’s not much reason to venture into town. All those stores have moved into malls or classy shopping centers. Shopping centers and malls may be convenient, and I can understand why they’ve become so popular, but when I go to any of them, it’s rare to meet anyone I know.  

I realize I’m waxing nostalgic here, but I miss that sense of community I had as a kid. I live one street off from one of the central streets that runs straight through the heart of town. I can still see the remnants of what was once a little community until it was eaten up by the big city. I wonder sometimes if it would be such a terrible thing if we didn’t have gasoline so available any more. I would imagine we would convert back to community life in which we could walk or ride a bike to a neighborhood store for those household supplies and venture into town only once in a great while for something special. I would know my neighbors better and feel more a part of my community. Maybe it would be a good thing if we didn’t have to get in our cars to get to stores and services.

All my western stories take place in a community like the one I remember from my childhood. Even though Hazard, Wyoming is fictional, it’s the kind of town I grew up in. Hazard is a place where everybody knows each other and they take care of each other. It’s the kind of place where I would love to live. I recently submitted a new Wilding western to PRP titled Home for the Heart. Banjo’s twin boys, Hank and Kit have grown into men. Hank owns a ranch and avoids marriage at all costs, and Kit, who suffers from PTSD after WWII, is a lawyer running for mayor of Hazard.

Here is a bit about Home for the Heart:

Love doesn’t come easy…for some, it may never come at all.

Blurb:

Lucille Thoroughgood is a social worker for orphan children. She is known to the town’s folk as dependable, logical, determined, and…well, stubborn. But Lucille has a secret affection for the determined bachelor, Hank Wilding.

Hank Wilding loved hard and lost. He has sworn to never marry. After Lucille makes a bargain with him, he agrees to allow troubled and physically challenged children to ride his horses as equine therapy. One of the orphans is a half Lakota boy, Chayton, who reminds Hank of his own father’s painful childhood.  

But danger follows in the shadows of the rejected, embittered teenager that may take the life of someone Hank and the town of Hazard holds dear.

So, as you can see, I’ve been living in memory lane for a bit. Right now I’m plotting out Kit’s story and the irrepressible, June Wingate. Things are really heatin’ up in Hazard.

 Sarah J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. Some of her fantasy and paranormal books may also be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery and Victory Tales Press. She welcomes you to her website and social media:

Facebook

Twitter

Website

My Amazon Author’s Page

Prairie Rose Author Page

The Wildings

PbRV Author Page

Fantasy and Dreams Blog

Once Upon A Word

Sweethearts of the West

Note: country store picture courtesy of Pinterest

WOMEN WRITING THE WEST...... A great organization! ...... By Gail L. Jenner

One of the best conferences for anyone writing westerns or historicals is Women Writing the West. This year the conference was held in Redmond, Oregon – the first time it’s been held in Oregon. This year's conference celebrated "Distinctions of the West...Writers Explore the Northwest!"

Attended by more than 130, WWW is one of those organizations that offers what a lot of bigger conferences offer but still retains the distinct flavor of an intimate organization. It's like friends meeting friends every year!

At the book signing at this year's WWW Conference in Redmond, Oregon

Not “just” for women writers (although the majority of members are women), its focus is on women’s “stories” in or centered on the “West” – but that can mean stories that are historical or contemporary, fiction or nonfiction, memoir/essay/poetry/YA/children’s, etc. The group’s broad parameters means that attendees can find information or establish a network that includes writers from all genre.

I’ve been a member since 2000 and have missed only 4 conferences in the last 16 years. I look forward to the conference, which is usually held the 2^nd or 3^rd weekend of October. Locations move around the West, but Denver is the “home” of WWW. Each year a conference committee pulls together a theme and then invites or seeks out workshops and/or presenters from all walks. This year Jane Kirkpatrick and Shanna Hatfield were the conference co-chairs; Carmen Peone and I assisted in helping to organize the workshops and agents/editors. Anne Schroeder was this year’s President and she will be the 2016 WILLA Chair. There are a number of PRP authors who also belong to WWW --

One highlight at every conference is the agents and editors who attend and who make presentations as well as invite meetings. To date, I have met 3 of the 6 publishers I’ve worked with at WWW conferences. For me, this has become one of the best ways to pitch new ideas and/or look for new avenues of publishing.

Another highlight of WomenWriting the West is the nationally-recognized WILLA Literary Awards, given out in 7 categories. As stated on the WWW website regarding the upcoming 2016 Awards guidelines: “The WILLA Literary Awards is a nationally recognized award given annually to writers for books featuring women’s or girls’ stories set in the West. WomenWriting the West, a nonprofit association of writers and other professionals writing and promoting the Women’s West, underwrites and presents the awards. Only books initially published and copyrighted in 2015 (in any form) are eligible for the WILLA Literary Awards. In cases where the publication date and copyright date differ, copyright date shall prevail. Books previously released/ published in ANY format (hardcover, softcover, e-book, CD, Internet download, POD, etc.) prior to 2015 are not eligible. All submissions must be made in bound hard copy form. Professional librarians select Winners and Finalists. Awards will be presented at the WWW annual conference in October, 2016.” 

The deadline for the contest is February 1, 2016; entry fee is $50.  For more on the contest, visit: www.womenwritingthewest.org.

I was fortunate to win the 2002 WILLA Literary Award for my first novel, a historical, ACROSS THE SWEET GRASS HILLS – which was re-released by Prairie Rose Publications in 2013.

Another contest sponsored by WWW is the Laura Award for members only. It is a short story contest and again, finalists and the winner are honored at a special dinner and event during the October contest.

WWW also publishes a beautiful catalog that is distributed nationwide and offers a directory for members looking for speaking engagements. This year the organization will also be attending one bookseller’s convention. Next year’s conference will be held in Santa Fe, NM.

If you haven't "tried" Women Writing the West, it is definitely an organization any Prairie Rose author would appreciate! 

EAST OF THE GREAT MOUNTAIN - 1873

Post copyright by Doris McCraw/Angela Raines-author


East of the Great Mountain and West of the Sun
Helen’s Colorado Springs 1873

Helen Hunt Jackson

In 1873 Helen Hunt arrived in Colorado Springs. This was ten years after the death of her husband in 1863 followed by her two children in 1854 and 1865 respectively. That arrival and subsequent observations became part and parcel of her essay “Colorado Springs” published in August of 1874 in the New York Independent approximately nine months after her arrival in town.

So what was really happening in this town that she wrote about?

At the time Colorado was still a territory with S. H Elbert as the territorial governor and M.A. Shaffenburg as the United States Marshall.

We know the town had a population of around three thousand. The town was “governed by the following trustees.”: Matt. France, W. H. Macomber, C.T. Barton, A. H. Weir and J. T. Wilson. They even had a town herder by the name of Thomas Hughes.

As Helen says in her essay “it might be said that three years ago the town of Colorado Springs did not exist….that it is also known as “The Fountain Colony””…. Helen felt that The Fountain Colony was a better name for, “ there is not a spring of any sort whatever in the town...” The trustees of the Fountain Colony as she stated in the essay, were “men of means, position, and great executive ability.” (It should be noted the city and the Fountain Colony trustees were separate entities) The Fountain Colony Board consisted of: Gen. Wm. J. Palmer, President, Henry McAlister, Jr., Executive Director, Gerald De Coursey, Secretary, Wm. P. Mellen, Treasurer, M.L. DeCoursey, Assistant Treasurer. The Trustees: Wm. J. Palmer, Dr. Robert H. Lamborn, Col. Josiah C. Reiff, Col. W. H. Greenwood, Wm. P. Mellen and the Chief Engineer, E. S. Nettleton. Furthermore she states these men are, “enthusiasts in their determination to exert their controlling power in the right direction.”

One of those directions was in the “contest of wills” between them and the liquor dealers/manufacturers. This contest appears to have gone on for some time and in 1873 at the time of Helen’s arrival the town was trying yet again to deal with the liquor issues. .

This is the only mention of the growth pangs of the town. She then moves onto a description of the scenery in and around the town. But there was so much more going on in the area.

View of Garden of the Gods and Glen Eyrie (Palmer's Home)

In August of that year there was discussion and later voting on whether to retain Colorado City as the county seat or move it to Colorado Springs. The results of the voting: Colorado Springs became the new county seat of the county of El Paso, in the territory of Colorado. This change would eventually help fulfill the vision of men like Gen. Palmer and others who were called by Helen, “enthusiasts in their faith in the future of the region.”

The financial crisis of 1873 also touched Colorado Springs. At the end of October of that year the bank of Wm. B Young & Co. had to suspend operations due to the drains on the deposits of the bank. This was the result of the financial panic in part caused by the failure of Henry Crews and Company of New York. At the same time the “El Paso County Bank” was opened. The men who formed this banking house were: W. S. Jackson, who was the Secretary/Treasurer of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway as well as Mr. Wolfe, Mr. White and Mr. Goodrich. (This is the same W. S. Jackson that became Helen’s second husband.)

Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region received a boost with the Signal Corps deciding to place a signal station on the top of Pikes Peak. The local paper would print the readings that were taken at the top of the mountain. The Colorado Springs Company also purchased from a Mr. Nat Colby the entrance to Cheyenne Canyon, so that “the enjoyment of its beauties may be assured to visitors for all time.”

Although not mentioned directly in the Colorado Springs essay Helen would speak at length about Cheyenne Canyon.

North Cheyenne Canyon

One of the last events that happened that year was the death of Judge Baldwin. His death on November 3 created a mystery that is still unsolved to this day. (His body was found in a well and the circumstances were not conclusive as to whether it was foul play or accident.) This may have occurred just before or around the time Helen arrived in Colorado Springs.

Regardless of the events, both positive and negative, as Helen stated in her essay “for those alone whom I might possibly win to love Colorado Springs as I love it, I repeat that it is a town lying east of the Great Mountain and west of the sun." Helen continued to experience and love this city at the foot of Pikes Peak as a place of both beauty and growth for the remainder of her life.

Updated reprint from a copyrighted post in 2010 by Doris A. McCraw

Angela Raines is the pen name for Doris McCraw. Doris also writes haiku posted five days a week at :http://fivesevenfivepage.blogspot.com (fourteen short of one thousand posted haikus as of 11/1/2015)

#NewRelease -- LOVE’S FIRST TOUCH -- #99CentBoxedSet

LOVE’S FIRST TOUCH is powerful and sweet. It can move the heart to realize the true depth of emotion that only a first love can bring to a relationship. There’s some exciting reading ahead in these five full-length novels! Come join these wonderful characters as they experience awakening feelings and tumultuous relationships that can only be discovered with LOVE’S FIRST TOUCH!

WISH FOR THE MOON by Celia Yeary—Sixteen-year-old Annie McGinnis wishes for a chance to see more of the world, since all she’s ever known is the family farm in North Texas. The arrival of a mysterious visitor, Max Landry, changes everything for Annie. To save him from a bogus charge, she follows him and the Texas Rangers back to the coal-mining town where a murder occurred. The short journey sets Annie on a path of discovery—new horizons, an inner strength, and quite possibly…love.

FLY AWAY HEART by Sarah J. McNeal—Lilith Wilding can’t remember a time when she didn’t love the English born Robin Pierpont. Robin dreams of flying airplanes, but when he gets involved in illegal rum running to help a friend, he faces his worst fears. Can he save Lilith’s life? Or will his fate be sealed in death?

DOUBLE OR NOTHING by Meg Mims— Lily Granville, heiress, rebels against her uncle’s rules. Ace Diamond, determined to win Lily, invests in a dynamite factory. An explosion in San Francisco, mere hours before Lily and Ace elope, sets off a chain of consequences. Ace is framed for murder, and Lily must find proof to save him from a hangman’s noose. Will she become a widow before a true wife?

DRINA’S CHOICE by Agnes Alexander— To escape her abusive father, Drina Hamilton feels she has no choice but to become the wife of a rancher she only knows from the one letter his uncle has written her. To redeem the mortgage on his ranch, Aaron Wilcox must marry the woman his uncle has chosen for him. As Drina and Aaron struggle with their situation, they are unaware there is a sinister plan at hand to murder Aaron, and force the sale of the huge ranch .

DIGGING HOLES IN PARADISE by Karen Mihaljevich—In 1859 Missouri, Josette Stratton discovers that a chance identity switch gives her an out from a marriage mandated by her father—and allows her to work as a seamstress. What luck! But when she arrives in Nevada City, naïve Josette is horrified to discover that “seamstress” is just another name for…Oh! Her fellow traveler, Wolf, doesn’t say much—and doesn’t seem to like her. Nevada’s Comstock Lode bonanza adds color and excitement to this fast-paced adventure, where plans crumble, love sizzles, and everyone is DIGGING HOLES IN PARADISE!