Discovering Wyoming: Karen & Andrea's Excellent Adventure (Part II)

Karen, excited to be in Wyoming.

An email correspondence, Skype calls and a few days at the WWW conference—can a friendship be based on such a tenuous beginning?  I figured if that feisty little Texan was going to drive me nuts, I had my aerie (read upstairs bedroom) to which I could withdraw.  I needn’t have worried.

Church of the Transfiguration, Teton Range in the background

I have a long-standing love affair with Wyoming but unlike most lovers, I’m willing to share—at least with the right person.  It’s true that since I started coming here back in the ‘80s, the Jackson Hole area, and the town of Jackson itself, have changed somewhat in an attempt to deal with the numbers of people who tramp through every summer.  I eschew the high summer now; the Wyoming I wanted Karen to know was not one of long lines, traffic and crowded, sweaty cafes.  My Wyoming brings the peace of the mountains, the bounty of a varied wildlife, and the beauty of a landscape whose contours were formed by successive ice ages, volcanoes and earthquakes--so diverse, it’s a wonder it could all get crammed into this one small corner of the world.

The Cunningham Cabin, Jackson Hole

 And then there are the historic sites.  At The Church of the Transfiguration, Karen and I were totally in awe of those who have the opportunity to worship in such inspiring surroundings.  At Cunningham Cabin, we both had a huge dose of jealousy for those who, despite their hardships, could wake up every morning to views such as these.  

Menor's Landing, Jackson Hole

Menor’s Landing still has the cables that pulled the pontoon ferry across the river, as well as the furnished homestead and shop that served the tiny community.  History is ever-present in this landscape formed eight million years ago.

But we had less serious moments, too.  On the scenic boat ride around Jenny Lake a woman asked if the guide had said the mountains were formed EIGHT HUNDRED years ago.  I sat there thinking that, back in England, Canterbury Cathedral was finished with its lovely stained glass windows, yet here in Wyoming the earth could still be ravaging itself, trying to find a semblance of lasting shape.  At the first night of Rodeo for the season, a couple of broncos seem to have forgotten what, exactly, they were meant to do.  I invent a children’s story, “The Little Bronco Who Wanted to be Tame.”  The cowboys also seem to have forgotten their roping skills.  I tell Karen they’re probably bankers…

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park

And at the Stagecoach Bar and Grill, known to locals simply as The Coach, we dance the night away…or as much of the night as our somewhat elderly partners can stand.  One old cowboy grips me round the waist and pulls me in close to whisper gently in my ear.  I stiffen somewhat as he murmurs, “I have a confession.”  My eyes seek Karen to get help but she is dancing happily with another old codger and my partner continues in his soft tones, “I’m from Idaho…and I’m a Democrat.”

Heartfelt thanks to KCF for joining me in Wyoming.  While Poe’s Raven quoth “Nevermore” my raven says, “Encore, encore!” 

Andrea Downing returned to live in the USA from Britain in 2008 and now divides her time between New York and Wyoming.  Her first novel, Loveland, is a finalist for Best American Historical in the forthcoming RONE Awards.

Blog Coordinator's note: Visit the authors' blogs for the full story of Karen & Andrea's Wyoming Adventure: Andrea Downing and Karen Casey Fitzjerrell. 

Discovering Wyoming: Karen & Andrea's Excellent Adventure (Part I)

When WWW member, fiction writer and western history aficionado, Andrea Downing, invited me to spend a week with her in Wyoming, I got excited. Very excited. Wyoming had long been at the top of my travel wish list.

Oxbow Bend on the Snake River, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Since Andrea and I had only met face-to-face one time at the Women Writing the West conference last year, we discussed some of the critical points of sharing a living space for a week. Her favorite breakfast is cereal and fruit...mine is a quick scrambled egg. She sips tea while I gulp coffee. She’s a night owl. I’m the early to bed, early to rise type. Andrea is from New York City (via England). I’m from South Central Texas (via the Gulf Coast.)

However, we soon discovered our shared love of western history and landscapes made us boon companions on a quest to learn about Wyoming’s past and geographical beauty. We wanted to learn “the lay of the land.”

The serenity of Wyoming’s Teton Mountain Range often left me awestruck. We followed the Snake River north from Jackson to places foreign to me. Menor’s Ferry, Death Canyon, Gros Ventre, Slide Lake. We crossed Antelope Flats where buffalo truly roam. (Who knew?)

At OxBow Bend we stood for long moments absorbing the splendid grace of the region, the clean line where unaltered nature butted against human footprint.

"Cowboy" Raven who has secrets to tell.

When it came time to leave Oxbow Bend, a Raven, black as pitch, stood at Andrea’s car door and would not move even as she tried to back out of the parking area. I suggested that the bird might be an omen. He had a message for us, maybe, and we needed to be very still in order to learn what it was.

At Yellowstone National Park our last full day of exploring, it rained. But our spirits were not dampened.

Yellowstone Lake at Geyser Basin

We photographed Old Faithful then drove to Geyser Basin where the dark and damp sky seemed oddly appropriate for the otherworldly bubbling mud and smelly steam wafting all around us.

Wyoming did not disappoint. I hiked around hidden lakes, gazed across broad valleys, breathed deep the scent of thick pine forests which, thankfully, has stayed with me.

I am just as inspired by the fact that two women from vastly different backgrounds and lifestyles easily found common ground through travel and historical study. It helped, of course, that both of us enjoy a good belly laugh.

That old black Raven might end up in my next tome - like the fairy tale toad who is turned into a prince. “Raven” will be a young black headed cowboy who gallops down one of the Teton Mountain passes on his way to the Stagecoach Bar and Grill to look for his favorite two-stepping gal from New York City.

Thanks for the memories, Andrea!

Karen Casey Fitzjerrell's novel The Dividing Season, won the 2013 EPIC Award for Best Historical fiction.










(Blog Coordinator's note: Check back next week for Andrea's side of the story....)

WWW News for mid-June

Due to a special event that will take place in late June, the June Member News is out early this month. Click over to the WWW News page for the latest on what's happening with our members, including awards, new releases, and a museum event that brings the past alive in a unique way!

Awards and New Releases

Click on over to the WWW News page to see the award and new release announcements from our talented writer-members, including first place awards at the National Indie Excellence Awards and the International Latino Book Awards, plus a new mystery, two new books on the Oregon State Hospital (remember the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?), and the first book in a new romance series. (Below are covers of the award-winning and new books.) Congratulations all!

The Wonder of Rain

Texas native and WWW member Chris Bradley shares a post from her Practicing Wonder blog on water, the Texas Hill Country and what incites our wonder and writing. (Don't forget to complete the writing prompts at the end of the post!) 

Mexican hat, also called prairie coneflower

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eiseley

Here in the Texas hill country on this May Saturday morning, it’s been raining off and on for the past thirty hours or so. The forecast for the next few hours is for more thunderstorms, so I zipped outside just now during a break between showers to take the photos pictured here.

Scabiosa or pincushion flower

These pincushion blooms are beaten down by the rain but will perk up even stronger when the sun returns.

Limestone pitted by the rain holds water naturally.

A limestone step holds rain while mother-of-thyme luxuriates in the moisture.

Blackfoot daisy

A blackfoot daisy holds onto raindrops.

I had to chuckle when I read the following line from the National Weather Service forecast for our locale:  Weather conditions will improve significantly this evening into Sunday.

Really? The weather can’t get any better that what it is right now.

My birth occurred at the end of the seven year drought in this part of Texas in the 1950’s. My parents were part of a generation who came of age during the Great Depression, served the United States during World War II, and then, during the early years of their marriage, scratched out a living farming and ranching for those seven years of drought with practically no precipitation.

(If you want to read a brilliant and literary description of the difficulties of that era in Texas, read Elmer Kelton’s novel The Time It Never Rained. During the time of that drought, Kelton worked as an agricultural reporter and said he spent seven years trying every day to think of some other way to write, “Still dry.”)

So it isn’t surprising that my parents were experts in making do, building from scratch, and doing without. And they impressed those values on their children.

One of Daddy’s favorite jokes was: “You can never have too much rain or too many white-faced baby calves. We almost had too much rain one time. [Here he paused before the punchline.] There was three feet of water in the courthouse.”

We’re in a drought right now that compares in scope and severity with the extremely difficult years that so influenced my parents and their peers. Today’s rain is a only a move in the right direction, not the end of overall dire conditions, but it rejuvenates my spirits as it perks up the plants in my garden. They're tough (like my parents), selected for our often arid heat, but they love the rain. I can almost hear them singing.

It’s heartening to see water do its magic.

Writing Practice:

Complete the following: If there is magic on this planet, it _____________ .

Complete the following: My parents were of a generation who _____________.

For quite a few years, Chris Bradley taught English and creative writing to high school students in the Texas hill country. She now has time to travel, garden, ride horses, and mountain bike, but she still misses those discussions with students and continues to be thankful for all the lessons which they taught her.

Four Brides and Their Dresses

Student of history and past-WWW President Pamela Tartaglio writes about what wedding dresses of the past reveal about the brides and their lives, as revealed by "I Do, I Do" an exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of History.

In 1890, Bertha Supnick married in a practical bridal gown, a colored dress she could wear after her wedding.  Although she wed in the wealthy winter resort of Pasadena, California, Bertha was a member of the working class and would later be employed at Pasadena Steam Laundry.  Born in Germany, she married a fellow immigrant, Andrew Hansen of Denmark. 

Historians call this a "best dress" wedding gown.

Bertha’s rust-colored bridal gown looks homemade, not polished and complex.  She may have sewn it herself, excited to get married to Andrew, of course, but also to own a dress of rich moiré taffeta with sequined trim and Juliet sleeves.  She would wear it after she became Mrs. Hansen, on special occasions such as parties and Christmas.  

Susie Markham's pleated silk chiffon gown

Susie Markham was the niece of a former California governor. Although she did not move to her home near Pasadena’s Millionaires’ Row until several years after her 1901 wedding, her dress represents those worn by fortunate brides in that town.  Susie’s gown is of pleated silk chiffon, visible near her feet, but mostly covered by net with large linen appliqué.  The net below her neck and above her wrists is dotted with faux pearls.  A detachable belt and cuffs are decorated with faux pearls in a geometric design.  There is a lace panel over the train.

Close-up view of Susie Markham's gown with faux pearls and fancywork

Two of the wedding dresses at the Pasadena Museum of History belong to a mother and daughter in the Giddings family.  Museum visitors are surprised to learn the location of the Giddings farm.  What is now a commercial area was a twenty-acre farm a century ago, the “end of the line” for streetcars, which turned around in front of the Giddings’ family home. 

Joshua and Jennie Giddings on the 50th wedding anniversary

In 1930, Jennie and Joshua Giddings celebrated their 50th anniversary, and Jennie, a mother of six, wore her wedding dress.  Fit as a fiddle. 

Blanche Giddings' graduation portrait

Their daughter bought a white cotton and lace dress to wear to her high school graduation.  White dresses appropriate for formal occasions were available ready-made in the early 1900s.  She autographed this graduation portrait, “Lovingly Yours, Blanche Giddings, June 1908.”

Blanche's graduation and wedding dress

Blanche was a practical young lady who wore this graduation dress when she married a year later.  She had her wedding reception at a shady spot on the family farm, where they set the tables, brought out the tiered wedding cake, and took a photograph.  Also pictured are Blanche and her groom George Brown with their wedding guests.

Blanche Gidding's wedding reception, outdoors on the family farm

Blanche Giddings' wedding party and guests

I Do, I Do, Pasadena Ties the Knot 1850 – 1950,” at the Pasadena Museum of History, features 42 wedding gowns and closes on July 14. The museum’s 1906 Fenyes Mansion is open to the public.

View more bridal gowns from the Gilded Age on Pamela Tartaglio’s blog, Past and Present with Pamela.  Upcoming posts will feature more wedding dresses from the exhibit, from beaded flapper dresses of the Roaring Twenties to streamlined silk dresses of the 1930s.  Pamela is a volunteer at the Pasadena Museum of History as well as 2013 Past President of Women Writing the West and Chair of its WILLA Literary Awards.  

Sneak Preview: 2014 WWW Catalog of Author's Books Cover

For those who eagerly wait to see what titles are advertised in the annual Women Writing the West catalog of books, here's a sneak preview of the vibrant cover of the 2014 catalog.

WWW members, head over to the Member News page for details on submitting books, ads and listings for your writing-related services. But act quickly, because the deadline is just two weeks away: June 1st!

Cover design by Jenny Hancey, guided by WWW Catalog Editor Dawn Wink

WWW Heads for Kansas City October 11-13 for The “Write Way West”

The Missouri River loops through Kansas City.

This year’s Women Writing the West conference takes its theme from Kansas City’s rich western heritage, particularly its role in the great westward migration. The long trek was endured because of the hope of reward at the other end, though for each traveler, that reward was uniquely personal. And so it is with this year’s conference. We’ve built on the path charted by the conferences of years past, while adding a few new twists to make the journey fresh.

A new twist this year has us previewing two short films. "In Pursuit of A Dream," produced by OCTA, won the 2011 WWA Spur Award for best Western Documentary. "Meet the Past – Willa Cathe"r is a production of the Kansas City Public Library and KCPT, and features local actress Jan Chapman interviewed as Willa Cather, discussing her personal and literary history.

The Friday morning tour takes us to the Steamboat Arabia Museum, a unique experience.  More than just a history of the steamboats that plied the Missouri in the early 19th century, the Arabia is an active archeological project and features thousands of items excavated more than 130 years after the Arabia was wrecked.

And of course, outside the conference, we want you to come and enjoy a bit of Kansas City, and this year we’ve come up with a new way to get you excited about your conference trip. The Conference Facebook page offers conference updates as well as links to local history, attractions and all things Kansas City to tempt and intrigue you. Like those travelers of yesteryear, we want you to come to Kansas City, and leave feeling excited and ready for the West that lies in your future, whatever that may be.

For more details on the 2013 Conference, see the WWW News page. 

LaDene Morton is the 2013 Conference VP for Women Writing the West, after having previously served as Catalog Editor for the prior two years. Her novel, What Lies West, was a finalist for the 2009 WILLA Award. Morton writes historical fiction and nonfiction from her home in Kansas City, Missouri.

Katie Takes to the Air at the Women in Aviation Conference

Katie & Sarah with Women in Aviation volunteer studying sectional chart.

Editor's note: This week we venture our of our usual west-of-the-Mississippi territory with Sarah Byrn Rickman in a post that demonstrates the power of sharing women's stories.

I raised two sons, so learning to groove with my granddaughter Katie has been a challenge, but we've become buds. We have things in common. I supply her with horse books — a love she and my 10-year-old-spirit share. I also supply her with books about Amelia Earhart, my first aviation heroine. Accomplished women role models are so important. Katie’s into softball. So was I. We play catch in the backyard. She’s got a pretty good arm.

In first grade she needed to do a report on a famous Black person for Black History Month. “How about Bessie Coleman?” I asked, ”first Black American  — man or woman — to earn a pilot’s license.” She liked the idea. I bought her Reeve Lindbergh’s book (yes, Charles’ daughter) about Bessie. After reading Nobody Owns the Sky, with some adult help, Katie was ready. Wearing the pink flight suit I had bought for her at a Women in Aviation conference, a borrowed flying helmet and goggles, Katie headed for school with Brave Bessie in her head, her heart and her hand.

This year, for her fourth grade class’s celebration of Women’s History Month, she chose Nancy Love, Her source: Gramma’s biography — Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of WWII.  Then, on Friday March 15, she joined me at Opryland in Nashville for her first Women in Aviation Conference.

My military fly girl buddy Air Force A-10 pilot Col. Jill Long spoke to the 50 girls ages 10 to 17 attending, their pilot moms, grandmoms and aunts. Her message: “Never give up.” Katie ate it up.

Next we took in several specially designed activities. Using the Air Traffic Control simulator, Katie learned how to bring two airplanes, flying in crowded airspace, in for safe landings. She was pretty good at it. The conference is about the many careers in aviation.

She flew a Cessna 172 simulator; made a bracelet out of aviation wire and several paper airplanes. But what really caught her attention was learning to read a sectional chart. That’s what pilots use instead of maps. With some help from a volunteer, she answered all the questions on the quiz and had fun doing it.

The final activity took place on the conference floor. Find and interview several types of pilots. Katie aced it! At the Women Military Aviators booth, between retired AF pilots, now airline pilots Peg Carnahan and Barb Garwood, and retired Coast Guard Commander and helicopter pilot Claudia McKnight, she got every question answered.

My son says she’s already talking about coming to next year's Women in Aviation Conference.

Sarah Byrn Rickman is the author of four books about the WASP, the women who flew for the U.S. Army in WWII. She is a licensed pilot. A retired journalist, Sarah earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University in 1996. She served as WWW president in 2005 and WILLA chair in 2006.

Call for Laura Entries and WWW at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Call for LAURA Short Fiction Contest Entries!

Women Writing the West members, don't delay: You've got one week left to enter your short fiction in the 2013 LAURA contest. (Entries are due by April 30th, 2013.) Five winning entries will be announced at a special luncheon at the 2013 Annual Conference in Kansas City, and will be published in the online LAURA Journal. Read more on the Member News page.


Women Writing the West at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
 

WWW members Sandra Ramos O'Briant and Pamela Tartaglio

April 20 and 21st was a big weekend for Women Writing the West, says WWW Past-President and WILLA Literary Awards Pamela Tartaglio, when an estimated 150,000 people attended “the nation’s largest literary event," including a booth promoting WWW and its members. Read more on the Member News page.

Profiles of Native Westerners: The Speckled Fish People

Bull trout, the "speckled fish" of the Sinixt people

I am a non-native living on an Indian Reservation; to be exact, the Colville Confederated Reservation in Northeast Washington State. We have been here for two and one-half decades. I followed my husband to the home of his father’s family after we completed collage at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA.

My husband and sons' band is the Sinyekst or Sinixt people.  This translates to the "Speckled Fish" people or Place of the Bull Trout.  They are currently referred to as the Lakes People. Here are five quick facts about the Lakes people:

• They originated from British Columbia.
• When the boundary was drawn between Canada and United States, extending to the Pacific Ocean, in 1849, it divided the upper and lower Lakes people. 
• The Lakes people on the lower end of the 49th Parallel were added to the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State in 1872. 
• These were nomadic people: hunters, fishermen, and gatherers.
• The Lakes people spoke a dialect of the Interior Salish that is closely related to the Okanogan people, which is what is taught today.

Historic illustration of bull trout (once called Dolly Varden) from Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

On my blog, I am posting a series on the life of the Lakes people as it has been taught to me before cell phones and video games. When children roamed the mountains and shores of the Columbia River learning to hunt and gather roots and berries. A simple life. A life fulfilled.   

Haiku Poem of the Speckled Fish People
Nomadic wander
To the Creator they pray
Life: hunt, fish, gather

A few words of the Lakes Language as taught to me by Elder Marguerite Ensminger:
Sinixt or Sinyekst:  Bull Trout or Speckled Fish People 
prounced: Sin-ikes-t
Hamis-hamis:  Morning Dove
huh miss-huh miss 

Carmen Peone has lived in Northeast Washington, on the Colville Confederated Indian Reservation for twenty-three years. She had worked with a Tribal Elder, Marguerite Ensminger, for three years learning the Arrow Lakes Language and various cultural traditions. With a degree in psychology, the thought of writing never entered her mind until she married her husband and they moved to the reservation after college. She came to love the people and their heritage and wanted to create a legacy for her sons.

The story behind the WWW logo

The Women Writing the West logo

Have you ever wondered what Women Writing the West's beautiful logo stands for? Here's the story, excerpted from Celinda Reynolds Kaelin's explanation on the WWW website.

An eagle, a hand and a star. ... Women Writing the West's logo is a composite of traditional symbols filled with native numinous energy. At first glance, we see a gracefully arched, stylized eagle that seems to hover above a left-hand print. American Indians observed that eagles fly higher than any bird, and they therefore considered them to be messengers from the Creator. Most creative people that I know are quick to acknowledge that the inspiration for their work comes from a higher power, much as the eagle is thought to bring wisdom from Great Spirit.

Traditional Elders teach that at the moment of birth, when the first breath is freely drawn into the lungs, the Creator breathes the spirit or soul into each individual. This spirit then resides within the heart until released at death, and therefore the left, or "heart hand," carries special significance. When greeting one another, traditional American Indians proffer their left hand for the handshake as it is thought to come from spirit (the heart) and therefore to be more sincere. When attesting to the validity of a thing, the left hand is dipped in red paint and the resulting palm print is affirmation from the very soul. It is the essence of truthfulness.

Winter Count societies (historians) were common to most of America's indigenous people. Buffalo hides were painted with the symbol of each year's seminal event, and this then evoked the entire story or history of that "winter." The historians recording these events were chosen for this honored duty on the basis of their reputation for being truthful. ... And now we have women writing about America's west, past and present, with our WWW logo prominently displaying the left-hand palm print of truthfulness.

Logo as it is used on the new WWW bookmark

Five small white circles adorn each of the fingers on this hand, perhaps reflecting the traditional symbol for hailstones. Hailstones themselves are used to symbolize the Thunder Beings, one of the most powerful spiritual energies. Thunder Beings come from the west, where all spirits reside, and carry precious water – "That which gives life."

This left palm print on our logo is further enhanced at the wrist with the symbol of mountains. American Indian cosmology teaches that "As it is above, so it is below," and the angular forms of mountains are used to represent this teaching. ... Our storytellers, like the elders in a winter camp, pass along wisdom as they entertain with their myths and legends and tales. This is how the next generation is taught.

In the center of our logo's palm is a circle, referred to as the Sacred Hoop among traditional American Indian people. It is considered sacred for the Oneness that it represents – "We are all Related." This essential understanding mandates a respect for all people, not just two-leggeds (humans) but tree people, star people, stone people, four-leggeds, etc. And because of this Oneness, and the respect it engenders, it also represents a universe in balance. This is further enhanced by the native cross, the four directions symbol at the center of the circle. This symbol embraces all races of people, the people from all the directions of the earth, and in the center is the point indicating a meeting of the Above and the Below (heaven and earth).

What a wonderful legacy for women's voices. WWW is represented by a symbol that speaks for all the founding principles of our organization. ...

Celinda Reynolds Kaelin, granddaughter of New Mexico pioneer John Allen Reynolds, writes and lectures extensively on the American Indian. She is the author of American Indians of the Pikes Peak Region, and Pikes Peak Backcountry: The Historic Saga of the Peak's West Slope.

April Member News

Here's the monthly round-up of news from Women Writing the West members. Congratulations all!

Shanna Hatfield released The Cowboy's New Heart, Book 5 in her Grass Valley Cowboys Series, March 23rd.

Years after her husband suddenly died, Denni Thompson can’t bear to think of giving her heart to anyone else. With three newly married sons, a grandchild on the way, and a busy life, Denni doesn’t give a thought to romance until she meets the handsome new owner of Grass Valley’s gas station. Former bull-rider Hart Hammond spent the last twenty years building up a business empire while successfully avoiding love. He buried his heart the same day he made his last bull ride, and has vowed to never make the mistake of loving a woman again. Then he meets Denni Thompson, the beautiful mother of the fun-loving Thompson tribe. Can a broken-hearted widow and a heartless cowboy find love?

The Cowboy's New Heart is available on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords.

Karen Kondazian's award-winning novel, The Whip, has been voted #1 on Goodreads.com for "Books that should be turned into a movie". Kondazian says, "Every vote counts and if you have not read The Whip, please take a look at the synopsis and if you feel that the story is worthy of being turned into a film, please vote here!"

The Whip is inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst (1812-1879) who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in the old west. As a young woman in Rhode Island, she fell in love with a runaway slave and had his child. The destruction of her family drove her west to California, dressed as a man, to track the killer. Charley became a renowned stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo. She killed a famous outlaw, had a secret love affair, and lived with a housekeeper who, unaware of her true sex, fell in love with her. Charley was the first woman to vote in America (as a man).  

Randall Platt's young adult novel, Liberty's Christmas, is a finalist for the 2012 Reading the West Book Awards from the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association.

Can’t see the trees for the forest? Liberty Justice Jones can, but then she’s brilliant— little good it does her in a small town in the throes of Depression that leaves a fatherless family without anything, sometimes even food. Without, except for resourcefulness in the worst of times. This is a transcendent story for all the seasons of life, offering a lesson for here and now.

Platt says, "This is a great way to begin the week! I am honored to be included on this list with such great company!"

WWW member and New York Times bestselling novelist Sandra Dallas' The Quilt Walk is also a finalist for the 2012 Reading the West Book Awards.

Ho for Colorado! It’s 1864, and Thomas Hatchett has just told his family they will move west. He’ll sell the farm, buy a covered wagon, and load it with construction supplies. Pa plans to build a business block in the frontier town of Golden, Colorado. There is no place in the wagon for trunks of clothes, so Ma and their daughter, Emmy Blue, must put on their dresses, one on top of the other, and wear them all the way to Golden.

But what about ten-year-old Emmy Blue? Part of the little girl wants the excitement of going to a new place where the family might become rich. After all, Golden is the Wild West. She’d be busy watching out for Indians and hunting for gold. But the other part of her wants to stay in Illinois, with her friends and grandparents. During her final good-bye, Grand Mouse gives Emmy Blue tiny fabric pieces. Concerned that Colorado is no place for a proper young lady, Grandma Mouse is determined that Emmy Blue learns to sew. Emmy Blue’s journey west becomes a quilt walk.

Frank Capra’s Writing Retreat

Famous stars of the silver screen enjoyed winter vacations in and around Palm Springs. Although the desert valley is only 120 miles from Hollywood, it is warmer and the winters are more dry and sunny. 

Painting of Mount San Jacinto near Palm Springs, California, by John Frost, 1926

In the same year John Frost painted Mountain San Jacinto, the hotel called La Quinta opened its rustic doors. Crafted of adobe and tile, the desert hideaway began to attract stars like Katherine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, and Errol Flynn. They swam, golfed and played tennis, just as the resort’s guests do today.

The movie director Frank Capra, however, came to work.  He had read a short story, “Night Bus,” while he was in a Palm Springs barbershop, and he thought it would make a great movie.    

Capra lawn with its mountain view

While a hotel guest at La Quinta, he turned the short story into a script which became the romantic comedy “It Happened One Night.” It was released in 1934 and won the five most important Academy Awards, including director and co-producer Oscars for Capra. Robert Riskin took home a statuette for the witty screenplay, and Claudette Colbert won Best Actress. Best Actor was awarded to Clark Gable, who later enjoyed visiting the La Quinta Hotel with his wife Carole Lombard.

A plaque on La Quinta Resort’s Capra Lawn states that he became superstitious about La Quinta after this. After all, this was the first Oscar sweep of the five major categories (it would not happen again for forty years). He made the resort his writing retreat, returning for many winters with his wife Lucille. Among the movies he penned in these rooms are “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” 

La Quinta guest rooms and porch

Pamela Tartaglio, Past-President of Women Writing the West, has been visiting La Quinta for almost thirty years and happened upon the plaque and its story of Frank Capra. She is writing a novel set in the 1890s, and is currently Chair of WWW's WILLA Literary Awards. Her blog, Past and Present with Pamela, on the arts, history, and places to visit, includes film clips from “It Happened One Night” and more photos and facts about La Quinta.