Cleanliness is next to godliness. I’ve heard that all my life, and the Shakers certainly believed it. That had various sizes and shapes of brooms to get back in every corner and crevase where dirt might hide. As one of my characters said in my last Shaker book, The Innocent, those people warred against dirt. They had a place for everything and expected …
Sweeping the Shaker Way
Brooms make me think of Shakers. That’s what I put on my Shaker Wednesday post on my Facebook page this week, but there’s only so much you can put on a Facebook post. And a person can write a lot about Shaker brooms. If you visit the Shaker village of Pleasant Hill here in Mercer County, Kentucky, you can see …
A Shaker Photo and a Shaker Cover
I tried to post this on my Facebook author page today, but Facebook is not liking me lately. So I said whatever, I’ll just share it with my journaling friends. Okay, take a good look at the picture to the left. Then scroll down and take a good look at my cover. The first picture here on the left is …
On the Road to a Story
This is the road through the middle of the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill near where I live. It’s peaceful looking, isn’t it? No traffic runs on it today except maybe what the workers of the living history museum there use to carry supplies, etc. But at one time this was the main road for everybody wanting to go between …
Sweeping the Shaker Way
~~Whenever I go to the Shaker village not far from my farm, I feel as if I’ve gone back to a different moment in time. I can’t deny a feeling of peace in that place. Even though I’ve read a lot of Shaker history and know their Societies were not always peaceful and trouble free, still I feel the peace …
Book Club Fun
~~Here I am in the beautiful Brookhaven Christian Book Store last week after a visit to the local book club. Sharon, in the middle, and her daughter, Kristi, have a great store in the London, KY area. I’m there on the right holding my book. ~~Sharon enjoys keeping handcrafted items from local artists for sale in her store. She has …
Icicles and Snow Cream
~~We missed most of the snow this go around. Barely got enough snow here to think about it but they got slammed or maybe I should say buried to the north and east of us. I like snow once or twice a year but then I’m ready to move on toward sunshine and flowers. But even though we didn’t get …
Happiness is…
~~Happy New Year! That’s been the greeting of choice for the people I’ve met the last few days. Everybody is wishing everybody else a happy year. Then I heard a radio program this afternoon where a man about to be a daddy was saying that the question he would probably ask his daughter the most was “Are you happy?” We …
Celebrating at Shaker Village
— One of the nice things about getting older – and there are some nice things – is that if you want to celebrate a week after your actual birthday that’s just as much fun as celebrating on the actual day. My sister and I have birthdays a week apart. A few years apart originally, but now we often celebrate …
Launching The Believer at Shaker Village
My book launch for The Believer at Shaker Village went great. We had breakfast in the Wash House. While the building is now used for meetings, etc., I kept thinking about how it had once been a work place for the Shakers as the sisters washed the clothes. The Shakers were very forward thinking and were among the first in …