It strikes me sometimes that many young adults spend their time on novels about vampires, zombies, and girls who live in some whacked-out dystopian future. Look, I’ll be the first to admit I loved all three of the Hunger Game books. And the movies, too. Jennifer Lawrence is the perfect Katniss. […]
Month: February 2015
Mary Boland and Martin Luther King–Partners in Bravery
When the Irish came to America during the time of Shanty Gold,, they were met with prejudice and rejection. N.I.N.A. (No Irish Need Apply) signs covered store windows throughout the major Northeastern cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia. That was understandable. The Great Famine had driven a million Irish from their homeland and […]
Your Critique Group–A Vital Component
When I first introduced Kamua Okafor in Shanty Gold, he was a slave boy in the crew cabin. He had been sexually abused by the sailors for years. After the three crew men raped Mary, I wrote that they threw Kamua on top of her and that he, too, molested her. My very […]
Mid-19th Century Medicine
Medicine in mid-19th century America was barbaric—especially when a woman was delivering a baby. Mary Boland resolved to save lives of poor women as a midwife. Physicians then were often barbers with little medical training. The “doctor” would deliver a baby using instruments from a surgery recently completed on a sick person, or even […]