Mandy Among 2008 Goals

A friend frequently asks me, "Mary Emma, when are you finishing your Uncle Buffalo Bill book? Have you finished the Sarah Jane picture book?"

I grin sheepishly and say, "I'm working on them."

In 2008, I must stop only working on them and finish these projects!

1. Finish the rough draft to Papa Goes to War, a Civil War era middle reader book based on my ancestors.

2. Finish the book about my Uncle Buffalo Bill Mathewson, the original Buffalo Bill in the West.

3. Finish my Sarah Jane's Daring Deed picture book.

4. Develop the activities for these books and place them on my web sites.

5. Draft some of my other writing projects, but concentrate on them minimally until I have the above finished.

Mandy...a Daughter of the Civil War

Mandy is the lead character of my middle reader novel-in-progress. She has evolved from researching my family history, when I discovered some of my ancestors had served in the Union forces.

One was Uncle James, a widower with young children. He married again and went off to war. I thought this would be a good basis for a story that involved a family coping with change...a stepmother and a father away at the war that was creating such a division in the nation.