The History Manifesto and Big Data


Some interesting thoughts on digital methods in History and research.

Originally posted on Stumbling Through the Past:




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Women vs Men: Who writes better?

Creativity defianceFor those who have been with me in history classes, they know of my feminist side. I get a little passionate about equality between the sexes, and when studying women in history, have gotten in a few heated discussions about the plight of some historical female figures. I guess it’s my competitive nature or something. While I believe there should always be equality between gender, I know that this may not be a true biological condition, nor could it be logical. There are just some things men do better than women, and some things women do better than men. Women:

  • Multitasking problem solvers (that means balancing work, babies, housework, dinner and homework with kids, etc.)
  • Nurturing
  • Juggling Household finances
  • Dirty Diapers
  • Runny Noses


  • Linear problem solvers
  • Heavy lifting
  • Christmas Lights on the roof
  • Trash
  • Stuff that goes wrong with cars

Somewhere in there falls creativity. I had always assumed that in writing, both sexes were pretty equal. But recently, a friend showed me an article on “The Daily Beast” that discussed the distinction of creative writing between women and men.  The reported outcome was of a survey conducted by Grammarly. Grammarly (a grammar checking website) polled 3000 plus people to answer the age-old question, “Which gender has the better writers?” I think you need to read the article. You’ll be surprised. Happy writing!!!

Dreams: A Connection to the Cosmos

dali-clockI’ve always paid attention to my dreams. They are like motion movies, in color and sometimes very action packed. Two dreams are what gave me the outline and story concept for the Legends of Green Isle Series. They have also given me insight into problems, and in some instances a brief glance into possible future events. It could almost be said that your dreams are connections to the cosmos. They are often referred to in the Bible as prophetic to those God has chosen to do his work. I’m not saying I’m a chosen messenger or anything, but some dreams, more than others, make me stand up and take notice.

I remember being 19 and living on the base in Alaska when I had a dream like that. I took a nap before my after-school job and had a dream that a little kid ran out in front of me and I couldn’t stop on the road quick enough because of the packed snow. I ran over the kid and killed him in my dream. When I got up to go to work, the images of the dream haunted me. I drove slow on the base roads, the dream still very powerful in my mind. The elementary school was letting out as I turned on the road leading out of the housing area. Had I not been thinking of that dream and going slower than normal, the kid who ran right out in front of my car would have been hit and I most likely would have killed him. Yes, it was a premonition.

With that being said, I refer back to two previous blog posts I did about dreams that referenced some sort of message about an earthquake in the Texas area. This was in March 2012.  I did a follow-up on the same dream in May of 2012. Since then I have had a lot of visitors to these two particular blog post. At the beginning of this month, one of our visitor, Cheryl, sent this message to me:

Read your article,
strange things are happening,
not sure if you would know this but another small earthquake last night here in East Texas.  This happened during a terrible storm coming through.
Here is the link.

What struck me most about the article that Cheryl sent was that these were earthquakes taking place around an area called Timpson, which is somewhat similar to the name that I couldn’t quite get in the dream. Anyway, I hope these dreams I had weren’t something like the one I had in Alaska. It’s terrifying to think of what I saw in the second dream. Would welcome any new information about this subject.

Editing and Rewriting: profiling your characters.

Chapter OneWriting and editing seems to be a never ending cycle of creation and destruction. I say it this way because when I first wrote “The Forgotten Spell,” the first book of the series, it was over six years ago. Since then I’ve completed undergraduate work and am now in graduate studies at Clemson University, and my writing has improved. I didn’t realize until I got back the first round of edits from my wonderful editor Lisanne, how really horrible the book was. One of the main complaints from Lisanne was characterization and of course mid-book slump – no action. Thus, much of what I created has to be destroyed in order to renew the story. Stories evolve too. You may find that first initiation draft does quite get the point across. Yes, my characters did sound all alike in the first book. Lisanne was right. They were individuals in my head, talking to me, but on paper their personalities didn’t come through. I have to destroy their sameness and create them all over again.

Here was some great advice from a good friend: Have you profiled the characters? Start with name, short physical description, likes and dislikes, family, personal history. Make a sheet for each main character, and maybe make a drawing. You can use images that embody your characters: Garfield, WOW, Marvel, Barbie, friends, etc. Profiles can help you position characters and round out scenes. Why does X carry a broken watch? He set the watch to the hour she died and smashed it to preserve the memory, never to forget the goal of his quest.” Mark Wilkinson was a wonderful friend who I knew at University of Alaska way back when. He is also a fantastic writer. Great advice. It has helped me quite a bit. Thanks Mark!



The Last Letter: A Reflection on a Soldier’s Letter from WWI




May 8th





The Next Chapter…

Chapter One



Happy Friday everyone!

Reflections of a Graduate Student – Year One.

imagesCA20KNSZWell the first year of graduate studies are completed. I have discovered quite a few things about graduate school. I will list my top ten as follows:

1. Having the department head as your Historiography professor the first semester is scary, especially when he looks at you during seminar with a look that says: “Why are you here?”

2. My office is in the basement and I see no sunlight for a good part of the day. I’m happy summer is here.

3. Students, whose papers you grade, feel like you are out to get them, when in fact, you are only trying to help, and they look at you with a look that says: “Why are you here?”

4. Grading 80 finals in two days is torture, especially when they are all essays and answer the same 5 questions. I applaud the professors who do this for 4 classes at the end of the semester.

5. Your “Statement of Purpose” really doesn’t have a purpose for getting you into the Masters’ programs. They don’t even look at that until you apply to Phd school.

6. You can change your thesis at least a hundred times before you get something cohesive.

7. I have lost weight hoofing from the commuter parking area at the very back of Clemson with my numerous bags of books. If you don’t phone the meter maid at the campus police that you’re dropping off books before you park your car in BFE, you will get a ticket if she sees you doing it, and will give you a look that says: “Why are you here?”

8.  There’s never enough research.

9. Russian literature is actually pretty fascinating.

10. Writing a 25-30 page research paper becomes second nature. I remember when I used to whine about 10 pages.

Any way, summer is here, so I’ll be posting a bit more. Lots of great things happening this year. Happy writing!