It was a very inspiring day today to read all of your posts. I want to especially thank all the following people for joining in with the discussion today: Kelly Mortimer, Taryn Raye, Jeanne Sheats, Jane Squires, Phyliss Miranda, Estella, Nance Miller, Ally, and my fellow fillies, Elizabeth Lane, Mary Connealy, Stacey Kayne and Charlene Sands.
Have a wonderful evening!
Perhaps it’s because I have a book coming out in March that my attention is centering more and more on touring. This year, unfortunately for me, I will be unable to tour — mostly because I am away from home. Because touring gives me a chance to get out away from home and to meet people who read and who enjoy reading books (and hopefully my books), I thought I’d devote this time to talking about fans and friendships.
It seems that we writers have a unique opportunity to meet people from all over the United States, and sometimes from around the world, as well. Because people do read our books, it seems that it is easy to become close with each other in a very short order, indeed. The pictures above include friends Lois Greiman, Jodi Thomas and writers and readers from the Amarillo, TX area. The second picture is at Sunshine Bookstore in the Los Angeles area and with friend, Glynnis Campbell (aka Sarah McKerrigan). Many readers and fans have become friends, even though we may not have ever met face-to-face. This is because we correspond on a monthly, weekly or even a daily basis in many cases. It is, indeed, a most fortunate circumstance — fortunate because in my opinion, one is only as alive as he/she has friends.
Above are pictured from left to right, myself with Lois Greiman at Borders in New York (this group is now working with Barnes & Noble), Bookseller, Tina Wood at Waldenbooks/Broders in Orlando, FL. — in Alabama with Books-A-Million rep, and at the Temecula Barnes & Noble in California. In this business, friends are for keeps, and your fans and your readers and booksellers are definitely friends. I guess that’s why many of us who write keep an open door approach to readers and fans. We want to hear from you, we want to write to you, to get to know you and hear about your hopes and dreams — even those things that might frustrate you from time to time. Writing is a very personal experience, and I think that often, after one reads a book, it is as though you have come to know that author pretty well, and hopefully to think of that author like a trusted friend. Therefore, it is perhaps an opening to a warm friendship.
For myself, I think of my friends and my readers in a rather intense way. I think readers are a very special people, who seem to have bypassed the need to watch television every night, who instead prefer to get their news and/or entertainment from books rather than having events spoon fed to them by news agencies, many of whom only seem to mouth the most recent propaganda. We who read seem to subscribe to the idea that we are still entitled to think for ourselves and we’d rather read about it ourselves and make up our own mind about things, events, people. If you read, and I’m certain that most of you do, you will probably agree with this, I think.
From left to right, myself with the two Pats. Then a wonderful reader from Alabama and another terrific fan from Georgia. So in closing let me say how much I appreciate each and every one of my readers, every one of my fans and everyone of you who come to this blog and dare to write to us. You are one of the main reasons I and many other writers continue to write.
May it always be so. 
With health concerns being in the news more and more these days, I thought it might be interesting to have a look at the average person’s state of health in the Native America of the past, as well as medicine, as defined by Native Americans, what it was — and medicine men — who were they? What did they do? And who were shamans?
Let’s begin with medicine. In Native America, medicine meant the great mystery. If one could cure the sick, that person had great medicine. If a man could go to war and come home alive, he had great medicine. Plants had medicine. Animals had medicine. And certain parts of nature had medicine. The word medicine did not mean a pill or even an herb or remedy. It meant simply that a man or a woman had a special connection with the great mystery or with the Creator. When the white man came with his boats and guns and various things that the Native Americans could not easily explain, the old time Indian called these things (not necessarily the person who used them — but the things used), medicine.
The Native Americans of North America enjoyed great health and a physcial beauty that would rival the most beautiful of the ancient Greeks. So writes George Catlin in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as Prince Maximillian and Bodner, Maximillian’s friend and artist, who travelled with the Prince to America. The Native Americans of the past had no processed food, and, depending on the tribe, they ate many things raw or dried. Many of the North American tribes were tall and firm of limb and body and as history tells us, a very handsome people.
Food, clean water and fresh air was their medicine. True, there were herbs that the medicine men & women might use to help their people, but a medicine man’s stock and trade was not merely in herbs alone. Indians of North America (before their diet was changed) were known for their straight teeth (that are now possible when everyone goes for teeth whitening uv), which did not decay, even into old age in many cases. There was a saying with the settlers — “teeth as strong as an Indian’s.” There was little tooth decay, illness was not the norm amnong the people, and many of the diseases that plague us today were completely nonexistent. People lived (if they weren’t killed in wars) to a grand old age. There were many people who lived well into their hundreds, keeping hold of their facilities until death.
They lived in a land of beauty with fresh air, warm breezes, wholesome food and the love of family. So what did a medicine man (or shaman) do if presented with illness? Or physical problems due to injury? Well, I can’t say exactly, since I have not this lifetime been trained in the Native American way of medicine. I do, however, know this. The stock and trade of the medicine man was his ability to drive out the evil spirits which inhabited the sick person’s body. It was known by these men that illness was often caused by evil spirits that would make their way into a person’s body. So a medicine man’s cures often had to do with driving these spirits away. Thus, the rattles and drums of the medicine man.
How successful were these people? According to legend, they were fairly successful. While they didn’t keep statistics as we do today, their fame was only as good as they could cure those who were sick. While using herbs collected and dried, they never forgot that their aim was to rid the person of the evil spirit which had taken over a part of the person’s body.
On a final note, since whole foods were the basis of their “medicine,” let me take a moment to tell you about corn, as prepared by the Native Americans. The Iroquois built strong, tall and healthy bodies based on the three sisters, corn, beans and squash, with corn being their main staple. The diet was augmented with meat when it was available, but corn was their main diet.
However, it was a different kind of corn than what we know of it today. Our corn has been altered, and cross-bred and genetically modified until it is almost completely a carbohydrate. Not so Indian corn. The Indians knew that corn had to be soaked for days in lime water before it could be used as a food. Of course we know today that corn has many anti-nutrients — phytates — those things that protect the seed or grain, but are irritating and stressing to the human digestive system. Soaking the corn in lime did two things: 1) it got rid of the phytates or anti-nutrients in the grain, and 2) it changed the nutrition of the corn into a per protein with all the amino acids present. This tradition of soaking cornmeal or corn in lime before use is still with us in the southern part of the country — masa flour is often soaked in lime. And on this sort of diet, the Iroquois built a confederation that was so strong, that it influenced a whole generation of our forefathers, who saw in the Five Nations Confederation, an organization of government that permitted every individual in the nation freedom of mind, freedom of spirit and freedom of body.
Well, that’s it for today. So tell me, what do you think of the medicine’s stock and trade? What do you think of their main medicine — whole foods? If you had lived at that time, would you have taken the time to learn about their foods and how they prepared them?
I’d love to hear from you. And I should probably start letting you know, I have a new book coming out soon, called THE LAST WARRIOR. March 2008 is the release date and I just happen to have a graphic of the cover. So come on in and let’s talk.
THE LAST WARRIOR
For any of you who might not keep up with the Western world and Native America, I thought I would pass along some very vital info on the Lakotah Nation. This is straight in from Indian country. For any who don’t know, the Lakotah Nation is what many Americans call the Sioux Nation. Lakotah heros include Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail and Crazy Horse.
Right before Christmas, the Lakotah Nation (due to continuous and extreme treaty violations, which started about 150 years ago) declared its independence from the United States. In a statement very much like the Declaration of Independence from our own Founding Fathers, the Lakotah Nation is attempting to gain back its freedom from what has become oppression on the part of the government on their reservation.
I applaud their courage in taking such a step and I wish them success and hope that 2008 finds the Lakotah Nation doing well and free. For more information, go to www.republicoflakotah.com where you can read their own declaration of independence.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
I was going to write to you today about Christmas — which is coming up much too soon — and what it means to me — when I realized that right now what Christmas means to me is shopping, and as fast as possible…
It always seems that I’m so behind at this time of year. How about you? Do you have your shopping done way ahead of time, or are you like me and put it off until almost the last moment?
Well, if you don’t mind, let’s take a moment to look at shopping. Whether you love it or not, we all seem to have to do it from time to time, and it appears that much of our civilization depends on thee and me out there doing our share of shopping. In the old days, there was trading. From the Native American standpoint, shopping consisted of get togethers at the end of the summer and seeing old friends and relatives. Here was probably the mainstay of what has become the modern Pow-wow. Of course, there was the Trading Post as a center of shopping, but that’s long after the trade routes were already well established.
Here is a picture of my hubby and me at Fort Union in North Dakota — an old trading post.
In the old West the general store was the place where most people went to stock up on the goods they needed. Before the white man had taken stock of the Wild West, there were trading centers where even enemies went to trade with one another. One of these places was the Mandan village, which was located on the Missouri River — in what is now North Dakota. Tribes from all over the West would come to the Mandan village where trading would go on night and day. There was much talk, much getting to know each other and lots of enjoyment day in and day out.
Much of civilization seems to center around trade and trade routes and for want of a better term, shopping. The Old Santa Fe Trail was made famous due to the trade and the commerce between one civilization and another. But I digress…
I would love to hear your opinions on this subject. For myself, I love to shop, but I have friends that dread it every year. So I understand if you are not one of those people who looks forward to getting out in those crowds. I must admit that as a youngster I hated shopping, couldn’t wait until it was done, but as I grew older and had more appreciation for clothes and shoes and items like this in general, I grew to love it.
So come on in and tell me. Do you enjoy shopping, or absolutely dread it? Whether we like it or not, however, it seems that shopping is as old as the human race, itself.
Wow! What incredibly wise people we have on this blog. If only we could influence leaders of our different countries. I think the world might be a better place. My thanks go out to Nance Miller, Bethlynn Hanley, Taryn Raye, Devon Matthews and to fellow Western Romance Authors, Elizabeth Lane, Mary Connealy, linda Broday and Charlene Sands.
Here’s wishing you all lots of LOVE!
Because we have just celebrated Veteran’s Day on Monday, I thought I’d take a moment to post about something very American — fhe Native American influence on America, itself — how we are today and how we got here.
Long ago, after meeting and talking to many Europeans, I was struck by the fact that the American idea of freedom is much freer than that across the Atlantic. I didn’t quite understand why since our roots go back to England and France and Holland (and others of course, but these three were here first). But because my next book is set in the land of the Iroquois, I have been getting quite an education.
Did you know that Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine were greatly influenced by an ages old Confederacy of the Iroquois? Did you know that much of our Constitution has very deep roots in the Iroquois Confederation?
If you didn’t, don’t feel bad. I didn’t either.
Indeed long ago, before the white man ever set foot upon the North American Continent, five warring Native American Nations decided to ban war forever and to seek peace and to try to bring this peace to other nations, that war should be forever abolished. They developed a set of laws to help them along this path and they “buried the hatchet” and by doing so established a long tradition of peace. It was brought about by the man they call The Peacemaker, or Deganawida, and Hiawatha (the real man, not the legend of Longfellow’s poem). They lived as hunters and farmers in villages with cleared fields that grew the three sisters, corn, beans and squash.
Did you know that when the white man came here, America was not a wilderness? Land had been cleared for farming — and the forests were like gigantic parks — the under brush was burned off so as to produce a place for hunting that was much like our parks of today? At least so writes Captain John Smith.
The Iroquois had a very definite sense of freedom. Man was free. He was not subject to a King — he did not abide by the “Devine Right of Kings,” and he was an independent being. His elected officals were sent there by the elder women of the tribe and could be removed for not obeying the laws by the women of the tribe. In fact, after 3 notices, a man was removed — and lived the rest of his life in shame. No offical ever was paid for being on the council. It was considered his duty to his people and to his tribe.
It was only after learning more and more about the Native American that I have come to realize that we owe the Natives of this country a debt. Our sense of independence, our very thought of what it means to be free comes not from those who came to this country as serfs, but rather from those who lived on the American Continent in freedom.
So, since we have just observed Veteran’s Day, I’d love to hear your comments on freedom, veterans, and what it means to you to be a free people. Do you have any experiences to tell me about? If so, I’d love to hear them. So come on in and let’s talk.
Strange topic for discussion, isn’t it? But November means more to me than just Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season. For me, it spells birthdays. And today I’d love to hear about your birthday and anything special that you would like to share with us about them.
Okay, so why November and birthdays? Well, it begins with my own, I supppose. I’m a November baby. Now, I must make mention here that I do not like my sign, never have. And though some friends of mine might say that it fits me (somewhat at least) — to my way of thinking, it does not.
That aside, when I was young I always thought that my birthday was special, because in southern Illinois (where I grew up), November was probably the most beautiful month of the year. Smells of leaves and the crisp air, combining with the scent of smoke from the leaves being burned (yes, in southern IL at that time, we burned our leaves) all made the month special for me. However, never, not once in all my growing up, did I ever have an actual birthday party — not until I was older and with a family of my own did that ever occur.
My children say that November is a tough time for them because of all the birthdays in the month. To start off, there’s mine, then there’s my brother-in-law’s and my favorite cousin’s, then there’s my ex-hubby’s wife’s birthday toward the end of the month and then right at the end of the month is my ex-hubby’s birthday. There’s also a good friend’s birthday in there, as well. The above picture to the left by the way, is of a birthday party for my kids a few years ago.
This is Sammy, enjoying a birthday, as well. Now, let’s also take a look at the traditional Native American style birthdays. In the Lakota nation — or as I have been told — it was once customary for the person with the birthday to give gifts, not get them. Note that in Native America, sharing with others was natural and one of the highest honors accorded to an individual. No man could hold office who squandered his riches to himself. But don’t think that this was a form of socialism, as I have read others to envision. Definitely not, since socialism denotes the action of force in taking away the assets of another to give to someone else (and not necessarily to someone else who is more in need — often that asset goes directly into the pockets of the already rich and not-so-famous).
In Native America, sharing was an act of kindness and an act of selflessness. It was considered one of the highest actions a human being could bestow upon another, and nothing was ever taken from one by force (as in our income tax system). Things were given to others to show respect and to show one’s love of one’s fellows.
So please come and share your stories with me and with others today. I and our wonderful audience of romance lovers, would very much delight in hearing from you. But most of all, have a truly super November!
For all of you die-hard nutritionalists — or just for all those who want to eat cleanly, here’s my recipe for Halloween Brownie Protein Bars.
Recipe:
1 3/4 cups Egg White protein powder — I use Jay Robb
1-4 cup Rice Protein Powder — organic if possible
2 Tblsp. edible vegetable glycerin — or maple syrup if you can’t find the vegetable glycerin at your health food store
7-8 teasp. pure stevia — get at a health food store
3 tblsp. cocoa powder — organic if possible
4 tblsp. butter
5 – 6 tblsp. coconut oil — get at a health food store, please — the kind you find in most grocery stores is not a good source
If too gooey, add more protein powder. Pat flat and cut into pumpkin shapes, adding pecans as decoration.
Okay, it’s not like this is as good as a cookie, but it’s healthy — gives you the protein the body so needs and tastes better than any other protein bar out there on the market. HAVE FUN!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
