In this holiday season, I am trying to bring my books to people's attention, hoping for interest that leads to being read.
I wrote the novel, I Have Seen Marvels, a Journey to Paraguay 1630, because, on a journey to northern Argentina in 1994, I saw that region for the first time and learned a bit of its history. Contact between Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas and European settlement was different and yet similar across the continents. Each set of colonization stories has uniquely interesting dilemmas, interactions, and heroes. Enchanted, I wanted to tell stories from early central South American settlement, since they were largely unknown to North American audiences. Hence the book. (link)
Writing fiction was an adventure. A lovely adventure, because I had to learn what was familiar to a woman from Spain and what was new to her. When we study history, mostly it is political history, but generally women are more deeply interested in their families than in politics. So looking at it from a woman's viewpoint, I enjoyed struggling with choices of clothing and food, while shrugging major issues like the Reformation as not her problem.
And historical, as lived, is always personal. Depending on who they are, people choose their side in a conflict. Looking back after hundreds of years, we may know that their side lost with great suffering, so that choosing differently would have been a much better decision, and we can point to clues that were there from the beginning, but that does not help the people who were there at the time. Furthermore, each culture tells the story differently. Being there, even fictitiously, is quite another experience from viewing it as history. Of course those dashing English pirates were simply criminals to Spaniards.
So I wrote a journey by sailing ship from Spain to Havana to Buenos Aires to Asuncion. I wanted to consider food and customs and how contact with the Americas was changing those, and to show colonists trying to build a society like the one in Spain but failing due to all the differences of the New World. The idea was to visit a place exotic in time and space from 21st century Colorado.
Writing the novel was great fun. If you have one in mind, don't be afraid to try. In fact, I've been reading the unpublished novels of several of my friends and there are wonderful stories stored away on people's shelves. Write that story. I personally must publish to complete a writing project and move on, but that's just an peculiar consequence of my career as a university professor. In truth, sharing a story with friends is also valid.
Since I'm promoting one of my books, I will mention two books I wrote some years ago, pulling stories from this blog together as "Curious Stories of..." They are for sale at Amazon: Curious Stories of Familiar Plants From Around the World link and Curious Stories of Familiar Garden Plants link. These little books feature my favorite stories. You can read them in this blog: the Supreme Court ruling that tomatoes are vegetables, that carrots were for centuries a Protestant vegetable, and many others. The books are for those who prefer books.
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Just before Covid, I wrote two other books, NoCo Notables, 15 Plants of the Colorado Front Range Worth Knowing and Look Twice, 15 Plants to Notice at Lake McConaughy. Both pick really conspicuous plants like yuccas and sunflowers, and, as in this blog, provide stories beyond the bare bones information a plant identification book can provide. Neither of those is currently on Amazon, making them mainly available through me until I publish new editions. (Contact me.) They are certainly part of my ongoing commitment to promoting of stories about plants and will reappear.
Writing is fun and lets me share ideas. Finishing projects and fixing all the details gets to be work, but then I can publish it and call it shared.
Comments and corrections welcome as always.
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