LYNNE SCHALL
  • Home
  • About the Author
  • Newsletter
  • WAC History - In Ten Easy Steps
  • WAC Recruiting Ads
  • Lynne Schall's Blog
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
Lynne Schall's Blog

Women's history Month - march 2023 - & Notable Women of Oklahoma

3/2/2023

0 Comments

 
Updated: 3/11/2023
Multi-colored banner.
​I.  What is it? 
  • Women’s History Month in the United States occurs in March of each year to:
    • celebrate the achievements women have made throughout American history
    • recognize all that remains to be done.
 
When did it start?  
  • 1987.  The U.S. Congress designated March as “Women’s History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed successive resolutions requesting and authorizing the U.S. President to proclaim Women’s History Month.  Since 1995, presidents have issued annual proclamations of Women’s History Month.

​Antecedents.  The origin story of Women’s History Month, however, began far earlier in the labor protests carried out by women in the nation’s paid workforce.
  • 1857.  Most notably, a one-day strike and march by hundreds of women from the textile and needles factories in New York City on March 8, 1857, made history.  
    • Fed up with life-threatening workplace conditions, low pay, and excruciating hours, the women took to the streets.  
    • Their day of action initiated a labor movement that, due to the obstruction by powerful business interests prioritizing profit over fairness, required decades of hard effort to create positive change.​
  • 1909.  In the USA, the first Woman’s Day celebration took place in New York City. 
  • 1980’s.  By the early 1980s, cities and states across the country were holding Women’s Day celebrations.
  • 1980.  President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the week of March 8 as “Women’s History Week.”  
  • 1981.  The U.S. Congress established the second week of March as “National Women’s History Week.” 
  • 1987.  The U.S. Congress designated March as “Women’s History Month.”
The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any.”  
--Alice Walker (1944-  ) American writer, poet, and activist.

Read More
0 Comments

Writers & Editors & Designers, oh my!

12/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Color photo of a rustic signpost.  Photo by Lynne Schall, author, September 2022.
Indie publishing won me over with the publication of my first novel, Women’s Company – The Minerva Girls.  The model holds fast for me, and last month I published my third novel, Cloud County Harvest, the sequel to Cloud County Persuasion.  
 
Indie publishing is often referred to as self-publishing because the author is in control of the publishing processes:  editorial, design, production, distribution, marketing, promotion, and rights licensing.  That means the indie author must build a network of individuals who work to professional standards.
 
But where do indie authors find these good people?  
I.  Editor:  Robyn Conley.  

​For me, the search for an editor ended when I met Robyn Conley at an annual conference of the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc.  Her credits include not only hundreds of edited manuscripts for satisfied clients, but also a list of her published nonfiction.  
 
Robyn has edited all three of my novels.  I salute her with a big “Thank you!”  
 
When she is not tackling a manuscript at her headquarters in Texas, Robyn shares her expertise as a guest speaker at writers’ conferences and workshops in Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas—and wherever else the work takes her.  
 
You can learn more about Robyn by visiting her online home robynconley.com.  If you like, she’ll give you a free ten-page critique of your manuscript.  See her website for details.
“I’ve seen the difference Robyn can make. Her knowledge and insights are amazing.” 

​--Thomas B. Sawyer, head screenwriter for Murder She Wrote and other television programs; author of The Sixteenth Man.
Head shot of Ms. Robyn Conley, book editor
Robyn Conley, Editor

Read More
0 Comments

Veterans Day 2022 -- Reading about Armed Services Editions

11/4/2022

0 Comments

 
Veterans Day in the United States honors everyone who served in the U.S. military.  Since Veterans Day is coming up on November 11, I'm reading Molly Guptill Manning’s nonfiction book, When Books Went to War:  The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II. 
Book cover of When Books Went to War, by Molly Guptill Manning
Americans were hesitant—and sometimes outright opposed—to enter the war in Europe.  After all, a mere eighteen years had passed from the armistice of the Great War in 1918 to the invasion of Poland in 1939.  
 
Hitler’s military rampage across eastern and western Europe eliminated any doubts that Americans might have had regarding Nazi goals to obliterate not only armed forces, but also free thought, democracies, and the cultures in which they thrived.  After France fell in June 1940, the U.S. Congress passed, in September 1940, the Selective Training and Service Act:  the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.   President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Act into law on September 16.  Barely fifteen months later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
 
In 1939, the U.S. armed forces consisted of outdated equipment, scant supplies, and approximately 334,000 volunteers.  From 1941 to 1945, the armed forces grew rapidly from approximately 1.8 million to over 12 million men and women in uniform.   Throughout the war, books played a critical role in building morale and winning the battle for ideas.
 
Current-day readers like you and me can enjoy the engrossing story of that role in Manning's 2014 book, When Books Went to War.   You'll learn why and how Americans made fiction and nonfiction books accessible to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces.  

Read More
0 Comments

Is there a Drought where You live, Too?

10/25/2022

0 Comments

 
It rained yesterday morning—a gentle shower that disappeared into the oh-so-dry earth where I live.  Everyone is grateful.
Map of Kansas, USA, with color-coded drought conditions, October 1, 2022
Current U.S. Drought Monitor Conditions for Kansas, October 18, 2022
In early October, Governor Laura Kelly approved updated drought declarations for Kansas counties—all 105 of them.  Take your pick.  Watch, warning, or emergency drought status, Kansas has it.  

​Whew.
 
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) also keeps an eye on drought.  Perhaps you've seen some of their color-coded maps similar to the one pictured above for Kansas.

The NIDIS emphasizes that several drought indicators, for example,
  • precipitation 
  • temperature
  • streamflow
  • groundwater and reservoir levels
  • soil moisture, and snowpack
 should be examined in order to paint a complete picture.

Armed with facts, the NIDIS doesn’t mince words.  Droughts fall into one of its four categories.
  1. Moderate drought (tan on the map)
  2. Severe drought (orange)
  3. Extreme drought (bright red)
  4. Exceptional drought (reddish-brown)
Current US Drought Monitor Conditions for Kansas, USA, October 18, 2018
Description of Current U.S. Drought Monitor Conditions for Kansas, October 18, 2022

Read More
0 Comments

World Teachers'  Day:   October 5, 2022.   Who's Your Favorite Teacher?

10/3/2022

0 Comments

 
A good teacher is like a candle:  it consumes itself to light the way for others."

​--Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938)

President of Turkey, 1923 -1937
Color image of a bright red apple with one green leaf.

Perhaps you, like me, have more than one favorite schoolteacher.  
 
1.  Mrs. Gossett.  My first-grade teacher is a favorite because she taught me how to do one of my favorite activities:  read.  
 
She was a young and attractive lady with a flair for fashion that even the local newspaper wanted to showcase.  

​It happened on the day that Mrs. Gossett wore a trendy “balloon” outfit.  

​The long-sleeved dress had no fitted waist and “ballooned” loosely to the street-length hem where the fullness of the garment was gathered to a circumference barely wide enough for her to walk.  That spring-green dress complemented her well-coifed hair, high heels, and bright lipstick.  

All of us kids were impressed.

At the time, we didn't know about World Teachers' Day because it didn't exist.  We'd have to wait until 1994 for a global celebration of teachers' contributions and the support they need to deploy their talents and help build the future. 
Color image of bright red apple with one green leaf

  • World Teachers' Day (world-wide) = October 5
  • National Teacher Day (USA)  = first Tuesday in May​​
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another."

--G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)
British critic and author of verse, essays, novels, and short stories.

Read More
0 Comments

Do You Know Oklahoma?

9/7/2022

0 Comments

 
For in Oklahoma, all the experiences that went into the making of the nation have been speeded up. Here all the American traits have been intensified.

The one who can interpret Oklahoma can grasp the meaning of America in the modern world."

--Angie Debo, Ph.D., Oklahoma Foot-loose and Fancy-free, 
 University of Oklahoma Press, 1949, 1987.

Color image of the portrait of Angie Debo that is hanging in the rotunda of the Oklahoma State Capitol
Dr. Angie Debo, Author and Historian, portrait by Charles Banks Wilson.
The author Michael Wallis described Angie Debo (1890-1988) as “the distinguished historian, teacher, author and editor, an inspiration to so many others, and an Oklahoma pioneer who deserves nothing less than sainthood.”  

In 1940, And Still the Waters Run--probably the most important of Dr. Debo's many award-winning books--was published by Princeton University Press.  

  • At the time, the University of Oklahoma Press had declined to publish her meticulously researched nonfiction due to the threat of libel suits from prominent Oklahoma politicians and business people.

  • Dr. Debo's documentation of the betrayal and liquidation of the five independent Native American republics of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles proved to be too ugly a story for many of the land-hungry white men who had perpetrated an orgy of criminal exploitation against the rightful owners.
Color image of the front cover of Angie Debo's book titled, And Still the Waters Run.
1973 book cover

Read More
0 Comments

Libraries:  Yours and Mine

9/1/2022

0 Comments

 
Main reading room, State Library of Iowa -- Law Library, Des Moines, Iowa, 2022
The State Library of Iowa -- Law Library, Des Moines, Iowa, June 2022
Was the library from your childhood as elaborate as the delightfully ornate Law Library in the Iowa State Capitol building?  Did your library sport a playful gateway like the Children's Section of the Andover Public Library?  Mine neither.  

But these libraries, like my town's public library, possessed books that led to adventures far more fantastical than any in my neighborhood.  And the pleasant librarians encouraged me to borrow as many books as I wanted--at the rate of four books per check-out, of course.
Gateway to Children's Section, Andover Public Library, Andover, Kansas,  August 2022
Gateway to Children's Section, Andover Public Library, Andover, Kansas, August 2022

Read More
0 Comments

what is world letter writing day?

8/23/2022

0 Comments

 
Image of Richard Simpkin & son with interviewers at Studio Ten, Australia, in April 2022
Richard Simpkin, founder of World Letter Writing Day
​On a road trip to the Rocky Mountains last summer, my husband and I visited the historic site of Boggsville, located near the confluence of the Arkansas and Purgatoire Rivers in what would become southeastern Colorado.  There’s not much there now, but at the time of its founding in 1866, the hard-working people of Boggsville pioneered irrigation, large-scale farming and ranching in the Arkansas Valley.
​My husband and I arrived at the remote site on a hot, dusty day in June.   No one else was about as we drove into the small, graveled parking lot.  When we walked up the path toward the two homes that have been restored, we could hear the sound of our footsteps in the peaceful quiet.
A pleasant young woman greeted us at the reception desk.  “Would you like a tour guide or a self-guided tour?  No one else is here, so I can give you a tour now if you like.” 
​

We happily accepted her guideship.
 
She was a local girl, a student in her first year of college, I believe, and well-versed in the story of Boggsville.  When we entered the dining room of a large house, I noticed a framed document on the wall.  I drew closer to read the handwriting—original or copy?—before asking some small question about a certain word, a name perhaps?

Read More
0 Comments

a new novel for you:  Cloud County Harvest

8/16/2022

0 Comments

 
Book Cover of Cloud County Harvest, Book 1 in the Cloud County Series
Heads up!

Here's the front cover of my new novel, Cloud County Harvest, the sequel to Cloud County Persuasion.  

It will be published in fall 2022, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it. 

What is the story ​about?
​Cloud County Harvest.  

​It's 1951.

As the insidious advance of a mid-century drought sidles across the Southern Plains, the Hill and Quick families of Cloud County buckle down to the work at hand.  Hard times, extreme drought, and pestilence are not new to them or their neighbors.  Tenacity is the key; the question is, how will it change them and the red earth they inherited?

 
You read Cloud County Persuasion and you want to go back.  Cloud County Harvest is your ticket.  

​The plains of Oklahoma are waiting for you.

Savor again the evocative sense of place.  Inhabit the social and cultural milieu of rural and small-town life.  Catch up on the resilient men and women you came to know in 
Cloud County Persuasion and expand your circle of the people who enrich their lives. ​

Read More
0 Comments

6 good reads for your valentine

2/7/2022

2 Comments

 
Valentine's Day is coming up on Monday, February 14.  

Although popular among many people, gifts and cards are not required on Valentine's Day.  Perhaps your Valentines, however, enjoy books, and you would like to give each of them a novel.  

​But which novel?   

Here are six "good reads" perfect for your gift-giving list.  
MYSTERIES 
Book cover of A Beautiful Blue Death, Charles Finch, 2017.
A Beautiful Blue Death.
Book 1 of 14 in the Charles Lenox Mysteries.
Charles Finch, 2017.





​​​England.  1865.  Gentleman Charles Lenox, a bachelor with comfortable means, enjoys his comfortable life in his comfortable home in London next door to his widowed friend, Lady Jane Grey.​
​
​Nice guy (or rather, gentleman) that he is, Lenox must help when Lady Jane asks him to investigate the unexpected death of her former maid, a likable young woman engaged to be married.  Lady Jane thinks the maid might have died by poisoning or suicide.  

I haven't had the pleasure of reading A Beautiful Blue Death, but my husband Richard recommends it because he blasted through all fourteen books of the Charles Lenox Mysteries during our on-going pandemic.  He shared details with me about each novel, often when I was about to drop off to sleep.  

The plot always woke me up.    

Read More
2 Comments

10 tips to make a great book club

11/28/2021

0 Comments

 
(updated 2/4/2022, 11/9/2022)
Color image of 8 books for book loversBooks and books and books -- oh, yes!

​
​You love to read, and you want to discuss books with other people who love to read.  You’ve decided to start a book club.  What’s the next step?
 
I started and conducted a book club that continued for over ten years.  Currently, I’ve been participating in a book club for over two-and-a half years.  
 
Try out these ten tips to make your book club great.
1.  WHO TO INVITE? 

​Fellow book lovers! 

They’ll need to be readers who have both the time to read and to discuss books.
 
Are you interested in creating a club that focuses on one genre of fiction (for example, mysteries) or several genres?  Do you want to include nonfiction selections?  You might find it easier to recruit members if the readers are open to a wider range of books.
 
2.  HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES A BOOK CLUB NEED? 
​

It takes only a few people.  Four or five regular attendees at each meeting might be just the right number for a discussion in your group.   Over time, the club can adjust that number to what works best for them.
 
Two of the biggest determinants of a club’s size are
  • available meeting room space and
  • opportunity for everyone to share their thoughts during discussions.
 
As the founder, take the role of coordinator to keep the group together.

Read More
0 Comments

July 4th:  What Does Freedom Mean to You?

6/30/2021

0 Comments

 
Images of the Declaration of Independence against a red, white, and blue background.  Photo by Lynne Schall
Independence Day in the U.S.A. is celebrated on July 4th each year in memory of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.  Sincerity and gratitude distinguish the national holiday.  

Traditional festivities are exuberant and, although perhaps reduced in size, will be possible again this summer in many communities due to the prevalence of the vaccine against the virulent COVID-19 virus.

The ravages of the pandemic presented another painful example of how the absence of good health steals freedom from individuals, families, cities, and countries.  Surely the pandemic spurred many people around the world to reflect deeply on what freedom means to them.

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, summarized their beliefs in the second paragraph of that revered document.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...
​
--Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Read More
0 Comments

What Is Flag Day in the USA?

6/11/2021

0 Comments

 
Color photo of U.S. flag
National Flag Day, June 14, commemorates the day in 1777 when the Second Continental Congress adopted the national flag of the United States of America.  

How did Flag Day begin? 
  • 1885.  Perhaps the idea came from several sources.  In 1885, a young Wisconsin schoolteacher, Bernard J. Cigard (1866-1932), who later became a practicing dentist and dean of a dental school, conducted a "birthday for the flag" as a teaching tool.  
    • Cigrand is referred to as the "Father of Flag Day" for two main reasons:  
      • his formal observance on June 14, 1885, and
      • his tireless promotion of June 14 as a day devoted to an annual observance of the national flag.  
    • Dr. Cigrand's vision of an official National Flag Day, established by the U.S. government and celebrated throughout the country each year, was not realized until after his death. 
  • 1916.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 as the official date.
  • 1949.  In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed a Congressional Act into law which permanently established June 14 as "National Flag Day," but did not make it a federal holiday.

If Americans can fly their flag every day of the year, why is a Flag Day necessary?
Americans can fly the flag every day of the year, but June 14 is a special day of observance. 

Read More
0 Comments

Memorial Day Salute - 2021

5/29/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Memorial Day falls on Monday, May 31, this year in the United States.  The most important thing Americans do on Memorial Day is honor military service members who gave their lives serving in the nation's wars or who died as a result of their combat injuries. 
​Many novels, memoirs, histories, and films tell the story of the men and women--sometimes known and more often unknown to most people--honored on Memorial Day.

Among the many are two young Marines--Corporal Jonathan T. Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan C. Haerter--who gave their lives in the line of duty.  Their actions on April 22, 2008, saved over 150 U.S. Marines and Iraqi Police.  It all happened in Ramadi, Iraq, which at the time was one of the most dangerous towns on Earth.

I learned about their inspirational actions from the following speech and film.  You can, too. 

Read More
0 Comments

How to find time to read?

5/10/2021

0 Comments

 
I. Have you experimented with any of the following hints?
​
  1. Read first thing in the morning.
  2. Read before falling asleep at night.
  3. Carry a book with you (paper or e-book) to read while waiting in line or at the dentist’s office, etc.
  4. Listen to audiobooks while commuting to work, exercising, or doing routine household tasks.
  5. Drop a book if it doesn’t interest you.  (Finish the book if it’s required reading for your job or your schoolwork.)
  6. Identify a special place to read.  It might be your favorite chair at home, a bench at the park, or a table at the public library.
  7. Identify a reading goal.  How many pages, chapters, and/or books will you read in a given period of time?
  8. Schedule time to read.  Put it on your calendar.​
Good suggestions, but if it hasn't come together for you or you'd like to up your game, then check out one or more of the following five books for ideas.​
Atlas, Titan of Ancient Greek mythology, holding a clock on his shoulders rather than the heavens.  Atlas Life Building, Tulsa, Oklahoma, photo by Lynne Schall
Atlas, the Titan god of Ancient Greek mythology, holding up a clock on his shoulders rather than the heavens.

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Photo of Lynne Schall, author

    Author

    Lynne Schall is the author of three novels:  Women's Company - The Minerva Girls (2016), Cloud County Persuasion (2018), and Cloud County Harvest (November 2022).  She and her family live in Kansas, USA.

    Archives

    March 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    July 2020
    May 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Oklahoma
    USA Holidays
    Women's Army Corps
    Your Reading Life

Copyright 2016 Lynne Schall.  All rights reserved.
Book Cover designs by Anastasia Sobol of Ukraine.
Connect with Lynne.
Amazon
Link to KOBO
nook Barnes & Noble icon
​
  • Home
  • About the Author
  • Newsletter
  • WAC History - In Ten Easy Steps
  • WAC Recruiting Ads
  • Lynne Schall's Blog
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy