George Washington - 1732-1799

This Monday, February 20, is Presidents Day, a federal holiday. Members of Congress and their staffs enjoy a paid holiday. The day was originally established by an Act of Congress in 1880 to honor our First President, George Washington. If Congress had not changed Washington’s Birthday to Presidents Day in 1968, this Wednesday would be the 280^th birthday celebration of our first Commander in Chief. If “Old George” were able, he might say to our elected officials “My birthday wish is, that you set aside your party affiliations, reason together on the matter of a long-term national budget and finish the job you were elected to do. That would make me proud.”

My Most Beautiful Post

I shared the importance of the spring house in my family’s history and included an excerpt from my first novel, Spring House, in The Spring House: Most Important “House” in My Family’s History.

My Most Popular Post

A Real Spring House has had more than 1100 page views in the last year, second only to my homepage. The post tells of my experience in trying to get a picture of a spring house on the cover of Spring House without having anything to show the cover artist what a spring house looked like. Considering how the picture was drawn from my verbal descriptions to the artist, the original cover turned out amazingly close to a real spring house I later visited. I later updated the cover of Spring House, and the picture of a spring house on the new cover is even closer to the real thing.

My Most Controversial Post

I haven’t written any real controversial posts, but the mistake I confessed in  Oops! A Lesson Learned could have led to controversy if I had persisted in my error and had given out wrong information.

My Most Helpful Post

I learned so much about writing family history working on my first book Spring House that I wanted to share some of what I learned with readers. 23 Tips for Writing a Family History will help anyone who wants to tell their family story, whether they are writing fiction based on history or documenting history for current and future generations.

A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

The second most popular post on my blog is Nicholas Fain: Forgotten Patriot. Not only has the number of visitors to that post surprised me, but the comments made on the post have surprised me even more. There are more than 100 comments on the post (including my replies), and most of the comments are from descendants of Nicholas Fain.

A Post That Didn’t Get the Attention I Feel It Deserved

I get a lot of questions about how I fill in the gaps in history to keep my stories historically accurate. In response to a specific question from a reader, I explained in Writing Historical Fiction: Imagination and Logic and thought there would be more interest among readers in this subject.

The Post I’m Most Proud Of

Austin’s First Daughter, about my ancestor Elnora Van Cleve Brown, got press coverage and helped the attendance at a memorial dedication for her.

The second part of the challenge is to nominate up to five other bloggers to participate in the My 7 Links Challenge. I’m going to nominate only four, but if you would like to participate, leave a comment, and I’ll nominate you.

• My cousin, Ann Winkler Hinrichs, A Sentimental Life
• Christian author and writer’s group friend, Allison Pittman, Meet Me at the Crossroads
• Author and editor, Helen Ginger, Straight from Hel
• Writer and writer’s group friend, Al Bates, Al’s Lighthouses

Felton said in his tribute to the author, Elmer Kelton: Essays and Memories, TCU Press. “When you open a Kelton novel, you know beforehand that it will be clean, historically accurate, and entertaining. Somewhere on those pages will be a subtle message.”

Should your travels take you to San Angelo, be sure to stop by the Cactus Book Shop at #6 East Concho. If you cannot stop by, he also takes phone orders – 325-659-3788. Felton has my first two books in the Westward Sagas, Spring House and Adam’s Daughters. Be sure to tell him I sent you.

The first county seat of Karnes County was established in Helena in 1852. Helena was a bustling community until the railroad bypassed it in 1884. Then Helena became one of Texas’ official ghost towns. There were numerous hangings in the tree in front of the courthouse. Author Barry Harrin wrote a book “The Toughest Town on Earth” www.helenatexas.com. The few remaining mortals have reported some strange happenings and a paranormal crew reported ghostly activity. I saw nothing out of the ordinary on my nights on the grounds. However, I made them a deal, that I would not bother them, if they didn’t bother me.

“Thank you” to our Karnes County friends for their hospitality and especially to photographers Joe Baker and Sue Carter.

FB, unlike your website, can be tweaked by others easily and changes they make can alter things detrimentally on your page, hence the title of my post ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA. A business associate mentioned that I might want to take a good look at my FB profile. Upon checking it, I noticed by birthday was listed for the world to see, which I immediately changed. Scrolling down to check other items, I found under Music a picture of this weird looking dude making an obscene gesture.

The last time I checked my Profile Page, under Music it said “I liked both kinds of music, country and western.” I thought it was clever when I set-up my profile. Apparently, there is a band named Both Kinds of Music and that’s the picture FB placed in the Music block for me.

I am not sure how it happened, but, it did and I am embarrassed. It has been corrected, thanks to my business associate bringing it to my attention. Those that saw it, I apologize. I am frequently asked to speak at schools and churches; therefore, this COWBOY STORYTELLER would never have posted such a picture.