Please welcome fellow author, Beatrice Fishback...

...who is visiting my blog today.  Beatrice has some interesting family history to share, so thank you for being here and the space is all yours...

Great-grandmother

My great-grandmother was an Iroquois Indian from upstate New York, and my father’s tales of her high-spirited nature enraptured me as a child.

There are two things I remember the most from his stories about this woman.  She smoked a corncob pipe — yes, just like in Western films; and my dad was often sent to the local store for her medicine, which turned out to be snuff, much to his surprise.

Simple clothing, and a daily routine of defending against animals in the great outdoors must have been a hard way of life.  Would she have carried a bow and arrow?  And, did she fall in love with my great-grandfather, or was their marriage one of convenience, arranged by others.

I often wondered what it would have been like to have met her, and to hear the adventures she had lived.  Like many ancestral stories, I’m sure her life held hard times as well as fascinating moments.

Old hotel in New York

If I could be a time-traveler, I imagine that New York would have been a rugged, bitter-winter landscape during the years my great-grandmother grew up.

Although I grew up in the region, there are many things that have changed in the past hundred years.  If great-grandmother could travel to the future, would she recognize the terrain where she once lived?  Malls and skyscrapers, campers and fifth-wheels traversing along four-lane highways are now the way of life.  Although she was a woman of strength, and apparently held a mean-streak, she probably would run as far away as she could from the noise and activity.

There must be a hint of my great-grandmother’s high-spirited ways residing within me, as I love to travel and explore worlds others only dream about.

Lake in upstate NY

And that is why writing can be so rewarding and I enjoy it so much.  Writers can create new places and entire breeds of people if they allow their minds to wander to unknown territories and pen those ideas for others to enjoy.  I have never been to the moon, or tried magic tricks with a wand.  But others have written about these possibilities and taken their readers to adventures beyond their wildest imaginations. Words are powerful.  We can travel to the past to the days of my great-grandmother, jet set into the future, and consider endless possibilities of other forms of life.

I hope my grandchildren are someday enraptured by the tales of my life and travels — imaginary and real.  Albeit, there will be no tales of a corncob pipe or snuff for them to hear about.

About the author...Beatrice Fishback is a Yankee who has traveled the world as a military spouse and lived in Europe for a total of twenty-years.  She is the author of Loving Your Military Man by FamilyLife Publishing and, with her husband Jim, is the co-author of Defending the Military Marriage and Defending the Military Family.  She has been published in various compilations, magazines and online websites.  Beatrice and Jim currently reside in North Carolina where scones are called biscuits and are topped with gravy, and tea is served over ice.

http://www.facebook.com/Beasattitudes

About her book...Bethal Manor, an inspirational romance, takes place during the Victorian era with engaging characters such as the wealthy Fredrick Shaw and his fiesty daughter, Clare.  Enjoy the rugged countryside as James Winthrop Blackwell travels across England.  Revel in the setting, a place of magnificence and style where servants know secrets and the owner is a man of property and integrity.  James Winthrop comes of age and searches for answers after being abandoned as an infant at Alpheton House Orphanage.  He must come to terms with the reasons for his abandonment and resolve how God can still use someone whose parents chose to cast them aside.  If you like Downton Abbey, you'll love Bethal Manor