That's More Than a Museum... It's an Idea Bank!

My wife and I are museum fanatics. We don’t simply amble through the halls, looking for interactive displays that seem like video games for jaded adults. We peer through display-case glass to read exhibit captions and cross-reference them with the artifacts, and we discuss what we see along the way. We especially like to connect the museum’s holdings with antiques we’ve seen in the attics and cellars of our friends. (“See that wringer with a handle? It’s a laundry mangle. Mrs. Bloom used to have one.”)

Occasionally, we’ll find a modest-looking item that’s extremely rare and we wonder what kind of value it would have in the eyes of an “Antiques Road Show” appraiser. It’s all the more interesting if we think we have one like it in our garage. Perhaps we could dust it off and let Sotheby’s auction it for a fortune.

Yet that’s not our main take-away from a museum. We’re looking for ideas that might grow into a magazine article or book manuscript. We find plenty of inspirations in any sizeable museum, and we often use the trip home to brainstorm what we might do with them.

We spent last month in Oklahoma City, which has an extraordinary number of niche museums. After seeing the most popular venues (the Museum of Art, the First Americans Museum, and the Cowboy Museum), we still had our choice of the Female Aviator Museum, the Pigeon Museum, the Skeleton Museum, the Snake and Venom Museum, and lots more.

We learned that the original state capital was in nearby Guthrie, whose spacious Carnegie Library has been converted into a Territorial Museum. It has the sort of exhibits you might expect—about land rushes, Indian treaties, territorial disputes, etc.--but it also has a large exhibit about the state’s various attempts to treat mental illness. There’s a whole room devoted to the state’s most notorious bank robberies, and an exhibit about how the state capital was moved. (Legend has it that the first governor stole the state seal late one night and smuggled it into a rented office in Oklahoma City.)

Don’t underestimate the potential of a good museum. It’s not a reliquary of the dead and dusty past, but an idea bank for creative writers like us. Plan to spend an afternoon at a museum that you have not visited before—and be sure to take a notebook!

Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.         

Visit Hoosier Authors' Sites

As pandemic travel limitations are relaxed, many of us want to visit destinations that are close to home yet rich with opportunities to learn. We Hoosiers can see the homes and other historical sites of several Indiana authors who wrote Christian novels and “clean reads” that epitomize Christian ethical values. Here are three examples:

General Lew Wallace (1827-1905) was a son of David Wallace, the sixth governor of Indiana, and later served as a senator in the state legislature. Wallace distinguished himself as a Union officer in the Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of Adjutant General. 

President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him Governor of the New Mexico Territory in 1878 and President James Garfield appointed him ambassador to Turkey in 1881. He began writing as a diversion from his legal studies, and his best-known titles included Ben-Hur (1880) and The Prince of India (1893).   

The Lew Wallace Study and Museum is located at 200 Wallace Avenue in Crawfordsville and is open Tuesday through Saturday throughout the summer.

Gene Stratton Porter (1863-1924) was an early environmental activist whose books made people aware of the disappearing tracts of undeveloped land that were essentially the same as when Native Americans settled here two thousand years ago. Her best-selling title was A Girl of the Limberlost, set in the wetlands of north central Indiana. Eight of her books were made into motion pictures, so Porter began her own movie production company in Los Angeles. 

She used her royalties to purchase undeveloped tracts of land in Indiana, and she bequeathed two estates to the State of Indiana: A two-story, fourteen-room log home known as the Limberlost State Historical Site near Geneva and another large log home known as the Gene Stratton Porter State Historical Site on Sylvan Lake near Rome City. Both are open for public tours throughout the summer. Click on the links here for further information.

Lloyd C. Douglas (1877-1951) was a Lutheran minister born in Columbia City who wrote his first novel, Magnificent Obsession, at the age of fifty. His subsequent novels included The Robe (1942) and The Big Fisherman (1948), both of which became major motion pictures. 

As far as I can tell, none of his Indiana homes remain standing, but you will find a historical marker for Douglas’s birth at the corner of Main Street and North Street in Columbia City. His first pastorate (1903-1905) was at Zion Lutheran Church, 113 W. Main Street, North Manchester. Visit his online archive for samples of the articles he wrote while a pastor. Douglas began his fiction writing career two decades later.

Our Indiana Writing Heritage

To celebrate Indiana's bicentennial next year, the Indiana State Library is preparing a new literary map of the state. The map will list 200 state authors (in honor of our 200th birthday!) with interesting facts about their life and work. The state's current literary map (shown here) was published more than 40 years ago, and a lot of new authors have appeared on the scene since then.

I wonder, Which Christian authors would you nominate for this honor?

Wabash College's 3-volume reference set, Indiana Authors and Their Books, lists more than seven thousand Hoosier authors. The most recent edition was published in 1981, so it's due to be updated as well. Again, which Christian authors (living or dead) do you think should be listed there?

Our place of origin influences the way we write.  Curt Vonnegut said in an interview, "The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard as a child...I myself grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin, and employs a vocabulary as unornamental as a monkey wrench." If that abrasive working-class dialogue ever surfaces in the stories you write, don't worry. It's natural because you're a Hoosier author.

As the psalmist said, we have "a wonderful inheritance!" (Ps 16:6) Let's be familiar with it--and celebrate our part of it!

__________________

Joe Allison and his wife, Judy, live in Anderson IN, where Joe serves as Editorial Director of Discipleship Resources & Curriculum for Warner Press, Inc. Joe has several nonfiction books in print, including Swords and Whetstones: A Guide to Christian Bible Study Resources. He's currently writing a trilogy of Christian historical novels set in the Great Depression.

Visit Joe's blog at http://southernmtns.wordpress.com

The sad goodbye

 When I wrote Sacagawea, a "faction" ebook for Bramley Books for the middle grade market, I was a little sad when I was finished. I grew to love this woman and admire her a great deal.

One of my  reviewers gave me 4 stars out of 5 because it contains spousal abuse. The sad fact is, Sacagawea was abused by her husband,Toussaint Charbonneau. I believe in writing honestly for middle grades.This is the video game age. These are kids whose parents grew up watching Terminator. (Unfortunately.) They can handle the truth about history.

Sacagawea is "faction." We know very little about her from the journals of Lewis and Clark. But from those journals I was able to imagine quite a bit about what her life must have been like. She was the only woman on a gruelling expedition with a group of rugged men. She was a Native American, and not as respected as European women. That is, there was no coddling Sacagawea. She was expected to be just as tough as the men and work just as hard. And she did, too, with an infant in tow.

What's not to admire about such a woman?

One of the exciting aspects of this particular ebook, is that the publisher wanted me to imbed links into the text so that students could actually see the things I described such as certain plants, animals and artifacts. When I couldn't find things online that were appropriate, I created content on my history blog. So when the kids and parents read the book, they also click on my blog at times. It's been a great way to build a fan base in this genre.

When I came to the final chapter, I was actually sad to say goodbye to her. She had won my admiration and I wanted to spend some more time with her.

I only hope my readers wanted to as well.

How about you? Has there ever been a character you were sad to say goodbye to? Let me know. I want to meet them.

 Karla Akins is a pastor's wife, mother of five, grandma to five beautiful little girls and author of the best-selling Jacques Cartier (that went #1 on Amazon in its category), O Canada! Her Story.  Sacagawea was released in Jan. 2013. Her debut novel The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots  is due out in 2013. One of her columns on MNN.com was featured on the CNN homepage. Represented by Hartline Literary Agency, she lives in North Manchester with her husband, twin teenage boys with autism, mother-in-law with Alzheimer's and three rambunctious dogs. When she's not writing she dreams of riding her motorcycle through the Smoky Mountains.

Expecting!

My granddaughter, Maggie Ellen Faith Akins

It took longer than nine months, but my baby is due any day now!

If you're a writer you know I'm referring to a new book release. (As far as I know, angels haven't stopped by to inform my husband of an impending birth. If that happens, unlike Sara, this 50-year-old granny won't laugh. She'll pass out.)

I'm terribly excited about my new baby, er, book and I want to remember this feeling because I think the emotions might be very similar to the first time you deliver a human baby--nothing compares with the awe and wonder of it. I can hardly wait to hold it in my hands and count its fingers and toes, er, its pages. 

I've been published in compilations and magazines, but this is my first true blue book with my name on the front cover. Excuse me while I gush. It's embarrassing, I know, for those of you with million-dollar contracts, to observe my shameless blush of success. But for this girl who dreamed of being a writer from the time she could read, it's rapturous living on that giddy cloud of nine.

My book, O Canada! Her Story: Historical Narratives and Biographies that tell Her Story, is due out sometime this month. It's written for middle grades and the target audience is homeschoolers. But much like a Pringles potato chip, releasing a book is addictive. I'm eager to get to the next one. 


My new website is ready and I've started a mailing list for those interested in writing and history. Writing this book clarified something for me: while I enjoy writing humorous-contemporary fiction, I'm passionate about creating historical faction. That is, stories based on real events and people in history. 

I still write my columns at Examiner  and Mother Nature Network. I recommend column writing for anyone because it teaches you to write succinctly and to "just get 'er done." It does this for me, anyway. If you're not yet published, I encourage you to build your writing resume this way.


I think all projects take you to a new level of skill, or a new perspective of what it is God wants to say through you. One thing I've learned so far in this writing journey is that you've got to write a whole lot of twaddle before you get to the good stuff. So keep writing. Even when you don't feel like it, put your backside in the chair and write. (This is why writing columns is helpful. You've got to write something every day.)


What has God revealed through your writing experiences lately?  In what ways have you grown? I'd love to know. Write on!

Karla Akins is a pastor's wife, mother of five, and grandma to five beautiful little girls. She lives in North Manchester with her husband, twin teenage boys with autism, and three crazy dogs. Her favorite color is purple, favorite hobby is shoes, and favorite  food group is cupcakes.

In Honor of the Fourth of July: Great American Women Writers in Our Nation's History

I considered writing lofty prose in honor of my country's birthday this weekend, but instead, I've decided to list a few great American women in our country's history of publishing. This is by far not an exhaustive list.

1.  Mary Katherine Goddard, the first woman publisher in America. She and her widowed mother became publishers of the Providence Gazette newspaper and the annual West's Almanack. In 1775, Goddard became the first woman postmaster in the country (in Baltimore), and in 1777 she became the first printer to offer copies of the Declaration of Independence that included the signers' names. In 1789 Goddard opened a Baltimore bookstore, probably the first woman in America to do so.

2. Anne Catherine Hoof Green who took over her late husband's printing and newspaper business, becoming the first American woman to run a print shop. The following year she was named the official printer for the colony of Maryland.

3. Mary White Rowlandson, who was captured by Native Americans and glorified God even in captivity, wrote a fascinating memoir that impacted this continent and Great Britain. Her overcoming spirit still inspires us to serve God no matter our circumstances. A reminder that when we are gone, our words still live.

4. Phillis Wheatley, America's first African American woman poet. She was published when American women were not commonly published. It was  especially uncommon for children of slaves to be educated. Her life is a reminder that God will publish whom He will, regardless of who we are or where we come from. We simply need to be faithful to the call.

5. Mercy Otis Warren, a patriot writer who wrote plays, essays and poems supporting independence for America. My favorite title of one of her plays? 

The Blockheads, a three-act play, published  in 1776, shortly after the British withdrew from Boston. (It makes me giggle to imagine a refined colonial woman calling someone a blockhead.)

6. Susanna Rowson, America's first female best-selling novelist. Charlotte. A Tale of Truth (1791), is about a British soldier who goes off to fight in the American Revolution and persuades the fifteen-year-old Charlotte to elope with him to America. 

7.  Lydia Maria Child. I don't agree with her Unitarian beliefs, but there is no doubt she is one of the leaders in civil rights for people of color and women in our nation. She also penned the famous poem, "Over the River and Through the Woods." I'd like to think I would have used my writing gifts as she did at this time in history. Would I? And am I doing all I can now to speak up in the face of tyranny and inequality?

8.  Catharine Maria Sedgwick. The most famous and successful American woman fiction writer in the first half of the nineteenth century. During her lifetime, literary critics and historians routinely recognized her as a primary founder of a distinctly American literature, along with Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Sedgwick’s close friend, William Cullen Bryant. 

9. Emily Dickinson. My favorite poet of all time. I couldn't get enough of her in high school and carried a volume of Emily Dickinson poems with me everywhere I went. (Yes, I was, and am, a nerd.) I was so well-known as a Dickinson freak that people gave me volumes of her poetry on my birthdays. I still treasure all of them. I also memorized a copy of the biographical play, The Belle of Amherst. I wish I could perform it. Maybe someday - or am I too old?

10. Rebecca Harding Davis. Another activist writer who was the first to include American realism in fiction. I love when women authors get feisty and prompt societal change through their writing.

11. Louisa May Alcott. Another favorite. I can read Little Women, Jo's Boys, and Little Men over and over and never tire of these stories. These delicious tales were staple read-alouds for my children when they were small. I always wanted a big rambling house like Jo's in which to homeschool and raise naughty boys. (I got the boys -- four of them -- just not the large house!)

12. Gene Stratton Porter. A nature lover and environmentalist ahead of her time. She was green long before anyone thought of the term. I grew up on the arid Kansas plains and reading about Indiana swamps, moths and forests filled my starving imagination. (I'd never seen a forest!) I still read these aloud to my children and students. The fact that she was born and lived near to where I live now makes me feel like a true kindred Hoosier. I still get goose bumps when I walk into Manchester Public Library and see her actual nature photographs on the wall.

These are a only a smattering of great women in publishing. Due to lack of space, the timeline ends in the mid-1800s. As we travel into the future, more great women come into focus that I've grown fond of in my lifetime: Catherine Marshall, Francine Rivers, Colleen Coble and more.

Who are your favorite authors in history? What have you read of their work that has stuck with you? How has it influenced what you write now? I'd love to know!