About
Welcome to my online home. This is where I open the door and invite you inside to meet my literary family: my ten nonfiction books, four podcasts, and almost 200 magazine articles–many available right here–and my Roaring Twenties mystery series written by my alter ego, Mary Miley. I’ve been busy with two books published last year and another, Silent Murders, that came out in September. I’m looking forward to seeing the book I wrote for Colonial Williamsburg on 18th-century transportation, which will be published in June under the title, Rivers and Roads. My writing is focused on finishing the fourth in the Roaring Twenties mystery series (working title, Murder in Disguise), and writing a corporate history for the 50th anniversary of a large real estate developer. My winter calendar is light on travel–only 8 book events scheduled so far, but this is the slow time of year. I hope to get lots of writing done! I’ll be in Winston-Salem, NC, and Petersburg, Williamsburg, Charlottesville (Festival of the Book), and Portsmouth VA, plus doing several local events closer to home. I’d love to see you at any that are open to the public.
News & Events
A Title Selected for New Book
I just got the word that the book I wrote for Colonial Williamsburg has a title! I submitted three suggestions, and they chose RIVERS AND ROADS: TRANSPORTATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA. This is a coffee-table book with stunning photographs by CW’s talented photographer, Dave Doody. I’ve seen about half–they are gorgeous. Can’t wait to see the rest! This view of the carriage in the snow is one of them. Everything has been sent to the designers for layout, and it will publish some time in 2015. As soon as I have a cover image, I’ll post it.
Articles & Podcasts
African-Americans during the Williamsburg Restoration
The leading local promoter of the restoration of Williams-burg to its eighteenth-century aspect, the Reverend Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin, summoned townspeople to a meeting June 12, 1928, to put his plan to a vote. A College of William and Mary fund-raiser and professor, as well as rector of Bruton Parish Church, he had negotiated the details with the city and county governments. They had surveyed public properties, drafted contracts, and secured the assent of Goodwin’s once-anonymous backer . . . The ballots tallied one hundred-fifty to four in favor, but not everyone with an interest in the outcome got to cast one, as pro forma as these may have been. In those years, seven hundred of the town’s 2,500 residents were African Americans. None attended the gathering. In Jim Crow’s Virginia, they could not enter the whites-only school. Williamsburg’s black citizens heard secondhand the official word that the town would become a museum, and that white Williamsburg had voted its approval.
Read more and see slide show.
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