Our Products in Alphabetical Order
Tor Takes a Trip, by Edythe Ghen
Tor, a Gray Harbor Seal, longs for the day when he can swim in the sea. The day arrives, but Tor swims ahead and becomes separated from his mother. Tor’s search along the coast of Massachusetts’ north shore has a happy ending.
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Tor, a Gray Harbor Seal, longs for the day when he can swim in the sea. The day arrives, but Tor swims ahead and becomes separated from his mother. Tor's search along the coast of Massachusetts' north shore has a happy ending.
Edythe Ghen lives in Beverly, Massachusetts. She paints mainly in watercolor and oil and is an exhibiting member of the New England Watercolor Society, Rockport Art Association, North Shore Arts Association, Academic Arts, and Copley Society. Edythe has been given numerous awards and, in 1993, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from her alma mater, The Massachusetts College of Art.
Vermont Seasonings: Reflections on the Rhythms of a Vermont Year by Steve Delaney
The voice of Vermont is now in print. “Vermont Seasonings: Reflections on the Rhythms of a Vermont Year” is broadcaster Steve Delaney’s affectionate salute to Vermont.Delaney, self-described Recovering Flatlander, writes of Vermont in this weekly and seasonal collection of essays. A Recovering Flatlander, he says, is “a person from Away who has moved to Vermont and believes it is possible to pass as a Real Vermonter. It’s not.”
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The voice of Vermont is now in print. "Vermont Seasonings: Reflections on the Rhythms of a Vermont Year" is broadcaster Steve Delaney's affectionate salute to Vermont. Delaney, self-described Recovering Flatlander, writes of Vermont in this weekly and seasonal collection of essays. A Recovering Flatlander, he says, is "a person from Away who has moved to Vermont and believes it is possible to pass as a Real Vermonter. It's not."
Delaney's distinctive voice has been heard on Vermont Public Radio for the past decade. He has won national honors for two NBC White Paper television documentaries, and for radio documentaries and news programs produced for VPR. Delaney is a fifty-year broadcast journalist who has covered politics and other petty crime in Washington, finance and other felonies in New York and wars on three continents. He is the middle link in a five-generation family love affair with Lake Champlain and the state and now calls Milton his home. "Vermont Seasonings" is his first book. In "Vermont Seasonings," Delaney writes of sugaring ("The Fragrant Mists of Fairfield"), mud season ("That Joyant Sucking Sound"), families ("Reunion Season"), foliage ("Flo and Bert Alert") and the weekly pace of life in this well-seasoned collection. His glossary also lists three definitions of a "Real Vermonter" -- loose, strict and ultra-orthodox with an emphasis on seven generations.
Wah-Say-Lan by James Herbert Smith
She is a Seneca, a unique, courageous and adventurous woman.
He is a slave, a Continental soldier fighting for his freedom.
In their journey, they fall in love and cross paths with Cornplanter, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Lafayette and Red Jacket.
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In his first novel, author Jim Smith tells the story of the Seneca, one of the six nations of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy and allies of the British in the Revolutionary War, and the love story of Wah-say-Lan and Freeman Trentham/Jamwesaw.
James Herbert Smith has been a journalist for 40 years. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is a member of the Academy of New England Journalists. He is the author of A Passion for Journalism, A Newspaper Editor Writes to his Readers. Smith is executive editor of The Bristol Press and The New Britain Herald in Connecticut.
Boy, would I like to go “point-counterpoint” with Mr. Smith. I am the author of “Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the iroquois” (Westholme 2005).
The review was going fine until the last line. One has to remember the Six Nations of Iroquois were not some kind of eighteenth century Sierra Club.
Washington’s orders to Sullivan never said (as I recall) to “extirpate” the Iroquois. In fact, the primary mission was to “not merely overrun but destroy” their towns and cornfields.” this was done for three reasons.
One: After more than two years of brutal raids by pro-British Iroquois warriors against lightly defended American frontier communities, it was an effort to “chastise” or “scourge (punish) those of the Six Nations as were hostile to the United States.” The mission was also to “countenance (encourage) the friendly ones”! Nowhere did Washington order, nor at any time did Sullivan’s army engage in, the massacre or indiscriminate killing of Indian men, women and children.
Two: The raid was intended to give the pro-British Iroquois an opportunity to revert to neutrality and show their sincerity by befriending the U.S. and turning away from the Crown.
Three: Another mission, overlooked by many historians, much less historical novelists, was to force the British pay a heavy financial and logistical price for enlisting Indian allies to wage a war of terror against American frontier communities, by forcing them to support their Iroquois surrogates with an already strained supply system.
Glenn
Mr. Williams,
Thanks for your comments. I’ve ordered your book and look forward to reading it.
My novel is written from the Seneca point of view.
Some of my sources:
“Sullivan’s orders were to destroy totally the villages of the Iroquois …” Anthony F.C. Wallace, “The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca.”
Washington would “‘extirpate them from the Country.’ They were to call him ‘Town Destroyer’.” . . . (Sullivan) received formal instructions for his expedition from Washington: ‘The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements…”
Washington wrote to Lafayette on July 4, 1779 about the need to extirpate the Iroquois. From “Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected letters..” is this from Washington Sept. 30, 1779: “By my last advices from Genl. Sullivan of the 9th. Instt. I am led to conclude that ere this he has completed the entire destruction of the whole country of the Six Nations, excepting so much of it as is inhabited by the Oneidas who have always lived in amity with us.” (And dozens of Oneida braves served directly under Lafayette).
Yours,
James Herbert Smith
I thoroughly enjoyed Wah-say-lan … its an engaging read. I’m a native of the Finger Lakes region making it even better. And I learned a lot of the history of the Senecas and the Six Nations even after studying it in grade school so many decades ago.
My particular interest is in the Senecas perspective of the giving land which is mentioned often. I’m interested as I begin writing a sequel to my first novel, Twisted Vines, which takes place in the Finger Lake vineyards. In my second book I’m hoping to reflect on the Native American heritage of the vineyard lands.
My congratulations to James Herbert Smith on bringing the history of the Senecas to life, from their perspective.
Frankly, the book is a better read than I expected … and many contemporary writers could learn from James on how to write a sensuous scene. (But, what happened to that island in Canandaigua Lake?)
Many thanks, Art Maurer