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Later today, I'm returning to the Shore & back to work on Stirring Up The World. So here's another post re our recent women's history road trip: Trip summary: Three days, 880 miles, mostly through central New York. Three drive-in movie theaters. (No, we didn't go). Farm stands with delicious cherries, blueberries, peaches, melons, raspberries. (Yes, we indulged.) Farm stand with piles of gorgeous purple and green heads of cabbage and corn and a pay-on-an-honor system lockbox. Nursery with table after table loaded with lush annuals and perennials. (We bought violet-purple phlox, parsley and snapdragons in a array of colors) and an honor-system-payment- lockbox. Visited 19 towns with women's history sites featuring both women and men.
The picture is of Elizabeth Smith Miller's house in Peterboro; recently bought by a couple who are determined to restore it. Since the early 1980s, her birthday has been celebrated in Peterboro. The program this year on 9/28, is highlighting her suffrage activities.
I'm counting on Dot to add a comment about Elizabeth Smith Miller!
I've been at the Shore with limited internet access. Now I'm in Englewood for the day and can finally post a pic of this gorgeous local-fruit pie we made on Wednesday and devoured by Thursday lunch. I bought the fruit from farm stands along route 70 on my way to Philadelphia (to have lunch with a dear friend and to visit Lucretia Mott historic sites, more about that later). Yummmmmmmmm!
I've marked women's history sites on every map in the U.S. Before we take a road trip, I update the relevant map(s) and plot our route. Note: The road trip can be for any purpose, i.e. visiting friends/family or driving to a speaking engagement. Regardless of the purpose, I always check to see if I can plot a not-too-far-out-of-the-way detour. For an example of how I incorporated a road trip into my writings, see my essay about Biddy Mason, a former slave, midwife, landowner, philanthropist, in Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made A Difference. Here's the NYS map we took on our trip 7/18-20/2008. We covered 880 miles (given gas prices--the highest we paid for regular was $4.17--we drove slower and took a cooler with food).
We just returned home from an amazingly productive, stimulating, fascinating, and fun women's history road trip. I'll post a more detailed entry, but for starters: our destination was Seneca Falls, NY for the 160th anniversary celebration of the Women's Rights Convention, the beginning of the organized women's rights movement in the U.S.. From my previous entries, you know I'm in the middle of writing Stirring Up The World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of a Powerful Friendship. We left Friday and drove to Seneca Falls via all the places I've been writing about--SBA's childhood home in Battenville and Canjoharie where she taught school (and where we met a new friend Sheryl, who told us how to easily find the "pot that washes itself" --a gorgeous, serene spot.) ECS's childhood home in Johnstown, NY etc. etc. etc. It was quite the route: we need 3 NY maps to find every place & one place required winging it! We had many adventures. And, yes, Dot, we drove along Seneca Lake, found Miller Hall, AND found a marker to Elizabeth Smith Miller (she introduced the Bloomer outfit among other claims to fame) in Peterboro! More later.
Late last night, I printed the first page of chpt 7 (part of my book writing process is: after completing a page of text, I print it out and put it in a three-ring notebook (with a carefully chosen cover color). Suddenly another sentence popped into my brain--one with voice in it! I entered it, reread it, and loved it; so did Linda when she heard both versions. Let me repeat: I love revising--the mystery and thrill of it is exhilarating!
Part I of Stirring up the World is finished! Today I started on Part II and spent the entire day--hours!!--bringing Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony together (Part I is alternating chapters from 1815-1850.) ECS, of course, has described it best, but I needed to neatly set up her quote! That's what's on my computer screen. From there, back and forth, and around I went trying to figure out where to go. I thought about a segue re bloomers (ECS was wearing bloomers). Then why SBA wasn't invited for dinner. Etc. But--1. I write what seems to me to be a finished draft (probably be easier if I could write rough drafts, but I don't); 2. what I write has to allow me to keep moving forward (if I can't, how can the reader?)--and nothing worked. All day nothing worked! When that happens, the reasons are typically because: I don't know enough, i.e. I need to do more research; and/or I haven't thoroughly answered my key question: "What's your point, Penny?" All day, I resisted distracting myself and stuck with my misery. I thought I had it when Linda arrived home. But it wasn't clear enough to her--a fatal flaw. Happily we were able to talk it through--more like word-wrestled each sentence into shape!
I find it so interesting that I can write something I really like one day, but end up deleting it the next. Why? What makes me decide to delete material that delights me? Because I can't write beyond that material. That's an irrefutable sign that I have to delete it, no matter how much I love it. That's what I did today. Happily the new material I wrote worked--onward!! Hurrah!!!!
Between my last entry and now, here are some highlights: I finished chpt 6 for Stirring Up The World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of a Friendship; agreed to return to Queens College as a distinguished lecturer for another year; spent a couple days at the Jersey Shore; and talked to Sophie who is spending the summer with her Swiss relatives. Also I've been wanting to post the great news from my editor Christy Ottaviano that Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial (Henry Holt, 1997) is "back for a reprint . . . this makes number 12!" Christy is also my editor for Thanksgiving: The True Story (preorders available at www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com) and Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference.
