Journal entry: Treasure at the Lorings’

The notes I’ve taken about my research have become as valuable to me as the information I’ve found about Emilie Loring.  In this entry, I meet her grandson for the first time. July 14, 2003 “Yesterday afternoon, I took the train to Lexington–a subway stop with the interesting name of “Alewife”– and Selden Loring came to pick … More Journal entry: Treasure at the Lorings’

Tragic Undercurrents in “Swift Water”

Swift Water is so different from Emilie Loring’s other novels. When Jean Randolph arrives home, Ezry Barker asks, “Say, Jean, been gittin’ into trouble so soon? Seems though I see th’ old symptoms. Didn’t fetch the Turrible Twin along with ye, did ye?” But that’s just what this book is about:  terrible twins. Jean’s mother … More Tragic Undercurrents in “Swift Water”

Inspiring Pemaquid Point, Maine

“I’m perched on the lookout spying for goodwill ships and treasure islands, and priceless friends, and lovely summer seas with just enough squalls to make me appreciate fair weather.” Uncharted Seas I can well imagine this as a quote from Pemaquid Point’s Lighthouse, standing sentinel for its one-hundred-eighty-first year on the coast of Maine. You’ll … More Inspiring Pemaquid Point, Maine

Traces of Gay Courage

I love finding true-life connections, as I did last summer with Gay Courage. Nancy Caswell lives with her father in the parsonage at Sunnyfield: “There were little rabbits with upstanding ears cut in the yellow shutters. Gay orange and white awnings shaded the porches, boxes spilling over with yellow and white and purple blooms, adorned windows … More Traces of Gay Courage