Are you an Exonumist? Wait...What?

 By Cindy Regnier

Have you ever heard the word exonumia? Yeah, it was a new one to me too, although it’s been an interesting hobby of my husband’s for quite awhile. It’s also a great topic for history buffs.

Exonumia originates from the combination of the Greek “exo” meaning “out of”, and the Latin “nummus” or “coin”, and refers to collectible thingies like scrip, tokens, and medals. Exonumia also includes most coin-like objects not issued by the government such as military coins, badges, key tags, wooden nickels, arcade tokens, play money and casino tokens. Collectors of these items are called exonumists (try that on your token collecting friends.) 

Some exonumia items (like trade tokens) were used as currency in the United States when actual money was not easily available in the economy. Tokens were used both to advertise and to facilitate commerce, and tokens are the form of exonumia we’ll look at here.

Trade tokens have been used as far back as Roman times, and in the United States, as recently as in the era of mining towns. These unique pieces are rare and highly collectible. Trade tokens, sometimes referred to as “minor coinage,” are defined as coins lacking the intrinsic value of gold and silver, with a stated value of $1 or less. In the United States, tokens were used during the Colonial era, the 1830s “Hard Times” era and during the Civil War.

The influx of prospectors to California and the West in the 1850s brought about increased demand for gold, silver and minor coinage. Company stores and independent businesses often used trade tokens as a medium of exchange in Western mining towns and camps. The tokens were used the most between 1870 and 1930 with the expansion of stores that extended credit to their customers. This unofficial money was also issued by mining companies as payment to their employees with the expectation that it would be used to buy things at company stores. 

Trade tokens were manufactured using base metals such as brass, copper, nickel and aluminum. Company stores and businesses ordered them from several different die-sinking firms, including the Los Angeles Rubber Stamp Co., Patrick & Co., L.H. Moise founded in 1893 and C.A. Klinker & Co. based in San Francisco. These companies often included their maker’s mark at the lower base on the obverse — or face — of the token while others left no mark. Many tokens are identifiable by their raised letters and numbers, while others are identified with incuse (sunken) lettering. Tokens were manufactured in a variety of shapes, including octagonal, scalloped and triangular, but in most cases, circular.

Part of my husband's collection from a family-owned store

 

Trade tokens were commonly given out by stores in accordance with purchases made, then accepted as currency on the customers next purchase. It not only encouraged spending but also loyalty to that particular store. Furthermore, when a store took trade tokens in payment, they could then reuse them for the next customer without having to have additional coins “reminted,” and if never redeemed, a simple means of financial gain.

Exonumists are attentive to not only the history behind the items but their shapes and what types of items they are. Serious collectors can access token catalogs organized by location, time period, and/or type of item. To collectors of such items the trade tokens of a particular store, location or time period are worth far more than the dollar, quarter, dime, nickel or pennies they represented during their original uses. One can find trade tokens in some of the same places that deal with rare coins, currency, at flea markets, antique stores, on Ebay, perhaps even in Grandma’s attic. Take a look around and see what you can find. You know that old saying about one person’s trash….. You might just find a stash of old trade tokens someone would consider a treasure!

Rand Stafford isn't looking for love. He'd ridden that trail ending with a shattered heart. What he needs is help caring for his orphan nieces. Desperate, he places an advertisement for a wife. Fleeing her employer who would use her in his crimes, the ad sounds like the perfect refuge to Carly Blair. Escaping the city, the intrigue, and the danger to hide on a Kansas cattle ranch is worth a shot. Its sanctuary comes with a price—a husband. But it's better than being caught by the law. Or is it?

 

 

GUEST POST: America's Earliest Colonial History by Shannon McNear

 

French Florida

A fellow history-nerd friend messaged me a while back:

You know how every time one thinks one has history down and then another obscure fact crops up that changes everything? Yeah, that. The first interest in colonizing America wasn't fueled by Queen Elizabeth, who was hoping to stop Spanish expansion. Before that, Jean Ribault landed on the shores of Florida hoping to set up a colony. For Huguenots, I believe.

https://jeanribault.org/

Take a peek at this beautiful website. You're welcome. Makes me long to write a story about this man and the people he sought to defend--although now, alas, I am head down in a story series featuring another, but maybe not so different, group.

That group would be the famed Lost Colonists of Roanoke Island.

These days, even the word "colonial" has a bad name.

Emperor Gojong of Joseon (Korea)

Truth is, every empire down through history has sought to grow their holdings and increase their wealth by annexing other lands and peoples. I was recently reminded of this while my youngest girl and I were watching, of all things, a Korean drama set during the early 1900's, a particularly turbulent time of Korean history. Joseon (Korea) was just beginning to open up to Western ways, just beginning to not immediately put Christians to death, and struggling to find her place between China, Russia, America, and Japan. The latter, that tiny but ridiculously ambitious island nation, made no secret of its desire to make Korea a colony of Japan. Ruthlessness and political maneuvering were the standard of the day, and corruption abounded.

Good Queen Bess at her coronation

Not so very different from the time of Queen Elizabeth. "Good Queen Bess" furthered her father's move in breaking away from the Church of Rome by establishing the Church of England. Bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants abounded, and religious views were the standard by which political views were judged. Ireland suffered a harsh and bloody takeover by England for reasons which I will not get into here, but doubtless that set the precedent for what later happened on American shores. When Elizabeth granted Sir Walter Raleigh his charter for a colony in the New World, she was very clear, however, that it was at least in part for the purpose of furthering the Gospel to unreached peoples, even though plenty of folk in England were unhappy enough with the way things were going in the newborn Anglican Church that they wished to either purify the Church (thus, Puritans) or create their own group entirely (Separatists).

Of course, the Spanish were feared the most. Spain already had holdings across South America, and their treasure galleons were the most coveted prize of English privateers. Staunchly Catholic to the point of meting out torture and death to those who disagreed (the Spanish Inquisition, anyone?), they were equally ruthless on the sea. The English were by far not the only ones to suffer at Spanish hands. As outlined in the website I shared above, French Huguenots sought refuge on what is now the Florida and South Carolina coast, but were seen as a threat to Spain's supremacy in the New World and met with death once their Protestant leanings were made known.

Marker at Fort Matanzas National Park

Lee Miller theorizes in her book Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony that the group which set sail in 1587 under Governor John White, seeking to establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World, were Separatists. If so, the fate of French Huguenots would have been fairly fresh, and avoiding the Spanish at all costs would have been uppermost on their minds. Brandon Fullam makes the case in The Lost Colony of Roanoke: New Perspectives that this would have been a good reason why they settled on Roanoke Island rather than going north to the Chesapeake area as originally planned. Maybe it's just my own firm Christian faith, but I find the Separatist theory quite compelling. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a people group migrated in search of religious freedom, would it?

~*~*~

Releasing December 1, 2021:  Daughters of the Lost Colony: ELINOR

In 1587, Elinor White Dare sailed from England heavy with her first child but full of hopes. Her father, a renowned artist and experienced traveler, has convinced her and her bricklayer husband Ananias to make the journey to the New World. Land, they are promised, more goodly and beautiful than they can ever imagine. But nothing goes as planned from landing at the wrong location, to facing starvation, to the endless wait for help to arrive. And, beyond her comprehension, Elinor finds herself utterly alone. . . .

The colony at Roanoke disappeared into the shadows of history. But, what if one woman survived to leave a lasting legacy?

Preorder link:  https://amzn.to/3ihydJJ

~*~*~

Transplanted to North Dakota after more than two decades in the Deep South, Shannon McNear loves losing herself in local history. She’s the author of four novellas and four full-length novels, with her first novella, Defending Truth in A Pioneer Christmas Collection, having the honor of being a 2014 RITA® nominee, and her most recent novella, The Wise Guy and the Star from Love’s Pure Light, being a 2021 SELAH winner. Yet her greatest joy is in being a military wife, mom of eight, mother-in-law of three, and grammie of four. She’s also a contributor to Colonial Quills and a member of ACFW. When not cooking, researching, or leaking story from her fingertips, she enjoys being outdoors, basking in the beauty of the northern prairies.

The Enemy that Never Was

By Terrie Todd

In 1942, a young girl named Osono and her family left her father’s farm in the Vancouver area to live in an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia—along with thousands of other Japanese Canadians. The children did not understand what was happening, only that their parents felt unhappy about the move. Born in Canada, the kids had no reason to think they were different than any other Canadians. They didn’t understand that Japan had dropped bombs on Hawaii, or how that act made them suspect. They couldn’t grasp that both American and Canadian governments had decided their parents could no longer be trusted. They were innocent of the prejudice all too prevalent in the world around them. 

Japanese Canadian family being relocated from BC

Once in the internment communities, many of the children reported that they enjoyed the time as though they were off at summer camp. School and recreational activities were provided, and they spent plenty of time with other kids—all of whom looked like they did. While the kids knew that “somewhere, far away,” a war was being fought, it had little to do with them. The only real down side was that, for many, their fathers were away much of the time, working in lumber camps.

Japanese Canadians saying goodbye to friends

Meanwhile, here in Manitoba, farmers were overwhelmed because so much of our workforce had joined or been drafted into military service, leaving farms without laborers to bring in the harvest. The Canadian government decided it could solve two problems by offering the Japanese Canadians the opportunity to come to Manitoba to work on farms. That way, they could keep their families together. To Osono’s parents and many others, it sounded like a better alternative in a horribly confusing time. They’d already lost their homes, property, businesses, and dignity. How could this be any worse?

Japanese Canadians loaded into trucks to go to internment camps and farms

Osono remembers making the long trip by train and how she had no desire to work on a farm or be separated from her friends. She recalls her dismay at seeing miles and miles of “nothing.” Her family ended up on the Tully family’s sugar beet farm near Oakville, Manitoba. What Osono could not possibly have known is that Mr. Tully endured ridicule from neighboring farmers for taking so many of these workers. Or that she would eventually elope with one of the Tully sons. Or that doing so would cause a major scandal in the community. Or that the birth of her twin boys would restore peace and bring the families together.

Japanese Canadians subjected to racist graffiti

By the 1970s, younger Japanese Canadians, most of whom had been sheltered from the reasons behind the move to Manitoba, began uncovering the truth of their family history. More than 22,000 Japanese Canadians had been forced into this situation, and returning to their former lives, even after the war ended, had become impossible. Their properties had been sold to cover the cost of their own internment and relocation.

In 1988, after years of negotiations, the Japanese Canadian community received an apology from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and a redress entitlement of $21,000 for each individual who had been relocated during the war. Many used the funds to send their children or grandchildren to university, reversing the cycle of poverty they’d been thrust into because of their government’s choices.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signs redress agreement, 1988

 

Bitter war might be raging overseas, but Rose Onishi is on track to fulfill her lifelong goal of becoming a dazzling concert pianist. When forced by her own government to leave her beloved home to work on a sugar beet farm, Rose’s dream fades to match the black soil working its way into her calloused hands.

When Rusty Thorne joins the Canadian Army, he never imagines becoming a Japanese prisoner of war. Only his rare letters from home sustain him—especially the brilliant notes from his mother’s charming helper, which the girl signs simply as “Rose.”



Terrie Todd’s characters are subjected to the humiliation of internment
and imprisonment between the pages of her upcoming novel, Rose Among Thornes, now available for pre-ordering. She’s also the award-winning author of The Silver Suitcase, Maggie’s War and Bleak Landing. Terrie is represented by Mary DeMuth of Books & Such Literary Agency. She lives with her husband, Jon, in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada where they raised their three children and where her novels are set. They are grandparents to five boys.

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A PICTURE’S WORTH: THE CABINET CARD

By Mary Davis

Charles Joice (Personal Family Collection)

Today, people take dozens of pictures a day, but back in the 1880s, a person was fortunate to have just one photograph of a loved one. I can’t help but feel that the value of a photograph has been diluted with the plethora of digital images, both ones we’ve taken and the deluge of them on the Internet.

In The Débutante’s Secret, a stranger watching Aunt Henny has a cabinet card he is often looking at. But what is a cabinet card? The term and general meaning of cabinet card has been in my little brain filed under “things I can use in my stories set in the late 1800s and on,” but I can’t remember specifically when I learned this information.

Photographs were first printed on paper from a negative in 1847. That’s a lot farther back than I realized.

Allen Calkin (Personal Family Collection)

When photography was beginning to gain popularity, cartes-de-visite (visting cards) were created in France in the 1850s, a smaller (2.5 x 4 inches) precursor to cabinet cards. Cabinet cards consisted of a thin-paper photograph (roughly 4 x 5.5 inches) mounted on a light-to-heavy-weight cardstock (roughly 3.5 x 6.5 inches). Where the cartes-de-visite were small and designed to give as calling cards or to give to a friend, cabinet cards by design were meant to sit upon a cabinet and could be viewed from across the room.

Agnes McGregor (Personal Family Collection)

Due to the photography process and difference in paper, earlier photographs and cabinet cards were the brownish sepia tone because of the albumen process used. Albumen is found in egg whites. This process was replaced by collodion, gelatin, and gelatin bromide processes, which generally created black and white photographs.

Cabinet cards were first introduced in 1863 in landscape format before they introduced portrait style. Though they were around in the 1870s, they rose to the height of their popularity in the 1880s and began to decline in the 1890s.

Harold Blakey (Personal Family Collection)

Over the decades, various weights and colors of cardstock were used to mount these photographic memories on. Light-weight card and light colors were more common in the early years (1866-1880), then heavier card and darker colors from 1880s on. Borders and lettering also changed from decade to decade. Some had one or two lines in red or gold and some were edged in one color or another. Often some sort of embossing framed the picture.

Vanity, too, was a consideration. From nearly the beginning, photographers employed artists to touch up negatives to hide facial imperfections before making prints. I suppose this was wise to keep customers happy if they were going to lay down a chunk of money. Besides, the photographer’s name was generally printed or embossed on the card so others could find them to have their portrait taken.

E. D. & Mary E. Shugart 1908 (Personal Family Collection)

For a time (early on), cabinet cards supplanted the photographic album that had become popular with the smaller cartes-de-visite. The cardstock used for cabinet cards was generally thicker than for the cartes-de-visite.

With the invention of the Brownie camera in 1900 and personal photography becoming popular, cabinet cards fell out of favor. The last ones were likely made in the 1930s, but they had been mostly gone since around 1920.

***All images of cabinet cards in this post are from my private family collection and may not be used elsewhere without written permission. I feel blessed to have these treasures.

Russel & Floyd Calkin 1903 (Personal Family Collection)

I love to see tons of pictures of my grand-babies, but I also value these single images of bygone relatives. I love the feel of a physical picture in my hands and print off photos just so I can hold them.

Do you prefer digital or physical copies of pictures?

***NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER***

THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET (Quilting Circle 4)

Will Geneviève open her heart to a love she never imagined?

Washington State 1894

Geneviève Marseille has one purpose in coming to Kamola—stopping her brother from digging up the past. Deputy Montana has lived a simple life. But when a fancy French lady steps off the train and into his arms, his modest existence might not be enough anymore. A nemesis from Aunt Henny's past arrives in town threatening her with jail. Will she flee as she’d done all those years ago, or stand her ground in the town she’s made her home? When secrets come out, will the lives of Geneviève, Montana, and Aunt Henny ever be the same?

 

MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her latest release is THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3, Salah Award Winner). The Quilting Circle Book 4, THE DÉBUTANTE'S SECRET, will release August of 2021. Some of her other recent titles include; "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, Courting Her Amish Heart, The Widow’s Plight, Courting Her Secret Heart , “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , and Courting Her Prodigal Heart . 2019 titles include The Daughter's Predicament and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-six years and one cat. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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Westerbork and Vught: Not Your Normal Summer Camps

 by Sherri Stewart

We’ve all heard the fable about the frog in the tepid water. As long as the water heated up slowly, the frog didn’t try to escape. Apparently, the story is an urban legend, but it carries an underlying message: People can be lulled to their demise. Such was the case with transit camps, Westerbork and Vught in the Netherlands during World War II. The camps’ conditions were so tolerable that their residents were lulled into the belief that concentration camps weren’t so bad. Were they ever wrong!

A transit camp was set up to hold prisoners temporarily until they could be sent to large labor camps outside of the Netherlands—Bergen Belsen, Auschwitz, and Ravensbrück, to name a few. More than 100,000 prisoners passed through Westerbork. Only 5000 of those survived once they left.

Yet while they were at the transit camp, conditions were not horrific. At Vught, prisoners were free to do what they wanted every Sunday within the boundaries of the camp. During the other six days, prisoners had to line up before dawn and stand an hour in the cold under the watchful eye of harsh guards. But the prisoners’ work wasn’t difficult—just long and tedious. Vught prisoners could receive packages from home—sweets, sweaters, and puzzles, although the packages were heavily scrutinized by the guards. Corrie ten Boom spent time at Vught before being sent to Ravensbrück. Ann Frank and her family passed through Westerbork before they were sent to Bergen-Belsen.

Westerbork had originally been set up as a refugee camp for German Jews who had escaped. Later on, the Germans used it also as a transit camp, so there were two types of residents: long-term refugees, and temporary prisoners. As a transit camp rather than a work or death camp, however, it was organized very differently from other Nazi internment centers: no corpses, medical experiments, or SS guards with dogs and whips marred the campgrounds. Instead, Westerbork was set up like a miniature city, with a café, offices, a registry, a canteen, kindergarten, and hospital. There was even a cabaret at Westerbork, where the theatrical group presented Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Only the street names – the Boulevard of Misery, Suffering Alley, and Worry Street – hinted at the fears and ultimate fate of the inmates. Yet like the frog in the lukewarm water, most of the prisoners had no idea what awaited them at the other end of the train tracks. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/westerbork

Sherri Stewart loves a clean novel, sprinkled with romance and a strong message that challenges her faith. She spends her working hours with books—either editing others’ manuscripts or writing her own. Her passion is traveling to the settings of her books and sampling the food. She loves the Netherlands, and she’s still learning Dutch, although she doesn’t need to since everyone speaks perfect English. A recent widow, Sherri lives in Orlando with her lazy dog, Lily. She shares recipes, tidbits of the book’s locations, and pix in her newsletter. Subscribe at http://eepurl.com/gZ-mv9

 
A Song for Her Enemies https://amzn.to/2YJBkRn

 

The History of Scissors

by

Molly Jebber

Amish Historical Romance Author

There are so many different kinds of scissors. A knife was used to cut hair before scissors were invented, and there was a need for something better which were scissors. After reading this, I had a new appreciation for scissors!


During the middle ages, scissors were made by heating a bar of iron or steel, then flattening and shaping its ends into blades on an anvil. The center of the bar was heated, bent to form the spring, then cooled and reheated for flexibility.


In 1500 BC, ancient Egyptians used a single piece of bronze metal made into two blades controlled by a metal strip. The strip separated the metal blades until they were squeezed.


The first known scissors closer to what we know as scissors appeared 3,000 to 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, which is between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers northwest of the bottleneck of Baghdad in Iraq. However, the Romans invented makeshift scissors of bronze or iron around 100 AD. Not as easy to use as what the ones we have the opportunity to buy today.


In 1761, Richard Hinchchliffe who lived in Cheney Square, London, England, made a more modern type of scissors. He used hardened and polished cast steel to make scissors, and he manufactured and mass produced them.


In 1893, pinking shears were invented and patented by Louise Austin of Whatcom, Washington. These scissors have notched or serrated blades that cut cloth to give it a wavy or zigzag edge.

In the early 1900's, scissors were hand-forged with made with elaborate and beautiful handles. They were made by hammering steel on indented surfaces known as bosses to form the blades. The rings in the handles were made by punching a hole in the steel and enlarging it with the pointed end of an anvil.

I hope you've enjoyed learning about scissors. Something we use almost daily. 

Do you have a favorite pair of scissors in your home? Comment below for a chance to win a copy of MARYANN'S HOPE. I'll notify the winner by email within three days after this post, so leave your email address in the comment section below!



For a list of Molly's Historical Amish Romance Books,
click here: http://www.mollyjebber.com

Popcorn, Hunting, and Prayer? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

One of the best ways we connect with history is through language, and we do it every day! Calling fellow word-nerds as we explore more gems that rode into the modern vernacular by way of the Wild West. 

Today we’ll discuss a word with unsavory origins, touch on hunting, and end with prayer.

Wild West Sayings We Use Today – Part 25

Poppycock

When describing senseless talk and other nonsense in Wild West days, people would exclaim, “Poppycock!” Most of us don’t indulge in that anymore. The word has moved from an exclamation to name a brand of candied popcorn. That may be an unappetizing association, as it turns out.

Historical Reference: Poppycock summons to mind a portly British general who peers through a monocle at someone who brings up a political point to which he disagrees. Tapping his cane, acquired after a war injury, the general bellows, “Poppycock!”

Or is that just me? I thought not.

It may interest you to know that, although the origins of poppycock are uncertain, the British probably aren’t responsible. No, the guilty party is most likely the Dutch—more specifically Dutch immigrants to America. Poppycock emerged as a slang term in 1852, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. I mentioned guilt because the term appears to have evolved from a Dutch word I won’t repeat or translate, since it was used as a vulgarity.

Let’s move on to candied popcorn, shall we? It’s unclear how a swear word became the name of a popular treat, especially in that era. Either the main theory for the origins of poppycock is wrong, or else the word became detached somehow from its meaning. It doesn’t help that the origin of the name isn’t fully understood. Howard Vair is credited with inventing the popcorn treat in the 1950s as a snack to tote along on road trips. Ah, road trips! In the days before smartphones and satellite GPS, road trips were expeditions into the unknown. But I digress.

What we do know is that in 1969 Arnold Rebane, an employee of a Swiss company called Wander, filed a patent for a popcorn treat identical to Poppycock. The patent then passed to the Lincoln Snacks Company of Lincoln, Nebraska. ConAgra Foods acquired this product in September 2007 when it purchased Lincoln Snacks. Poppycock then appeared under Orville Redenbacher, which produces Poppycock today.

The original Poppycock recipe consisted of glazed popcorn, almonds, and pecans. Specialty versions feature chocolate, cashews, and pecans, and recipes for various versions have cropped up online.

Examples:

Slang term: “The reasons put forth for raising taxes are complete poppycock!”

Product name: “Please pick up a box of Poppycock while you’re at the grocery store.”

Pot Shot

This slang term refers to someone who derides another person in an opportunistic and possibly false way.

Historical Reference:

The figurative use of ‘pot shot’ derived from the actual practice of taking random or careless shots at animals, often from ambush. This provided easy meat for the pot but was frowned upon by those who revered hunting as a sport.

Pot shot appeared in 1836 as a literal term and had entered the slang lexicon by 1929.

Example: “That reporter shouldn’t have taken a potshot at the governor for political reasons.”

Pray Tell

This idiom started as a forthright inquiry that meant ‘I beg of you, tell me.’ Modern use is more complicated. Pray tell as a direct request to ‘please tell’ tends to sound archaic at best, snobbish at worst. The phrase might be used in a straightforward manner for emphasis or humor. However, we are more likely to hear it employed as a sarcastic barb, meaning ‘tell me if you dare.’

Historical Reference: ’Pray’ comes from ‘precari,’ which in Latin meant ‘to ask earnestly or beg.’ The nuance of ‘tell’ signifying ‘to reveal or disclose’ is from 1400.

The phrase, ‘I pray thee’ (I ask you) emerged somewhere around the year 1300. By the late-14th century, more people said, ‘I pray you.’ The 16th century saw the phrase shortened to ‘pray.’

Some attribute Shakespeare for creating ‘pray tell.’ While the idiom liberally sprinkles The Bard’s writings, its origins reach back much farther. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the first citation is from 1665. “But pray tell us once more in certainty whether it must consequently make 600 li a Yeare’ (Marvell Corr. Li Wks. 18725 il. 287).

Examples:

Direct Inquiry: “Where, pray tell, have you laid the scissors?”

For Emphasis or Humor: “Does your fiancé have a brother, pray tell?”

Sarcastic Question: “Pray tell, why are you sneaking in after your curfew?”

Questions for You

• Are you hungry, like me, for candied popcorn?
• Did you guess the word origins? 
• Did any surprise you? 

Pray tell. I’d love to know. 😊

What's New with Janalyn Voigt

I do have a bit of authorial news to relay, but first please indulge me in an anecdote. 

Recently, my husband couldn’t reconcile my use of the word ‘underage’ (pronounced ŭn′dər-ĭj, not ŭn′dər-ājd) to describe a shortfall. I know. Who talks like that? Probably only an author. He'd heard ‘overage,’ a word with an opposite meaning, but never ‘underage.’ I had to look up the word before he would believe it actually exists. I cheekily informed him not to challenge someone who spent long hours in childhood devouring dictionaries for fun.

And now for the author news. Next month, I'll participate in a huge promotional effort by many historical fiction authors. Stay tuned for details in my next post or sign up for The Creative Worlds of Janalyn Voigt mostly-monthly newsletter to learn more.

The Promise Tree (Montana Treasure, book 1)  

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker—no matter what her wayward heart desires.

Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him.

Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Expressing his opinion sounds jealous and pushes Liberty further away. Jake’s efforts to forget the woman he loves lands him in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

A bounty hunter on the trail of a notorious outlaw gallops into town, and Liberty finds herself in unexpected peril. When Jake rides after her, he faces a test of faith. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love.

Set during a troubled time in America, the Montana Treasure series explores faith, courage, and love in the Wild West. Read this heartwarming story to affirm your faith in love.