1777 - DANBURY ON FIRE!



  • 1777 -- Danbury On Fire!
  • Read a Page!
  • Bodies in the Basement!
  • Putting 1777 on the Map
  • Buy now!
  • Events
  • The Occasional Blog
  • Teaching with "1777"
  • Now Available - Study Guide
  • A Very Virulent 1777 Virus

The Battle of Ridgefield

5/3/2022

0 Comments

 

So mind-blowing to be in CT for the interment of the four persons discovered under a house built in the 1790s! I saw the uniform buttons from the unfortunate gentleman that someone cared enough about to give a decent burial. (The others were thrown down unclothed as far as can be determined.)
I also visited the graves of sundry members of the Hamilton family, at last discovering Uncle John's wife's stone, either placed or replaced near Norman and Eli Hamilton in the Pembroke Cemetery. I also visited the Knapps, Benjamin and Noah, father and son, in Old North Main in Danbury.
A memorable trip for sure. A culmination of my hope and attempt to bring the Revolution to the foreground of both imagination and reality.

0 Comments

Catching Up on Ft. Frederick

5/3/2022

0 Comments

 

The net result counted over 6K came to the 4-day event. With a site out of the main travel pattern, I still lucked into a spot next to the Maple Syrup Man, Casey.
Nice to catch up with the lady semptress from J. Rook. Each night featured a walk to the Potomac River, a joy forever....

0 Comments

My New Jersey Invasion

4/11/2022

0 Comments

 

I wasn't kidding about north being colder than south. The first day at the Abraham Staat House (1740) was warm and lovely, giving me a false sense of security.  Did I freeze the entire rest of the time? Yes. Did I receive compliments on new vestments? Yes! I made some new friends, too! 

0 Comments

Heavy Investment in Vestments

4/5/2022

0 Comments

 

Guess we already know that north is colder than south. I'm learning.
New woolen cape was ordered and came amazingly fast from my friend Lauren at Samson's. Also ordered a top and think I will get another made from fabric I have. Decided to use a tablecloth of my grandmothers for an apron. All I can say is nothing had better get on it! So off I go to South Bound Brook NJ, now with tent stakes that would hold the Spinnaker on a 50-foot sailboat!

0 Comments

2022 Events Report

3/15/2022

0 Comments

 
The Battle at Guilford Courthouse March 11-12

Cold and rain predominated, approx 3" of rain.
The food truck left at 10AM Saturday, so this old lady did what she has never done before: I packed up and left before the event completed. 34 degrees in the morning and 34 when I left, along with my compadre, The Old Goat pedlar, as well as the nice folks with the fire. No fire= no stay. Snapping the pin out of a 2x2 tentpole says it all.  Orders went out to several companies to prevent this in the future. Our country was saved in the 18th century by the same strength of purpose that showed the militia tents all still occupied while we sutlers abandoned ship!
0 Comments

GUESS WHAT?

9/16/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

On Writing Seminars

4/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Editors' comments resemble instructions from a boss. The suggestions are  meaningful to them, but maybe not to you. I took a chapter book for critique several years ago and was told to "heighten the stakes, put in more tension and anxiety." I could hardly believe it -- for eight year olds?  I enquired just how I should accomplish that in a kids book. Parental discord was suggested, dumbfounding this amateur. Eventually I figured out how to spread fear and loathing among three children and two adults.
When my editor for 1777, Val Muller, asked for more emotion, my scene involved one child and one unconscious adult. I could only express the child's anxiety to leave the scene, because that would have been my own 12 year old reaction!
When I went to Writers' Project Runway two weeks ago, I wasn't sure what take-aways I would find.
​What I learned counted as the full answer to the question above. The lessons on layering emotion let me feel that I'd hit the jackpot!
Bravo Pennwriters for bringing Annette Dashofy and Hillary Hauck to us for a day and
thanks to Bobbi Carducci, for everything!
0 Comments

Two Trowbridges - Adrift Together in the Civil War

3/21/2018

0 Comments

 
My last addition to Spot Writers told of a Trowbridge victim of the LaFourche Crossing battle in the Civil War. The attending surgeon was another Trowbridge, originally from Danbury, but practicing medicine in Stamford CT at the time of enlistment in the 23rd Ct. Volunteers.
If they did not know each other before, this could not have been the most pleasant meeting. Dr. William Trowbridge was left the only doctor on the field to care for almost two hundred wounded Confederates. How did it happen that the Union troops went off and left him with the opposing forces for six weeks? At that time their period of enlistment was up and they came back to fetch him and such Union wounded as had been taken. The Confederates appear content to have him to continue practicing as their doctor.
​Stay tuned!
0 Comments

Sundry on Friday

3/16/2018

0 Comments

 
Today's Spot Writers offering is my favorite of the ones Val has given us.
I thought up this topic and now have to do my best by Dr. William Trowbridge, the results to appear in about two weeks.

I had stopped fast fiction and gone back to slow fiction and 1777. Driven by guilt, I have been getting up at 3 AM to refine it even more. I'm following after my editor's suggestions of last summer (before the big move to Hamilton.)

​Soon I will be furloughed from work and plan to visit Clark Hamilton's last battle, at Cedar Creek in Winchester, VA. I have never really done anything more than look at it while turning into my friend Darrell's driveway. A little more research needed here!
0 Comments

Their Very Last Chance

3/3/2018

0 Comments

 
 I spend so much time on my recent flash fiction addiction because the Hamilton family characters in my book have lived with me for five years and will live with me for the rest of my life.
Minor characters only see the glow from the flash fiction - there and gone, just as they were. I have always felt a guilt that those people were as deserving as any family member and yet heard, "No full-length novel for you!"
My last FF piece was about a Trowbridge who lived against all odds. This week's offering on the next page is about a Hamilton whose life was taken from him. We would never know how it happened if someone hadn't told his parents an ugly truth. Was the horror of wasting this wonderful young man in such a way worse than having him fall on the field of battle?
How could the truth hurt more than the deceptive phrases we dream up to glorify war?
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    Archives
    I do too have archives! 
    ​(Just not many)

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    CONTACT ME!
    MHB@danburyonfire
    Love to talk about anything!

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly