A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE has been Kindled!

Woo Hoo!

Amazon just posted a pre-order button for the Kindle edition of my new historical novel for young readers, A Buss From Lafayette!


Check it out!


Pre-order A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE Kindle

The REAL Penncroft Farm (sort of)

In the 1970s, we lived for five years in Wayne, PA, outside Philadelphia. (Wayne, BTW, was named after "Mad" Anthony Wayne, a Pennsylvanian who served in the Revolution War with distinction and was quite a colorful character, apparently.) Our sons learned to ride bikes at Valley Forge, and our family often visited Brandywine Battlefield and historic sites in Philadelphia. We especially liked eating lunch at the City Tavern.  (More about that later.) 

A couple we knew while we lived there had a horse farm they named "Penncroft Farm".  Their house was built in the antique Pennsylvania style, with different sections that had differing exterior finishes.

After we moved to Minnesota in 1981, I did not want my kids to forget the history we had experienced while living in Pennsylvania.  Very soon after that, I started writing a story about a boy who moved from Minnesota to Pennsylvania.  I needed a name for the farm where he and his family were to make their new home.  I wanted it to sound a bit exotic to the Minnesota boy, and reflect the Pennsylvania location. Then I remembered the name of our friends' place and borrowed its name: "Penncroft Farm". It took me a long time to write (and to find a publisher) but The Riddle of Penncroft Farm was released in 1989 by Harcourt.

After we moved to New Hampshire in 1991, my then 11 year-old daughter and I went back to Pennsylvania to see some old friends. We took the opportunity to visit some of the places that I had put into The Riddle of Penncroft Farm when I was living a thousand miles away.

Here is the "original" Penncroft Farm. (I wouldn't be able to find it today. Our friends moved away from there just after we did in the early 80s, and now I don't remember where it was.)

 Here is how I described the fictional Penncroft Farm in the book:

      The headlights picked out a crooked wooden fence and a post with a sign in spiky, old fashioned
letters. “‘Penncroft Farm,’” I read out loud. “‘Established 1760.’”
      Dad eased the car around the corner and started up the driveway. “Don’t even think of
skateboarding down this, Lars,” he said. “There’s quite a drop-off on the other side of the pike.
You’d break a leg if you went off it, and maybe your neck.”
     “It’s too rutted for skateboarding anyway, Dad,” I replied. Then, as we jounced up the long,
steep driveway, I stuck my head out the window to check out my new home.
     Even by moonlight I could tell that it was different from any house I’d ever seen. It looked as if
someone hadn’t been able to decide what sort of house he wanted, so he’d hooked several
kinds together. There were dark, bumpy stones on the middle part, but the left section was
shingled like our old Minnesota house; the right was covered with white stuff."

-The Riddle of Penncroft Farm  © 1989 Dorothea G. Jensen

Here is the cover art done by Gary Lippincott for the back of the original hardcover edition of The Riddle of Penncroft Farm. As he apparently grew up near the location of my story, he knew exactly what colonial houses of that region looked like. I've always liked this picture, except for the fact that  the driveway goes UPHILL. 

Lars would have had a hard time skateboarding "down" it except by pretty tricky maneuvering!

THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM: Historical Fiction Squared??

I have been re-reading The Riddle of Penncroft Farm, my historical novel about the American Revolution for young readers, in order to write "bubbles", i.e. author insights, about it on my Bublish page.

I am happy to report that it is still quite a good story. (I feel I can say that because I wrote it so long ago it seems as if somebody else is the author.) It is really two stories, however: one set in "modern" times and the other set during the American Revolution.

As the School Library Journal said about Riddle:

"This is an entertaining mystery involving a missing will that could stand alone, but combined with Geordie's enthralling tales of Valley Forge during the American Revolution, Jensen gives readers two terrific stories that are intertwined nicely and come together in a satisfying conclusion." 




As I have a new historical novel for kids (middle graders and young adults) coming out in the spring, (A Buss From Lafayette), I have been thinking lately about what historical fiction is, exactly.  There are a number of  definitions out there, as this Wikipedia article shows:

When I read these definitions, I realized that it has been more than 25 years since Riddle was published, and more than 30 years since I started to write it.  That could mean, according to the last definition, that the "modern" part of the book might be regarded as "historical" now. (Although it all gets a bit convoluted because obviously it was not set 25 years before it was written.) But young readers of today could certainly read the "modern" part of my story as if it were also "historical." 

The "modern" setting of Riddle took place in the 1980s, which in some ways is as distant from today as the American Revolution. No cell phones.  No internet. No e-mail.  No streaming videos. No texting. No video games. (Pong doesn't count.) 

Let's face it, in a way, America has been through another Revolution in the last 25 years. So my book is actually portraying TWO eras that are well and truly "bygone".

Besides, since thinking of it this way would put my book in the same category as Jane Austen's, I am more than happy to do so!

I'm not USUALLY a braggart, but. . .

Take a gander at this lovely number! That's the number of times people have read one of my "author insights" (called "bubbles") since I started writing them on my Bublish.com author page in late July.  (https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5755)

I've been having great fun re-visiting books I've written, both recent and not-so-recent, and reminiscing about how I came up with ideas for these stories.

In the case of The Riddle of Penncroft Farm, this means remembering bits from many years ago, as  I started writing that story in the early 80s!  I am amazed to find that when I read it now, I still recall why I put certain things into Riddle, and where many of my ideas originated. 

Sometimes, I make a Bubble that simply directs readers to other sites to see pictures of objects mentioned in the story (stake-and-rider fences, pudding caps, riddles, etc.), to watch a book trailer, or video blog, or to hear a song that is sung by a character in the book.

I have also been writing bits about two of my four Izzy Elf books, Dizzy, the Stowaway Elf, and Frizzy, the S.A.D. Elf. (FYI: a fifth is in the works, Bizzy, the Know-It-All Elf.) Of course, these are fantasy story poems, so it's harder to refer readers to places where they can see the imagined items mentioned in these stories, such as Virtual Reins, Elfascopes etc. However, I do direct readers to sites where they can watch book trailers, video blogs etc.  

I guess anyone who wants to see these interesting elfin devices will just have to buy the Santa's Izzy Elves books. (Now there's a thought!)

As you might suspect from the devices cited above, the Izzy Elves (and Santa himself) are quite 21st century in the way they approach their age old tasks.

Anyway, you are cordially invited to visit my Bublish page to join in the fun.(https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5755)

P.S. I can hardly wait to start writing "insights" about my new historical novel for young readers,  A Buss From Lafayette. I've got a manuscript all marked up ready to go, but I can't post anything until the book is 100% finalized. With any luck, that will happen in about a month. Stay tuned!

Big News! A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE is available for pre-order!

Woo hoo!

My new historical novel for young readers, A Buss from Lafayette,  can now be pre-ordered.

It will be released on April 22, 2016.

Here's the link from the publisher, BQB, where it can be purchased at a discount at this time.  Eventually there will also be pre-order/order links on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Books,  iBooks, and Kobo.  Buss will also be available from Ingram and Baker & Taylor.

Preorder Link for A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE


Hooray!

Cross Blogging with the Izzy Elves

Yes, yes, I know I'm supposed to keep my Izzy Elves confined to their own blog, but I just had to share this Elf-Oriented video blog here.

Dorothea Jensen Video Blog #5: Elf Origin

Tough to Keep the Two Parts of My Writing Life Straight!

So, as you may know, I write two TOTALLY different kinds of stories for kids: historical fiction and rhyming modern Christmas stories (illustrated).

Sometimes it gets a bit confusing for me.  But I keep trudging away.

For example, the Izzy Elves love to use social media. (Through which they often complain about me). They especially hate it when something about my historical fiction is accidentally posted on their IzzyElfBlog or on their twitter account.  They apparently resent that I have been spending so much time lately working on my latest work of historical fiction, A Buss from Lafayette. 

I try my best to stay out of their way, but I have found that if I write a "bubble" on my Bublish account) and click on "share", it gets posted on whichever twitter or Facebook account is open.

And because it is officially posted by Bublish, I can't delete it.

The Izzy Elves get really steamed when this happens.

Sorry, Izzies.

I'm Doing My Best!