Hmmm. How did I miss that??

 The New England Historical Society posted this today:

This article reminded me that I wrote about this in The Riddle of Penncroft Farm many years ago. When Lars first goes to school, it is Halloween,. The teacher, Mrs. Hettrick, is telling the kids about the history of carving jack o’lanterns and how originally people carved them out of turnips.

I opened my e-book of Riddle, and searched for pumpkin, turnip, carving, and jack o’lanterns but found nothing. Yet again I discovered that the original editors took something out without my noticing. (It’s only taken me 35 years to do so!)

Braking a wagon: present and past!

I found this image of an antique wagon online, and I’m posting it to show what “brake” meant on a wagon like this. It is the lever sticking up from the left front wheel in the illustration above, and it applied pressure to the wheel to slow it down.

Here is an incident from the modern part of the story, when Lars climbs onto an old wagan, releases the brake (not knowing what it is) and goes on a wild ride down the driveway:

As the wagon lurched down the steep, rutted drive, picking up speed with every passing second, I tried to get up the nerve to jump off, but the sight of the ground rushing by kept my hands riveted to the wagon seat. With rising panic, I fixed my eyes on the pike below and the bone-breaking drop-off I knew was beyond it. In my mind I could see myself flying through the air and hear the splintering of wood. Then, suddenly, just before the wagon hurtled across the road to plunge over the edge, somebody reached out and pulled hard on the lever. The wagon groaned to a stop.

Jensen, Dorothea. The Riddle of Penncroft Farm (Great Episodes) (pp. 28-29). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

And here is the “echo” incident from when Geordie’s runaway team is headed for the Brandywine battlefield:

"At the very moment I climbed to the seat and took up the reins, the valley behind me exploded with artillery fire. Terrified, Daisy and Buttercup reared in their traces. Up and up they went, pawing the smoke-filled air. Then they plunged back to the ground, landing at a dead run. For a few breathless moments I simply clung to the reins, pulling for all I was worth, but the horses were too panic-stricken to feel the bits sawing at their mouths. My arms ached from the effort, and I eased off to recover some strength for another try. Perhaps my horses bolting might be a blessing in disguise, I thought. It would surely get me away from the Brandywine much faster than their usual pace. Then I realized where we were headed: due east toward Birmingham Road, where the British and Americans were about to clash in battle. With strength born of fear, I reached for the brake, only to have the lever break off in my hand.

The Riddle of Penncroft Farm © 1989 by Dorothea Jensen

Prisoners in Independence Hall: The Riddle of Penncroft Farm

 

Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

It's always reassuring to find information that reinforces what I wrote and published. The sign above shows that American prisoners (from the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown) were held in the upstairs of the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia (now called Independence Hall).

Here is what I put in my book, The Riddle of Penncroft Farm:

". . . as I came to the Pennsylvania State House. I peered up at the soaring tower to see the great bell that had been rung to summon folk to hear the Declaration of Independence. The tower was empty. Mystified, my eyes fell to the second-story windows that fronted the Long Gallery—site of elegant state dinners. But Congress had long since fled the city, and no elegant diners peered down from the Long Gallery today. Instead, I spied a crowd of gaunt, ragged men, eyes huge in their skeletal faces.

Horrified, I reined in Daisy and Buttercup. Women in sober Quaker clothes were carrying baskets toward the State House door. I called out to one. “Mistress, who are those men in the Long Gallery?” “The British are using it as a prison,” she answered sadly, “for wounded Continental soldiers captured at Brandywine and Germantown. The blockade made food scarce in the city, and the British expect the Americans to supply food for their own men held here. The American army can barely feed itself, let alone spare any for these poor starved creatures.” I bade her wait. “Here—take some apples for the prisoners,” I called to her, trying not to think how my father would thrash me should he learn what I had done. “And a barrel of perry as well.”

 The Riddle of Penncroft Farm © 1989 by Dorothea Jensen

Update on Pioneer 10: First Exploratory Spacecraft Sent Out of Our Solar System

Update on Pioneer 10

She sighed. “That’s where your room is, Lars,” Dad said. “The far left window on the second floor—the one with the light on.” I glanced up. Someone was silhouetted in the window of what was to be my room. Whoever it was slowly raised one hand. It reminded me of the picture sent on the Pioneer 10 space probe to greet the rest of the universe. “Is that Aunt Cass waving at us?” I asked.

 —The Riddle of Penncroft Farm © 1989 by Dorothea Jensen

I wondered what was going on with  Pioneer 10 (if anything) these days. Below is what I found online from NASA. 

I’m sure that most readers of The Riddle of Penncroft Farm were born many years after the last signal came to earth from this first exploratory space craft. It was still big news when I first started writing that story in the early 1980s, however! 

PIONEER 10

Firsts:

First spacecraft placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellar space

First spacecraft to fly beyond Mars

First spacecraft to fly through the main asteroid belt

First spacecraft to fly past Jupiter

Crossed the orbit of Neptune to become the first human-made object to go beyond Neptune

First spacecraft to use all-nuclear electrical power

Dates:

March 2, 1972: Launch

July 15, 1972: Spacecraft entered the asteroid belt

Dec. 4, 1973: Pioneer 10’s closest approach to Jupiter

 Feb. 1976: Pioneer crossed Saturn’s orbit

June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune

March 31, 1997: Routine contact with spacecraft terminated

Pioneers 10 and 11 both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the future.

Pioneers 10 and 11 both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the future.

Wow! I keep a lot of balls in the air (according to this review)

 I LOVE this review!

Hmm. The video disappeared and I have no idea which review I was talking about here.  Oh, well.

 Finding reviews in the oddest places!

As some of you may know from my website, www.dorotheajensen.com, I used to have another website  spotlighting A Buss from Lafayette. After a few years, I found that keeping up two sites with sometimes overlapping content was too much for me. I canceled everything I could, and stopped payment on the site host, thinking that meant the end of it.

Not long after that, however, I discovered that my old domain name had apparently been acquired by a Nigerian scam group. Weirdly enough, they left all the information about my book in situ. Instead, they inserted links to their scams inside what I had originally posted. Very Strange.

Recently I stumbled across my old site's latest iteration. It is now being used to attract people to some other kind of foreign investment venture. Oddly enough, it appears that someone actually read A Buss from Lafayette and wrote a review on the site! (I believe that this was done so that all the positive qualities of my story could be linked to the positive qualities of the investment deal.) 

Since I feel that a review is a review no matter its source or purpose, however,  I am posting it here:

Once upon a time, in the world of literature, there was a remarkable historical novel for young adults known as "A Buss from Lafayette." Written by the talented author Dorothea Jensen, this book took readers on a journey through time and history, offering a delightful blend of education and entertainment.  In "A Buss from Lafayette," readers are introduced to a witty young girl in New Hampshire who embarks on a quest to discover her family's past, understand her own identity, and explore the significant role of General Lafayette in America's fight for independence during his Farewell Tour of America in 1824-5. As they turn the pages, readers are not only captivated by the intriguing characters and their adventures but also enlightened about a pivotal period in American history.

"A Buss from Lafayette" is a story of discovery, identity, and the pursuit of what is just and right. It reflects the values of integrity, honesty, and the relentless quest for truth. . . 

Clearly whoever read my book and wrote about it understood what I was trying to do.

Not bad for a foreign investment dude!

Sincerely,

Dorothea

Creating Elf Pix!

One reason I self-publish my elf books is that I so enjoy working directly with an illustrator.

Today I will talk about the steps taken by my illustrator, Shayne Hood, and myself to create the perfect picture to illustrate a page of my story, Bizzy, the Bossy Boots Elf. This scene takes place in the gift shop at an amusement park called “Santa Claus Lane,” which is shamelessly modeled on Santa’s Village in Jefferson, NH.

I started by actually visiting Santa’s Village with my husband, and Miles and Henry, our twin grandsons. They had been pressuring me to write a story about them ever since they realized that their two brothers and two cousins all were in other books I had written.

For inspiration, my husband and I took Henry and Miles to Santa’s Village. Here they are in the gift shop there, which looks a bit like “Santa’s Workshop.”

Henry (l) and Miles (r), aged 6, in "Santa's Workshop" 

at Santa's Village in Jefferson, New Hampshire, in July, 2019.

During the pandemic shutdown, I finally wrote the rhyming story about the Izzy Elves going on a vacation, in disguise, to the amusement part called “Santa Claus Lane.” (This was actually a small amusement park near Santa Barbara, CA, where the boys live. It operated from about 1950 until 2000.) 

In the story, Henry and Miles go to Santa Claus Lane, too, with their Gramma and Grampa. (My husband and I.) The boys have read all the other Izzy Elf books, and know 1) what all of the elves look like, 2) what each of them is named 3) what toys each makes, or job each does. (Blizzy makes snow globes; Fizzy makes Jills-in-the-box; Dizzy makes elfascopes; Quizzy makes puzzles; Whizzy wraps presents and designs wrapping paper; Frizzy has changed from styling dolls’ hair to making toy monster trucks; Tizzy reads and recommends books for Santa to deliver; Bizzy manages all the other elves.)

Throughout the day, the boys and the elves keep ending up more or less on the same rides and in the same places, but Miles and Henry have not yet realized the identity of the eight disguised elves.

 

One of their close calls comes at the amusement park’s gift shop. I wanted the picture to show how the elves and boys almost (but not quite) meet there. This meant there had to be some kind of structure which blocked the view of each from the other. Below is Shayne’s first sketch for this scene There were many aspects of this picture that appealed to me, but there was nothing that would keep the boys from seeing the elves.

Shayne Hood's first draft of the Santa's Workshop/Giftshop scene.

It occurred to me that some of the toys mentioned in the other stories could be for sale at the giftshop. I cut up Shayne's picture, moved the pieces around, sketched in a cabinet with a high back, and scotch taped the pieces together.I figured that a cabinet with a high back could separate the boys and elves, and also provide a place where various toys etc. made by the elves could be on display. My rough pieced-together version looked like this:

 Shayne took this idea and ran with it! Here is the final version. 

(Please notice that my husgand and I (and Santa Claus) are standing in line to pay.

Here is the verse telling what happened in the gift shop:

The Izzies went on to their very next stop

Which the sign told them clearly was “Santa’s  Workshop.” 

“This doesn’t look much like the place where we work,”

Dizzy quickly remarked with a definite smirk.

“But have all of you noticed those hats with the ears?”

Asked Tizzy, “They’re our hats, or so it appears!”  

What the elves did not notice across the wide aisles

Was that something was thrilling young Henry and Miles.

For the two had discovered some toys made by elves,

And recognized all of them, all by themselves!

Miles said,“There are monster trucks made by “Sad” Frizzy,

And Jills-in-the-boxes constructed by Fizzy!”  

“There are elfascopes,” Henry said, “crafted by Dizzy,

And fun wrapping paper created by Whizzy

And Christmassy puzzles as painted by Quizzy!

And beautiful snow globes invented by Blizzy,”

Said Miles, “See the books recommended by Tizzy?

And the sign that the elves are all ‘managed by Bizzy!’ ”  

The boys kept admiring the elves’ handiwork,

But called by their grand-folk, they turned with a jerk.

Then they heard someone say, “Come on, guys, time to  go. 

We won’t see the rest if we all are too slow!”

Someone else muttered “Bossy Boots,” but then murmured “fine,”

And the gaggle went out in a straggly line. ”

And finally, here is the cover for Bizzy, the Bossy Boots Elf.