If you are wondering where I've been for the last many months since my most recent post, I have been writing. Ignoring my blog, my housework, my yardwork, and my family while researching and writing a novel. The idea for this book has been rattling around in my brain for years, and last spring I became obsessed with bringing that idea to life.
The Kellogg Family Cemetery is located in Osceola Township, Livingston County, Michigan. That quarter-acre plot is the resting place for forty-two souls, all related to me by blood or marriage. Some I knew personally, most I only heard stories about or became acquainted with while doing genealogical research. In 1851 Alida Goewey was the first person to be buried near the original cabin built on land taken up from the United States government in 1837. She was the mother of my great-great grandfather Ebenezer's first wife, Rachel. Rachel died just a year and a half later, leaving behind three children and a husband in need of a new wife. Ebenezer married Fannie Bradley, who was to be my great-great grandmother.
I grew up playing in that cemetery, helping to care for the graves, and imagining the lives of these pioneers. I could hear their whispers from beyond, urging me to tell their stories. I had no idea the amount of research that would be involved when I finally answered their call. Nor did I ever imagine how I would love the detective work necessary to create a life for these long dead relatives.
I've laid awake nights thinking about these people, dreaming about them when I finally do fall asleep, felt them urging me on from beyond the veil. The book is nearly finished, if I can ever stop editing. Like all art, it's hard to know when it's time to stop, when you've said enough, when the story is told. I am meeting with a woman today who I hope can proofread the manuscript and take me one step closer to to realizing my dream of becoming a published author.
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