A log cabin in the woods

I have been spending this past week at my family’s summer property on a small lake south of the White Mountains in NH. My husband and I are the caretakers since we live the closest (my family is scattered across the US and Canada and come east when they can.) Each spring and fall we open and close the cabin for the coming season. (I will spare you the details of what that entails, just know that mice and occasionally squirrels are involved.)

Our cabin is made of logs cut from the woods all around it back in the 1930’s when my parents bought 300 acres at $10.00 an acre! My mother designed the cabin but it was built by local woodsmen and builders and the road leading to it was also cut and laid by local men through 3/4 of a mile of thick woods and marsh.

It is so quiet here and so serene, it is possible to forget you live in the 21st century! So it is no particular surprise that my first novel “After the Storm” was set here, moving this cabin, this lake, the small local village and the entire region all the way back to the 19th century.

Hannah, the primary character of the story, was orphaned in the early years of the Civil War and was raised by her Aunt Rebecca, a dressmaker, who taught Hannah to sew and eventually to quilt at a young age. Hannah and her friend Aaron went to the nearby one room schoolhouse together and eventually grew up, fell in love and married. Aaron built this lovely log cabin on this small and isolated lake. He cleared the land, built a barn and here they started their family.

What do you suppose life was like in the 1860’s, ‘70’s and beyond? What might it have been like to be a dressmaker or quilter at that time, to raise your children and live off the land, to live in a small farming community, to be part of a quilting bee of like-minded women? These are some of the questions I sought to ask and possibly answer when I wrote “After the Storm,  the Life of Hannah Applegate Benson Stone”

Go to www.somethingsewfine.com to order your own autographed copy of “After the Storm”

I am currently working on a sequel. Stay tuned.