Exciting news!!!
Three Women Awheel, book VI in my Tales of Chetzemoka, is now available!
Three Women Awheel
A Victorian Cycling Club Story
Book VI in the Tales of Chetzemoka
Buy it on Amazon
In the springtime of 1886, three women leave their comfortable homes and head out for a mountain retreat, bound for adventure and self-discovery. Addie's old friend Ethel has been away at the Territorial University of Washington for the past four years, earning her Bachelor of Science degree. So much has happened in that time, they scarcely know each other any more. When Ethel proposes a trip to a hot spring on Mt. Rainier that the other students raved about, it seems like a perfect opportunity to re-build old bonds and create new ones. Addie invites her friend Lizzie along, sure that the trip will become a golden memory for all of them. But as they head out to the mountain together, each woman carries the problems of home with her. On the eve of their departure, Addie makes a discovery that shakes her faith in her perfect marriage to its very core. Lizzie can't stop thinking about her own failure to realize her ultimate dream, and Ethel wonders if she'll ever work out what, exactly, it means to be a woman. Their journey together presents its own challenges, not the least of which begin when Ethel adopts an orphaned owl chick and decides to bring it along with them. Before they can all go home again, each of the three women will have to look to her friends for advice on dealing with life's difficult issues, and at the same time look within herself to find her own definition of womanhood.
Addie
Lizzie
Ethel
Chelesmore tricycle
(Catalog illustration of Addie and Lizzie's tricycles.)
Rotary Roadster
(Catalog Illustration of Ethel's tricycle.)
A few excerpts from the book to whet your appetite…
Image courtesy https://photographymag.tn/animals/baby-animals/baby-animals-baby-northern-saw-whet-owl/amp/
Antique Victorian playing cards, from our private collection. Get them printed on bags and other merchandise here!
"…Ethel adjusted her spectacles, then looked up from a page filled with complicated mathematical equations. She had been amusing herself by drawing random cards from a deck she'd brought with her and then calculating the probabilities of the hands she'd dealt herself…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter VI
Images courtesy UW Special Collections
"…Ethel realized that Addie and Lizzie were looking at her impatiently, waiting for the rest of the story.
She went on: "He could have easily taken his pick from the lady students, but instead he set his eye on the one and only choice who outclassed all of us —and not just us, but himself as well. Our Latin and Greek teacher, Professor Hansee."…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter VII
Image courtesy https://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/Colt1877DA/colt1877da.html
"…"Is this a Peacemaker?"
Ethel shook her head. "Rainmaker. Different grip."
He nodded, re-examining the curved birds-head grip. He checked that the piece was loaded, then looked at the firing mechanism. "This is a fancy sleeve for a lady to be carrying through the woods."…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter XX
Image courtesy https://www.oldoregonphotos.com/longmire-springs-the-first-hotel-at-mt-rainier-c-1895.html
"…A large wooden structure matched the picture of the hotel which had been on the advertising flyer. A small outbuilding stood to one side of the hotel; a barn was at the edge of the alpine glen; and construction had just begun on another building. Everything was simply made of cedar clapboards and shingles without any architectural frills, but they all looked sturdy enough to withstand a harsh mountain winter.
Addie stretched her stiff limbs and draped her mule's reins across its back. "You two rest for a minute," she told Lizzie and Ethel. "I'll let them know we're here."…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter XV
"…Her thoughts wandered back home again, to the meringued coffee she liked to make for Jacob. Strong coffee, with sugar, hot milk and whipped cream. She'd found the recipe in one of her cookbooks, and Jacob always said that it was the most romantic way to make coffee that he'd ever encountered. He said that having it on their breakfast table was like having a touch of Vienna or Paris magically transported to the American West."…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter XV
A 19th-century recipe for meringued coffee appears at the end of the book!
Slideshow: Wrappers advertised in the 1886 Bloomingdale's catalog
" "—And it's not the only thing. At least we're all wearing wrappers."
Lizzie sighed and nodded but Ethel asked curiously, "Why does that signify?"…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter XXIV
"…"Can we start with that breakfast dish you tried to show me before?"
…"Eggs on foam?"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter XXIV
A 19th-century recipe for eggs on foam appears at the end of the book!
Image courtesy https://www.antiquetypewriters.com/typewriter/crandall-1-typewriter/
"…As for the sound of Ethel's typewriter, it always drew Athena like a siren's call…"
--Three Women Awheel, chapter XXIX
Don't forget to look for fabulous Tales of Chetzemoka merchandise —book bags, mugs, and more, on Zazzle!
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