Fayetteville, Arkansas

Wednesday (April 22), I visited Northwest Arkansas. I spoke at the Washington County Women's Republicans and talked about the drummer boy's life and the similarities between the War Between the States and the American Revolution. On Thursday, I traveled to Fayetteville Christian School and spoke with the young people in the adjoining auditorium at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. It was a very productive trip, and we also enjoyed meeting with friends in the area and watching them cut down a hollow cedar tree!

Below, I am playing the fife for the Washington County Republican Women.

Today, I just got back from court where I disputed an expired tag ticket that I got one evening. I always find it fascinating standing before a judge. We had to sit for a long time waiting on him, and then when he appeared, we rose to honor him and waited for him to meet out justice. It is very symbolic of what it is like waiting on Christ, the Righteous Judge, to appear. I have also been studying for final exams, which are nearly over for this semester. I'm looking forward to the summer where I have a lot of fun planned taking CLEP exams.

Watch for us next in Germantown at the meeting of the Sons of Confederate Veterans!

Sons of Confederate Veterans

Thursday (March 26), I was in Little Rock at the Fletcher Library and attended the meeting of the Newton Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans. I gave a presentation on the drummer boy, and also "If My People" on the similarities between the Revolution and the War Between the States. My appreciation goes out to the commander Corey Dunn (far left) and all the gentlemen of the camp for their Southern hospitality.

Meanwhile, I am finished writing the sequel to The Orphan and the Beaten Drum. Now, it will go into the editing/proofing stage. Hopefully, I will have it out this summer, so be looking for that. I'm also excited about making a video on "how to make a drum" to load to my blog. Make sure you view that when it comes out.

See you in Northwest Arkansas on the 22nd!

CHEF Conference

Tuesday and Wednesday I was in St. Louis for the 24th Annual Homeschool CHEF Conference. It was very enjoyable meeting with old and new friends. Above is a picture of Micah Stull playing the drum with me on the fife. Micah is an excellent drummer, and we had a blast entertaining the conference goers with historical tunes. I included a sound byte of our playing.

Our good friends, the Billings, spoke at the conference on ordinary parents raising extraordinary children and again on grieving, which they know about all too well after losing their son, Michael in November. We grew up with Mikey since we were about four years old. Jamie helped proof read The Orphan and the Beaten Drum for several months over the turn of the year and the Billings have been extremely supportive of this endeavor. At the conference, they let me use their table to sell my books, and introduced me after their talk.

The Orphan and the Beaten Drum just arrived in the mail on Wednesday morning for the conference after a stressful few days of tracking the package from Hodgkins, IL, past Pocahontas to Little Rock, and back up again. It's exciting to finally offer it to the public after many years of hard work. Find out more at http://www.southerncadencepress.com/ under Current Books.

I must not end this post without saying thank you to the Bickel family who was very generous in adopting me into their family for a couple days and allowing me to spend the night with them at the hotel there. Also, I want to thank the two boys, Micah Stull and Noah Coad (below in white shirt), who were a big help with promoting my book at the conference, and the many others who showed me many kindnessess also have my endearing gratitude.

Below is a sound byte of Micah and I playing the old Revolutionary tune, Chester.