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As a writer, you must be:  Wildly creative while following the precise rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation Assertive with editors while sticking to their exact guidelines And you must be willing to: Keep an editor up to date with your progress without bothering her Work hard on a project with no guarantee of another assignment For seven years, I worked as a freelance writer, toiling under that unspoken job description, and it was tough treading those invisible boundaries with editors. Then, from 1997-2001, I worked as the managing editor of a magazine in Ohio. Those years were extremely rewarding

Eight Weeks in Washington: Book Review Eight Weeks in Washington, 1861: Abraham Lincoln and the Hazards of Transition is an intriguing look by Richard J Tofel at the challenges faced by Lincoln at the beginning of his presidency—including what to do about the handful of US forts located in southern states that had not yet been taken over by the seceded states. The most important one, perhaps, was Fort Sumter, located in Charleston, South Carolina. Options included abandoning the fort to the budding Confederacy or traveling into enemy territory to resupply the men under the command of Major Robert Anderson. To

I love randomly visiting old cemeteries, even the one where a poisonous spider glared at me from a nearby tombstone. I’d planned a weekend trip for my husband and our two young history-loving sons where we’d visit the home of President Ulysses S. Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Unfortunately, I’d inadvertently made hotel reservations at—and gotten a TripTik to—Point Pleasant, West Virginia.