|
Interact with Jane Kirkpatrick
|
|
Online Status:
|
Last On: Apr 26, 2010 - 12:17 PM
|
|
Profile Views:
|
4,430
|
|
Member Since:
|
June 20, 2007
|
|
Location:
|
Moro, OR
|
|
ShoutLife Address:
|
shoutlife.com/JaneKirkpatrick
|
|
Website:
|
www.jkbooks.com www.janekirkpatrick.blogspot.com
|
|
Genre:
|
Historical
|
|
Primary Publishers:
|
WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House
|
|
Influences:
|
Landscape, relationships, spirituality and work, these threads run through all my stories that are based on the lives of real people. The lives of women, women's studies, women's ministries, history, native American experiences, mental health, ranching life, and my own upbringing in Wisconsin have all influenced me greatly. Frederick Buechner, Paul Tillich, Barbara Brown Taylor, Annie Dillard, Kathleen Norris, Barbara Kingslover, Jan Richardson, Carolyn Pearson, Molly Wolf, Francine Rivers, B.J. Hoff.
|
|
Similar To:
|
Anna Seyton. James Michener (I'm told). B.J. Hoff for historical period
|
|
|
A Tendering in the Storm (2007)
This second book in the Change and Cherish Series is the story of one historical woman's coming to terms with loss and being strong enough to accept the help of others in order to save her family. It's based on a real woman, Emma Wagner Giesy, who headed west with 9 male scouts in 1853 from Bethel Missouri to find a new site for their Christian commune in 1853. Grief has many siblings...and this book is about witnessing to loss and finding ways to move on. Tendering is a word that means "fabric that is shattered from exposure to caustic materials." It's also about being fragile, caring and transitioning as a tender that takes someone from a large ship to safe harbor. Emma's an amazing protagonist. Come join her journey
Buy A Tendering in the Storm Online
|
|
|
A clearing in the Wild (2006)
This first book in the Change and cherish series is based on the life of the only woman sent west with nine men from Bethel, Missouri in 1853 to find a new site for their Christian communal society. I learned about this woman and the colony by reading a quilting book where her quilt was pictured. An artifact kept, something made by a woman, with a bit of her story included, intrigued me since so often women's stories aren't mentioned in the historical record. Emma chafes at the tight reins of the charismatic leader, Wilhelm Keil, who sent them out to find the site. But then...when the main party arrives in what is now Western Washington State, there are problems. It's a story of one woman's wish to be heard; and of a community wishing to be in service yet struggling when things begin to unravel. The Historical Novel Society said the book "satisfies at every level."
Buy A clearing in the Wild Online
|
|
|
A Land of Sheltered Promise (2005)
This Spur Finalist for Best Novel of the West (Western Writers of America) and a Finalist for the Greater Phoenix are Golden Quill Award, is based on an infamous ranch in Eastern Oregon that was the scene of a murder in early 1900 followed by a miracle. The same landscape caught the attention in the 1980s of an east Indian mystic named the Bhawgan Shree Rajneesh. In the five years that his communal society lived there, a number of tragedies occurred in the historical record including the cult's poisoning of 750 people with food poisoning at a nearby town in an effort to keep them from going to the voting polls. Then in 1997, the ranch is purchased and given as a gift to a non-denominational Christian organization, Young Life, that reaches teens. It's an amazing story of redemption for the land and for the people affected by all three of these incidents. The story is told through the eyes of the wife of the convicted murderer; the grandmother of a cult member who is trying to get her granddaughter back to Milwaukee; and through the eyes of a young wife, reluctant to leave the comforts of Portland, Oregon in order to live on a remote ranch preparing it for what will become a fabulous camping experience for kids. The Media Arts Journal of Oregon, that recommends books for high school kids, made this one of their picks in 2005.
Buy A Land of Sheltered Promise Online
|
|
|
A Simple Gift of Comfort (formerly A Burden Shared) Healing Words for Difficult Times (2005)
When my sister was very ill and later passed away, she said when you're going through a difficult time in life, it's hard to concentrate long enough to read an entire book. So I'd give her little things to think about during the day. Maybe that the word focus comes from the Latin meaning hearth, the center of the home; where the heat comes from, where food is shared, where news is given. She said those thoughts helped her so after she died I put them into a book. A burden Shared came out in 1998 but went out of print. It was brought back into print with a new name, some new pieces, (short, you can read them in the bathroom) and lovely photographs by Lisa Sorenson. It's a book to give to people going through change, serious illness, loss, or just because you want them to know you care about them.
Buy A Simple Gift of Comfort (formerly A Burden Shared) Healing Words for Difficult Times Online
|
|
|
Homestead: Modern Pioneers Pursuing the Edge of Possibility (2005)
this non-fiction book was originally published in 1991 and reissued with a new section in 2005. It's the story of the author and her husband deciding to leave suburbia and move to 160 acres of barren ground (noted for its rocks, rattlesnakes and twelve foot high sage brush but with a river running through it and the promise of a spring). Full of laughter and inspiration, the book has touched the lives of anyone still young enough to dream. For some reason the color isn't true in the photo uploaded here: The book will have a beautiful natural light of blue snow taken by the author's husband on the road to their mailbox seven miles from their home.
Buy Homestead: Modern Pioneers Pursuing the Edge of Possibility Online
|
|
|
Hold Tight the Thread (2004)
This third book in the Tender Ties Historical Series is about community: the native community of the early northwest territories; the community of the early missionaries and their ability to engage with the native people they came to minister to; and the community of family, crossing race and cultural lines to help each other. The protagonist is Marie Dorion, whose story is told in the three books of the Tender Ties Series. A historical figure in the northwest, she is remembered for her enduring spirit and her willingness to risk on behalf of others. Publishers Weekly wrote "Kirkpatrick's ability to poetically render the thoughts of her characters enchants as it educates."
Buy Hold Tight the Thread Online
|
|
|
Every Fixed Star (2003)
Marie Dorion is a young Ioway Indian woman far from home and alone with her two young sons in the wilderness of the Okanogan country of what is now eastern Washington. The year is 1814. She is an actual historical woman revered for her enduring spirit and her struggle to raise two sons and later blend them into another family as she begins again. Even whlie all the world around her is falling apart, Marie finds what will sustain her. "Intense and fast-moving."
|
|
|
A Name of Her Own (2002)
This National BookSense 76 bestseller, Literary Guild, Doubleday, Book of the Month and Crossings Bookclub selection and finalist for the Oregon Book Award will break your heart and having you singing at the end. Fact-based, it's the story of a young Iowa Indian woman who in 1811 sets out as part of the Astor-funded expedition to establish the first trading posts in the West after Lewis and Clark return. She joins her husband, two young sons and 60 men. Along the way she spends 5 weeks with a pregnant Sacagawea and Marie, who is also pregnant, finds a way to explore the journey she faces ahead. She is every woman doing the best she can for her family without losing herself in the process. "Reading this book will not only make me a better husband and father, it will make me a bettr man." From a letter to the author. A must read for Stephen Ambrose fans.
Buy A Name of Her Own Online
|
|
|
No Eye Can See (2001)
This is the second book in the Kinship and Courage series and it's listed out of order because I'm technically inept! 1852 and the turn around women of the Kinship and Courage series (All Together in One Place is book one and What Once we Loved is book three) are in the unruly and challenging town of old Shasta City, California. The issues they face there ask the question: what can one person do when all around them the world seems to be going crazy? A quilt theme runs through this along with a stalker apparently so real people have complained about nightmares! But it's also about community and how we make it.
Buy No Eye Can See Online
|
|
|
What Once We Loved (2001)
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. If you want to see a change, you'll have to do it first." Wise words from Elizabeth, the matriarch of these turn-around women. This third book in the Kinship and Courage Series reminds us that we can change how we feel. We don't have to be held hostage by our pasts. May all your memories nourish and transform.
Buy What Once We Loved Online
|
|
|
All Together in one Place (2000)
The diary entry reads: 1852. today we met eleven wagons headed back east, all driven by women their men having died and been buried on the trial. It's not about all the men dying, however; it's a story about when we get back news in life we want to turn around and go back. But we don't get to. It's a mark of our character how we allow others to help us in wilderness places, in those vulnerable times when someone has said "I dont love you anymore" or we've heard a diagnosis we never imagined we'd hear. Community can help us find new direction which is what happens for these eleven distinctive women. It's a hopeful book. A finalist in Reader's choice for Best Inspirational and translated into foreign languages, this story speaks to the fears and the friends that get us through them
Buy All Together in one Place Online
|
|
|
Mystic Sweet Communion (1998)
Ivy Cromatie Stranahan was a woman before her time. The first teacher to come to South Florida in 1890, she could see problems that needed justice. Ivy and her husband, Frank, found Ft. Lauderdale and the trading post on the cover still stands and is a musuem that welcomes visitors to old South florida. Ivy made some remarkable decisions and discovered that while we cannot prevent pain and disappointment from happening to those we love, we can prepare them.
Buy Mystic Sweet Communion Online
|
|
|
A Gathering of Finches (1997)
Along the rugged coast of Southern Oregon flourishes five acres of formal garden rich with trees and flowers brought from around the world. Once a mansion rose with waves splashing up on the deck. The garden and mansion were built by one of the wealthiest men of the period for his wife, Cassie Hendricks Stears Simpson. That's the only mention of her at the State Park called Shore Acres. What kind of woman would inspire such a dramatic place and why didn't people talk about her? That set me on my journey to tell the story of this New York woman who ends up in the mansion, but does she find the treasure of her life? Does her husband? this third book in the Dream Catcher collection about historic couples will make you consider your own riches.
Buy A Gathering of Finches Online
|
|
|
Love to Water My Soul (1996)
A young girl is lost from a wagon train and found by native people and raised by them until she turns 13 when she is forced to leave the tribe. What happens when we can't find our family? Who is our family, really? And how do we walk beside others with kindness despite the unaswered questions we carry in our hearts? Book two in the Dream catcher collection is a story to claim your heart.
Buy Love to Water My Soul Online
|
|
|
A Sweetness to the Soul (1995)
Winner of the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Novel and named by the Cultural Heritage Commission of Oregon to Literary 100: 1800-2000 as one of the best books about Oregon published in the past two hundred years. This is a love story, between a young girl and her future husband; between people and their land; between two friends, one white, one Indian who pursued their passions and dreams with integrity and touched the lives of others in the process. I get asked to sign this book for wedding gifts with the words "to be read out loud to each other" in the front. I've written a marriage proposal inside a book at the request of the purchaser. People struggling with childless ness have said this book brought comfort and love to their souls. It's set in Oregon, the first book in Dream Catcher series about Frontier couples and their dreams.
Buy A Sweetness to the Soul Online
|
|
 |
Are you on Facebook? Check out my events for 2010. http://www.facebook.com/pages/the-author-Jane-Kirkpatrick/263522767989?v=app_2347471856
Apr 26, 2010 - 12:09 PM
|
|
Hi. I'm a rancher and writer and occassionally a rattlesnake fighter on our ranch in Oregon. I'm the author of 13 historical novels and two non-fiction titles. Most of my historical novels are based on the lives of real people, primarily women and their life journeys. I help them step from their generation to our own and believe they have things to say to us today. My novels have won awards: The Outstanding Western Novel of 1996 (A Sweetness to the Soul) a book that was also named as one of the 100 best books about Oregon published in the past 200 years. Another title was a BookSense 76 bestseller (A Name of Her Own) and several have been Doubleday, Literary Guild, Crossings International and Book of the Month club featured books. I'm also a clinical social worker who worked for 17 years as a mental health consultant on an Indian reservation in Oregon. I love storytelling and do a lot of public speaking around the world mostly on the subject of the power of stories in our own lives. I hope you enjoy my page! Thanks for reading it. www.jkbooks.com http://www.janekirkpatrick.blogspot.com
|
|
The writing life
|
2/18/2008 - 12:37 AM
|
|
I'm still trying to figure out how to upload pictures and share good news with you here. I spent last weekend on the Oregon Coast with my mentor Bob Welch who was my first writing instructor who told me I had a gift....it changed my writing life. It...
(login or sign up to read more)
|
|
7 views
-
2 replies
- Most Recent Reply: 06/24/08 - 11:14 AM
|
|
|
Finally getting back on line
|
11/29/2007 - 2:22 PM
|
|
a little non-writing excitement has made its way to my life. My husband was air-lifted from our remote community to a big-city hospital for emergency surgery. He's doing well but writing takes a back seat when life intervenes. One of the best part...
(login or sign up to read more)
|
|
11 views
-
2 replies
- Most Recent Reply: 11/29/07 - 3:29 PM
|
|
|
|
Recent Guestbook Comments (3)
|
|
|
