Rosemary Miner

After 19 years as a history teacher, and writing hundreds of college references for 11th and 12th graders I was ready to try a different kind of writing. I began with non fiction pieces and regional articles, including an essay about my three sons for Home Forum in The Christian Monitor newspaper. And having four older brothers definitely influenced my interest in feminism. How many times can you hear, “Stay out! You’re a girl!” - without wanting to open forbidden doors.

My master’s thesis at Union College, Schenectady, NY, looked at the antebellum pedestal figure in the South which denied women equal rights in the name of protecting her. That may have come from reading “Gone With the Wind “ at least seven times and falling in love with the feisty Scarlett O’Hara, definitely not your weak sister.

Sometime after our move in 1987 to the hamlet of Wevertown, NY, I heard of a real Southern who lived here. Learning that a Confederate Major built a mansion on our Adirondack property led to more years of research that produced my biography “Adirondack Bridgebuilder From Charleston”, published by North Country Books, Utica, NY in 1993.

Research in the 19th century time period for my graduate thesis plus the biography of my Southern officer was invaluable when I began the Grace Wickham series set in the Adirondacks.

Always a writer, I stapled my first paper stories together, and went off to read to second graders in my elementary school. With drawings of dogs to accompany the text, young students had to guess the winning dog until there were no guesses left. That was a painful lesson learned for knowing how your story will end. As a senior in the same Long Island school building that housed Ktg. -12, I was editor of the school paper and yearbook. Along the way a 7th grade history prize foretold a love of history that would be long lasting, and result years later in my debut historical mystery, the first in a planned series.