My writing has appeared in many local publications (and some national), and I like to promote these local magazines which help share our region!

Check out Springhouse--An Adventure Shaped Like a Magazine established by Gary DeNeal and two colleagues back in 1983.  Springhouse has been pleasing  area residents and those across the nation and some folk outside the nation ever since.  Those who have an interest in Southern Illinois and its legends and people will love this magazine. Subscription price is $25. Add $5 extra for Mexico and Canada and $10 extra for other out-of-USA subscriptions.Springhouse is printed 6 times a year  Send to Springhouse, P.O. Box 61, Herod, IL 62947-0061.  To link to Springhouse, go to Links page.

Radio Free Boskydell: A Literary Magazine for Southern Illinois is partially sponsored by a grant from Carbondale Community Arts. the Southern Arts Fund, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the  Arts.

The Saga of Southern Illinois is a quarterly publication of the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois.  The $25 annual membership fee covers subscription to a monthly newsletter and the quarterly journal.  The Society meets on the second Sunday afternoon of the month (except in July and August) at the library at John A. Logan College, 700 Logan College Road, Carterville, IL 62918-2500.

Stories and Poems by Members of the Southern Illinois Writers Guild is an annual anthology open to submission by Guild members.   Sold at area festivals, the journal can also be purchased from Guild members for $5.00.  Started in 2002 as a fund raiser, which seemed more appropriate than having a bake sale, the anthologies have become popular for birthday, Christmas, and hostess gifts.  They offer a cross section of diverse writing by established area authors and have also served as a pathway to publication for many beginning writers. 

Some background for my book Down on the Farm:

I learned to love rural life when my teacher parents rented out their house in town and moved to the farm each summer.  The school year was eight months, and teacher salaries were for eight months.   Living creatively on mostly their imaginations, my parents found ways for the family to live well during those four summer months. 

They daydreamed of opening a summer camp so more children could experience the old ways.  After we children grew up, my father took many other youth “down to the farm” for Saturday adventures at his old home place in rural Johnson County near the village of Goreville.  An almost faded way of life existed there for me and others to enjoy.

When I married Gerald Glasco, an agriculture major, together we dreamed of a farm of our own, but people said it was not possible if there was not a family farm passed on to us.  I also wanted a large family to rear on that farm and I wanted to write. Ignoring the naysayers, we bought a farm, had four children, and I wrote about it. Training as an educator was helpful as we reared our children, and experiences with our children helped me when I returned to teaching and family literacy work. 

As a family history project for our children, I compiled columns I had written in the 1960s and created a book entitled Down on the Farm:  One American Family's Dream, which was published by PublishAmerica.  

Now I am trying to reorganize life so I can get back to work on the Trail of Tears research that  I have done intermittently for over a decade.  Unfortunately I have been steadier about the breaks than about working on this project. I think this is an important work and I am trying to find time to do it.