Authorpreneur Dashboard – Linda Loegel
Willard Manor
Literature & Fiction
Shelley and Tony buy a rundown house to be home to them and their future children. During the months of renovation, they discover clues to the former occupants--the Willard family that built, lived, loved, and died in the house over a perod of 170 years.
Book Bubbles from Willard Manor
A Sad Discovery
In this section, Shelley finds a box in the attic labeled Anna's Things. Photos, newspaper clippings, a hand-written story; they were all there to help Shelley piece together the lives of the people who had lived in the house she and Tony just bought. And they brought more tears than she could imagine.
A Touching Discovery
Shelley, a history teacher, has been intrigued by the former occupants of the old house she and Tony are renovating. Every clue she finds gives her a better understanding of the members of the Willard family. And then she finds a troubling newspaper article.
Russian Roulette
This chapter is about David Willard who has been in trouble since he was a teen. Now, fifty-five and tired of his messed-up life, he decides to end it all since no one would care if he lived or died.
The Model T
We buy vehicles now without the slightest wonder of what it must have been like for people a century ago to own their first car. I hope this excerpt provides a window to that world, allowing us to appreciate what we take for granted.
Moonshine
This fictitious event takes place in 1922, during Prohibition. It is Helen's idea to make moonshine and turn the basement of Willard Manor into a still. All is fine, until....
New Year's Eve 1899
New Year's Eve was celebrated less than a month ago. In Willard Manor I describe a very different celebration of New Year's Eve to bring in the Turn of the Century, 1900. The Willards had recently installed indoor plumbing and a septic tank and they had no further use for the outhouse in back of their property. However, David, son of Benjamin and Esther, had one final use for it. I bet you never celebrated the new year by torching a privy!
Christmas 1850/Christmas Now
This is an excerpt from Willard Manor. My memories of Christmas are a cloth Santa that was always sitting on our tree as I was growing up and I have it still and he holds a place of honor on our tree every year. This Santa wasn't homemade like the doll Mary made for Sarah in the story, but just as precious and it was old when my grandmother gave it to my parents in the 1930s.
Thanksgiving Back Then
I remember Thanksgiving dinners with family members that we only saw once or twice a year. In the 1940s, we'd go to an aunt and uncle's house in a small town in Vermont. Everyone would catch up on the latest news of family members and how the hunting season was going, then the big turkey would be brought out and set in the midde of the table to a lot of oohs and awws. On the ride home, my sister and I would fall asleep in the backseat to the hum of the car's engine and the low voices of our parents in the front seat. All was well.
Chapter Seven
Benjamin and Esther are two of my favorite characters in the book. They are both short, stocky, and highly independent. They are married so long that when Esther dies, Benjamin joins her shortly thereafter. They modernize Willard Manor by adding a septic tank, indoor plumbing, and wallpapering the walls.
Chapter Three
This excerpt takes place in 1840 whenJohn Willard has just finished building his house and is now planning to ask Mary to be his wife. Chapter Two describes his house in the fictional town of New Cornish, Connecticut.
