<![CDATA[MARJORIE THELEN - Blog]]>Mon, 22 Dec 2025 07:49:16 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Coming into Fall]]>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:10:46 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/coming-into-fall No new writing projects right now.  I'm now taking jazz improvisation piano lessons with a local jazz drummer.  My mind is exploding.  I've been attached to sheet music all my life. I've played classical, folk and hymns but jazz improv is way different.  I needed a new creative outlet.  Not so much interested in writing right now. I am revising my dystopian short story published in Synchronized Chaos and plan to record it for a few friends.  Stay tuned.

]]><![CDATA[2025]]>Thu, 02 Jan 2025 15:04:36 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/2025Happy New Year.  Well, we made it to another year.  I have two writing projects in mind for this year but I'm mulling over whether to proceed.  I'm doing year end clean out of writing files some of which go back to high school.  Might be time to get rid of some of this stuff.  Yup.  I'd sort like to play some music again.  Learn improvisation. We'll see.  ]]><![CDATA[Wings to Soar has been published, November 12, 2024]]>Thu, 14 Nov 2024 16:35:21 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/wings-to-soar-has-been-published-november-12-2024At last my 12th and maybe final novel is available on Amazon in print and ebook.  The cover and description are on the first web page.  It's been a long haul. I learned a lot.  Historical fiction requires a LOT of research.  Now I'm thinking to put together a chapbook of my stories, musings and poems that might be called The Middle of Nowhere.  Stay tuned! But I hope you will purchase Wings to Soar and enjoy! Let me know how you like it!]]><![CDATA[Wings to Soar]]>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 13:33:31 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/wings-to-soarI changed the title of my latest work in progress which is now out to a few Beta readers for comments.  Wings to Soar seemed more fitting for the story.  I might have this one published by the end of the year.  Stand by.

Here's the dust jacket copy:

Wings to Soar
A historical novel of women’s struggle to gain their rights which continues today
 
In 1868 two friends, Nicole Stuart and Mercedes LaFitte, reunite in San Francisco after eighteen years. One lives in Boston and one in San Francisco. Their journeys bring them together again over the women’s rights movement after fighting for abolition of slavery. Mercedes, accompanied by her husband, Andre, comes to San Francisco not only to see her old friend again, but also to see her brother, Jamie, who now heads up the family business – New World Shipping – on the west coast.  Mercedes, a prominent leader in the women’s rights movement, will speak and help organize the effort in San Francisco. Nicole and her husband, Reese, have built a thriving hotel business since their arrival in San Francisco in 1853 after travelling overland on the California trail. But Nicole has vowed to help others attain their freedom as she has, which brought her into the women’s rights movement and before that abolition. A new challenge arrives in the person of Angela Flowers, a native American, who wants to help the Indians of California gain their rights as they have been persecuted by white settlers, gold miners, and militia. Angela comes to San Francisco to learn from Nicole and Mercedes and in doing so hopes to help her people develop wings to soar again.  
 
 

]]><![CDATA[Wings to Fly]]>Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:31:23 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/wings-to-flyFans, I am now polishing the third book in the Wings series.  Dust jacket copy will be ready soon. Then it goes to a couple of my readers and then the final polish.  More soon.]]><![CDATA[Back in the saddle]]>Mon, 11 Mar 2024 18:11:23 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/back-in-the-saddleWe've settled in to our condo in the suburbs, a long way from nowhere.  I like it.  Husband still complains but is getting used to it.  It's nice being back in civilization.  Cultural events!   Everything close by.  New friends. Relatives! And I'm back in my writing groove.  Amen.

]]><![CDATA[Moving to PA]]>Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:45:13 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/moving-to-paMy husband and I have decided to return to my land of birth.  Lots of relations there, easier living than in the middle of nowhere. I continue to work on my 12th book, working title Wings to Fly.  It's been slow going with all the packing. But after we're settled in, I'll get back into the groove. 

Happy Fall, y'all
​]]><![CDATA[Finish the Book at the Harney County Library]]>Fri, 21 Jul 2023 18:23:47 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/finish-the-book-at-the-harney-county-library
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]]><![CDATA[Third Book in Wings Series]]>Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:55:26 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/third-book-in-wings-seriesThis winter I've had time to write the next book in the Wings series which is going well. I still have too much plot and too many characters. Yesterday I added another plot point and that is the earthquakes in the San Francisco bay area. It turns out there was the earthquake of the century in October, 1868 along the Hayward Fault in the east bay area.  It was a 6.8.  It caused considerable damage, as big earthquakes do.  It was the largest quake until the 1906 one.  That fault averages movement every 150 years so the Hayward fault is overdo.  Makes me wonder what any sane person would live in the bay area.  There are three notorious faults running through the area.

​At any rate now I have to decide if I should move the time frame from spring 1868 to fall 1868.  It would make the plot even more interesting, wouldn't it?  So far I have the women's suffrage movement, the transcontinental railroad, the aftermath of the civil war, and indigenous people of California in the plot besides the characters from the first two Wings books.  It is entertaining me, which is the first requisite of writing any novel - it has to entertain me.  Stay tuned. ]]><![CDATA[Book No. 12]]>Tue, 30 Aug 2022 21:45:36 GMThttps://www.marjoriethelen.com/blog/book-no-12I'm writing my next historical fiction which involves an incredible amount of research.  Right now it is set in San Francisco and Sacramento CA in 1868.  In doing the research I got interested in the women's suffrage movement, the transcontinental railroad, and the indigenous peoples of California.  It's about 25 pages in and I got too much plot.  I'm using characters from the first two Wings books - Wings of the Wind and Wings of the Dawn - and I got too many characters.  But it's fun and keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.  I need another Wings title. Hmmmm??? ]]>