What will Kentucky Book Festival visitors find on your table?
Kentucky in the War of 1812: The Governor, the Farmers and the Pig (History Press 2023) details just how instrumental in kickstarting, maintaining, fighting, ending, and negotiating the treaty Kentucky was. From Henry Clay’s War Hawks to his roll at the Treaty of Ghent negotiations, nearly four in every five Kentucky men fought to secure the fledgeling United State’s place in international politics. I’ll be dressed as my ancestor, Peggy Oakley, might have been if she followed her husband, John Scott Oakley, to Canada to end the wqr with the Battle of the Thames. Certainly John, if not Peggy, marched to Canada with a military minded pig! This book includes some recipes of the era.
The partially autobiographical Leira Clara’s Flowers (Shadelandhouse Modern Press 2022) was written to share my own love of gardening and encourage children to fall in love with flowers, too. Sharing that love, and enhancing pollinator habitat is the focus of the book. Coneflower seeds (Lexington’s Official City Flower), and stickers will be available.
Leira Clara’s Garden Journal (Shadelandhouse Modern Press 2022) is a companion piece to the picture book described above. With journal entry pages to track your garden’s progress throughout the year, activity pages like a nature scavenger hunt, and color/design pages, this book delights future gardeners.
Prohibition in Bardstown: Bourbon, Bootlegging and Saloons tells sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating stories of those resilient Kentuckians who figured out how to continue making a living when the Volstead Act shut down the state’s major industry. Traditional Kentucky Bourbon recipes (like Keeneland’s Bourbon Bread Pudding, bourbon balls, bourbon pecan pie and Prohibition-era cocktails) liven up your taste buds!
Whom do you invite to stop by? Who will benefit from reading your book?
If you love Kentucky history, and enjoy tales of regular folks as they live through turbulent times, you’ll love my history books. Kentucky is steeped in tales of woe and joy since the nation began. Follow all the myriad Kentucky “Trails” from Daniel Boone’s crossing the Wilderness Trail, to today’s Bourbon, Beer Cheese, Donut, Barbecue and more trails, the journey is illuminating, hilarious, educational and enjoyable.
I learned to love growing flowers from both my grandmothers, and continue to share that love today as an Extension Master Gardener and speaker on pollinators, edible gardening, culinary delicacies, herb harvesting and more. And as an advocate of “No Child Left Inside” by Richard Louv, I’m encouraging kids to get outside and love nature as well.
Could you please tell us something curious about you and/or your book?
In Newport, Kentucky in August of 1813, as the farmer/militiamen gathered to wait for sitting Governor Isaac Shelby to march to Canada and avenge the 1,000 Kentuckians injured or killed at the Battle of the River Raisin, they made friends with a sow. The pig was so enamored of “her” militiamen that she swam the Ohio River after they cast off without her, and marched with them all the way to Lake Erie.
Is this your first time participating in Kentucky Book Festival? If yes – what are you looking forward to the most? If you’ve participated before – what was your favorite experience at the Festival?
Every time I’ve participated in the Kentucky Book Festival I’ve enjoyed chatting both with other authors around me, and everyone who attends. The breadth of genres, people, offerings KBF offers are unparalleled.
While not a single battle of the War of 1812 was fought on Kentucky soil, Kentuckians were involved from the very beginning to the very end. Multi-genre author Doris Dearen Settles explains how Kentuckians won the war of 1812, and why it is far more significant than textbooks record.