Ready for 2020 to be over? Looking for a new activity for 2021?

 

Ready for 2020 to be over? 

Looking for a new activity for 2021?

You came to the right place

The last couple of months I have been hard at work researching and re-creating the Oak Springs of the first couple of decades of the 20th Century.

New, original stories, continuing the Background/Founding years of my original novel, “Back to the Homeplace,” will be published each Friday, beginning January 8, for Patrons of my stories on Patreon.com.

https://www.patreon.com/HomeplaceSagas

For more than two years, I have been curating my earlier stories on Patreon.com in chronological order for my Patrons, each Wednesday and Friday. It has been a fun experience to re-live the lives of all those many characters in the latter half of the 1800s, in the southern Missouri Ozarks fictional Oak Creek Valley. They have included The Kings of Oak Springs, McDonald Tales, Meet the Folks, and Bevins Tales stories, among others. We have chronicled the births, marriages, lives, and deaths of the entire community of Oak Springs and the surrounding rural Oak Creek Valley.  

What is a Patron, you ask? Each Patron pays one dollar per month. In 2021, that one dollar a month will get you exclusive, never before published, original stories each Friday, at least four each month, carrying our stories into the 20th Century, starting with 1903. Each story runs 1200-1600 words. A relatively short read, but enough to be meaningful and keep you involved in the lives of our continuing characters. There is an opportunity to comment on each story, and I encourage it. We have had great comments throughout the past year and more. I hope you will join us.

In fact, there are two episodes yet this year, 1901 and 1902, before we take a brief holiday pause and resume with new, original, never before published stories on Friday, January 8, 2021.

Join us today, to get immediate access to all those stories. 

Ready for 2020 to be over? Looking for a new activity for 2021?

Ready for 2020 to be over? 

Looking for a new activity for 2021?

You came to the right place.

The last couple of months I have been hard at work researching and re-creating the Oak Springs of the first couple of decades of the 20th Century.

New, original stories, continuing the Background/Founding years of my original novel, “Back to the Homeplace,” will be published each Friday, beginning January 8, for Patrons of my stories on Patreon.com.

https://www.patreon.com/HomeplaceSagas

For more than two years, I have been curating my earlier stories on Patreon.com in chronological order for my Patrons, each Wednesday and Friday. It has been a fun experience to re-live the lives of all those many characters in the latter half of the 1800s, in the southern Missouri Ozarks fictional Oak Creek Valley. They have included The Kings of Oak Springs, McDonald Tales, Meet the Folks, and Bevins Tales stories, among others. We have chronicled the births, marriages, lives, and deaths of the entire community of Oak Springs and the surrounding rural Oak Creek Valley.  

What is a Patron, you ask? Each Patron pays one dollar per month, a subscription. In 2021, that one dollar a month will get you exclusive, never before published, original stories each Friday, at least four each month, carrying our stories into the 20th Century, starting with 1903. Each story runs 1200-1600 words. A relatively short read, but enough to be meaningful and keep you involved in the lives of our continuing characters. There is an opportunity to comment on each story, and I encourage it. We have had great comments throughout the past year and more. I hope you will join us.

In fact, there are four episodes yet this year, 1899, 1900, 1901, and 1902, before we take a brief holiday pause and resume with new, original, never before published stories on Friday, January 8, 2021.

Join us today, to get immediate access to all those stories. 

https://www.patreon.com/HomeplaceSagas - Become a Patron, today. Thank you.

The Origin of Homeplace

The Origin of Homeplace

As many of you know by now, the past week or so, I’ve been seeking photos and memories to write a Bill Holland (aka billybuc) Writing Challenge article about my Childhood. I’ve done that. …

Along the way in that pursuit, I’ve given a lot of thought to the childhood of my father as well as my own… they are closely related, of course. I had a very normal childhood. He did not. The reason I’m writing about it here is that the farm he grew up on came to be known in the family as the “Homeplace” - from whence came the title of my first novel ("Back to the Homeplace" - see preceding blog post), and the title of this blog supporting “The Homeplace Saga” series of stories. These now number in the hundreds, including four novels, two novellas, a short story collection plus the hundreds of online short stories we’ve talked about in this Blog.

There are at least two family photos taken in front of the farmhouse of the “Homeplace” of my Dad’s family. One is in the thirties, the one used here is from 1923. It is one of the last photos of his Mother - she died on the operating table, something went wrong during what was to be a simple procedure. 

As you can see, Pop was left with seven children to raise, which he did… with them all pitching in to make it work. The oldest son, Willard, aka “Toots,” was old enough to help with the farmwork, taking some burden off of Pop. In fact, Toots continued to farm the Homeplace into mid-century. Irene, LVene and Pauline (all teenaged themselves) essentially raised the children, with the strong support of Pop, doing what he could do. My Dad is the little boy in the middle, in front, 8 year old Pete (real given name Leverne). There were also younger sisters, Maxine and Betty (Bethene), as well. Pete wanted to be a farmer, so I know he helped out with the farm as much as he could as soon as he could. Pop, however, did insist that little Pete get his education and have as normal a childhood and adolescent experience as possible, which he did, under the circumstances (stories that can be shared later, perhaps). 

The Bevins family anchored my fictional stories of “The Homeplace Saga” just as the Smith family anchored the stories of my father’s life and mine based from the Homeplace in our real lives. 

If you have not yet read "Back to the Homeplace" in print or in Kindle edition, I encourage you to do so. 

March 30, 2020, "Homeplace Series" Update

March 30, 2020, Homeplace Series Update 

If you have not read it yet, it is new to you!

https://www.amazon.com/Back-Homeplace-William-Leverne-Smith-ebook/dp/B003ELPVUG/

Many people are at home these days, and need something new to read. An $0.11 royalty payment from Japan over the weekend reminded me that I haven’t reached out to you, my readers, for some time. 

“Back to the Homeplace” is part of a family saga set of stories, but it is the one that got it all started. It is still a great read if you have not read this original. Heidi Thorne, our self-publishing guru, would classify it as a ‘unicorn,’ as she discussed in her recent post: “Is Your Self Published Book Too Original?”

I would love to hear your opinion on Heidi’s post - and I would love to have you read my book. Please do one, then the other. Thanks, and be safe!

*     *     *     *     *

DID YOU KNOW?

Each Wednesday and Friday, we are posting, for Patrons, the stories of the growth of Oak Springs from 1876, featuring the Kings and Levi Weston. Join us, today. By joining, you can read each and all of the past postings on ‘The Founding.’ These postings tell the earliest stories of Oak Springs and the people who lived there in the order these events occurred. 

See: https://www.patreon.com/HomeplaceSagas

IT IS NOT TOO LATE -

BECOME A PATRON… of our creative writing. A great gift to yourself and to us here at “The Homepage Saga” series of family-related, historical fiction stories. Only a dollar a month…new material added weekly, along with the Wednesday and Friday posting of early stories… each only available to Patrons.

Come, join us! ;-)

The Patreon program provides a curated (systemized) presentation of our stories and a single content library, over time. Can you support this effort? I’ll be spending a little more time here, as we go forward…

We also have discussions about the stories. I hope you will join us in these conversations. 

By the way, this Blog is worth browsing, too, if you are looking for interesting reading... give it a try!

I hope you continue to enjoy these stories. If you do, leave a note, here or elsewhere…

Enjoy! ;-)