Hitch Your Wagon to a Star (ePub)

I am an aspiring first-time writer, a retired educator who taught

children to read and encouraged them to write for over 35

years. As Jacqueline Kennedy stated,

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world.

Love of books is the best of all."

As a child, my fondest memories involved reading books

and sharing them with my closest friends; I am addicted

to literature! Therefore, upon retirement, I decided to

embark on a journey to uncover the realities that made

my mother who she was. It has been a fascinating voyage,

and I am more knowledgeable about the history of the

twentieth century now than I was during all those years

in the classroom.

My mother is not famous, at least not in the usual sense.

Instead, she made inroads for other women, including

her three daughters, which resonate to this day as trailblazers.

The history surrounding her life is filled with incredible

victories on a global scale as well as simply personally.

Women were not appreciated as intelligent, able-bodied and

purposeful beings except (sometimes!) in the privacy of their

homes. Mother knew life for women had to change, and

she internalized proclamations from early feminists such

as Margaret Sanger who said, "Woman must not accept; she

must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up

around her; she must reverence that woman in her which

struggles for expression."

My manuscript, Hitch Your Wagon to a Star, chronicles a

woman's life from the poverty of the 1920's through the

years of the Oil Boom, the Great Depression, and an amazing

emergence from those years based on the economy's reaction

to World War II. It continues into the Post War years of the

"Red Scare" and the Baby Boom and culminates with

a personal change that engenders a new focus and a second

chance at life.

Because my book is historically true and based on research, I

am calling it a biographical novel. Names were not changed

and are real. The heart of my book is the truth that

possibilities exist and can become realities for those who are

sufficiently determined and is based on conquering difficulties

in the face of a daunting list of stumbling blocks. For the

protagonist, her successes gave rise to what Henri Frederic

Amiel described when he said, "Conquering any difficulty

always gives a secret joy, for it means pushing back a boundary-line and adding

to one's liberty."