Author Update, December, 2025
A Brand-new Story for Miss Emeline O’Connor!
Whispers Across the Prairie
Listening with the Heart
Hands, Hearts, and Friendship
Ten-year-old Emeline O’Connor loves helping her mother, who has a special gift for teaching children who are deaf. When eight-year-old Charlie moves to town, Emeline is determined to prove she’s responsible enough to help him learn and grow.
As Emeline discovers the quiet ways Charlie communicates, she learns lessons of patience, compassion, and courage—lessons that will change her heart forever.
A heartwarming tale of friendship, family, and life on the Missouri frontier, Whispers Across the Prairie celebrates empathy, the power of understanding others, and communicating across differences.
An 1887 Prequel to the Emeline series
(A middle-grade novel: ages 8-12)
In this story, Emeline lives with both parents: Tavis and Kate O’Connor. We didn’t learn much about them in books one and two, but in this 1887 prequel, their stories will shine! Kate worked as a teacher’s aide at the school that started the ASL movement in America in 1861 in Hartford, CT, while Tavis worked in his pa’s lithography business in Boston, MA.
With emotional depth, difficulties, and an accurate portrayal of 1887 history, this may be Emeline’s best story yet.
You and your kids will love this video about the founder Kate worked with: Thomas Gallaudet. It’s about 40 minutes long, but engaging!
The ASL Alphabet
Click to print the spelling alphabet below if you like. There are hundreds of other signs for English words and phrases, which we might look at later on.
Alexander Graham Bell - Oralist
When I learned that this man had a deaf mother and wife, I thought I’d feature him in this story, but sadly, after some research, I discovered he cared more about teaching the deaf to talk so they would be more readily acceptable in society. In fact, George Bernard Shaw wrote Professor Henry Higgin’s character in Pygmalion (My Fair Lady) based on his father, Alexander Melville Bell, who spent his life in pursuit of teaching elocution (pronouncing words distinctly and expressively). Like father, like son.
I suppose it was this view of the voice as a machine that led him to the invention of the telephone. But people aren’t machines. And the deaf have hopes, dreams, and intelligence as much as anyone. They just use another language, and we can learn it. As Jeremy Jay discovered in my Oakwoods story, no one is perfect, but everyone is special.
Their natural language is signing, not talking. As one said, you can teach a parrot to talk, but it won’t understand any of it. Even though this was the predominant wave of teaching the deaf during the 1800s and into the 1900s, I consider it inhumane. Then I learned about Thomas Gallaudet. Thank goodness for him!
Progress: Click HERE for the first draft of Chapter One!
I’d love to hear what you think of it so far. Thanks, in advance. :)
Health Update
Well, physical therapy couldn’t heal the damage done to my right shoulder, so I’m waiting to set the date for reverse shoulder replacement surgery.
I’ll be able to type about a week afterward, but I have lots to research. I’ll be in touch with the Kansas School for the Deaf. I’m hoping they might allow one (or more) of their students to be a beta reader. I want to authentically portray the life of a young deaf child.
Chickadee Cheer December Giveaway
Congratulations to Tara! Check your email from me and respond to receive a softcover book of your choice. Thanks for reading my blogs. And Merry Christmas.
