Tag: Book Announcement

  • Back to School with Occasional Papers

    Green and blue cover for "Occasional Papers" book

    Back to School with Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically

    There used to be a nostalgia for back to school, with fall leaves drifting down and shiny apples on teachers desks as images stamped into our memories of decades past. Now, with computers the size of index cards and artificial systems culling millions of purloined books and papers, educators have more to contend with than they ever thought possible when they were students themselves.

    Teachers teach because they see the need to help share knowledge or because they feel the drive to help shape a better, more educated, future for new generations. But how does a teacher know their students are engaged in this learning, and how do they know the students are understanding any of the discussion?

    Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically offers an excellent approach to this quandary.

    Written by teachers, for teachers

    Bill Martin and Christine Gorychka bring their years of classroom experience teaching English and writing to high school and college age students to this book. Every teacher knows that engagement is more than just repeating facts, it’s about understanding and application.

    This comprehensive workbook provides reflective questions, different ways to use Occasional Papers, samples and examples, and guides for classroom application.

    Purchase your copy at one of the following sites today!

    Purple Feather Press is proud of the work that authors Bill Martin and Christine Gorychka put in to writing, revising, editing, and now publishing their creative workbook about Occasional Papers, so they can help teachers everywhere teach writing in a way that students can embrace enthusiastically!

  • Now Available – My Summer Vacation

    Announcing: “My Summer Vacation: The Victorio Campaign Journal of Robert Grierson 1880” by Lawrence John Francell is now available!

    Author Larry Francell takes you through Fort Davis, Texas and beyond in his latest history book, a comprehensive look at what happened during the Victorio Campaign in the summer of 1880 with Col. Benjamin Grierson and his son Robert Grierson.

    “Deeming it my duty, I camped directly in their line of march [the Apache Chief Victorio and his band], and at the only water for a long distance north. I had with me only First Lieutenant William H. Beck, Tenth Cavalry, one non-commissioned officer, five privates – two of whom were teamsters – and my son Robert K. Grierson, who, just through high school, was out in search of adventure and suddenly found it.”

    Thus, Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson, Tenth Cavalry, describes the stand he made at Rattlesnake Springs in July 1880 during that summer’s campaign. Accompanying his father was son Robert, a bright, articulate young man who, in search of adventure, documented that summer with his father chasing Victorio through West Texas.

    During the Victorio Campaign in 1880, Colonel Grierson was tasked with pursuing the Apache Victorio and his Apache warriors across West Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico. This book covers the history of the campaign from several viewpoints including Fort Davis historians Barry Scobee and Larry Francell, Colonel Grierson’s own report to the Secretary of War, the field journal of his son, Robert Grierson, as he accompanied his father and the troops, as well as a description of the campaign by First Sergeant John F. Casey.

    The first-hand account of Robert Grierson, written from July 1880 to September 1, 1880, includes the day-to-day travels and interactions along the trails and canyons through Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert region, the Sierra Diablo Mountains, and the Guadalupe Mountains. He documented everything: the desert sights, hunting expeditions, sleeping arrangements, travel companions, weather conditions, trail meals, the newspapers and books he was reading, and letters he wrote to his friends and family back home in Jacksonville, Illinois.  

    This account of a young man on his search for adventure is truly a fascinating look at some of the real people during a period of United States history that is sometimes swept up like the desert sands in a summer storm.       

    Larry Francell is an author and historian living in Fort Davis, Texas. His other books about the region include: Fort Lancaster: Texas Frontier Sentinel; Planning for the Move of a Museum Collection; How Indian Emily Saved Fort Davis; What’s in a Name: Why Fort Davis Was Named for Jefferson Davis and Why the Name Was Never Changed; Amid Shot and Shell of a Hundred Battlefields: The Life of Samuel Percival Greene;The Scenic Loop: Davis Mountains State Park Highway, plus numerous articles on local history and museum operations.  

    Books can be purchased in local stores such as Javelinas & Hollyhocks, The Paint Box, and the Fort Davis Historical Society. Books can also be purchased through PurpleFeatherPress.comBookshop.org/shop/PurpleFeatherPressBarnesAndNoble.com, and Amazon.com.