#Welcome Wednesday Meets Doris McCraw

Doris McCraw

On my #Welcome Wednesday slot I'm delighted to share a post by a blogging friend, Doris McCraw. She's also an author (writing as Angela Raines), speaker, historian and poet.

Many of Doris' posts on our common Writing Wranglers and Warriors Blog are historical ones that I really enjoy reading and over the past couple of years, via Doris, I've learned a lot about Colorado, a US state I've not yet had the pleasure of visiting. Doris also writes excellent daily haiku poems, so click HERE if you enjoy a daily poetry reflection. 

She's here, today, to tell us a little about how her writing focus has come about, and about a habit that I also find very compulsive - that of research. My thanks go to her for the photos she's given me to share here today. 

Welcome Doris, it's great to have you visit.

Hello, My Name is Doris and I'm Addicted to Research

I have always loved history and enjoy reading diaries and other source material about the past. For the longest time, I would spend my Sunday afternoons at the local library going through the archives. Finally one of the librarians, who had become a good friend, said to me, “What good is all this research if you don't share it.”

Okay, I started sharing what I had found. I have done this in a myriad of ways. I have presented in the History Symposium that the library district does every summer. So far I have presented on the topics of the First Film Commissioner in Colorado, and the Cripple Creek Volcano. 

Cripple Creek

This year I will be presenting on my latest research focus, Women Doctors in Colorado prior to 1900. It is a topic near and dear to my heart. While they talk about how difficult it was to be a woman doctor, Colorado had many women doctors. The first was Alida Avery, in 1874, who had been at Vassar College and was brought to Colorado. Susan Anderson, who received her license in 1897, was the subject of the book “Doc Susie” and the inspiration for the television show “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

 

One of the women doctors in Doris' series 

Another way I share my research is through my short stories and novellas. My recent short story in the anthology “One Christmas Knight” had as an inspiration Hildegard of Bingen. This amazing woman has been a part of my ongoing research into powerful women of the past. I truly do believe if she had been a man, we would have heard of her long before we did.

Finally, I share the stories and pieces of information that I find fascinating on the various blogs I write for. So, if anyone says, “What good is research if you don't share it”, think of me and my addiction to the stories of the people from our amazing past.

I certainly appreciate what you share on the Wranglers Blog, Doris, and liked to read about women like the Julia E. Loomis on the above tombstone. In a way, some of my own research is also finding an outlet since I've been doing general historical talks this past year on my personal obsession of Roman Scotland.   

Author Page for Doris: http://amzn.to/1I0YoeL 





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Thank you for visiting, Doris. My best wishes for lots more time to enjoy your researching. 

Slainthe!