Notes From The Frontier
About me
Notes from the Frontier is a labor of love and a grand adventure. Along the way, I have met thousands of fellow history lovers. Here's a little bit about me.
After a long career as an award-winning author, magazine editor, and former publisher, I recently reached a huge milestone in my life: publishing my debut novel, BLOOD TO RUBIES, in part about Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War of 1877. My novel was released on September 19, 2023 to numerous rave reviews from New York Times bestselling writers and readers. Early on, BLOOD TO RUBIES has been winning many awards and accolades continue to roll in. The novel is available in bookstores and on Amazon. You can read more at: www.DeborahHufford.com .
Throughout my life, I've worked as a magazine writer, editor and publisher of The Writer’s Handbook and Writer books. As a writer, I’ve been published in numerous national publications, including The New York Times, Connoisseur, Better Homes & Gardens, San Francisco Chronicle and many others. I’ve written extensively about history, nature, historic preservation, gardening, lifestyle topics, and wildlife. You can read some of my other work at DeborahHufford.com.
Here I am with Rosie, the watch mule, who is a resident at Holyland Donkey Rescue in Wisconsin. Rosie is my kinda gal! She can be sweet but don’t mess with her. When she was younger and protected livestock in the northern woods of Wisconsin, she drove off coyotes, cougars and even tangled with a bear! Rosie won.
I grew up in Iowa farm country with horses and all kinds of critters, loved nature and spent my youth horseback riding on country gravel roads, retracing old stagecoach trails, forgotten pioneer graveyards, Indian mounds in the woods, and looking for arrowheads.
My childhood horse, Sundance. He was so smart, he could have been a Hollywood trick horse. He was a favorite among the children in my small Iowa farm town and led the Labor Day Parade each year. When I was the rodeo queen of the Dayton Rodeo at age 16, it was honored as THE National Rodeo of the Year. That year, Sundance led the Grand Parade. He was so loved that when he died at age 30, our hometown newspaper ran his obituary!
A former rodeo queen and avid horse-lover, I’ve always been fascinated by the horse cultures of Native Americans, especially the Nez Perce who developed the Appaloosa horse.
I spent many years writing and researching a historical novel that I recently finished. Blood to Rubies is about the Western frontier, tough men and tougher women, the Nez Perce struggle to survive the white juggernaut, and how justice took many forms. While writing my novel, I learned so much about Native Americans, the immigrants who sought their dreams in the West, and the little-known history in between those colliding cultures.
I recently launched a blog, Notes from the Frontier, for history lovers fascinated by the frontier but who want to go deeper. Please join me and thousands of others for a wild ride, discovering a West few know!
For more information about my novel and other writing, go to: DeborahHufford.com. Notes from the Frontier is also on Facebook where you can read the many comments of other lovers of history and Native American culture. I welcome your comments and feedback.
And last (but certainly not least) is Reggie, our English Setter rescue and one of my many editorial assistants.