This year my BlogTalkRadio show Red River Writers Live with Peggy and Jon is featuring history. As the title indicates, history is always in season, but this year is the Civil War Sesquicentennial and the coming Centennial of our 48th state, Arizona. Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912. Both the Civil War and the western migrations of what is called the Victorian West period left painful scars on the United States and its various human groups. We are in a turbulent period now, and history if properly viewed can help us avoid some of the mistakes of the past.

May 9th's BlogTalkRadio show Red River Writers Live featured guest authors Ann Parker and Nancy E. Turner. These writers of the Victorian West transport their readers back to a raw and exciting period of American history that followed the sad, destructive period of the Civil War and its aftermath. It was a period where hope, desperation, dreams, and venture capital rushed ahead of the establishment of law, social mores and governance. This resulted in new beginnings for some and untimely endings for others, but it makes for fascinating reading.