The Reading History Project: "Pedal Pusher" by Mary Boone. Watch Out for Women on Bikes!

Pedal Pusher: How One Woman's Bicycle Adventure Helped Change the World  by Mary Boone with illustrations by Lisa Anchin is a great subject for Women's History Month. For a couple of reasons.

Women on Bikes Were a Big Deal in the Late Nineteenth Century

First off, Pedal Pusher is described as a picture book biography, though it only deals with one period in Annie Cohen Kopchovsky's life. Kopchovsky was the first women to ride a bicycle around the world in 1894-95. Nowadays, this seems like a kind of meaningless stunt. And it may have been a stunt then, too. But bicycling was part of a cultural change for women, giving them more ability to get around and leading to changes in how they dressed, which was far more than just fashion. Kopchovsky represents all that.

I wonder, too, if she represents nineteenth century public relations and self-promotion. Kopchovsky seems to have been very adept at raising money for the trip by signing pictures and giving lectures as she traveled. Boone raises the question of whether or not Kopchovsky was one hundred percent accurate/truthful in her talks. Was she creating an Annie Cohen Kopchovsky for public consumption/sale?  

Which leads me to wonder about another aspect of the Annie Cohen Kopchovsky story. She was a Latvian Jewish immigrant at a time "when prejudice against Jewish people was widespread," as Boone tells readers. Soon after she began her trip, she temporarily changed her name to Londonderry in exchange for a donation from the Londonderry Spring Water Company. She appears as Annie Londonderry in the newspaper quotes Boone provides at the end of the book.

Would public interest have been as great in Kopchovsky if she had used her own name?

Pedal Pusher is a great introduction to its subject. But I want more! I want a movie! I want a Netflix limited series! 

Oh, But There is More

I bought a copy of Pedal Pusher, because I'm interested in the era involved and still have young people around who might read it. But what brought the book to my attention last October was an opinion piece author Mary Boone wrote for The Seattle Times. (I may have stumbled upon it on BlueSky.)

In it, Boone describes how during last year's Women's History Month, the Tacoma Children's Museum invited her to lead two story times about Pedal Pusher. She ran the first program at its downtown location, but the second was going to be held at the museum's site on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A Federal site. And that one was cancelled four days before the event.

Boone was told "it violated the administration's executive order restricting so-called "radical" Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs across federal institutions." 

Hmm. Could that be Executive Order 14253 Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History she's talking about, since that specifically includes federal sites? The one covered here at Original Content back at the beginning of February? 

I have questions.

• If the story hour was cancelled because of Executive Order 14253 Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, is there a claim here that the book isn't true? Annie Cohen Kopchovsky wasn't the first woman to ride a bicycle around the world? I'm not touching the sanity issue. I don't even know what it means in the context of the executive order.
• Otherwise, what was "radical" about the book? It was about a woman? It was about a Jew? It was about a Jewish woman who did something successfully? 
• Or I could phrase that a different way: It wasn't about a man? It wasn't about a Christian? It wasn't about a Christian man who did something successfully?

The Power of One Voice

I have a long history of obsessing on the wrong point in a story, and I am probably about to do that right now. In her article about the cancellation of her appearance Boone writes, "Someone complained when they saw my story time being promoted."  "... museum staff later suggested the event might have gone forward if it hadn't been advertised." 

This program was cancelled because one person heard about it and complained? Now, on the one hand, that's a very positive thing, isn't it? It suggests that any one of us can complain and have an impact. We can get the ball rolling to take attention away from books we object to.

But doesn't it also suggest that any one of us can have an impact by speaking out in support of and bringing attention to books we appreciate? Which is what I'm trying to do here.

One voice can make a difference. Imagine the kind of difference many voices could make.

Pardon me while I leave to spread the word about Pedal Pusher on Facebook, BlueSky, and Goodreads. 

Friday Done List March 6

Life got ahead of work this week, meaning I was tied up most of Monday and today and feeling a certain amount of frustration about that. And that, folks, is why a done list has such value. When I collect my thoughts about what I actually did this week, I see that I accomplished more than I felt I had. 

Not that much actual writing, though.

Goal 1. Write And Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor 

• Started something totally new and flash-like in my journal. 
• Have nearly finished a blog post that will then become an essay submission.
• Made a short story submission. Interesting story here: I saw on BlueSky yesterday that a journal I'd heard of and been following had opened for a brief period, which it does at the beginning of every month. Hmm, I thought. I must check this out. So I checked it out...at my marketing spreadsheet where I keep track of publications I like and want to submit to. I had done some reading of this particular journal, liked what I'd seen, and even had identified a short story I wanted to submit to it. The marketing spreadsheet is working! May not result in publications, but, otherwise, it's working. 

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Published a blog post last weekend. It was about an ADHD book, a subject that interests me, written by a long-time Facebook friend, giving me an opportunity to support another writer. 
• Promoted that blog post on Facebook, BlueSky, and Goodreads.
• Continued taking part in BlueSky's 30-Day Women Writer Challenge in which you post a book you've read by a woman writer, no particular order, no commentary. 
• Attended a Zoom author presentation. The author involved is Dana Stabenow. It was an excellent conversation between Stabenow and a librarian very knowledgeable about mysteries, which is what Stabenow writes. It left me discouraged, not because Stabenow is far more successful than I am. That kind of thing truly doesn't bother. I write for the sake of the writing, grabbing what publication I can. What bothered me is that Stabenow is able to do so much more than I can, successful or not. Oh, well. Move on.

Goal 3. Submit Book-length Work to Agents and Editors 

• Made one of the three book submissions I planned to make this week. One of the submissions I decided not to do. The third one I'll get to next week. This submission, along with the short story submission I made, means I've already met my goal of two submissions a month for March. On average, I've done more than two a month so far this year.

A Lesson On Finding Lost Things That We Can All Use

I dabble in reading fiction that includes ADHD characters, so I got a copy of D.L. Green's CJ Baker Mover and Shaker: The Mystery of the Missing Book. (Debra is a Facebook friend from way back.) This is an early reader from Capstone Publishing, an educational publisher, so it is instructive fiction, so to speak.

The book includes a four-step process for finding lost things, and IT WORKS! I used it last night to find my box of straight pins. I only had to go to the second step. Sadly, I didn't think to do this until the pins were lost for two hours, and by then, it was time to go to bed.

I was pretty amazed, nonetheless.

Capstone published four CJ Baker books last year, all written by Debra, all coming out at the same time. They may each have some kind of coping lesson.

Because I don't read a great deal of fiction that's written to overtly teach something, I can't address how well that is done here. But the basic, very short story is complete, and the program for finding lost objects being taught makes sense in the context of the story.

And the program works. Assuming I can remember to use it.

Friday Done List February 27

So, we had a blizzard last weekend. Lost power for 90 minutes. That led to a heat problem for a little while. I had to shovel snow a couple of times. Had a decent workweek in spite of all that.

Goal 1. Write And Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor 

• New essay, The Reading History Project: The "Our" in "Our Shared History" was published at Books Are Our Superpower.
• Worked a bit on revising a chapter into a short story.
• Cleaned some files while the power was out and determined that I had some work that was not going anywhere and threw it away. This is a good thing.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Promoted The "Our" in "Our Shared History" on Facebook and BlueSky
• Wrote a Story Behind the Story post for the above essay and published it here on Original Content.
• Wrote a new Reading History Project post.
• Wrote still another blog post. 
• Promoted all the blog posts. 
• Continued taking part in BlueSky's 30-Day Women Writer Challenge in which you post a book you've read by a woman writer, no particular order, no commentary. I did one of these soon after I joined BlueSky. It was fun and gathered me a few followers. This has led to me breaking 400 followers on BlueSky. In case you're wondering, I've been on BlueSky for something like 15 months and just broke 400 followers, which is maybe a third or less of what I had on Twitter. 
• Signed up to attend a Zoom author presentation next week. The author involved is Dana Stabenow, who I've never heard of. But she's promoting a mystery set in the nineteenth century, and I can watch her without changing my clothes or leaving my house, so I'm in.

Goal 3. Submit Book-length Work to Agents and Editors 

• Yesterday the Manuscript Wish List people ran an event on BlueSky that involved agents posting material they're looking for. I have the names of three agents I'll be submitting to next week.

Goal 4. Begin Some Writing on the 19th Century Novel Idea

• Worked thirty minutes on this.

Using My Blog as a Writing Journal is Probably Not a Good Idea

Winter forest bathing?

Yesterday I threw out an idea here about starting to use this blog as a writers' journal, a place to work on preliminary writing and drafts.

"...if you go back to the early days of lit blogging," I said, "writers sometimes did use blogs as journals. Even writing journals for experimenting with writing." 

It seemed like an artie bloggie thing to do, to say nothing of being time and energy efficient.

"It would be a multiplier," I said, "one action that meets two goals."

I've Thought Better of That 

Then I remembered that many literary journals consider material used in blogs as "published" and will not consider it for publication themselves. The Medium platform accepts previously published work. In fact, it appears that some people there publish the same things on Medium publications and their private Substacks.

So, there's no issue with me starting something here, revising it, and submitting it to a Medium publication. I could even just submit this post you're reading right now as is. (UPDATE: 3/10/26. This appears to be the case at Medium overall. Individual publications may have different guidelines, however. And they may change their guidelines, as is the case here, if you scroll down far enough. Another version is a best bet.) 

But most of the other places I submit to, no. I am not confident that even just working on something here and refining it elsewhere would be acceptable in those cases.

Why, Yes, I Am Obsessing About This

Nonetheless, I won't be working here on the winter forest bathing essay idea I came up with after posting about the subject on Facebook yesterday. Posting on Facebook is also considered publishing by some publications, by the way. 

This situation inspired a writing idea, but I won't say anything about it. I've got to go write it down in my private writer's journal, the one you don't see.

The Story Behind the Story: A Second Version That Refines a Concept

The Reading History Project: The "Our" in "Our Shared History" was published at Books Are Our Superpower on Monday. This was a combination and revision of two of my Original Content Reading History Project posts--"Thinking About History" by Sarah Maza and What I'll Be Reading in 2026. I wanted this essay to be an introduction to The Reading History Project and to cover Thinking About History, as well as a couple of other books while I was at it.

I did this type of rewrite regularly last year. I started with a blog post about a book I'd read for The Heritage Month Project and then did a second draft to create a newish essay to submit to BAOS. What I found was that the second draft often ended up being at least somewhat different and sometimes having a much different focus.

A Different Focus Tightens Up My Reading Plan for the Year

That was definitely the case with The Reading History Project: The "Our" in "Our Shared History."  While I do raise the question of "who is the "our" in "our shared history" in the blog post, I don't focus on exploring the "our" in "our shared history" with my reading until I get to the revision. That will most definitely change my thinking about what I read this year and how I write about it. 

In the original blog posts, I also write about reading as "activism." But in the revised essay, I write about advocacy, instead. Activism, to me, seems sort of vague. But advocating for the groups I read about is much more specific and will have an impact on my thinking and writing.

So What's Happening Here?

Using the same material or research in different ways is a traditional method of working for writers. You do a fictional treatment, you do an essay, you do an adult book, you do a children's book, all with the same basic idea or research. 

For my material to evolve the way it does between blog and essays means someone can read both versions and come away with something different. I'm good with that.

On the other hand, I feel as if I'm using the blog to publish first drafts. When I first realized this was happening last year, I was somewhat uncomfortable because, as I said, I felt as if I was publishing first drafts. 

However, if you go back to the early days of lit blogging, writers sometimes did use blogs as journals. Even writing journals for experimenting with writing. 

Now I'm wondering if I can do even more of that here. It would provide me with original content for the blog, but also material that could be used elsewhere. It would be a multiplier, one action that meets two goals. 

I will play with that idea.

The Reading History Project: "Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Millard

 I am writing today about Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard even though I haven't read it. What I did do was watch Death by Lightening the Netflix limited series based upon it. The series is marvelous.

Both book and series deal with the assassination of President James Garfield, who is just a name to most of us, because he was shot a few months after his inauguration, lingering on for a while thereafter. In Death by Lightening Garfield is portrayed as an incredibly decent man. Charles Guiteau, his killer, is tragically unbalanced. Chester A. Arthur turns up, which was a surprise because I didn't know he was Garfield's vice-president. Here he is shown as realizing he's a pretty lousy character, but a lousy character with a shred of human decency.

Death by Lightening was well-reviewed when it was released.  I don't know how well it did as far as attracting viewers is concerned. The fact that we know how the story ends could have discouraged some people. I must admit I've never seen Titanic, because, well, everyone knows the ship sinks.

This story, as good as it is, might be just that, a good historical story. But the TV series does link its ending to something bigger than a tragic tale. Garfield has an interest in dealing with the patronage system used in his day but dies long before he can do so. After Chester A. Arthur becomes president, he does do something about it. 

Destiny of the Republic is also very well-reviewed. I've read it may cover more about Chester A. Arthur, with whom I am now a bit obsessed, and it may include more of the political repercussions of Garfield's death.

I suspect reading it is somewhere in my future.

Friday Done List February 20

Goal 1. Write And Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor 

• Finished an essay on the Reading History Project.
• Submitted the essay on the Reading History Project. 
• Did a very little work on a scifi short story.
• Took what was one of the two worst Zoom writing workshops I've ever encountered. The last writing prompt for it gave me an idea I'm liking though.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Taking part in BlueSky's 30-Day Women Writer Challenge in which you post a book you've read by a woman writer, no particular order, no commentary. I did one of these soon after I joined BlueSky. It was fun and gathered me a few followers.
• Started updating a section of my website.
• Am now considering just redoing the entire website.
• Renewed my SCBWI membership even though I do no children's writing now. I do still have some children's book manuscript, one of which I submitted to an agent last month.

Goal 4. Begin Some Writing on the 19th Century Novel Idea

• Did some scene work. 

Friday Done List February 13

I am trying a new daily organizational plan to deal with my body falling apart, as bodies do, and it's worked great these first few days. I feel as if I've worked more, though not much new writing, and my desk is the cleanest it's been in ... maybe a year? Also ended up unexpectedly organizing a shelf. 

No, of course, this isn't going to last.

Goal 1. Write And Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

• I Was an '80s Tradwife was published last weekend.
• Submitted the yogurt essay.
• How Much Would My Spiritual Ancestors Have Spent to Save Some Yogurt (the yogurt essay) was published at Tastyble. I spent some time editing this piece, because Tastyble does real editing of their submissions, unlike almost any publication I've dealt with on Medium. One editor, in particular, is very impressive, and I greatly appreciate her work.  
• Finished a The History Reader post and published it here at Original Content.
• Began revising the first two History Reader posts to create an essay to submit.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Promoted I Was an '80s Tradwife on Facebook and BlueSky
• Promoted How Much Would My Spiritual Ancestors Have Spent to Save Some Yogurt on Facebook and Bluesky
• Promoted The History Reader post on BlueSky. Skipped Facebook, because I've been promoting a lot of work there recently and getting little response. I don't get much response on BlueSky, either, but I don't know those people. 
• Updated the Goodreads blog with a post from Original Content.

Goal 3. Submit Book-length Work to Agents and Editors 

• Submitted The Mummy Hunters to an agent I heard about through SCBWI.

Goal 4. Begin Some Writing on the 19th Century Novel Idea

• Well, no writing. But I did organize some notes.

The Reading History Project: "Thinking About History" by Sarah Maza

I wanted to start my reading history project with some reading about history, which is exactly what Thinking About History by Sarah Maza is. In my history journal (something I will write about here at some point) I describe the book as being about how historians do history, how it has been done in the past, and how the doing of history has changed. (What can we expect from a journal entry?) Maza also covers different types of historians, something that is a relatively recent development. 

I think I may be referring to this book off-and-on this year in relation to other books I read, but for now I'll touch on some of what Maza says about the "history of history," because I think it could help make sense of some of the present-day controversy over how we view history and what we consider to be appropriate history.

Saying Good-bye to the Good Old Days of Nineteenth Century History

I like the nineteenth century, myself. I see it as a period when a great deal was happening in various fields and a period when knowledge was appreciated. By the end of the nineteenth century, it was a period when the world was getting ready to transition into the twentieth century. Things were going to change!

Or maybe not.

According to Maza, in the nineteenth century practitioners of many fields of study were interested in professionalizing, and history was no different. Historians wanted their work to be considered scientific like the other academic fields. Maza says, "...scholars assumed that a scientifically examined source could yield only one meaning..."  That kind of uniformity is easy to understand because from the end of the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century history departments "were extremely homogeneous workplaces peopled by white male Protestant scholars from upper-class backgrounds." They tended to value the same kind of history--political and military, for instance, and focused on great men who, coincidently, were frequently white, Protestant males like them.  

But in the second half of the twentieth century, the academic world opened up as women entered colleges in greater numbers and the GI Bill brought nearly 8 million men from different backgrounds to campuses in its first twelve years. Some of these new people became historians who were interested in a broader range of topics: labor history, women's history, gay and lesbian history, and environmental history, for instance. You name the subject, it has a past that can be studied. 

In this period, "the history of things" also became important. Food ... clothing ... the natural environment... I am particularly interested in "things," and will direct your attention to Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser, which I liked. (Social history. That's another whole subject Maza addresses.) 

As long as we're on the subject of the history of things, I'll also mention The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers by Tom Standage. 

These two examples illustrate that we are no longer talking "the history of leaders, political elites, and state-related activities," which is how Maza says nineteenth and even early twentieth century historians thought of their field. 

You Can't Go Back to the Past, Folks

But "the history of leaders, political elites, and state-related activities" may be how some people in the present do want to think of history. Over the last couple of years, we've been hearing talk of manifest destiny and the Monroe Doctrine, concepts from the nineteenth century. There's also been talk of the present administration turning to eighteenth and nineteenth century laws to support its actions. Last year's Executive Order 14253 Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History raised the question of just what truth and sanity American history should be restored to. Should we be turning to the nineteenth century for that, also, and looking, again, for the history of leaders, political elites, and state-related activities?

Oh, please, no.

While there are concerns right now about groups who had been lost to history being lost again if  present-day lawmakers are able to impose restrictions on public historical sites and schools, I think there's a limit to how far they'll be able to get with that. The reason? History without those groups is boring.

That's right, "the history of leaders, political elites, and state-related activities" is boring. All the time I was studying history in college, I was hearing about how boring it was from people who didn't care for it. "Memorizing dates" was how it was viewed. To some extent the boring argument is true. What makes it boring is not the dates but that there's a limit to how much interest anyone can maintain in the leaders and political elites who had little to do with our ancestors' lives. We only care about the history of royal figures if there's sex and weird stuff involved. Would anyone care about Queen Victoria if she wasn't portrayed as having a love interest with whom she had a great many children? I think not.

Over the last half century, the past has become far more about how everyone lived than what a few people did. There's a circular aspect to history now, in my humble opinion. We see history now as the impact of individuals on events and the impact of events on individuals. All individuals. Many of these individuals are unknown to most of us because of their ethnicity, employment, gender, religion, and more, and thus they are very, very not boring.

History is a pandora's box and the lid has been opened. It's going to be very difficult for anyone to shut it again. Especially if we all keep reading.