‘Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.’

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Topic: What is special, unique or fun about where you live? We are from all over the world, tell us about where you are.

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Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed Stephany Tullis‘s response to the topic of where they live, and maybe found a new interesting book to read from her library.

There are a few things about the place where I was born that are special. Upstate New York, no really upstate, near the mountains of the Adirondacks, is swathed in history. It was and still is the home of many Native American tribes. The Battle of Saratoga was fought there. The National Cemetery honoring our fallen service members is located there. And, President Grant passed away there. It is famed for the ‘healing’ spring waters and summer concert series at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Most of all, it’s special because I grew up there. It’s the home being referred to when I say, I’m going home for the holidays. That’s where the turkey is carved and the tree lit.

In the early 1900s, my great grandfather came as a young boy from Italy to the area. He and his family took a derelict looking steamer across the cantankerous Atlantic. So too, my father’s grandfather came from the Netherlands to be there. I still have to ask, why there? Usually the larger cities are more attractive to immigrants, for both work and convenience. The truth is, that the areas they chose had workers from

their respective backgrounds, and they likely came for work and familiarity. New York was a Dutch colony. Saratoga attracted rail workers, both Italian and Irish, for the resort work and trains. I don’t know much about these men, as they both passed away well before I came to the world, so much of that is conjecture from historical evidence.

The fact that President Grant enjoyed Broadway in Saratoga, as I did growing up, is just exciting. If you’ll remember, I wrote a US Civil War novel called Blue Honor, and it centers around the Federal Army of the Potomac, to which he was later in charge. By the time Grant came to live in the area, he was destitute from speculation by fortune hunters and dying of throat cancer. You can visit the home on Mount McGregor as it has been preserved since his death. It’s a nice tour and you learn a great deal about our 18th president.

Over in Schuylerville, named for General Schuyler, you’ll find the Saratoga Battlefield, site of two battles that created a major turning point of the war. North of Mount McGregor, you can enter the historic Lake George and Fort Ticonderoga area. The lakes were the setting of major revolutionary battles. You can tour the forts and witness reenactments annually. Colonials, Natives and Red Coats battle it out on the field for a living history play that takes up the whole field. The sound of booming cannon from miles up the ridge, to right next to you on the field is thrilling.

There is so much more I could share, but it would take a book!

Why don’t you hop on over to Tracy Krimmer’s blog and see what’s so special about the area in which she lives. Pick up a summer beach read anthology she’s featured in for free!

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Stephany Tullis’s life changed dramatically in the fall of 2008. When her oldest son asked, ‘why don’t you just write a book? Do what you love to do?’, after a few weeks of thought, she decided to give it a shot.