Purple Feather Press

01/15/2026

https://purplefeatherpress.com/january-notes-from-purple-feather-press-jan-15-2026

In spite of everything…

I originally started this newsletter on Dec 28, intending to send it out on January 2, 2026, as a welcome to the new year letter… but then all sorts of life happened. So here it is, the middle of January, and I know I’m not the only one who feels pummeled by the atrocities in the daily news and the stresses of family and work life.

I have drafted at least 5 different versions of this newsletter over the past two weeks, trying to find a way to say that “in the midst of it all, I have to keep looking for the good.”

Like many, (but apparently not enough), I read Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl while in junior high school. But I also did a lot of community theatre during my teens, and one of the plays we did at the Globe of the Great Southwest was “The Diary of Anne Frank” in November 1994, 31 years ago now. I played Anne’s sister, Margot, alongside my mother Terri playing their mother, Edith Frank. Our director, Lynn, was a wonderful librarian in her day job, and she guided the cast and crew through the incredible heart-wrenching storytelling of bringing a young girl’s written diary from the early 1940’s to the stage in West Texas, 50 years after Anne Frank and most of her family died due to the horrors of the Holocaust in WWII...

To read the rest, please go to the website link above, or the newsletter link here: https://purple-feather-press.kit.com/posts/january-notes-from-purple-feather-press-jan-15-2026

Purple Feather Press offers independent book and creative publishing services. We want to help you share your story with the world. Subscribe to news and updates here.

12/02/2025

https://purple-feather-press.kit.com/posts/unbinding-a-book-and-end-of-year-wrap-up

Completed projects - so far

It was a busy year for Purple Feather Press, and we're still working on more to come.

We helped author and Mitigation University founder Victoria Rusk re-launch her first book The Handbook for Mitigation as well as the Spanish translation version, El Manual para Mitigación. These are both "a practical guide for community around a criminal case" - and both are available to order at bookstores nationwide!
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We also worked with two authors who took their years of experience as teachers in a classroom to create a wonderfully detailed workbook to help other teachers keep their students engaged in writing. Bill Martin and Christine Gorychka have Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically available to order at bookstores nationwide!

Shop Purple Feather Press at Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/PurpleFeatherPress

Barnes & Noble - Victoria Rusk
The Handbook for Mitigation and El Manual para Mitigación
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/victoriarusk

Barnes & Noble - Bill Martin & Christine Gorychka
Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/occasional-papers-bill-martin/1147946353?ean=9781959600091

Unbinding a book

I spent lunch hours, any free time, and any classes I could skip in the library when I was in junior high school, more content to shelve and sort titles according to the Dewey Decimal System than be around other people. One of the best librarians was a wonderfully kind woman whom I got to work with twice in my life, first with the books and several years later with aviation history at a museum. The school was slowly transitioning to a digital checkout system with a scanner and bar codes on books, and she let me enter titles and ISBNs even handle checking out other students.

She taught me how to put the plastic jackets on certain books and magazines so they wouldn't get as messed up from all the teenage readers flipping through them. And she taught me how to repair and rebind books that had been damaged. It's a sacred thing, to repair these tomes of knowledge and information.

Now here I am, decades past that junior high library and basic ability to repair or even create books, and one of my projects was to unbind a book! It gave me pause, but I knew I could do it without damaging the pages or cover, to the best of my ability.

Sometimes, taking things apart, deconstructing how they were built in the first place, allows us to learn how to build or create something new.

This book was a history project from over 30 years ago, and it's now been fully scanned so it can be reprinted and updated for a new generation of readers.
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As a very small, independent publishing company, I realize every day how all the skills I've learned along the way impact the work I do now. I may not meet the "standards" of certain industries - book sales and data that apply to publishers that have hundreds of books and employees are vastly different than what we can achieve here, and marketing that involves videos or ai is a hard "NO" from me - but the ability to help craft good stories and create good works is still vital to this business.
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Along with the books, which includes cover design work, editing, layout, alignment, and sending it all to the printers, I've also been working on research for a few different genealogy projects, website and brochures for small businesses, and design work for a museum and a regional historical group. It's all fascinating stuff and I'm loving all of it! And it all lets me be creative and support other small businesses, organizations, and authors as they create their things to share with the world.

Into 2026 we go...

Upcoming projects include a memoir, another couple of history books, two genealogy books, hopefully a script, more museum display design/content, and a book about mediation.

See you next year!

Sincerely,

Heather - Purple Feather Press

Independent book publisher based in Texas.

09/01/2025

Back to School with Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically

There used to be a nostalgia for back to school, with fall leaves drifting down and shiny apples on teachers desks as images stamped into our memories of decades past. Now, with computers the size of index cards and artificial systems culling millions of purloined books and papers, educators have more to contend with than they ever thought possible when they were students themselves.

Teachers teach because they see the need to help share knowledge or because they feel the drive to help shape a better, more educated, future for new generations. But how does a teacher know their students are engaged in this learning, and how do they know the students are understanding any of the discussion?

Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically offers an excellent approach to this quandary.

*** Written by teachers, for teachers ***

Bill Martin and Christine Gorychka bring their years of classroom experience teaching English and writing to high school and college age students to this book. Every teacher knows that engagement is more than just repeating facts, it's about understanding and application.

This comprehensive workbook provides reflective questions, different ways to use Occasional Papers, samples and examples, and guides for classroom application.

Purchase your copy at one of the following sites today!
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/shop/PurpleFeatherPress
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/occasional-papers-bill-martin/1147946353?ean=9781959600091
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Occasional-Papers-Teaching-Students-Enthusiastically/dp/1959600095

Purple Feather Press is proud of the work that authors Bill Martin and Christine Gorychka put in to writing, revising, editing, and now publishing their creative workbook about Occasional Papers, so they can help teachers everywhere teach writing in a way that students can embrace enthusiastically!

Purple Feather Press: https://purplefeatherpress.com/

Upcoming projects include more design work for a historical society, designing more panels for a museum, unbinding a vintage book (with permission!) for scanning, and more.

See you next month!

Newsletter new book announcement for Occasional Papers: Teaching Writing in a Way That Students Embrace Enthusiastically by Purple Feather Press

03/26/2025

Working on a Spanish translation for one of the book clients, finishing the layout to send to print. While it's great to have a wider audience for any book or project, it's disheartening to know that the reason this book needs a Spanish translation is because it specifically helps incarcerated populations, and in Texas, the number of Spanish speakers is disproportionate due to systemic issues such as education, healthcare, food and shelter access, and work options and access.

I support people creating their books and sharing their stories, and I believe we as a community and as a state could do so much better for all of our neighbors by meeting people where they're at instead of building barriers.

12/12/2024

Shout out of thanks to the person who bought 9 copies of The Scenic Loop recently! Whether you're giving them as holiday gifts or starting a book club, THANK YOU! for supporting an independent author and publisher!

If you want your own copy - get it here at Bookshop - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-scenic-loop-davis-mountains-state-park-highway-larry-francell/19937648?aid=92844&ean=9781959600039&listref=purple-feather-press&

11/13/2024

My Summer Vacation, plus several other books by author Larry Francell, are available at https://bookshop.org/shop/purplefeatherpress - and when you purchase through this link, it helps small and independent bookstores and publishers like us!

Independent book publisher based in Texas.

11/13/2024

My Summer Vacation is now available in both paperback and hardback on Barnes and Noble

Deeming it my duty, I camped directly in their line of march (the Apache Chief Victorio and his band), and at the only water for a long distance north. I had with me only First Lieutenant William H. Beck, Tenth Cavalry, one non-commissioned officer, five privates - two of whom...

11/13/2024

My Summer Vactation is now available in paperback on Amazon -

My Summer Vacation: The Victorio Campaign Journal of Robert Grierson 1880

11/13/2024

Announcing: "My Summer Vacation: The Victorio Campaign Journal of Robert Grierson 1880" by Lawrence John Francell is now available!

Author Larry Francell takes you through Fort Davis, Texas and beyond in his latest history book, a comprehensive look at what happened during the Victorio Campaign in the summer of 1880 with Col. Benjamin Grierson and his son Robert Grierson.

"Deeming it my duty, I camped directly in their line of march [the Apache Chief Victorio and his band], and at the only water for a long distance north. I had with me only First Lieutenant William H. Beck, Tenth Cavalry, one non-commissioned officer, five privates – two of whom were teamsters – and my son Robert K. Grierson, who, just through high school, was out in search of adventure and suddenly found it."

Thus, Colonel Benjamin Henry Grierson, Tenth Cavalry, describes the stand he made at Rattlesnake Springs in July 1880 during that summer’s campaign. Accompanying his father was son Robert, a bright, articulate young man who, in search of adventure, documented that summer with his father chasing Victorio through West Texas.

During the Victorio Campaign in 1880, Colonel Grierson was tasked with pursuing the Apache Victorio and his Apache warriors across West Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico. This book covers the history of the campaign from several viewpoints including Fort Davis historians Barry Scobee and Larry Francell, Colonel Grierson's own report to the Secretary of War, the field journal of his son, Robert Grierson, as he accompanied his father and the troops, as well as a description of the campaign by First Sergeant John F. Casey.

The first-hand account of Robert Grierson, written from July 1880 to September 1, 1880, includes the day-to-day travels and interactions along the trails and canyons through Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert region, the Sierra Diablo Mountains, and the Guadalupe Mountains. He documented everything: the desert sights, hunting expeditions, sleeping arrangements, travel companions, weather conditions, trail meals, the newspapers and books he was reading, and letters he wrote to his friends and family back home in Jacksonville, Illinois.

This account of a young man on his search for adventure is truly a fascinating look at some of the real people during a period of United States history that is sometimes swept up like the desert sands in a summer storm.

Larry Francell is an author and historian living in Fort Davis, Texas. His other books about the region include: Fort Lancaster: Texas Frontier Sentinel; Planning for the Move of a Museum Collection; How Indian Emily Saved Fort Davis; What’s in a Name: Why Fort Davis Was Named for Jefferson Davis and Why the Name Was Never Changed; Amid Shot and Shell of a Hundred Battlefields: The Life of Samuel Percival Greene;The Scenic Loop: Davis Mountains State Park Highway, plus numerous articles on local history and museum operations.

Books can be purchased in local stores such as Javelinas & Hollyhocks, The Paint Box, and the Fort Davis Historical Society. Books can also be purchased through PurpleFeatherPress.com, Bookshop.org/shop/PurpleFeatherPress, BarnesAndNoble.com, and Amazon.com.

09/19/2024

Available for sale soon! Author Larry Francell will have the new books available in Fort Davis and area locations in early October, and we'll have the link for print-on-demand online sales as soon as possible!