The compelling wedding certificate
All through my own childhood, the old house down in Paine Hollow that had once been home to my great grandaunt Eva (and her father before her) was chock full of things that had belonged to Eva, things that had been cherished by her. My grandfather inherited the house, and my father, in turn, acquired the house […]
Paine Hollow and the Pond Hill School
South Wellfleet: Paine Hollow is easy enough to find, it’s a left turn off Route Six as you drive towards Provincetown. If you do turn down the road, drive slowly, and imagine it as it was over one hundred years ago- Greek Gothic-style farmhouses lining the road, and most of them owned by members of […]
To High School We Shall Go
My great grandaunt Eva was exceedingly proud of the fact that she had attended and graduated from Wellfleet High School. At the time of her graduation, the school was located, I believe, on School Street in the center of town. Eva’s diploma was framed behind glass, and generations that came after her found it on […]
An Unsung Revolutionary War Hero
1886: In Chapter Two, Eva and her mother Sarah drove their buggy past the Second Congregational Church in South Wellfleet on their way to the Southern Wharf of Blackfish Creek. Eva contemplates the headstone of John Taylor, a Revolutionary War hero who was a bodyguard to George Washington. The stone is still there, and is […]
The Wedding Portraits
One of the leather bound photograph albums found in our family attic belonged to Eva’s mother, Sarah Rich Paine- Mrs. Otis Paine. Eva and Henry are placed facing away from one another, not towards each other, and that may have been by accident, but to me it seemed ominous. More telling was the carving on their […]
Schooner fishing, a dangerous occupation
A picture says a thousand words, and this old stereoscope card clearly shows the conditions faced by fishermen on a winter trip, and this was a clear, calm night. Ice had to be chopped from the rigging to prevent the vessel from becoming top heavy and flipping over. Of course, it was impossible to sail […]
The Cover Designer, Darren Wotherspoon
You’ve seen the marriage certificate, and perhaps you noticed that the etching on the lower front cover of Eva and Henry has been taken from the original marriage certificate. A quality scan was taken at Focal Point Studios in Orleans, Massachusetts, by photographer Robert Tucker, and then. . . my husband Jim Wolf used it to to […]
Independent Publisher’s Silver Award Winner
I am so very happy to report that “Eva and Henry, A Cape Cod Marriage” has jumped from the oft-times derided status of a self-published book to the perch of self-published award winners. A good friend and fellow writer Pam Mandell let me know by e-mail that she had heard the news the novel had […]
June 11, 2011 Wellfleet Harborfest Reading
Press Release Author Irene Paine to read from her award-winning novel at Wellfleet Harborfest Wellfleet, MA: On the W.H.A.T. Waterfront Stage, at 1:00 PM on June 11 at the first annual Wellfleet Harborfest, Irene Paine will read from her award-winning historical novel Eva and Henry, A Cape Cod Marriage and narrate a slide-show of rare vintage photographs of […]
Writer on the road
I have recently driven myself from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Bigfork, Montana. The journey was introspective while at the same time being very much observant of the big wide country I live in, and love. I’ve driven this way before, but with my husband. This time I traveled solo with my dog Yoko. I noted […]