![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2rHGNj7xPBzJ4O_y9-4d_3E4yV_4GvAwwtL37XViaPJNai4LVYPG5ybXMmMENIRC_7dxS_k2zH7uaOs1HzaUs2fiz5u616-__8GV4XP5x8UbxtpdgsB8n23Mg2u6nBWutO4m91sNETO8/s400/Cherokee_Building_Spires.jpg)
_____________________________________________________________________
Summer 2008
(York, Pennsylvania)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC9FZIy9m10yL0Ir2BoQ1mMaU4ULQSYadHWnsPSc7UkXF4216nITESVI9v0vv8dzsOXk97iD_iTmnjH1wVd5ionYmlxwN06Hr6Al9uj88xYF5rXqx7NN-8ID7AuqO-T4XA98Q-gk_k66F5/s320/Cherokee+Map+Front.jpg)
In late September 2004, I gathered my laptop, notes, photocopies of old letters to and from my ex-husband, Cherokee Mental Health: 100 Years of Serving Iowan’s (Cherokee centennial book), maps of Iowa and Cherokee, and the August 30 issue of the Chronicle Times. I carried them to Skopje, Macedonia, where I spent October 2004-May 2005 cranking out a 700-page draft.