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Elaine Pinkerton

October 5 10:00 a.m. -Amelia Island Book Festival/ Amelia Island, Florida --Elaine Pinkerton will teach a session titled Harvesting Your Family Tree

This workshop offers inspiration and practical help to begin or develop a memoir or family history project. A hands-on session, attendees may bring a few family stories, journals, sampling of family letters and records and be prepared to write.

For information, visit www.bookisland.org/schedule/writeit.htm

Writing is my lifetime passion. When I was ten, I wrote plays, short mysteries and poetry. My parents' gift to me of a diary began a lifetime of journaling, a method useful today for launching literary projects.

In North Carolina and Virginia where I grew up, opportunities for writing abounded. I edited and wrote most of "The Seventh Grade Scoop." Later, I produced short stories for my high school magazine "The Bumblebee." College found me writing literary criticism, an important part of being an English major at the University of Virginia. My master's thesis in English was "Determinism in Mark Twain's Puddn'head Wilson. Even today, I love Mark Twain and this part of Americana. The middle of my writing career could best be described as "journalistic." Since the 1970's, I've freelanced for local, regional and national publications, including Family Circle, New Mexico Magazine, Runner's World, On the Run and the New Mexico Traveler. I made my living as a technical writer/editor for Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1980's and early 90's. With technical writing, however, I felt my creativity suffocating. Writing around the edges of my day job, I produced two guidebooks inspired by the natural beauty of northern New Mexico and the Southwest as well as my love of the outdoors: Santa Fe on Foot and The Santa Fe Trail by Bicycle.

For the past few years, writing has centered on World War II and India. The reason? My late father, Richard Beard. This extraordinary man not only believed in my writing, he was my greatest inspiration. Before he and my mother adopted my brother and me (we were "goodbye babies," born in the middle of the war), Richard served at the 142nd General Hospital in India as a clinical psychologist for the Army Air Force. After his death in 1997, I discovered a voluminous WWII correspondence. From Calcutta, India and Findlay, Ohio, he and my mother wrote letters depicting both war front and home front. The unifying thread in all the letters was their deep love and devotion.
Dear Diary Flier

books by Elaine Pinkerton

Beast of Bengal

See the Video About Beast of Bengal!

What if a war-time psychologist nearly loses his own sanity in the act of trying to save his own patients? That is the premise of Elaine's suspense novel Beast of Bengal. During World War II, 30-year-old Richard Benet is assigned to the 142nd General Hospital in Calcutta. Serving as an officer in charge of a neuropsychiatric ward, he immerses himself in treating mental cases; writing to†his wife Rita, and exploring Calcutta. He fails to recognize that his commanding officer, Colonel James McDermott-- on his way to becoming an opium addict-- is smuggling drugs out of the hospital to support not only his own habit but also the Indian Independence Movement. Only after Richard is trapped with a man-eating tiger and the 142nd General is nearly sabotaged does the psychologist give up romantic notions about India. With newfound wisdom and strength, Richard saves himself, his patients, and the hospital. The Richard Benet who sails back to America is a less idealistic but far more courageous man than the know-it-all Ph.D. psychologist at the novel's outset.

From Calcutta with Love

See the Video About From Calcutta with Love!

The saga of China, Burma, India -- World War II's forgotten theater -- is herioc, but seldom told. CBI ground troops were charged with the Herculean task of carving a road from India to China, and the treacherous flight pattern over the Himalayas, crucial to supplying the Allied effort, was a virtual suicide mission. Pilots who "flew the Hump" braved violent monsoon rains and deadly wind shifts.

Richard Beard, an Army psychologist assigned to the 142nd General Hospital in Calcutta, dealt daily with emotional trauma. While American and British soldiers hacked their way through dense tropical forests to build a supply route, Beard immersed himself in the internal jungles of those he cared for. A pillar to the men he served, Beard was an astute listener and observer, pleased to be playing his part. But his own pillar was his wife, Reva, half a world away in Findlay, Ohio. In daily letters to Reva, he poured out not only his own longing but also the unfolding drama of war in painfully exquisite detail tempered with tenderness and humor.

The Santa Fe Trail by Bicycle

Day One
SANTA FE TO LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO 72 miles
Highlights:
* Santa Fe Plaza
* Civil War Site -- Battle of Glorieta Pass
* Pecos National Monument
* Old Town Plaza, Las Vegas

Today’s course, moderate and gently hilly, will dip south and northeastward. Before you leave Santa Fe, be sure to spend some time exploring the Santa Fe Plaza. For the first Santa Fe Trail adventurers, this was the destination. After the trail was established, wagon train traffic constantly flowed east- and westward. For those who start the trek in Santa Fe, this is the beginning.If you’re able to arrive in Santa Fe a day or two early, make sure to include a visit to the Palace of the Governors. Dating back to 1610, it is as old as the city itself. Seat of the Spanish government that reigned for many decades, occupied by Indians for 13 years, the Palace of the Governors today is a repository of New Mexico history and art. Also visit the Fine Arts Museum, noteworthy for its auditorium and art collection. Last but not least, make special notice of the stone plaque near the southeast corner of the plaza marking the end of the Santa Fe Trail.

Link to my main website from the top of this page to read more about this book!

Santa Fe on Foot, Adventures in the City Different

This is a guide to walking, running, and bicycling adventures within Santa Fe. It includes 14 routes: seven walks, four runs, and three bicycle treks. An excellent guide for outdoor-minded visitors and locals, it has been called by New Mexico Magazine, “the book to take along on any outing around the old and new Santa Fe.”

Much of Santa Fe’s charm lies in what the visitor does not see at first glance. I delve into the past to share the stories behind Santa Fe’s buildings, streets and neighborhoods. Abundant maps and two dozen drawings by local artist Eli Levin/ Jo Basiste.