Kristen Hall-Geisler

Category: The Wingback

  • Does the Carriage Driver Have Your Cane?

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    My great-grandmother Velma was not a rich person. She lived all her life in small communities in northern Pennsylvania, teaching in tiny schools, raising a bunch of kids, and running a small farm with my great-grandfather. Not fancy, but educated for sure. The first few lessons in the Shorter Course focused on classroom vocabulary: pens,…

  • Des Mots Gros et Petit

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    That title is “Words Big and Small,” if you were wondering, but I bet you figured it out. I posted on Instagram (@kristen_hg) about my adventures in century-old French, and an online friend in France offered to help me “with the big words.” I told her that it’s not the big words that are the…

  • Tools Old and New for Learning French

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    I’m using a book published in 1913 as my French refresher course, but I’m not against modern technology. I mean, I am creating blog posts as I learn, which are the height of internet fashion in 2019. I am writing these posts on a brand-new Microsoft Surface Pro. I even sprang for the fancy Alcantara…

  • Diving into French c. 1913

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    I spent a couple of days on the intro of the Shorter French Course. It had the alphabet, a guide to accents, and an extensive pronunciation guide. It was a good reminder for how those nasal vowels are formed in the mouth, and now I’m less lazy about it. Or maybe more lazy, actually, in…

  • Velma: Twentieth-Century Student

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    I have spent more than a decade researching and writing and fact checking and editing, so you know I couldn’t just dive into French lessons from 1913 using my great-grandmother’s college textbook without looking some things up. Like, for example, the fact that she went to college during World War I. I grew up one…

  • Shorter French Course

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    For every plan or project I start, three more pop up. Same with books — while I’m reading one, I buy five more. And Netflix — every time I log in to watch one thing, I add two to My List. I am positive that I am not alone in any of these things. One…

  • Digital vs Physical Media

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    How I’ve decided to consume media and support creators Last summer, City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty was on sale for something like two bucks for Kindle. I had heard good things about the book, so I picked it up and eventually got around to reading it. Not only did I love it, but…

  • Yes, You Can Buy Skull and Sidecar Paperbacks on Amazon. But.

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    If you visit the Amazon page for Skull and Sidecar, you will notice that it’s available in paperback or ebook. You will also notice that if you try to buy it directly — like, the usual way you buy a book, with the Buy Now or one-click button — there’s a message saying that the book is…

  • KHG-Force

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    What I’m up to the week of Dec. 3, 2018:

  • Launch Party for Skull and Sidecar!

    Launch Party for Skull and Sidecar!

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    If you’re in the Portland area this weekend and want something to do on Saturday afternoon, come pick up a paperback copy of my new novel, Skull and Sidecar. It’s historical fiction about women anthropologists set in 1926. There’s a man in a black hat, and a Harley-Davidson with a sidecar, and a trip across the…