I wish all the suffrage characters in Blue Thread were around to meet Barbara Roberts tomorrow at Cannon Beach. There will be eight of us authors speaking at the library there, but in my book Gov. Roberts is the main attraction.
Here’s the official blurb from the Crazy 8s page:
“Elected Governor of Oregon in 1990, Barbara Roberts became the state’s first woman governor and one of the first 10 female governors in the nation. Governor Roberts was a strong advocate for environmental management, human rights and civil rights, and creative workforce development. She served as Oregon Secretary of State from 1985-91 and was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1981-85; she was Majority Leader in 1983-84. Her new autobiography, Up the Capitol Steps, A Woman’s March to the Governorship, captures a period of our nation’s political history and a view of women’s expanding role in government. She has two sons, Mark and Mike Sanders, and was married to state senator Frank Roberts from 1974 until his death in 1993.”
I’ll add a bit more. Among her many accomplishments as Oregon’s governor (1991-1995), Barbara Roberts secured funding for the Oregon Health Plan. She made it possible for more children to participate in Oregon’s Head Start program, and she secured financing for more affordable housing. Up the Capitol Steps promises to be a good read.
I hope that any of you folks who will be within a reasonable distance of Cannon Beach tomorrow will stop by the library there (we start at 2 p.m.) and thank the governor for her years of service. Yup, and it wouldn’t hurt to buy her book!
My name is Ruth. I write books and articles for children and young adults. Blue Thread is my eleventh book, and the first one in which I have knowingly stretched the truth.