Articles | Author Milana Marsenich
My Father’s Broken Heart and the Lewis and Clark Caverns
Six months after my mother died, my 73-year-old father pulled his kayak out of the Colorado River and his heart stopped. It stopped only for a few seconds and then started again. My brother took him back to his house in Glenwood Springs and my father insisted on driving home to Butte, Montana.
Pearl is on Her Ninth Life Again
I thought Pearl would die three months ago. My boss first found her outside of a local bar when she was about 3 inches long, with her eyes still sealed shut and walking into rocks. She brought her home and then to work. I saw the furry little, tuft eared, kitty and agreed to foster her until we could find a good home for her.
Promise: Winter 1917, Butte, Montana
I walked into our small house and Mama, Papa and Marko all focused on me. It was strange. The girl is not usually the center of attention. I sat down, and waited for the news. Papa’s sickness? My grandmother’s death? Or did Marko join the army? We had just entered the war. But not everyone was happy about it. People said they’d be killing their own brothers, people like us, who’d just crossed the Atlantic to America.
Lily and the Trumpeter Swan
“Lily and her Papa race toward the loud shrills coming from the Cattail Marsh where a red berried vine ties a trumpeter swan to the shoreline. Winter is coming. To survive, he needs to fly now. Will Lily help find the courage to free the young swan? Find out in this beautifully illustrated children’s book.”
RV Living is not for the Faint of Heart, Especially not in a Twenty-Year-Old Motorhome
Well, here’s what happened at Mullen, Idaho. I heard something go in the engine of my 2003 Starflyte Dynamax motorhome as I was heading up Mullen Pass. Suddenly, the temperature gage went from cool to red hot.
September 1918: The Wolf Dog
During the fall of 1918, the influenza pandemic crosses the nation & reaches the mining town of Butte, Montana. I wrote about it in Beautiful Ghost. You can read the description of the flu coming to town here:
The wolf dog wanders through the town where mining fumes singe the air, and tin shacks, thrown together in desperation, sit next to French mansions and yards flagged with cobblestone. He rambles past the Cabbage Patch, where bootleggers and criminals live in downtrodden shanties and the king of the Patch rules the poor with an iron club. The dog walks through Dublin Gulch, a rough bit of Butte, inhabited by stubborn Irish people and sour-faced old women, who rarely shop for fine china or cast-iron pots at the town’s one department store. He continues his journey through Chinatown, past the opium dens, and down to the train depot on East Front Street.
I Fought the Wind and the Wind Won. Well, it almost did.
I have been RV obsessed for many years. At first, I wanted a tent trailer. For over ten years, I dreamed about it, looked at tent trailers online and in person, and imagined how much fun it would be to sleep with the screens open and a friendly wind blowing through them.
Two New Book Contracts
Shed Girl is a contemporary crime novel set in the small fictional town of Annie’s Court on Washington’s northern coast. Annie’s Court has a runaway problem. Runaways arrive and then they disappear. Juliet French, an old runaway herself, does tarot readings for petty cash at the Farmers Market. Across the market Tony LeCrosse sells toys. Juliet notices the runaways flock to LeCrosse. Just before they go missing.
My Pandemic Story: Montana to Oregon and Back Again
In the Butte, Montana archives, in 2015, I ran across an article about the 1918 influenza pandemic in Butte. The article stated that in three months’ time over 1000 Butte people died of the flu. The 1918 influenza was little known or talked about in 2015.
Idaho Madams
Idaho Madams uncovers the enigmatic and salacious lives of 30 women who ran brothels in the Gem State from the 1850s to the 1980s. As told by author Milana Marsenich, the stories of these women come alive with voluptuous detail, historical photographs, and the social context of the times.
Wings Like a Prayer: The Swan Keeper
The Swan Keeper, a western novel set in 1920s Mission Valley, Montana
Counted Blessings: Thoughts Of My Mother
At my second wedding, a guest asked my mother if she cried. My mother wore her oxygen tank over a champagne-colored dress. Her lungs filled with fluid. She moved slowly and with caution. “How could I cry when she looks so happy?” she said. As she was too sick to...
