If you belong to a group that needs speakers ( Historical society? Service league? Book club? AAUW chapter? Knitting circle? Revolutionary cell?), give me a shout at pdtoler@sbcglobal.net. Popular topics include:
- Not Like Joan of Arc—When Pamela Toler told people she was working on a book about women warriors, almost everyone said "You mean like Joan of Arc?" The short answer is "Not always." Toler shares stories about fascinating women you've never heard of, beginning with the oldest known women warriors (from the second millennium BCE). She introduces you to a group of women warriors who turned out to be more important than she expected. And she debunks the myth that women have not and therefore cannot be warriors.
- In Disguise –Pamela Toler tells the stories of women who disguised themselves as men to enlist in the American Civil War and how they fit into the long lineage of cross-dressing women soldiers.
- From Unwanted to Indispensable: The Real Nurses of the Civil War—Pamela Toler tells the story of how thousands of women with little or no experience with nursing volunteered to serve their country during the Civil War, taught themselves how to do the job under adverse circumstance (including hostility from the surgeons with whom they worked), and created a profession that did not exist before the war.
- Programs about history, writing and writing about history tailored to a specific group's interests. These have included programs on women who took on the Roman empire, women who disguised themselves to fight as men, and the relationship between the new roles women played in World War I and the passage of women's suffrage.
Where I'll Be:
2021
7/8 & 7/10 Beachfront AuthorFest, Lake Geneva Public Library, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
7/8 6:00 PM virtual keynote: Not Like Joan of Arc
Email RStrehlow@lakegeneva.lib.wi.us or call 262-249-5299 for a reservation.
7/10 12-3 Socially distanced, in-person book signing at Lake Geneva's Library Park (In Real Life! I am so excited)
8/2 From Unwanted to Indispensable. Rock Valley Civil War Round Table.
9/13 6:00 PM An online conversation about women warriors with Nancy Marie Brown, author of the forthcoming The Real Valkyrie. Details to follow
Where I’ve Been:
2021
3/23 CST Taylorsville Library, Taylorsville Utah. From Unwanted to Indispensable
4/2 Northern Illinois Civil War Round Table. From Unwanted to Indispensable.
4/27 Baltimore Civil War Round Table. From Unwanted to Indispensable.
2020
1/9 Milwaukee Civil War Roundtable. From Unwanted to Indispensable.
1/20 Chicago Civil War Roundtable. From Unwanted to Indispensable.
3/11 Global Conversations, Global Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Not Like Joan of Arc
6/5 St. Louis Science Center, First Fridays at Home. Not Like Joan of Arc
10/21 Norwich University, Lunch and Learn. Not Like Joan of Arc
2019
2/28 Author’s Voice, Stranger Than Fiction, Abe Lincoln Bookstore. Chicago. (Available for streaming)
3/7 A Room of One’s Own Bookstore, Madison, Wisconsin
3/13 American Association of University Women in conjunction with the Elmhurst Public Library. Elmhurst Illinois
3/25 Seminary Coop Bookstore, Chicago
3/29 Beloit College. Beloit Wisconsin
4/3 Pritzker Military Museum and Library. Chicago. (Available for streaming)
4/13 Barnes & Noble, Springfield, Missouri
5/19 Books in Bloom Literary Festival, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
6/13 Benzonia Academy Lecture, Mills Community House, Benzonia Michigan
6/21 Salt Creek Civil War Roundtable
7/15 7:30 P.M. Hyde Park Book Club, at the Hyde Park Historical Society, 5529 So. Lake Park, Chicago, Illinois
8/3 9:00 A. M. . Keep on Blogging. On-Line Seminar. The Village Writing School
9/21 9:00 On-line class: The Value of Blogging and How to Love Your Blog Forever. Village Writing School (Available for purchase)
11/7 11:30 85th Division Association meeting. Not Like Joan of Arc
2018
2/17 Civil War Museum, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
4/11 A Q & A on Research Techniques for the Non-Historian. Historical Fiction On-Line Summit. The Village Writing School.
4/26 Keynote Speaker, Civil War Symposium, Randall University, Moore, Oklahoma.
5/11 Benzonia Academy Lecture series,
5/16 University of Chicago Service League: The perfect audience for speaking about Women Warriors for the first time!
8/21 Lincoln-Davis Civil War Round Table. Alsip, Illinois
2017
2/1 Pritzker Military Museum and Library. Chicago. (Available for streaming)
5/2 Author's Voice. A House Divided. Abe Lincoln Bookstore. (Available for streaming)
5/11 6/13 Benzonia Academy Lecture, Mills Community House, Benzonia Michigan
5/13 Book signing at Horizon Books, Traverse City, Michigan.
6/10 Authors Voice Booth, Printer’s Row Literary Festival
9/10 Kerrytown Bookfest, Ann Arbor Michigan.
2016
2/2 The Lyceum, Alexandria’s History Museum. Alexandria, Virginia.
3/10 Guest instructor,Writer’s Night Out, Village Writing School, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
3/22 Book club (private event)
4/18 Hyde Park Book Club
7/2 National Park Service Centennial Sacred Trust Talks and Book Signing Event, co-sponsored by the Gettysburg Foundation and Gettysburg National Military Park. Gettysburg National Military Park Museum. (Available for streaming)
7/30 Barnes & Noble. Springfield Missouri.