Mary T Bell
AUTHOR

Mary T Bell

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Joe Deden, my husband, and I live in the hills of southeastern Minnesota, in an unglaciated land of brown, green and white. Joe recently retired as the founding director of Eagle Bluff Environmental Center. We are community-minded outdoor people, gardeners, and food drying enthusiasts. One year, in ten days, we dried 100 tomatoes, canned 28 quarts of tomatoes, 48 pints of beets, dried 72 ears of corn and 46 eggplants, we dried 100 packages of a rhubarb sauce we call Rhubarb Lace, then we made 10 gallons of refrigerator pickles, and froze 60 dozen ears of corn. The sharing of information about drying food has taken me throughout North and Central America. I’ve written: Dehydration Made Simple; Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook; Just Jerky; Food Drying with an Attitude; Jerky People, and Jerky – The Complete Guide to Making It. In addition, I wrote a history of logging called Cutting Across Time. One of my most treasured books is Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden. This book provides great detail on how to garden and dry food in the old way. Throughout all these years it has made my heart swell to share what I have learned about drying food with indigenous communities. Husband Joe continues to urge me to put these experiences together and write The Dry Woman Speaks. Time will tell. Our passion for drying food has been the backbone of adventuring away from home. When trail riding with our buddies we brought along our latest, lightweight, nutritious treats. During those rides the seed for The Long Ride was planted. Writing The Long Ride took many years and we often referred to it as The Long Write. I learned that writing fiction is a different ball game than non-fiction. It was the love and concern for the natural world and my desire to create strong women characters that propelled me. I hope you enjoy reading The Long Ride. UPDATE (3/27/21) - Happy to say, The Long Ride no longer has an unauthorized draft copy available on Amazon! This happened because several women (just like in The Long Ride) rose up, put on their spurs, dug in their heels, pulled together and pushed that obstacle out of the way. “Thank you!” I’m glad to report that the properly formatted book is now available. The layout in the first version got screwed up and because we were distracted by the draft copy we did not make the changes as quickly as we would have preferred. Now the right is right and the left is left. The map is on left and right facing pages between two chapters. And “thank you” to all those who have submitted reviews. Your kind and supportive words are music to my ears. CHECK OUT the trailer I made for the book. https://vimeo.com/176625465/e67735e7e0 HISTORICAL UPDATE BACKGROUND INFORMATION -- Sorry to say it appears that The Long Ride got hijacked and pirated. That said, one message I tell myself is, “Not all gifts are easy to receive, but ultimately each must be turned into a gift.” So, with that in mind, the good news is that The Long Ride has made its way around the planet, has picked up energy along the way and someone deemed it a story worth telling/sharing. The bad part is that these versions are not the finished book. Instead, they are a draft copy published (not by me over a year ago). My finished version has an aurora and film strip on the cover and sells for $14.95. Other versions have a big dark blob on the cover, cost less and sell the story short. What’s so ironic about all of this is what carried me through the writing of The Long Ride was to create women characters that were challenged, and yet did not allow themselves or each other to become victims. It blows my mind that The Long Ride book itself appears to have become a hijacked/pirated victim. So, how did this happen? I had a publishing agreement and early in 2020 the editor put a draft of The Long Ride on Amazon without my permission, without my ever seeing that version, and without my knowing. The first I knew of it was when a friend sent me a note saying she’d read The Long Ride. I went ballistic. I called the publisher and he vowed it would be removed. I believed him. Not long after that we terminated our relationship. I was on my own to publish my book. After months of revisions and working with very talented ladies to finish the book, Joe hit the submit button to publish TLR on Amazon. Seconds later, the unauthorized draft showed up on our computer screen and this time we both went ballistic. I contacted the former publisher and he said it couldn’t be taken down. Within a few hours I ended up in the ER with chest pain. I’m okay. Disappointment and stress are dangerous. Joe did everything he could to get Amazon to remove the draft copies. Friends called Customer Service. Some swore. All had my back. Joe hesitated to tell me that when he scoured the web to try to track the path of the draft, he found The Long Ride offered for sale in dozens of countries with several different covers. So now what? Joe said, “Jeff Bezos has more money than we do.” That leaves us with telling our story and hoping that the draft versions with various covers are removed. In addition, I’d like everyone that purchased a draft version to get their copy replaced with mine - the real, final one.
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