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"That Smudge of Smoke" is a new historical fiction novel by author Edith Hemingway for ages 9 and up.
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Steamer Lancaster at Wellfords, Virginia, circa 1910. The Lancaster was a Chesapeake Bay steamer launched by the Maryland Steel Company in 1892. Primarily running the route to the Rappahannock River, she also served as a ferry between Ware’s Wharf in Essex County and Wellford’s Wharf in Richmond County until the Downing Bridge was built. Photo courtesy of Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society.
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The WKWI and WIGO team is pictured left to right: Ron Jeffries, Operations Manager; Victoria Gardiner, Business Manager; Lauren James, General Manager; Bill Sherard, Owner; Joanne Webb-Fary, Sports Director; Steve Grainer, Public Service Coordinator; Tom Jones, Promotions Assistant; Allan Courtney, Account Executive; and Scott Hancock, Account Executive. Photo by Corey Miller.
Local Author Pens Tale of Life Aboard a Steamboat for Young Readers
Edith Hemingway’s fascination with the steamboat era on the Chesapeake Bay began with a few repurposed wooden doors in her old Maryland log cabin.
Salvaged from an early-20th-century steamboat, the SS City of Atlanta, the doors featured original brass locks and keys, plus leather tags inscribed with cabin numbers. They would propel Hemingway to spend 10 years researching and writing about a bygone world, resulting in a new historical fiction novel for ages 9 and up.
“That Smudge of Smoke,” published late last year, centers on a diary owned by Piper, a 12-year-old girl living on her father’s steamboat in 1929. In 2015, a 12-year-old boy named Garrett discovers that diary hidden inside a door panel when he slams it in anger.
“Piper and Garrett are both navigating challenging changes in their lives, and the diary becomes a character that connects them,” Hemingway says. “It’s a story of hope and friendship, and it’s wonderful if readers can also learn about local history through that story.”
The author of three previous novels, Hemingway has lived in Heathsville since 2020 after keeping a part-time home in Irvington for seven years. The Florida native and her husband, Doug—a distant relative of Ernest Hemingway, are avid kayakers who loved the Northern Neck’s friendly people, picturesque waterways and shoreline wildlife during research visits.
America’s steamboat era was in full swing throughout much of the 19th century, helping drive the Industrial Revolution. The age gradually ended in the first half of the 20th century as trains and later automobiles emerged.
Ships carried both passengers and freight along large and small waterways before bridges crossed many of them. They delivered goods such as food, clothes, books and toys and took people to shops, medical appointments, social gatherings and vacation spots.
Rooms ranged from barebones to luxurious, depending on passenger finances. Some bigger vessels had ornate lobbies and restaurants, and butlers, chefs and musicians on staff. Newlyweds could book honeymoon cabins; kids flocked to riverbanks at the sound of a ship’s whistle.
“A lot of readers are surprised at just how integral steamboats were to every aspect of life,” Hemingway relates. “Captains and crews also knew so much about the Chesapeake Bay itself: its shallows, tributaries, currents and tides.”
For Candee Pevahouse, manager of the Steamboat Era Museum in Irvington, “That Smudge of Smoke” is a powerful tool for drawing readers into the past.
“It gets kids to appreciate local history and think more about what life was like then,” Pevahouse says. “This was a simpler way of life—before cars, much less computers and cell phones—where children were just as happy. I think that background can help them better understand their own place in history.”
When it reopens for the season this March, the museum will offer hardcover and paperback copies of the novel. Hemingway is scheduled to do a talk and book signing there from 2 to 4 pm, April 6.
A mother of two and grandmother of six, Hemingway traces her love of writing back to the fourth grade. Her teacher, a published author, scheduled quiet writing time after lunch every day, and Hemingway won a writing contest for her short story about a girl and her violin.
After graduating from Appalachian State University with a bachelor’s degree in Special Education, Hemingway spent several years as a schoolteacher and later a stay-at-home parent, when she rediscovered her interest in creative writing as she read children’s books aloud.
With a voice that appealed to middle-school readers, Hemingway cowrote two Civil War-era novels that were picked up by Scholastic Book Fair. Her third book, “Road to Tater Hill,” was her thesis project for a master’s degree in writing at Spalding University in Kentucky, following a grief-stricken girl who befriends a mysterious woman in the Appalachian Mountains. Hemingway also spent nine years on Spalding’s faculty, retiring in 2021.
Aiming to get “That Smudge of Smoke” to more readers of all ages this year, Hemingway plans to visit bookstores, libraries and schools such as Beville Middle School in Woodbridge, Virginia, where sixth-grade classes will read it together.
Locally, the novel can be checked out from Northumberland and Lancaster Public Libraries and will be available at Barnes & Noble in Williamsburg and Rice’s Hotel/Hughlett’s Tavern in Heathsville. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Target also sell it online.
As for the future, Hemingway is finishing a novel set off the coast of Maine and considering Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay as her next backdrop.
“That’s another spot with a truly unique history,” she notes. “This is such a wonderful place that we call home.”
ediehemingway.com | steamboateramuseum.org
Community Connection and Great Tunes is a Mix for 50 Years of Success
Growing up on the Northern Neck, Lauren James was a regular listener of the WKWI and WIGO radio stations. In fact, her parents woke her up early every year to hear a “Happy Birthday” shoutout before she headed off to school.
“I thought it was the coolest thing,” she recalls.
Today, James works as General Manager of the two stations, known as 101.7 BAY-FM and 104.9 WIGO Country. And she’s part of a remarkable milestone celebration this year: 50 years on the air, serving both the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.
James is leading a team that has regrouped after the deaths of two key staff members between November 2022 and January 2023. They have added new features and reaffirmed the power and responsibility of hometown radio to offer exclusive, unique, timely and useful content.
“Everything our stations do is local,” she notes. “For over 100 years, people have relied on radio, and even with the Internet, it’s still one of the most popular forms of entertainment and news. There’s nowhere you see that more than small towns like ours.”
BAY-FM, which plays classic hits, has served the region without interruption since 1974. Along with WIGO and MiddleneckNews.com, the 24/7 broadcast covers everything from government and business issues to storm and road updates to obituaries and lost pets.
Bill Sherard, a lifelong broadcaster who has owned both stations for 20-plus years, had to steer the business through the devastating back-to-back losses of General Manager Dennis Burchill and Nancy Travers, a lead on-air personality.
Sherard promoted James from Account Executive, a position she’d held since graduating from college in 2018, to GM and has encouraged her and seven other team members to honor Burchill and Travers by working hard, supporting each other, celebrating the success of community organizations and having fun.
“Dennis’ and Nancy’s presences at the stations were a part of our day-to-day work, so their loss was palpable each day in our office for a long time,” he relates. “Over a year later, our shock, grief and sadness have morphed into mostly fond memories, laughs and an appreciation of the small things that each of us share that make others’ lives richer.
Sherard, a “proud hillbilly” from Southwestern Virginia, was still in high school when he became a DJ in Big Stone Gap. During his long career in radio, he has been a nighttime DJ at WLEE, a legendary top 40 station in Richmond, and owner of two stations in Alexandria, Va., and a self-assembled group of nine stations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois.
Soon after selling that group, Sherard found he missed the creativity and positive effect of local radio. Finding a station within driving distance of his Maryland home, he bought waterfront property on the Northern Neck and has built deep bonds with many of its residents.
James, meanwhile, has a long family history in the area. A graduate of Lancaster High School, she earned a Communications and Business degree at Christopher Newport University and is engaged to a fellow Northern Neck native.
“We both believe in helping to build our community and supporting its future,” she explains. “We’re the next generation in the Neck. It’s the place we’ve always wanted to call home.”
On a trip to celebrate her college graduation, James spotted a WKWI/WIGO sales job online, returned for an interview and moved back just two weeks later. After nearly six years, she plans to keep the stations growing through even more community involvement.
Last year, new features included “Hometown Heroes” to honor local veterans and “Pet of the Week” to highlight shelter animals looking for homes—plus school sports reports, basketball play-by-plays and free promotions for more than 100 nonprofits.
“I love that every day brings something new to the plate,” James says. “Being able to interact with people in the community and see the impact local radio has on listeners, business owners and visitors is very rewarding.”
As James continues learning as a first-time GM, she is enrolled in a Virginia Association of Broadcasters’ leadership program and is deeply grateful for her coworkers and their mutual affection for their region: “Every single person here is critical to our success.”
James also knows that on any given day, listeners who are turning a year older will feel a bit more special with an on-air salute. “It’s crazy to think that even now, we continue to do birthday shoutouts,” she says. “Some things are so good that they should never change.”
101.7 BAY-FM and 104.9 WIGO I 804-435-1414 I middlenecknews.com