A new line
Launching "The Transatlantic Cable", a MOLLI class and new speaker series
Early this year, my dear friend, Christine Kensche (Tine), passed away. The world lost a courageous, smart, funny, and beautiful writer, a committed journalist based in Tel Aviv and an extraordinary human being. I miss her deeply.
Everyone has their own way of mourning, and for me, the most natural way to honor Tine is to be courageous, to document, and to write (I’ll also sponsor a cat adoption at the Western Montana Humane Society—she loved stray cats and dogs.)
So, I decided to give my newsletter a new name: "Notes from Between the Lines." Dedicated to Tine, this title connects her spirit of curiosity and commitment with the heart of my writing —uncovering the hidden stories and connections in nature, politics, and daily life.
The newsletter will feature two sections: the familiar "Hush of the Land", where I’ll continue sharing stories rooted in wilderness and place and news about Smoke and my book tour, classes and events, and "The Transatlantic Cable", a new space for periodic, often personal notes about society, politics, my travels, random observations, and daily life. It’s my way of connecting the people I love in my two homes across the Atlantic. You’ve already read one of these notes last summer—"Wilderness by the Sea"—about our family trip to the Baltic Sea in Germany. If you’re interested, I’ve written a few lines about how Tine and I met in Rome 18 years ago, how our writing careers started after a chance encounter with Silvio Berlusconi, the longest-serving Italian Prime Minister, and what Tine might have said about the current Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal. You’ll find these reflections in the first issue of “The Transatlantic Cable”. The next issue will be about my upcoming trip to Germany, just a few weeks before the general election.
And now, let me catch you up on what’s been happening with “Hush of the Land”—it has been a while!
I’m thrilled to share that Humanities Montana has accepted our program “Hush of the Land: Stories from the Bob Marshall Wilderness” into their Speakers in the Schools and Montana Conservation program! This means you can book Smoke and me to speak at your local school or anywhere in your community in Montana, and Humanities Montana will cover the costs. It’s truly a win-win for everyone, and we’re honored to join such a fantastic group of speakers.
The year closed out with some strong book sales! We were the 2024 top bestseller at Chapter One bookstore in Hamilton, MT and the #2 bestseller at Fact & Fiction, our hometown bookstore in Missoula. This is pretty exciting. Thank you for all your support. It is one thing to write a book, but another for people to enjoy it. If you haven’t yet, please leave a review on Amazon - it’s free, you don’t need to have purchased the book from them (your local bookstore is best!) but this helps us a lot with spreading the word about “Hush of the Land” beyond Montana.
We also got a few more book reviews (that I know of), one in the International Journal of Wilderness (LJW), another in the latest issue of The Montana Magazine of Western History, Roundup Magazine and the Eclectic Horsemen. Patrick Kelly, LJW’s Media & Book Review Editor writes:
“These stories celebrate a land, the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Bitterroot Mountains. These stories also celebrate a life, the career of a man who guided more than half a century of visitors to these remarkable places. More than history and more than biography, however, these stories are an invitation to join the celebration, to experience the place, to become a reflective and appreciative part of the story of these lands and the life they afford.”
Smoke and I will be teaching a public and interactive 1.5h class “Hush of the Land A Lifetime in the Bob Marshall Wilderness” for The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (MOLLI) at the University of Montana in Missoula this spring. We are in the process of picking a date but it should be a lot of fun. Not sure if they will let us bring a mule but we will definetley share some stories, pictures and teach you how to put up a manty rope!
Lastly, I received my first award! Wild Montana’s Shining Mountains Chapter named me their 2024 Conservation Champion for my work with “Hush of the Land”. It has been an honor! Thank you.
Stay warm out there, this weekend should be cold!
Auf bald,
Eva
Upcoming EVENTS
We rescheduled our next book event co-hosted by the Ovando School, the Blackfoot Challenge and the Brand Bar Museum at the School Gym in Ovando, MT for February 23, 2pm.