Cherie Dargan retired from Hawkeye Community College in 2016. She's an active volunteer with the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk-Bremer Counties, manages several websites, and continues to research her family history, which goes back to the 1850s in central Iowa. Her grandchildren are the seventh generation living in Iowa. She's married to retired librarian Michael Dargan, and they have four adult children and three grandchildren, with another grandson on the way.
She describes her writing as women's fiction set in the Midwest, with a twist of history, (quilt) mystery, faith, hope, and love. Grandmother's Treasures is Historical Fiction. Each book uses dual timelines/dual narrators and tells a story about an old family quilt—and a secret, scandal, or story that's been forgotten.
Visit Cherie Dargan online
The Recollection
The Dust Bowl has devastated farms across the Midwest. World war looms on the horizon. Banks are failing. The Great Depression has come to Jubilee Junction. In the present day, Gracie and her team of history sleuths have a new quilt mystery to piece together, one that will join two families together. And during both timelines, Christmas in Jubilee Junction is celebrated with new family members, new babies, old traditions, and a fresh and unexpected opportunity to practice forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace on Earth.
- ISBN: 1967649065
- Publisher: Wordcrafts Press
Interview with Cherie Dargan 2025
When did you feel called to become an author?
I've been scribbling stories since my mother taught me to read before I went to kindergarten. She would fold typing paper in half, staple it in the middle, and give me a nice little booklet to fill with drawings and simple stories.
She kept several of my early stories. One is about a mother pig who rolls over and accidentally squashes her baby. The farmer buries the little pig. (I admit the spelling and printing are atrocious). The mother pig cries, and the farmer tries to comfort her. Then, they hear something and see the little pig moving in the dirt. The farmer digs him out, and it's a miraculous resurrection and reunion! You can see my years in Sunday School paid off.
I kept writing—letters, journals, a few short stories, and some poetry. I joined the high school journalism club. I loved writing features, like the time a group of us wore two different shoes and mismatched clothes to see if people noticed. Or my story about scooping the loop in downtown Marshalltown that got plagiarized by another high school newspaper. I found writing more rewarding than anything else in high school and college. As a young minister, I wrote sermons, church bulletins, and letters. When that life ended with me back in college as a single parent, I journaled. Later, I became a writing teacher and the trauma I endured in my divorce gave me the empathy I needed to help students who had experienced trauma. I remarried twenty-five years ago, and my husband is a retired reference librarian/IT geek who has helped me with research and set me up with great hardware.
What did you learn while writing this book?
First, I learned about the impact of the Great Depression throughout the Midwest, and especially in Iowa. Experts say that one in ten farms changed hands. Many people packed up what they could and headed west to California. Many vehicles broke down along the way and people were stuck in whatever place they landed. Those who had family who could take them in were the lucky ones—like Marie, Edith, and the two little girls moving in with Aunt Mabel and Uncle Edward.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-ushistory2/chapter/the-dust-bowl-and-farming-during-the-depression/
"Between 1930 and 1935, nearly 750,000 family farms disappeared through foreclosure or bankruptcy."
Second, I'd read about the farm auctions and how some farmers banded together to save what they could of their neighbors' possessions, refusing to bid on anything. Cedar Falls Native Ferner Nuhn worked for Henry Wallace during this period, and he observed some of these sales and wrote about them in an essay, 'Like a Thick Wall,' which was printed in Nation in 1933.
https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5060/
"Like a Thick Wall": Blocking Farm Auctions in Iowa
Source: Ferner Nuhn, "The Farmer Learns Direct Action," Nation 136 (March 8, 1933): 254–256.
Third, I read about the CCC and the 'tree army,' which planted an astonishing number of trees to hold down the soil and prevent the dust bowl from getting worse. We see their handiwork today as we drive down roads and see wooded areas and plentiful, mature trees.
https://treesource.org/news/lands/ccc-tree-planting/
85 years ago: FDR's forest army planted 3 billion trees in national forests, shelter belts
What is the toughest part of writing in your genre?
I've loved writing this series but I'm still learning ways to write more interesting dialogue.
However, it's the rewriting, revision, and fact checking that takes time. Even when I think I've documented everything, I'll have a question, look at my sources or search again. I want anything to do with the historical aspect to be presented accurately. I also overwrite; Book Four was going to be a holiday novella but ended up as a short novel when I expanded the plot.
If someone were to look at your Google search history (all for research, of course!), what types of things would we find?
• The CCC
• Foods people ate (chicken feet in broth! Lard between bread.)
• Soup kitchens and community response
• Farm sales
• Truck houses—early attempts at creating RVs or at least the station wagon. My grandfather put a large trunk on the back of his farm truck and built a little house. He took his family to California in the late 1920s. That trunk now holds my quilts.
• Depression era quilting and crazy quilts
• Flour sack material and what women made collecting the pattern until they had a match
• Bank failures in the Midwest
If you could have coffee with an author, dead or alive, whose work you admire, who would that be? What would you ask him or her?
I'd love to chat with Ruth Suckow, an Iowa writer, who was popular between 1924 and 1960. She was Iowa's first feminist, and a deeply spiritual person. A preacher's daughter, she had lived in a dozen cities around the state. She's my inspiration for plotting by asking "What if….?" She said, "Just suppose."
There are a dozen authors I'd love to chat with about their writing process, research, and the inspiration for some of my favorite characters and series.
Some of my favorite authors include:
Jacqueline Winspear (The Maisie Dobbs series)
C.S. Lewis for his essays and Science Fiction trilogy
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Shirley Jackson for her short stories
Jennifer Chiaverini for her historical fiction
Dorothy Parker for her wit and essays
Louise Penny (The series with Chief Inspector Gamache)
Joanne Fluke for her culinary mystery series
Kristin Hannah for her historical fiction
What's your go-to drink while writing?
Water, diet doctor pepper, or unsweetened iced tea
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Keep writing! Keep reading! Read your mother's notebooks of family research and think about your family stories. Make time to read and scribble your ideas.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
• Research for the next book or catch up on reading my stack of books.
• Listen to Kindle books with the help of my Amazon Echo device.
• Spend time with my adult children and grandchildren: two teens, a toddler, and a baby on the way!
• Mike and I do volunteer work with the Western Home Communities, where we live. We help mentor high school students for the fall and spring semesters.
• We also volunteer with the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk County.
• We have four raised garden beds to the side of our condo and enjoy getting outside and away from the computers for a few minutes every day. We have a raised bed dedicated to strawberry plants on our patio.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
See Jane Dig by Jolene Stratton Philo
Faith Storytellers by Mackenzie Ryan Walters
Life Repurposed – compiled by Michelle Rayburn
Edge of Dusk – Colleen Coble
The Nightingale -- by Kristin Hannah
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
The Odyssey of a Nice Girl by Ruth Suckow
Grant Wood: A Life by R. Tripp Evans
In addition, I have approximately 1,200 books in my Kindle library.
What can we look forward to next?
Book Five: The Sacrifice. I've written a partial draft, but a friend gave me a set of correspondence from a young sailor to his girlfriend back home during the war in Vietnam. I'm still pondering how best to use it.
Gracie's brother, Mark, is a veteran of the war in Iraq, as is my son, Jon Post. As a community college professor, I had hundreds of veterans of various wars in class, stretching from the first Gulf war to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to share some of their stories of service and sacrifice.
Preview of Book Five
Mark and Kathy welcomed twins in Book Three, and her parents—Ken and Katie—moved in to help. As Book Five begins, Katie's cousin, Sarah, calls with news. She was sorting things in her guestroom's closet and found a box she didn't remember. When she opened it, she discovered a shoebox filled with cassette tapes that were labeled Grace and Marie and dated during the 1960s. Grace Walters and Grandmother Marie Olson corresponded using cassette tapes during the war in Vietnam. There was also an unfinished quilt meant for Richard Junior according to the note safety pinned to the quilt.
Gracie and David head to college for the new semester's faculty meetings when they come upon a horrific accident scene. They rescue baby Ava from the car blocking the road and call for help for her badly injured parents. Two events that seem unrelated soon intertwine.
I've been scribbling stories since my mother taught me to read before I went to kindergarten. She would fold typing paper in half, staple it in the middle, and give me a nice little booklet to fill with drawings and simple stories.
She kept several of my early stories. One is about a mother pig who rolls over and accidentally squashes her baby. The farmer buries the little pig. (I admit the spelling and printing are atrocious). The mother pig cries, and the farmer tries to comfort her. Then, they hear something and see the little pig moving in the dirt. The farmer digs him out, and it's a miraculous resurrection and reunion! You can see my years in Sunday School paid off.
I kept writing—letters, journals, a few short stories, and some poetry. I joined the high school journalism club. I loved writing features, like the time a group of us wore two different shoes and mismatched clothes to see if people noticed. Or my story about scooping the loop in downtown Marshalltown that got plagiarized by another high school newspaper. I found writing more rewarding than anything else in high school and college. As a young minister, I wrote sermons, church bulletins, and letters. When that life ended with me back in college as a single parent, I journaled. Later, I became a writing teacher and the trauma I endured in my divorce gave me the empathy I needed to help students who had experienced trauma. I remarried twenty-five years ago, and my husband is a retired reference librarian/IT geek who has helped me with research and set me up with great hardware.
What did you learn while writing this book?
First, I learned about the impact of the Great Depression throughout the Midwest, and especially in Iowa. Experts say that one in ten farms changed hands. Many people packed up what they could and headed west to California. Many vehicles broke down along the way and people were stuck in whatever place they landed. Those who had family who could take them in were the lucky ones—like Marie, Edith, and the two little girls moving in with Aunt Mabel and Uncle Edward.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-ushistory2/chapter/the-dust-bowl-and-farming-during-the-depression/
"Between 1930 and 1935, nearly 750,000 family farms disappeared through foreclosure or bankruptcy."
Second, I'd read about the farm auctions and how some farmers banded together to save what they could of their neighbors' possessions, refusing to bid on anything. Cedar Falls Native Ferner Nuhn worked for Henry Wallace during this period, and he observed some of these sales and wrote about them in an essay, 'Like a Thick Wall,' which was printed in Nation in 1933.
https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5060/
"Like a Thick Wall": Blocking Farm Auctions in Iowa
Source: Ferner Nuhn, "The Farmer Learns Direct Action," Nation 136 (March 8, 1933): 254–256.
Third, I read about the CCC and the 'tree army,' which planted an astonishing number of trees to hold down the soil and prevent the dust bowl from getting worse. We see their handiwork today as we drive down roads and see wooded areas and plentiful, mature trees.
https://treesource.org/news/lands/ccc-tree-planting/
85 years ago: FDR's forest army planted 3 billion trees in national forests, shelter belts
What is the toughest part of writing in your genre?
I've loved writing this series but I'm still learning ways to write more interesting dialogue.
However, it's the rewriting, revision, and fact checking that takes time. Even when I think I've documented everything, I'll have a question, look at my sources or search again. I want anything to do with the historical aspect to be presented accurately. I also overwrite; Book Four was going to be a holiday novella but ended up as a short novel when I expanded the plot.
If someone were to look at your Google search history (all for research, of course!), what types of things would we find?
• The CCC
• Foods people ate (chicken feet in broth! Lard between bread.)
• Soup kitchens and community response
• Farm sales
• Truck houses—early attempts at creating RVs or at least the station wagon. My grandfather put a large trunk on the back of his farm truck and built a little house. He took his family to California in the late 1920s. That trunk now holds my quilts.
• Depression era quilting and crazy quilts
• Flour sack material and what women made collecting the pattern until they had a match
• Bank failures in the Midwest
If you could have coffee with an author, dead or alive, whose work you admire, who would that be? What would you ask him or her?
I'd love to chat with Ruth Suckow, an Iowa writer, who was popular between 1924 and 1960. She was Iowa's first feminist, and a deeply spiritual person. A preacher's daughter, she had lived in a dozen cities around the state. She's my inspiration for plotting by asking "What if….?" She said, "Just suppose."
There are a dozen authors I'd love to chat with about their writing process, research, and the inspiration for some of my favorite characters and series.
Some of my favorite authors include:
Jacqueline Winspear (The Maisie Dobbs series)
C.S. Lewis for his essays and Science Fiction trilogy
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Shirley Jackson for her short stories
Jennifer Chiaverini for her historical fiction
Dorothy Parker for her wit and essays
Louise Penny (The series with Chief Inspector Gamache)
Joanne Fluke for her culinary mystery series
Kristin Hannah for her historical fiction
What's your go-to drink while writing?
Water, diet doctor pepper, or unsweetened iced tea
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Keep writing! Keep reading! Read your mother's notebooks of family research and think about your family stories. Make time to read and scribble your ideas.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
• Research for the next book or catch up on reading my stack of books.
• Listen to Kindle books with the help of my Amazon Echo device.
• Spend time with my adult children and grandchildren: two teens, a toddler, and a baby on the way!
• Mike and I do volunteer work with the Western Home Communities, where we live. We help mentor high school students for the fall and spring semesters.
• We also volunteer with the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk County.
• We have four raised garden beds to the side of our condo and enjoy getting outside and away from the computers for a few minutes every day. We have a raised bed dedicated to strawberry plants on our patio.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
See Jane Dig by Jolene Stratton Philo
Faith Storytellers by Mackenzie Ryan Walters
Life Repurposed – compiled by Michelle Rayburn
Edge of Dusk – Colleen Coble
The Nightingale -- by Kristin Hannah
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
The Odyssey of a Nice Girl by Ruth Suckow
Grant Wood: A Life by R. Tripp Evans
In addition, I have approximately 1,200 books in my Kindle library.
What can we look forward to next?
Book Five: The Sacrifice. I've written a partial draft, but a friend gave me a set of correspondence from a young sailor to his girlfriend back home during the war in Vietnam. I'm still pondering how best to use it.
Gracie's brother, Mark, is a veteran of the war in Iraq, as is my son, Jon Post. As a community college professor, I had hundreds of veterans of various wars in class, stretching from the first Gulf war to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to share some of their stories of service and sacrifice.
Preview of Book Five
Mark and Kathy welcomed twins in Book Three, and her parents—Ken and Katie—moved in to help. As Book Five begins, Katie's cousin, Sarah, calls with news. She was sorting things in her guestroom's closet and found a box she didn't remember. When she opened it, she discovered a shoebox filled with cassette tapes that were labeled Grace and Marie and dated during the 1960s. Grace Walters and Grandmother Marie Olson corresponded using cassette tapes during the war in Vietnam. There was also an unfinished quilt meant for Richard Junior according to the note safety pinned to the quilt.
Gracie and David head to college for the new semester's faculty meetings when they come upon a horrific accident scene. They rescue baby Ava from the car blocking the road and call for help for her badly injured parents. Two events that seem unrelated soon intertwine.
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