I have immersed myself in the nineteenth century over the last few weeks, editing my Oregon Trail novel for what I hope has been the final big push. It still needs some tweaking, but the book is essentially done. While I was spending hours each day deep in my novel, […]
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Banking in the American West in the 1840s—Before and After the Gold Rush
I’ve blogged about some boring topics related to my research for my Oregon Trail and Gold Rush novels, but this post may discuss the most boring—banking. Yet one of the biggest problems I had in plotting my novel was how my protagonist could move money from the East Coast to […]
Continue readingHow the California Gold Rush Changed Emigration Patterns to the West
The Great Migration of 1843 was the first significant group of emigrants to head west. That year between 700 and 1,000 emigrants left for Oregon, mostly families seeking free land. In 1843, it was still uncertain whether the United States or Great Britain would govern the Oregon Territory, but it […]
Continue readingA Visit to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Baker City, Oregon
Ever since I began researching the Oregon Trail route for my novel about travel along the trail, I have wanted to go to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City, Oregon, run by the Bureau of Land Management. I finally had the opportunity to visit it in late April, […]
Continue readingRoles of Women During the California Gold Rush
The vast majority of miners during the California Gold Rush were men. The census of 1850 showed that only 8 percent of the population in California was female. In fact, women were so scarce in the mining regions that a young man in Nevada City wrote, Got nearer to a […]
Continue readingSeeking Inspiration at the Plains Indians Exhibit (Nelson Atkins Museum of Art)
As soon as I heard about it, I wanted to see the Plains Indians special exhibit at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. After all, I’m writing novels about travel across the plains in the 1840s—my visit to the museum would be research. So my husband and […]
Continue readingA Northern Digression: The Seattle Museum of History and Industry
On my recent trip to Seattle, I went to the Museum of History and Industry (called MOHAI by locals). And I realized how little I knew about the history of my native state. I took the requisite Washington State history class in the ninth grade—it was a quarter or a […]
Continue readingAuthor’s Blog Chain
I’ve been asked to participate in an Author’s Blog Chain this week, which gives me the opportunity to tell you more about my writing. Juliet Kincaid, a Kansas author and member of the local Sisters in Crime chapter, tagged me on her blog, Juliet Kincaid, Writer. Juliet has recently written a series […]
Continue readingWriting About Race in Historical Fiction
As a writer of historical fiction, one of the issues I struggle with is how to portray interactions between characters of different races. I could ignore the topic by not having characters of different races in my novels, but I think part of the purpose of writing historical fiction is […]
Continue readingWintering in Oregon: Using Research, Reality, and Imagination
The emigrants who traveled the Oregon Trail arrived in the Willamette Valley in late fall, or even after the first snowfall of winter. What did they do then? They were relieved the long journey was over, I’m sure, but how did they go about building a new life? Beginning with […]
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