Traveling back in time

Running late in my daily post today because I am just returning from a weekend trek to the Black Hills doing advance promotion on my new book And The Wind Whispered.  When I got up there (it's about a 6-hour drive north of where we live), I found I had no Wi-Fi connection, so was out in Wind Cave National Park without use of either my phone or computer.  It's amazing how much we rely on technology for everyday communication, especially when compared to the year in which my novel is set, 1894.

My primary characters include the great investigative reporter Nellie Bly who is, in essence, mentoring three young aspiring reporters from Hot Springs and Buffalo Gap on how to both follow through on solving sa mystery they have uncovered and to serve as a role model for their reporting.

For those times, too, it meant communicating either by telegraph or in person.   Telephones existed, but not in that part of the Black Hills except within the city limits of the boomtown of Hot Springs.  In other words, you could call someone in another part of town – but  even that wasn't likely to happen since very few people could afford to own a phone.

This is my first stab at the historical fiction genre' and it's been both fun and challenging – especially in making sure that the descriptions and scenarios I have written are accurate, true to the time, and entertaining.  I'll leave it to the readers to determine if I've succeeded (the book comes out on June 1st in both text and electronic forms).  Spending the past couple days walking through the area that I have depicted and talking with people there who either know the history or are greatly interested in knowing and in sharing in what I've learned and written has re-inspired me to move ahead with another book from this same era and same locale.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll consider checking out And The Wind Whispered.  Here's the link to the publisher, Denver-based Bygone Era Books, www.bygoneerabooks.com. You can see more about my book and all the great things this publisher of "All Things Historical" has Coming Soon.     And, I can't help but share a photo of one of the settings in the book.  Hard to not be inspired by scenery such as this (between Wind Cave and Buffalo Gap).  :-)

  

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below.