Take your chance on winning Silver or Lead

Library Manager/Book Reviewer Lesa Holstine is running a drawing on her blog Lesa's Book Critiques to win a signed copy of either Silver Lies (the first of the Silver Rush series) or of Leaden Skies (the most recent). So, if you're interested in "taking a gamble" on the Silver Rush, head over to her post "Winners and the Silver Rush" and follow her instructions on how to enter. While you're there, you should peruse her book reviews ... You may find a whole more to add to your to-be-read pile!

... And I really do intend to post about 4th of July in Leadville long ago. It's just that some project deadlines have caught up with me as of late. Hope to hit the "all clear" next week!

Of law and lawlessness in Leadville

Leadville got off to a rough start in the law and order department: In "History of Lake County," R.G. Dill described the situation in 1878 (from the lofty viewpoint of 1881):

The streets and alleys which had come into being with the growth of the town, were the hiding places of desperadoes who waited paitently for the coming of their victims, whom a blow from the bludgeon would put in a condition to be quietly robbed.

One year later in 1879, things are even worse:

Following in the wakes of the wealth which daily poured into the camp, were men whose trades were theft and robbery. To drug a victim, coolly rifle his pockets of every article of value, and throw him into the streets to be arrested for drunkennes, was among the most common ethhods of the thugs who infested the saloons and variety theatres... Men were robbed within the shadows of their own doors; stripped of their valuables in their own bedchambers... and no part of the city was so well guarded as to be safe...

Leadville's first town marshal lasted only a few days. The second lasted three and a half weeks before being shot. The third, Mart Duggan, was a man who, by some accounts, was no better than those he set out to bring to heel. Edward Blair, in his very readable Leadville: Colorado's Magic City, sums Duggan up nicely: "He was not overly concerned with the letter of the law or the rights of the accused. His methods were those of the 'roughs,' and his success was born out of his superior strength, determination, and absolute fearlessness."

The town (or city) marshal was not the only enforcer of law. Leadville also had a police force. in mid-1879, the Leadville Daily Chronicle sums up the typical officer in this manner:

... numbered and branded with a star and turned loose. He has no instructions as to what he is to do, or how he is to do it. He is amendable to nobody nor nothing. Makes arrests when he feels like it, and sometimes tries and discharges his own prisoners. If there is one place in the city where he can find more comforts than another, that place will be well watched.

In early 1880, Leadville appointed a "city collector" from the police force to collect all revenues (saloon licenses and fines of prostitutes and gamblers were the biggest sources of revenue for the city—around $3,500 a month). Some fees were collected by the city clerk and various police officers as well. Interestingly enough, however, it wasn't until October 1880 that the city council finally passed a resolution requiring that all officers collecting funds to account for them.

Hmmm, says I. Sounds like plenty of opportunity for corruption and for said funds to go astray... These mental musings were the genesis of one of the story lines in Leaden Skies.

Next up (because it's that time of year): Fourth of July in long-ago Leadville.

The Leadville craze, circa 1879

Here is the wonderful thing about browsing old newspapers and such: You go in search of one thing and, along the way, discover even more than you bargained for! I love it!

While looking for the article regarding proper winter wear for traveling to Leadville in 1879, I found several other references to the "Leadville craze" as reported in other Colorado newspapers and picked up in the Denver Daily Tribune, February 4, 1879, edition.

First, from the same article in the Colorado Miner that detailed travel fashion:

The journey to Leadville at this season of the year is not what may properly be denominated a "pleasure trip." Few men would undertake it except with the view of bettering their financial prospects, or because because they have been attacked with what is known as the "Leadville craze," a variety of that feverish excitement which carried thousands into White Pine and made it the liveliest camp in the world for a short time; which filled the Black Hills with thousands who came to their senses and walked out or got out the best they could. But the fact remains that the excitement "catches" hundreds...

And, from the Boulder News and Courier:

The tendency of the average American is, like that of sheep, to go in herds. It is only necessary for some bell-wether to strike off at a lively gait in a given direction, to have an immense following who have taken him as their guiding star. How many disappointed and disgusted ones will come away from Leadville, no one is paid to tell or undertakes to chronicle. The number who go and are going is constantly dinned into our ears, but the sequel of their going is never told. Those who "strike it rich" are noisy and jubilant; those who miserably fail and lose what money they took with them, are silent and despairing; so that the record is made up from the former class...

True, there's a slight whiff of "sour grapes" about these comments (particularly in the Boulder piece, which goes on to say: "...It is no exaggeration to say that Boulder county contains as much rich ore as any county in the State..."). Still, these are observations of human nature that are true not only for 19th century mineral rushes such as those in aforementioned White Pine and the Black Hills, but for recent booms (i.e., high-tech, business, and real-estate). Remember the stories of the "golden boys and girls" during the dot.com boom or the Wall Street high-flying financiers, for instance? Not much was reported about those who didn't "make it"... at least, when things were going gangbusters.

Next up: A little preview on what I discovered during the writing of Leaden Skies about "the law" in 1880 Leadville and the state of politics during that time...

The well-dressed winter traveler (1879)

... Continuing the theme of "traveling to Leadville" (in a way, that's what we're doing here, as I count down the days to the release of Leaden Skies) , we'll turn now to the subject of "oh, what shall I wear" on that journey by stagecoach up to 10,500 feet in the Rocky Mountains in winter, 1879.

I promise you this: no Goretex is involved.

Here it is, survival fashion for that trip to Leadville, straight from a seasoned traveler (quoted from the Colorado Miner and appearing in the Denver Daily Tribune, February 4, 1879):

Wear a fur cap; carry a scarf that will fold around your head and neck with about six thicknesses; put on a thick flannel shirt and two more over that; one pair of drawers, and two more other that; let your vest, pants and coat be heavy, loose boots and a pair of overshoes may keep your feet warm; put a bottle of the best spirits in your pocket, for arctic emergencies, and then envelop yourself in a pair of California blankets as soon as you get on the coach.

Zounds! Sounds like the properly dressed fellow wears nearly all he owns, just to make the trip. And not a word said about the properly dressed lady. One can only imagine.

Now, here's an interesting thing: I wondered about these California blankets. Just previous to this quote, there's the line "... we advise everybody to go warmly clad, and to carry a pair of heavy blankets along..." Hence, "California blankets" must be very warm. But look up the term in a slang dictionary (I used the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang), and "California blankets" is hobo slang for "sheets of newspaper used for bedding or warmth" circa 1926. Apparently the term went from one extreme (really really toasty warm) to the other (barely adequate covering on a warm California night) in the almost 50 years between 1879 and 1926.

Next up ... more about the 1879 "Leadville craze."

The color purple, Leadville, and 1879 travel

The time rushes ever closer to the official release of Leaden Skies. I've received my box of author copies, and my gosh, the dustjacket has quite a lovely tint of lavender (... it's just about the color you see here to the left. Somehow, that tint doesn't come through when viewing the cover online). Looking beneath the dustjacket, the bookboards are the same, with Leaden Skies on the spine in gold script. (I wonder: Am I the only one who peels off the dustcover to check the "real deal" underneath? Anyhow...) All I can say is, Wow! (In a good way, of course.)

So, now, I'm thinking of things Leadvillian. You can check out my News page for a bit about the Lake County Public Library choosing the entire Silver Rush series as their "One Book, One Community" read this summer ... I'm so excited about this, I can't think of much else. But I will. So.

Let's get down to history.

Maybe it was the cover of Leaden Skies, but I was compelled to open up the (purple-covered) reprint I have of Tourist Guide to Colorado in 1879 by Frank Fossett. (I have the original 1879 book as well, but it's too fragile for casual reading. And it's not purple.) Leadville appears in the index more frequently than any other location, including Denver. One of the first mentions is on page 14, in a discussion of the railroads in Colorado, with Denver as the starting point:

To the southwest the Denver & South Park conveys the traveler to the weird beauties of Platte River Cañon, and up through the mountains to where the tide of humanity on its way to Leadville halts to take a fresh start, by stage or footpath...

No foolin' about that tide of humanity. And the toss-away remark about "a fresh start by stage or footpath" provides no clue to the perils and inconveniences involved. The following description of stage travel, provided by Eugene Floyd Irey in his Ph.D. dissertation, A Social History of Leadville, Colorado, During the Boom Days, 1877-1881, pretty much sums it up:

At all seasons the narrow roads were crowded with teams and wagons moving in both directions In the midst of the confusion the traveler found himself in a coach carrying 12 passengers inside and eight outside, lurching either up or down a steep mountain grade. In the summer the entire road was buried in dust and in the winter the blasts from the surrounding mountains brought suffering to all and death to the unprepared.

"Death to the unprepared." Sounds like the title to a book. Or perhaps a short story. Hmmm.

Next time, we'll explore what one seasoned traveler in 1879 recommended as proper dress for a winter journey to Leadville ...

Of POV and gender ...

Another little tidbit I picked up from the recent Mayhem in the Midlands conference involved writing characters not of one's own gender, again from the What Authors Get Wrong panel. One of the authors (male, I'm thinking, although I'm not going to throw out a name, because I'll probably mis-remember!) related a story about a woman in his critique group who wrote a scene with a "manly man." The rough, tough testosterone-driven protagonist enters a home to interview a suspect and notices ...

The lovely pattern in the drapes.

The critique group pointed out that a guy is not likely to notice (much less comment on) the print curtains.

Writing characters from a gender differing from your own is a topic of some discussion. Here's a sample of blog posts and discussions:

• Writing a POV character of the Opposite Gender on Crimespace (Brian Thorton, back in 2007) ... check out the comments and discussion
• Gender, Author, and Characters on Author Intrusion (Rod Duncan, recently)
• A Writer Can be Anyone or Anything on Daily Writing Tips (by Maeve in 2008)
  

And now, here's something fun! Copy/paste a 500 word sample of your writing into The Gender Genie (on BookBlog) and it will analyze your work and "determine" whether you are male or female.

I slapped in the first 800 words for the as yet nascent 4th Silver Rush book ( first chapter drafted and I know where the second is heading). I checked the "fiction" button and punched "submit."

... Here's what popped up ...

Score: Female: 796 Male: 1046
Result: The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

I'm intrigued (but not male)!

The results list "feminine keywords" and "masculine keywords" and the occurrence of each in the writing sample. The words are apparently weighted according to an algorithm. What I take away from this is that I am comfortably balanced between the two worlds.

Try it and let me know what your results are....

Stay away from these...

Here's a tidbit from Mayhem in the Midlands that I picked up in the What Authors Get Wrong panel. One of the speakers (at first I thought it was Michael Black, but I have been corrected: it was none other than Margaret Grace, aka Camille Minichino) recited lines of dialogue oft heard in TV crime drama shows—deathless questions, comments, statements, that should be retired. Here are the few I scribbled down:

• "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" (said with increasing intensity)
• "I never meant for this to happen." (bloody corpse lying at the feet of the speaker)
• "What do you mean by that?" (well, duh)
• "Are you okay?" (said to someone who has 1. been hit over the head, 2. caught in a tornado, 3. survived an explosion, 4. received a paper cut, 5. ...)

I wish I'd captured more of these, but alas! I'll have to admit, I've used a couple of these myself on occasion (no, don't go looking for them now!). I think, perhaps, it's a case of "lazy writing," and also of being raised on television back in the days of yore. When the stories roll out like a movie in my mind, those lines just automatically pop up in certain circumstances.

And, just for fun (because it is the weekend) here's some other (non-Mayhem) sites to visit that discuss dialogue and situation cliches in movies and TV.

• The Movie Cliches List
• Roger Ebert's Glossary List (lots of good ones here!)
• The Definitive List of Cliche Dialogue (by Kevin Lehane)
• ScreenwriterGuy's Top 10 Worst Cliche Lines of Dialogue
  
• TV Tropes in Dialogue (Technically, a trope is not a cliche, but hey, "Beam me up, Scotty!" and take a gander at these)

Wander on through them and see what catches your fancy or sounds familiar. And then vow not use them in your own writing. There's always another way to say it!