Real People in Mercury's Rise

Ann Parker, on the second day of a two-week (plus a bit) virtual tour for Mercury's Rise, the newest book in the Silver Rush series.

Today is a "home stop" at my own blog, which features random musings on writing, history, mystery, or whatever crosses my mind. This time (rubbing hands together gleefully), I'm going to talk about using real people in my latest mystery.

Now, there are several kinds of "real" people. There are the people who existed in that time and place. There are a few of that kind wandering through the pages, including Colorado photographer Anna Galbreaith, who is a source of curiosity and mystery to me (I would *love* to know more about her and her life). I do know she was a landscape photographer in Manitou, Colorado, during the mid-1880s and also ran a boarding house called the Ohio House. Since she signed her photographs "Mrs. Anna Galbreaith," I assume she was a widow... or possibly a divorcée? You can read more about Anna and see an example of her work here in a post I did yesterday to kick off this virtual tour. Other people of the day are mentioned in Mercury's Rise: William Palmer Jackson (founder of Colorado Springs and the Denver & Rio Grande) and Dr. William Bell (founder of Manitou Springs).

The real Robert Calder

But the real people I REALLY had fun with are folks I know in the present day world of 2011, who gave permission for me to use their names. In two cases, these folks "won" the honor of appearing in the story. Robert Calder (an artist who does wonderful watercolors that capture Leadville's past) had his name pulled out of a hat to appear as a character in the book. You can read a little about Bob and his work in this online article from Colorado Magazine. It seemed a natural fit to make Robert a plein-air artist, who is visiting Manitou with more than painting on his agenda. Sharon Crowson is a mystery reader and fan who has "been dying" (so to speak) to appear in a Silver Rush book. A bribe of chocolate did the trick, and she's there in the pages of Mercury's Rise, with a slightly different first name.

The real Dr. Prochazka

Dr. Aurelius Prochazka is a bona fide doctor... but not of medicine. You can get the gist of his claim to the Dr. title from this on his website: "Aure began his career at the California Institute of Technology  analyzing the aerodynamic stability of the F-117A Stealth Fighter and worked on computational fluid dynamics for his PhD thesis." Aure is a scientist, a musician, and an author in his own right. I've worked with Aure, and from those earliest days was just itching to steal his name (and some of his "renaissance man" personality) and plunk him down in 1880. He was a good sport about the whole thing when I asked (hopefully, he still is, now that the book is published!).

Finally, there are the Paces. While I was working with Aure, I also worked with Kirsten Pace and her husband Eric Cummings. I decided it would be fun to put Kirsten and her family (kids and all) in the story. She was fine with that, even after I gave her a much older, cantankerous husband (WHO IS NOT YOU, ERIC. Just want to make that clear. You appear at the end as a nice guy.) Kirsten just finished reading the book the other day and said she enjoyed it (well, she'd better say that! ;-) ) and then added it was odd to see her name crop up page after page after page... Just one of the hazards of being a key character in a novel!

There are shades of other "real people" in some of the continuing characters in my series. My protagonist, Inez Stannert is named after my grandmother. (You can read a bit about her and why she ended up my protagonist in another guest post here on Gayle Gresham's Colorado Reflections blog.) Doctor Cramer embodies elements of my own father, a kindly physician with a real knack for listening to his patients. Susan Carothers has a spirit much like a dear friend of mine from childhood, also named Susan, who like my fictional character forged a life to match her inner passions.

And then... there are those real people whom I shadow in darkness, twist their genders and their names, and gleefully make them murderers or victims and do horrible things to them (in fiction!) because at some point in my life they really ticked me off or hurt someone I loved. But I'm not going to say anything more about them. They will remain a mystery. ;-)
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Another favorite Colorado publication . . .

. . . Having featured the Leadville Herald Democrat newspaper yesterday, I thought I'd mention another regional publication I enjoy and subscribe to: Colorado Central. Published monthly by Martha and Ed Quillen of Salida, Colorado Central always delivers. At least, for this "flat-lander" (because that is what I am, living, as I do, a whole whopping 480 feet above sea level).

Besides allowing me to keep up-to-date on what's what and who's who in the Central Colorado region (which includes Leadville, Salida, and a whole lot more), Colorado Central is one of those lovely publications where one is rewarded for reading the small print. For instance, in the Credits section of the December 2008 issue, "Other" reads:

Proofreading by Matt Gonzales and Sally Gonzales. Everything else is the fault of Martha and Ed Quillen, though mostly Ed because he was on the road a lot, and suffered much distraction from various political campaigns.

The masthead on the cover also features different tag lines for every issue that bear careful scrutiny:

(For December 2008) The Monthly Magazine for People who wish the days were a bit longer.
(For August 2008) The Monthly Magazine for People who wonder how summer could pass so quickly.

In the table of contents, the one-sentence descriptions of the articles and regular departments often display the same sense of . . . dare I say, playfulness? For example, from the December 2008 issue:

• The non-lure of the wild
  It's hard to understand how modern kids could resist playing outdoors, but they do.
  

• Keeping Track
  An election prediction gone awry, mining and renewable energy, windmills and zoning, cartoons, and news and comment from all around.
  

• Agenda
  We wonder if anyone reads this line. [! I do! I do!]
  

• After all these years
  The redemptive power of higher forms of craziness.
  

• Water Update
  Keeping up with what's wet.
  

The magazine's website has an archive where you can sample past issues. (Sliding in a little under-the-radar BSP: If you'd like to see what Ed thought of Iron Ties, the second in my mystery series, see the August 2006 issue.) I suggest you go check out Colorado Central. Publications like these are rare, and better than gold. Or should I say, silver?