Reviews come in and an ARC giveaway!

Well, I'm not being nearly as consistent as I had hoped, but I shall keep working on getting better at posting here, on my Silver Rush blog...

First, if you would like to get in the drawing for one of three ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies, otherwise known as "uncorrected proofs") of What Gold Buys... you have a week to enter the giveaway I'm hosting on Goodreads, and I encourage you to go for it! The odds are much better than striking silver in the Leadville mining district in 1879! :-) (Now don't ask me what those odds were, because I'm assuming here...)

So just click on the "Enter Giveaway" link below and good luck! But before you go... (keep reading below the widget)...

Goodreads Book Giveaway

What Gold Buys

by Ann Parker

Giveaway ends August 15, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

.... Reviews are popping up, ahead of publication. Since I consider them all valid data points (each reviewer approaches a book with different expectations, preferences, and so on, as do readers), I'm providing links to the three I've rounded up so far, along with a short pull-quote from each.

• Publishers Weekly starred review! (yes, that rates an exclamation point) "Emotionally and historically convincing."
•  Kirkus Reviews. "Better history than mystery, drawing the reader into the stunning beauty and harsh realities of life in 1880s Colorado."
• Historical Novel Society. "I haven’t read the first four but was so taken by Parker’s protagonist, Inez Stannert, that I’ll rectify that asap... I can’t wait for the sixth in the series." 

So please enter the Goodreads giveaway, if you are so inclined... and if you want to increase your chances of winning an uncorrected proof (which has hilarious goofs, such as Inez drawing her "Smooth revolver"... yes, a smooth move, but that should be *Smoot* ), sign up for my very occasional newsletter right here. I will be giving away ARCs to a couple lucky folks on this list, once the Goodreads giveaway is over on August 15.

And here, just for fun, is a couple of photos I took last year in the House with the Eye Museum in Leadville, the City in the Clouds...

The original stained glass "eye" from 1879. 

Guns, cards, and chips... note the "woman's purse gun" on the far right.

Leadville enthusiasts, rejoice!

On Saturday, I got a book in the mail that made me say YAY!!

Leadville historian Gretchen Scanlon's A HISTORY OF LEADVILLE THEATER arrived from Leadville's The Book Mine bookstore, and I couldn't be happier.

I know Gretchen has been working on this a long time, and I, for one, have been chomping at the bit for its arrival.

Here's the blurb from the back:

When the West was wild, the glitziest streets in Colorado ran through Leadville, where opera, variety and burlesque lit up Magic City theaters. Theatrical legends Buffalo Bill and Oscar Wilde graced the Tabor Opera House, while revolutionary Susan B. Anthony reached a rough mining audience from a stage atop a bar. Thomas Kemp spared no expense on the risqué Black Crook at the Grand Central Theater, complete with a grand waterfall, a trapdoor and dragons. Follow Leadville historian Gretchen Scanlon through these theatrical glory days, from the glamorous productions and stump speeches to the offstage theft and debauchery that kept the drama going even when the curtain fell.

You can find the book at all the usual places on-line, but I'm going to make a special plea that you  strongly consider ordering from The Book Mine in Leadville (phone: 1-719-486-2866) or your favorite indie bookstore. Show them you care! :-)

It's Christmas in February for me!

Late night dining, 1880s ... or pass the Alka-Seltzer

I recently received an email from a reader of Leaden Skies, who asked:

I am interested in the late hour of the dinners and receptions. Was it normal to hold such events at 10 or 11 PM?

And indeed, Leaden Skies features a couple of late night gastronomic events. I pretty slavishly adhere to what's reported in the newspapers of the day, so can assure you that yes indeed, what appears in the book is accurate. One example is the banqueet held for Ulysses S. Grant during his five-day visit to Leadville in July 1880. The newspapers covered this event in great detail—from the decorations, to the menu, to the speeches afterward (which went on. and on.). The article even includes the hour at which the feasting began (emphasis below is mine):

The dining-room was gorgeously arrayed in evergreens,
flags and flowers. On the east and west walls hung paintings
of General Grant, surrounded with wreaths and evergreens.
Two long parallel tables ranged down each side of the hall,
a third forming at right angles at the head, near the
entrance of the dining-room, capable of seating two hundred
and fifty persons. As the doors of the large dining hall were
thrown open to the guests, sometime after 11 o’clock, the
tables were revealed in all their splendor of culinary decorations—
if this term may be applied—fairly groaning under
their load of delicacies and decorating devices, formed of the
rarest of confections and by the greatest skill, while
arranged in stately order about the tables, were eighteen
waiters in charge of Mr. William McClellan.
As the guests entered the hall, with General Grant in
charge, they were assigned seats at the banquet tables.
The band occupying a position at the head of the banquet,
played an appropriate selection. The banquet was then formally
opened.

So, a couple of hundred people had to file in, be seated, be served ... I'd guess the meal lasted into the wee hours of the morning (2 a.m., maybe?). And we know that the speeches went on for quite a while after that, given how this particular reporter concludes his story:

...By this time the hour had advanced close upon morning.
The feast was over and the speech-making ceased. The General
arising from his chair at the banquet was the signal for
all to retire; and soon the hall was cleared, and the merry
feasters were wending their way homeward just as the gray
light of dawn was lining the eastern sky.

(Of course, at this point, I wondered, "What time was sunrise?" After thrashing around on the internet a bit, I found a site where I could at least determine the sunrise time in Denver, Colorado, on July 24, 1901 (the year 1880 was outside the range of calculation)— 5:50 a.m. So, I'd guess the guests were staggering/straggling home in Leadville, July 24, 1880, sometime around 5 a.m., give or take.

The question remains: Is this late-night dining hour normal??

For more insight, I turned to the arbiter of all things cultural and mannerly for this timeframe (at least, for me): Our Deportment or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society by John H. Young, A.M. In the "Receptions, Parties and Balls" chapter, he says this about supper for balls:

The supper-room at a ball is thrown open generally at twelve o-clock.

According to the book, the sort of repast you'd be facing as the clock struck midnight would probably include the following:

The hot dishes are oysters, stewed, fried, broiled and scalloped, chicken, game, etc., and the cold dishes are such as boned turkey, boeuf a la mode, chicken salad, lobster salad and raw oysters.

Ooof! The most I can handle past 11 p.m. is warm Ovaltine and toast.

In any case, thank you, dear reader, for your question, because I had a lot of fun delving into the answer! Now, I'm off to make my Ovaltine...

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.