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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Mustaches of the past

Now that Mercury's Rise, the fourth of the Silver Rush historical mystery series, is well and truly done, I've time to turn attention to this rather neglected blog (blows virtual dust off).

In this latest installment of the ever-continuing Silver Rush saga, protagonist Inez Stannert and her friend, photographer Susan Carothers, travel to Manitou (sometimes called Manitou, sometimes Manitou Springs). The intent of the trip is for Inez to re-unite with her much-missed young son and her sister. Most of my posts here will focus on bits and pieces of research for the story. (I'll not promise all posts, because one must leave room for serendipity.)

I shall begin with mustaches, because... well, because I want to. And because the World Beard and Moustache Championships just finished. (Thank you, author Sarah Smith, for mentioning this momentous event on Facebook.) The connection to Mercury's Rise follows...

One of the characters in this newest book, Terrance Epperley, is a young British remittance man who sports a "facespanner" mustache.

When I started the draft, I could see this fellow clear as day in my mind's eye. His mustache extended straight along the horizontal, from one side of his face to the other, fierce in its impeccable grooming.

Can you picture it?

Now, I had no idea that this particular facial decoration was a well-known and documented style until I stumbled across the wonderful blog Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century (isn't the internet amazing??). Here, I found explanations, terms, and photos for the mustache I envisioned and many more besides. The blogger was (I use past tense, because, alas, the last post was in 2010) meticulous in keeping his/her list of classifications up-to-date, so you can search "facespanner" (I've done it for you here) and view some truly amazing photographs of facespanner mustaches of the past.

If you want to know what (the fictional) Terrance Epperley's mustache looks like I commend you to the 2007 post Straight and True, which features the image below:

Black Cat, Cliff House, Glen Eyrie, and more

Spent some time in Colorado Springs and Manitou, gleaning bits and pieces of history with the help, enthusiasm and expertise of many folks (too many to enumerate right now, but they are on my "thank you" list!).

In addition to a wonderful event at Black Cat Books (photo left to right: historical reenactor Doris McCraw, me, Dani Greer of Blood Red Pencil and Blog Book Tours, and author Cynthia Becker), I spent two nights in the Cliff House, and a night at Glen Eyrie (the home of General William Jackson Palmer, a name familiar to railroad and Civil War enthusiasts as well as folks who've read Iron Ties).


The Cliff House, which originally got started in 1873, became one of "the" places to stay in the 1880s and beyond for folks "chasing the cure" for tuberculosis. It's a wonderful place, with a big, wide porch ... one can almost picture the gentlemen and ladies promenading around. For some reason, I didn't take any pictures of the Cliff House (too much running about, I guess), so I'll have to rely on memory and internet for that.

Glen Eyrie is currently owned by The Navigators, but is open to the public for overnight accommodations, hiking, etc., with reservations. Again, a lovely building. The iconic stone structure was, alas, not around in 1880 (the timeframe for book #4), but its predecessor, a 22-room frame house, did exist. I got some photos here ... I love staircases; this is the staircase leading up to the second floor and the bedroom where I stayed overnight.

The next morning, I took a short hike up Queen's Canyon, named after Queen Mellen Palmer (General Palmer's wife). Queen Palmer suffered a mild heart attack on a trip up to Leadville during the summer of 1880. Of course, the wheels start turning when I heard this: When, precisely, did this happen that summer? Why was she going to Leadville? What happened afterwards?

I do know that she gave birth to the Palmers' second daughter, Dorothy, about two months later. Her first daughter was born in New York City; the third (and last) in England. I'm very curious about Queen Palmer, and am going to see what else I can find out about her during the 1880 summer timeframe.

Tomorrow ... off to Fort Collins and the Readers Cove for a 6 p.m. event!

Out and About at Manitou

Well, I sure hoped to get in some historical post before now, but things just got a tad crazy. So, instead, I'll post a couple of photos from my (on-going) trip around Colorado. Right now, I'm in Manitou, and a tad Manitou/Colorado Springs obsessed. Mostly obsessed with trying to find out what was going on during the summer of 1880. My time is ticking away here, and even though I've found lots of good tidbits and intriguing pieces of history (and lots of reference books and resources), the questions keep multiplying.

So.

I took a break and tried to clear my mind a bit. (Well, I didn't forego history entirely. For one thing, I visited the Old Colorado City Historical Center and gathered more historical bits and pieces there for later.)

I visited Black Cat Books today in Manitou ... a really great bookstore! Met Natalie, the bookstore owner. Got her to stand still for a photo (see left ... in addition to books, there is a wine bar). I'll be at Black Cat Books on Saturday, August 1, from 1 - 4 p.m., to talk about Leaden Skies and the rest of the Silver Rush series ... I'm looking forward to it!

The bookstore used to be an dairy in the days of old, and down below (where most of the books are) is where they kept the cows. The whole building is very intriguing ... I plan to take more photos and see if I can determine the date of the building at some point.



Later, I went up Cheyenne Canyon to check out Helen Hunt Falls and Silver Cascade Falls (just a bit further up the trail). Helen Hunt Falls is to the left. This was a favorite place of 19th century author Helen Hunt Jackson. Hmmm. Looks slippery. Could be a good place for a little fictional mayhem.

It was a rainy, cloudy day ... bits of fog hanging about, the air crisp and cool. Thunder. Lightning. Wind. Rain. Great atmosphere. I'm going to try and hold on to my impressions of the weather and the canyon for possible use in book #4.