Hello Darlings,

The Fillies are delighted to have Miss Elaine Levine grace us with her presence once again.

The dear lady will arrive Friday, February 26th.

Miss Elaine will talk about the next book in her Men of Defiance series and tell us all the reasons why she was drawn to the small town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming. Bet you’ll never guess where the town name came from. Take it from me, it’s very interesting.

Miss Elaine’s new book is called AUDREY AND THE MAVERICK. Ah’d sure like to run my hands across that cowboy’s bare chest. Then, right after I finished with that, I’d cart him home with me! Hee-hee!

Miss Elaine is also going to give away a copy of this book to someone. Might as well be you.

All you have to do is drop by the Junction and chat a spell. You never know what’ll happen.

Don’t be late, now. You’ll want to get a good seat.

You just never know, when you’re doing research, what little tidbit is going to jump out at you and make you say, “What? Really?”

(a sneaky aside, read the post carefully for a chance to win my newest release, Black Hills Blessing. I just got my authors copies of this 3-in-1 collection of short sweet romances set around a buffalo ranch in South Dakota. It’s western-y, but contemporary. Sweet romantic comedy with a buffalo stampede.)

I read things here on P & P all the time that I’ve never heard of before. Such was my reaction to the fun fact that President John Tyler, who became president after the death of William Henry Harrison, had fifteen children.

Was the White House over crowded or WHAT?

He killed off his first wife having eight kids. (Okay, I admit that’s my spin. . .I’m sure she was thrilled every time she found out she was pregnant. . .I’m sure she’d come to John in her negligee and say, “I want another baby, darling, please.”)

Yeah right.

And she didn’t die having a baby, that’s just me being snippy.

President Tyler lived 72 years, was vice president and president, was the son of the governor of Virginia, served in the military during the War of 1812 (though he saw no action), was elected to the House of Representatives and later the Senate and was the first vice-president to ascend to the presidency through the president’s death, which set a whole lot of precedents we still follow today.

Out of all of that, what interested me was those 15 kids.

How many bedrooms are there in the White House anyway. Yeesh.

They were probably as crowded as I was growing up with seven brothers and sisters in a Nebraska farm house. His first wife—mother of eight—died while he was president.

Here are some quotes about Letitia Tyler:

Letitia was shy, quiet, pious, and by all accounts, utterly selfless and devoted to her family. (Mary here-they just don’t make wives like this anymore.)

She met John Tyler, then a law student, in 1808. Their five-year courtship was so restrained that not until three weeks before the wedding did Tyler kiss her — and even then it was on the hand. (Mary again–the man clearly came uh…uh…let’s call it…un-restrained later…thus the eight children)

The most entirely unselfish person you can imagine…Notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can’t tell when she does it.” (Mary with more to say–they owned slaves–it’s not like the woman was doing any heavy lifting.)

Their 29-year marriage appears to have been a singularly happy one. (Mary–I’m glad for them–except if the woman was so shy and quiet how SURE are they about her happiness. But fine, whatever, they were ecstatic)

As First Lady, she remained in the upstairs living quarters of the White House; she came down just once, to attend the wedding of her daughter (Elizabeth) in January 1842. (Me again–??? Excuse me? She only came DOWNSTAIRS ONCE????)

Pardon me while I wonder if she was, by chance, hiding from her husband and potential baby #9. Perhaps she was under the floorboards upstairs, waiting quietly, hoping he’d fall asleep for once in his freakin’ life.

After his first wife’s death, Tyler remarried within a year, to Julia Gardiner. You really can’t blame the guy, I mean c’mon, he had eight kids to take care of. These days, that’ll get you your own reality show. Please insert your own Jon & Kate Plus Eight jokes here.

Here are a few words about Julia Tyler. She began seeing Tyler in January 1843, a few months after the death of the First Lady while he was president. (Mary wonders if she’d heard about the eight kids. Such things could be hushed up back then)

One of Tyler’s daughters, Letitia, never made peace with the new Mrs. Tyler. (Gotta go with Letitia here)

She was thirty years Tyler’s junior and it would be simple to make trophy wife and gold digger comments, but honestly, she had seven children with the man. No doubt she was hiding from him after a while, too. Crowded under those floor boards. In fact, that’s probably where the first Mrs. Tyler was.  Alive and well and in hiding.

His second wife was YOUNGER than four of his children.

And I found this particularly fascinating. . .two of Tyler’s grandchildren are STILL ALIVE. Doesn’t that strike you as weird? Tyler lived at the same time as John Quincy Adams. He served in the War of 1812. Think of that! Tyler was the first president born after the constitution was ratified. He goes back almost all the way to the beginning and he’s still got LIVING GRAND CHILDREN!!!????

That makes me feel really strongly connected to the past. It’s still a very young country in some ways.

Tyler also brought Texas into the union, so—as writers and lovers of western romance—we all gotta give him snaps for that.

Here’s your chance to win Black Hills Blessing. Leave a comment telling me how you told your husband you were expecting…or if you haven’t had that particular experience, name the most interesting, intriguing, terrifying, funny ‘there’s a bun in the oven’ story you know.

I wrote a while back about a woman, still alive, who’s husband served in the Civil War. You can read that HERE.

All of this American history seems so distant and yet here we are with people living who’s lives were directly touched by people who go way back to the beginning, or very nearly.

I like that.

Not enough to have 15 children, but I like that.

My blog

My website

We have two winners.  First is Pat Cochran and the second is Lori Barnes.  CONGRATULATIONS to Pat and Lori!

Pat and Lori, I will need your snail mail addresses — Lori I think I may already have yours.

I’m hoping you both will email me so I can determine what books you have so that I can send you one you haven’t already read.  Please email me at karenkay.author@earthlink.net.

My thanks to all who were kind enough to leave comments today. 

Good Morning (or Afternoon or Evening), depending on when you’re joining us today. 

Before I start the discussion on American Indian Sign Language, let me say that I will be giving away another book to one of the bloggers today.  All you have to do is leave a comment.  Applicable to the greater 50 US States and/or to Canada.  Void where prohibited.

To your left is the cover of the book INDIAN TALK by Iron Eyes Cody.  I have this book, but I also have 4 other books on Indian sign language, one of them being published in 1881.  When I’m writing I use all of these books, as they are all similar and yet in some aspects, not.  One of my books — and of course I can’t find it right now — has not only Indian sign language, but the language of trails and signs left on trails.  I find that fascinating.  But before we get into how to say certain things, want to review a little of its history?

All tribes could communicate via the universal sign language.  Complex conversations could be carried on that were quiet elaborate,  and once sign language was well known – just as we do with our language – shortcuts were taken, with a simple gesture meaning a lot.  Expressions mattered also.  A frown, a smile.  Indeed, if a white man came on the prairie and didn’t know this universal sign language or couldn’t communicate in any way, he was considered rather stupid, or at the very least, rude, for not taking the time and effort to learn.

It’s generally accepted that the Plains Indians cultivated the sign language to a large degree and that they kept it alive all through the years, but even at the beginning of the European’s contact with the American Indian, Colorado talks about their sign language.  In the words of this explorer:

“That they were very intelligent is evident from the fact that although they conversed by means of signs, they made themselves understood so well that there was no need of an interpreter.” . . . “They are kind people and not cruel, they are faithful, they are able to make themselves very well understood by means of signs.”

Many of the Plains tribes believed that the language originated with the Kiowa tribe, who learned it in Mexico.  But one thing is generally agreed, and that is that the Kiowa were most proficient in using the language.  Here’s another quote I found interesting:

“The language of signs is so perfectly understood in the Western country, and the Indians themselves are such admirable sign talkers, that, after a little use, no difficulty whatever exists in carrying on a conversation by such a channel; and there are few mountain men who are at a loss in thoroughly understanding and making themselves intelligible by signs alone, although they neither speak or understand a worn, of the Indian tongue.” Ruxton, NY 1848.  Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains

In my very first book, LAKOTA SURRENDER, the heroine and hero communicate at first by means of sign language.  Truth is, I loved this research and I had fun making the signs myself.   Okay, so that’s probably enough background.  Let’s learn some talk.

“Me” — point to yourself with your thumb; “you” — point to whomever you are speaking to or about; “yes” — start with a closed fist in right hand, index finger extended.  At the same time you drop your hand, close your index finger sigh your thumb; “no” — start with right hand held against chest, fingers pointing left.  As you swing you hand around in a half circle, turn your hand so that the palm is facing up.  “Love” — man crosses his hands over his chest — woman touches her heart.

Let’s make a sentence, shall we.  Let’s say “I love you” in sign language.  Did you do it?  Easy, huh?

Okay, here’s another.  “question”:  hold your right hand up about shoulder level, palm facing out.  Rotate the hand slowly a few times — this means a question is coming.  Here’s another:  “possession” — meant to show who owns what or to say something like my… whatever.  Place your clenched hand close to the neck/shoulder.  Bring fist down and foreward with thumb pointing forward.  “mother” — With your hand cupped, bring it over to the left shoulder/chest area and tap your chest two of three times.

Okay, are you ready?  Let’s say “Where is my mother?”  Make the sign for question.  Then the sign for mother, then the sign for possession.  Did you do it?

There are many different books out there on sign language if you are interested in learning it or reading it.  I should probably also say that if you watch — or can get your hands on — any of the old silent movies  – or some of the early, early talkies — they had true American Indians playing those roles — and you’ll see them talking sign language.  Something to really see.

Here’s the cover copy of my latest book, out on the market, BLACK EAGLE.  Please pick up your copy today.  And look for SENECA SURRENDER coming soon — only two months away — April 2010.

So how’d you do?  Did you like the sign language?  Come on in and let’s talk.

I was researching a completely unrelated topic the other day when I came across a reference to water witching.  Intrigued, I decided to follow the enticing rabbit trail and learn more.

Water witching is a specialized form of dowsing, which is the ancient practice of locating items using a rod or stick.  This implement is referred to as a dowsing rod, divining rod or witching stick.  When dowsing is employed to locate a source of water it is sometimes called water witching, and its practitioners are referred to as witchers.

Witchers as a group are rarely in accord as to the ‘proper’ method for performing the task or on how and why it works.

The forked stick seems to be the instrument of preference for most practitioners.  The witcher grasps each of the forked ends, palms up, holding the stick with the stem pointed outward.   Willow, peach and witch hazel (which is one explanation for where the term ‘water witch’ came from.  The other is that it is an occult reference.) seem to be the most widely preferred as they produce sticks and twigs that are very are flexible. The witcher walks across the terrain, the idea being that when he reaches a spot directly above a buried source of water, the stick will point downward. 

But there are many other methods and divining rod materials as well.  Some dowsers who use the forked branch insist that the stem will point upward, not downward, or begin to vibrate and twitch when they reach the proper spot.  Others eschew the forked stick altogether, preferring to use two metal rods.  Materials for these rods include brass, copper, steel or other metals.  They hold these rods perpendicular to each other and when they arrive at a spot that hides and underground source of water, the rods will either cross or fly backward, depending on the witcher.  Other items favored by various dowsers include coat hangers, pendulums, keys, scissors and whale bones.

Dowsing has a very long and colorful history, dating back, some say, to biblical times.   There are cave paintings in Africa dating back 6000-8000 years that seem to depict a dowser at work.   When and how it migrated to Europe is not known, but it was present in England during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603).   During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries dowsing was denounced as heresy.  Even being suspected of dowsing was cause for being arrested and placed on trial as a heretic.  Martin Luther himself declared dowsing to be “the work of the devil”.   During the Victorian era, however, dowsing became fashionable.  The Victorians had a fascination with spirituality and mysticism and dowsing seemed to fit right in with this attitude.  The practice showed up in both frivolous pursuits such as parlor games, to the more serious endeavors such as being employed by mining companies to aid in their search for excavation sites.

How, exactly, does dowsing work?   Though a number of studies have been performed, there is no scientific explanation to support the authenticity of dowsing as a reliable method of locating water or other items.  But countless numbers of eye witnesses and practitioners stand by its results.  Some scoff that it is all a sham.  Others say that it is an innate skill many of us possess if we would only learn how to tap into it.  Still others believe that it comes from the practitioner’s heightened sensitivity to magnetic fields given off by various objects.

Dowsing is still widely practiced today as evidenced by the number of  professional dowsing societies in America and Europe.  The oldest of these is the British Society of Dowsers founded in 1933.

So what about you – do you have any experience – either direct or indirect – with the practice of dowsing?

Ah put all the names in my old dishpan and guess who’s name ah drew?

ANGIE BREIDENBACH

Sure ‘nuf was. Congratulations, Angie! Woo-Hoo! Miss Maggie will contact you for your mailing address. Then, she’ll get the book out on the next stage.

Miss Maggie says big thanks to everyone who dropped by to chat a spell. She was overjoyed with the company.

Until next time,

Thank you for your comments on 

The Internet of the Old West.

A copy of my book goes to:

Please email me at margaret@margaretbrownley.com with your mailing address.

.-.. — …- .   — -.–   .-. . .- -.. . .-. …

This is Morse Code for Love My Readers!

While writing my novel, The Jewel of His Heart last year, I was researching for interesting facts to incorporate into my historical. My story takes place in Montana and I had the luxury of visiting there twice. I was able to come away with interesting historical facts to weave into my plot. The story is loosely based on the discovery of the Yogo Sapphires mined only in Montana. The heroine, Juliana Brady, falls for a sheepherder whose eyes come to haunt her from a sketch she sees hanging in a restaurant. In my opening chapter, Josh McBride, the sheepherder, shares a meal with Charlie who passes Josh’s sheep camp on his way home. Charlie is intrigued by the kind Sheepherder and his loyal dog and quickly sketches them. Charlie wasn’t widely famous at the time, but was a cowboy and had a short stint sheepherding before hanging up his spurs to live out his dream of being an artist. He was none other than Charles M. Russell, a St. Louis native who moved to Montana as a teenager.

Charlie won his first blue ribbon for his art work when he was twelve at the St. Louis County fair. His family wanted him to have a good education, and though he’d made up his mind to go west and become a cowboy, they sent him to military school in New Jersey in 1879. His natural instincts did not include book learning, but art and the lure of the West competed for his attention. At the military school he was continually at odds with his instructors and dropped out after one year. At 16, his parents allowed him to visit Montana Territory with a family friend. Charlie immediately fell in love with the beauty of Judith Basin and he knew he would return some day. In fact, he enjoyed being a cowboy, practicing his drawing, sculptures and painting whenever he had a spare moment. Usually he gave away his work to friends and fellow cowboys. He used meticulous detail to depict horses, Indians and cowboys and their struggles in the West to create beautiful paintings. He soon became a popular artist, and was highly regarded by his contemporaries.

Charlie was good natured and well liked by all. He sported a red sash around his neck and usually had a cigarette dangling from his lip. Since he was naturally creative in painting, even his letters to his friends were filled with his unusual wit and humor. He and his mentor, Jake Hoover, also in my story, spent a lot of leisure time hanging out at local saloons in Utica in the 1880’s. He finally fell in love, marrying at the age of thirty-two to eighteen year old Nancy Cooper. They settled down in Great Falls, MT and she is credited with the success of marketing his works and negotiating large prices for his paintings. Russell was an adventurous and a rugged individual, but when he began his paintings depicting wild horses and cowboys, much of the ‘Old West’ was coming to the end of an era. His representation of western history and folklore of the American cowboy and Indians was how he became a legacy.

Russell’s vast array of painting and sculpture now fill many museums and are owned by private art collectors. was fortunate enough to seen some of his most magnificent paintings and bronzes at the Denver Art Museum one year. I have a deep appreciation for all things West and Russell’s accurate portrayal of the American Cowboy and wildlife is exceptional.

When my heroine assists in a fund raiser to raise money to build a school for the miners’ children, she spots the painting of the sheepherder again. I thought it was a fun way to bring a little history into the story centered on a painting of a sheepherder’s eyes that haunt her until they meet again. Though Russell lived in Great Falls, MT during that time and painted many pictures of cowboys and sheepherders, I took the liberty of using him as the artist to work with my story. That part is fictitious, however, he was friends with Jake Hoover who discovered the first Yogo sapphires in Yogo Creek.

My hobby is oil painting and as a self taught artist, I guess that’s where my love of Western art began. It would’ve been a dream come true to be taught under his tutelage. Of course, painting has taken a back seat as I continue my love of writing about the West and the American Cowboy.

Russell died October 24, 1926 of a heart attack and the art world mourned his loss. But he’d made an impact on ranchers, cowboys, writers and historians with his art and they realized they had lost an influential spokesman.

You can visit the Russell’s museum in Great Falls and see through his eyes the true romantic description of the American Cowboy and the West.

Thanks for having me as a guest blogger on your wonderful and informative website. I hope you’ll look for my books in the Heart of the West series. The 3^rd one, A Love of Her Own, will be released in June.  You can visit me anytime at http://southernbellewriter.blogspot.com/

And I’ll be giving away a copy of The Jewel Of Her Heart to one of today’s commenters!

Happy Trails, Maggie

Margaret Brownley

Scams, advertisements and demands from Prince “Wants Your Money” from some foreign country:  Sound like your e-mail? You’re close. Only back in the 19th and 20th centuries it was called the telegraph.  Not only did the telegraph create a quicker way to get junk mail, it changed the way Victorians lived, did business, received news and yes, even fell in love.

In his fascinating book, The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage tells us that there really is nothing new under the sun.  Meetings, chat rooms, games, and illicit affairs were just as prevalent 150 years ago as they are today.  And what, for that matter is a text message but a telegram, forcing people to be brief and to the point? (Tell that to your teen!)

If you think acronyms such as LOL and BTW are a modern concept, think again. Telegram security was an issue and secret codes were devised.  Government regulators tried to control this new means of communication, but failed. Sound familiar?

Though the telegraph was first conceived in the 1600s and an optical one developed in the 1700s, it took a tragedy to make the dream of fast communication over long distances a reality.

Samuel Morse: A Love Story

Samuel Morse was an artist commissioned to paint a portrait in Washington. Upon receiving a letter informing him of his wife’s sudden death, he returned to his New Haven home as quickly as possible, but he had already missed her funeral.  This had to be very much on his mind seven years later when he in a chance conversation aboard a ship he learned that electricity could travel along any length of wire almost instantaneously.  Unaware that others had tried and failed to create a fast way of communications using this method, he immediately set to work.    

What Hath God Wrought?

It took Samuel Morse 12 years to perfect his invention and many trials and tribulations, but he was convinced that this new way of communicating would allow a husband to reach a dying wife’s bedside or save the life of a child.  He thought it might even prevent wars.  His hard work and perseverance paid off.  On May 24, 1844, he sent the telegraph message “what hath God wrought?” from the Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to the B & O Railroad Depot in Baltimore, Maryland.

No longer was it necessary to communicate solely through trains, mail or horse.  Even Morse himself couldn’t have imagined how telegraphic communications could change society.

Boon and Bust for Outlaws

Then as now, the first to embrace the new technology were criminals. The first telegrams sent were horse bets and lotteries.  A man named Soapy Smith opened a fake telegraph office in Skagway, Alaska during the gold rush of 1897. The wires went only as far as the wall. The telegraph office obtained fees for “sending” messages from gold-laden victims. Though outlaws such as Butch Cassidy routinely cut wires or jammed telegraph keys to prevent lawmen from tracking them down, the telegraph eventually helped put an end to the train robberies that plagued the west. 

Wired Romances

Western Union might have been the first equal opportunity employer as women telegraphers were prevalent.  The ratio of men to women in the New York office in the 1870s was two to one.  Women operators were often chaperoned but that didn’t stop women from forming relationships with partners in distant offices.  As a result, wire romances bloomed and one couple even married by telegraph. However, not all online romances had a happy ending.  In 1886, The Electrical World magazine ran an article titled The Dangers of Wired Romances. That same article would no doubt be just as timely today.

Tom Standage writes that time traveling Victorians arriving in today’s world might be impressed with our flying machines but they would be unimpressed with the Internet. They did, after all, have one of their own.

A Lady Like Sarah in Bookstores now

Leave a comment and you might even win a copy.

www.margaretbrownley.com

Hello Darlings,

Miss Maggie Brendan has boarded the train and will arrive in the Junction  bright and early Saturday morning.

This is the dear lady’s first visit ah do believe, but ah hope it’s not her last. Miss Maggie has in mind to talk about her favorite cowboy artist. The man was so talented. He  brought the West to life with nothing but paint and brushes. Ah do admire a man who  put his stamp on a place that continues to draw visitors.

Miss Maggie will talk about her new book while she’s here visiting. And she’s giving away an autographed copy to one lucky person who leaves a comment.

So get the lead out and help the Fillies make her stay one to remember.

And drop your name in the hat for the free book!