Archives for “Gold mining”
This last summer I was lucky enough to travel to Silverton, Colorado. My husband, Steve, and I took the 47 mile, three-hour trip on the old narrow gauge train just like people had done a hundred years ago. We also took along two of our grandsons, Connor and Finley. I love seeing things through the [...]
A fiction writer is always looking for wonderful people in life to pattern characters after. As I researched Alaska where much of my new release, Cold Justice, is set, I found a wonderful character in Klondike Kate aka Kathleen Rockwell. While none of the characters in my novel were patterned after Kate, I think my [...]
Holcomb Valley, the richest gold mining area in Southern California, is a quiet, lonely place these days. Hard to imagine 2,000 folks lived here in the early 1860’s. This sleepy mountain meadow was once the site of bustling, somewhat slapdash Belleville. The largest bunch of prospectors gathered right here, just east of Bill Holcomb’s original [...]
First of all, the four frenetic days of the Romance Writers American National convention were fabulous, and having lunch with the fillies was the best moment of all. Now it’s back to the trenches, unpacking, catching up on lost sleep….and finishing the wip an editor asked to see. The story is set in Holcomb Valley, [...]
Today marks the 163rd anniversary of the discovery that marked the beginning of the California Gold Rush. Most of you know that the gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, but how much do you know about Sutter himself? Well, depending on which version of history you want to believe, the man was either enterprising, adventurous, [...]
In the state of Colorado In the year of seventy-four They crossed the San Juan Mountains Growing hungry to the core. Their guide was Alferd Packer And they trusted him too long: For his character was weak And his appetite was strong. This is the first stanza to The Ballad Of Alfred Packer, by Phil [...]
I absolutely love this picture. This is just the kind of image of that can transport my brain to another era, like falling into the rabbit hole. Doesn’t it just come alive? Makes me feel like I’m standing right there on the edge of town…a tiny new community popping up in the middle of no [...]
There’s gold in them thar hills…somewhere! Throughout the history of the West, stories are told of lost, forgotten and misplaced mines. Many have been sitting undisturbed for years, shrouding their boundless wealth, just waiting to be re-discovered. Gold and silver-bearing regions are awash with stories of miners losing their way; Indians killing off the miners [...]
There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated [...]
One of my all-time favorite films is “Giant,” a sprawling epic of Texas with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and the ill-fated James Dean who was killed in an accident immediately after the filming.It was the highest grossing film until “Superman” assumed that the honor, and it was nominated for eight Oscars, including best supporting actor [...]
“A gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar at the top.” – Mark Twain When I began doing research for my debut novel, Touch of Texas, I knew I was searching for a special type of location. It needed to be isolated, with a means of support [...]
