I’m sorry. I know you would just as soon never hear the “p” word again. You know which word that is. Right? Okay, I’ll just whisper it: Pandemic.
When I started to work in 2021 on All She Ever Dreamed, Book #2 in the Boulder Creek Romance series, a pandemic was the last thing I wanted to think about. After all, that was our reality. Been there, done that, so over it!
When the novel opens in 1898, we meet Jeremiah. He has wandered around the country for nine years, ever since the death of his wife, Marta, and their newborn son. I didn’t think a whole lot about what caused Marta’s death. After all, for much of the world’s history, 50% of women died in childbirth. Her death could have been for any number of reasons.
Jeremiah left Idaho fourteen years earlier when he and Marta eloped as teenagers. They knew five years of happiness, despite being poor. Still, he blames himself for her death, and he’s been on the run from those feelings ever since. In the book’s opening scene, he realizes it is time to go home to Boulder Creek and the family farm that was left to him by his father.
Of course, there are other complications awaiting him when he arrives, including his unwanted attraction to Sarah, the granddaughter of the sheriff. Creating and writing those complications consumed my thoughts as I wrote the novel. The back story of what specifically killed Marta wasn’t my first priority.
But eventually I had to know more about her death. So I did a bit of research.
And serendipity struck!
In my writing, I had already established that Marta died nine years before the book opens. Meaning in 1889. And guess what happened in 1889. The start of the Russian Influenza pandemic (1889-1890). The outbreak began in May in what is now modern day Uzbekistan. The first pandemic to spread worldwide and not just through a region, the Russian Influenza reached US soil before the end of that year.
By the time it ran its course in 1890, 6.7% of the world population had died from it. Putting that number in perspective, less than 1% of the today’s population of 8 billion have died from COVID (per statistics I found online).
As difficult as the last few years have been, the lockdowns and isolation, the quarantines and fears of today showed me ever more clearly how the pandemic of 1889 would continue to impact Jeremiah nine years later.
Like it or not, authors often write what they know.
WHAT HISTORICAL EVENT(S) HAVE YOU READ ABOUT IN A NOVEL THAT FELT VERY CURRENT TO SOMETHING HAPPENING TODAY?
I’m giving away a Kindle copy of the two books in the Boulder Creek Romance series, Even Forever and All She Ever Dreamed, to one winner.
Robin Lee Hatcher is the author of over 85 novels and novellas with over five million copies of her books
in print. She is known for her heartwarming and emotionally charged stories of faith, courage, and love. Her numerous awards include the RITA® Award, the Carol Award, the Christy Award, the HOLT Medallion, the National Reader’s Choice Award, and the Faith, Hope & Love Reader’s Choice Award. Robin is also the recipient of prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards from both American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America®. When not writing, she enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, Bible art journaling, reading books that make her cry, watching romantic movies, and decorative planning. Robin makes her home on the outskirts of Boise, sharing it with a demanding Papillon dog and a persnickety tuxedo cat.
Hang on everyone, it’s almost fall.
nowhere I was named to the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.
As you know I love quilts, especially this one from my mother Sally Faye Kirkland Price. I have it hanging in my quilt room at home.