Welcome to my new blog. I hope to be able to answer some of your inquiries regarding my work and explain some of the thoughts behind my choices. First off, I wanted to discuss HANGIN' WITH THE TRUTH, my latest novel... "Why did I choose this particular time and place?"... A really good question.
The premise of the novel is based on a poem of the same name from my previous book SOMEONE'S STORY. I wanted to expand the characters and was intrigued by how their story might evolve. The choice of where and when came solely from the characters themselves. They required a wild territory where banditing was a lucrative career, and where idiosyncrasies were more common than not. The South Dakota Territories in the late 1800s, after the Civil War, provided me with a wealth of history and opportunity. It was a time of free land, gold, gambling, lawlessness and a country looking for the promise of a better life; free from the constraints of society. And, it was in this place and time that many adventurous souls sought their fortune.
The more I researched, the more I was able to meld the story of Bob Slye and Sally Mae Boudine into the events of the time. I was able to "bend" historic fact, folding it around my characters; interweaving their tale with real people from that era. And as I wrote, I found such amazing similarities between generations and centuries, each playing out with its own colors and textures.