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Posts Tagged ‘Seattle’

Small Details, Big Solution

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 29 Jul 2013| 1 Comment »

Stack of BooksFirst, a welcome to our new subscribers. At some point we popped up over the 200 member mark, which I find pretty cool. So, thanks, all, for your interest.

My free time this weekend was spent backtracking. I’d started my research of Seattle’s history at 1860, heading up the years toward 1874, but it became clear that for my purposes, 1874 Seattle was just too big a town. I want a setting that is rougher, more primitive, and a town that is smaller.

Picking 1874, the backstory for my main “Old Seattle” character included experience in the Civil War, possibly with injuries, certainly with trauma. I wanted a reason for him to immigrate to the West, but also a reason for him to recoil from society and live outside the town. (more…)

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Getting it Right

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on 23 Jul 2013| Leave a Comment »

Stack of Books…and why it matters.

I’m still researching Seattle history for my next book, The Wolf Tree, trudging through Thomas Prosch’s bone-dry but fact-filled Chronological History of Seattle from 1850 to 1897. I’m up to 1871, which is within spitting distance to my target of 1874.

Some people might say this is a bit over-the-top for what is essentially a secondary story line in a mainstream/non-genre novel, and I’ll admit, I do have a tendency to over-research.

But you know what? That’s just tough. Deal with it, peeps. I won’t apologize or change.

Here’s why. (more…)

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Threshing for Facts

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 12 Jul 2013| 1 Comment »

Stack of BooksFor the past few weeks, I’ve been doing research for The Wolf Tree. It’s been an education, in several ways.

Seattle isn’t like New York or San Francisco or London. I don’t have dozens of books to choose from, rows of scholarly tomes filled with history, details, and anecdotes. (more…)

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Prepare to Stop

Posted in Seattle, tagged , , on 19 Jun 2013| 10 Comments »

Simple LivingIt’s been a tough couple of weeks.

After Memorial Day, my wife’s mother went in for surgery, and she’s still in the hospital now, almost three weeks later. We’ve gone from the staff saying we should “prepare ourselves” to everyone being yippy-skippy and talking about “full recovery.” Thankfully, they’ve been in that order, and now things are looking pretty good for the old gal.

For a while, though, our upcoming vacation was anything but a sure thing. We nearly canceled it a couple times, and then we feared we’d need it for other, non-vacation purposes (as with last year’s “holiday vacations,” taken before and after the death of my mother). And, for several days, the idea of taking time off and enjoying ourselves just didn’t seem possible. Or proper. (more…)

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Why I Write

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on 12 Jun 2013| 20 Comments »

Stack of BooksYeah, sure.

“I write because…because I must,” he said as he fell back in a swoon, hand to forehead.

Blah, blah, blah. Flip it to the B-Side, Sonny.

[Jeez…how many of you don’t know what I mean by “B-side,” I wonder?]

Let’s drop the dramatics and be real for a moment.

The truth is, if I never wrote another word, if I never ventured another sentence of prose, I would not die. Yes, that’s right. If I never wrote again, I wouldn’t spend my life in abject misery. I wouldn’t feel the lack of a pen in my hand like the ache from some phantom limb. I wouldn’t bemoan the globe’s loss of my mellifluous prose (nor, most likely, would the globe).

No, I do not write because “I must.” Nor do I write for fame (duh!) or fortune (ditto!). Nor do I write for the approbation of my peers (hell, they’re so busy they can’t even find time to read my books, much less swamp me with approbation.)

Obviously, there are reasons I write. You don’t write nine novels without sufficient reason. But do you want to know why? Seriously, do you want to know?

C’mere. I’ll tell you. (more…)

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My Chariot of Fire

Posted in Seattle, tagged , , , on 01 May 2013| Leave a Comment »

ChariotOfFireToday, the buzz in Seattle is not:

  • The NBA kibosh on moving the Sac’to Kings to Seattle
  • The Anarchists arriving for their annual May Day (aka Loot&Pillage Day) festivities
  • The opening of Boating Season

Today, the buzz in Seattle is the possibility of a warm, sunny weekend in Spring.

Yes, the news is That Big.

(more…)

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Lion’s Tooth

Posted in Seattle, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on 23 Apr 2013| 3 Comments »

Doc Maynard had a wife. Two of them, actually, and simultaneously, some say.

David S. “Doc” Maynard, one of Seattle’s more colorful founders, married Catherine Simmons Broshear Maynard, a widow he had met along the Oregon Trail. He married her almost immediately upon divorcing Lydia, his first wife, a decree granted via questionable–and later, contestable–conditions. (Doc may have implied that Lydia was…deceased….)

Catherine Maynard proved to be as legendary as her husband, helping thwart an attack on the settlers of Seattle, accepting for a time her husband’s first wife under her own roof, and traveling the state on horseback, riding from Seattle across the Cascades to Ellensburg, well into her 70s.

But she did one other thing which, 150 years later, affects every single Seattle homeowner.

Catherine Maynard brought the dandelion to Seattle. (more…)

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