tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36152607190812664442024-03-13T23:55:12.321+00:00Western Mysteries Blogmusings of a Western-loving writer.Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-75747822784440707022012-11-25T23:39:00.001+00:002012-11-26T11:01:36.657+00:00Mark Twain Slang (1862)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mark Twain wasn't old in 1863</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the things I love about writing my <a href="http://www.pkpinkerton.com/">P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries</a> is the richness of American vocabulary in the early 1860s. Another person who loved the language was Mark Twain. In 1863, the quick-witted, sharp-tongued, pistol-packing newspaper reporter named Sam Clemens was living in a Wild West mining town called Virginia City and had just started using the soon-to-be famous pseudonym "Mark Twain". The budding writer delighted in the latest popular slang words, some of which can be found in his early writings and letters home. Even his new name was slang. "Mark Twain" can mean two things: the depth of a sounding in the Mississippi River or two whiskeys on credit at a saloon. Here is an ABC taster of some of the other marvellous slang of the period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Absquatulate = to leave abruptly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bach (or Batch) = to live like a bachelor</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cheese it! = Shut up!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dunderhead = fool, idiot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eagle = a gold coin worth $10</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Put some Killickinick in your pipe...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Flapdoodle = Nonsense</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gimcracks = A Knicknack</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hurry-Skurry = Rushed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ironikle = Ironic</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jollification = Party, Celebration</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Killickinick = Twain's beloved, yet cheap pipe tobacco</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lucifer = A Match (to light your pipe)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mulligrubs = Grumpiness, Depression</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nabob = Wealthy and Important Man</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">"Undress Uniform"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Octaroon = Person w/ one Negro great-grandparent</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Poltroon = Utter coward</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Quirk = a Taunt, Retort</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rough = a Thug, Ruffian</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Spondulicks = Money</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Toper = Drunkard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Undress Uniform = Long Johns</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Vamoose = to depart hurriedly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whale = to Beat or Thrash someone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Xeromyrum = Dry Ointment</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You bet! = common exclamation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Zephyr = a Gale</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The first book in my P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries series is </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20" style="font-style: italic;">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a><i>. It is available in </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20" style="font-style: italic;">hardback</a><i>, </i><a href="http://0399256334/" style="font-style: italic;">paperback</a><i>, </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0053YS776/romanmysterie-20" style="font-style: italic;">Kindle</a><i> and </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005F2YW0C/romanmysterie-20" style="font-style: italic;">MP3 audio download</a><i>. </i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">P.S. For mor Wild West slang, check out my post on <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-blogs-and-press/blogs/booktrust/376/">how audiobooks help me write</a>.</span></span></div>
Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-75257202580902732852012-07-23T16:54:00.004+01:002012-07-23T17:16:53.368+01:007 Tips for Writing Historical Fiction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">mural in Virginia City Nevada</td></tr>
</tbody></table>This famous opening line from L.P. Hartley’s <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141187786/theromanmyste-21">The Go-Between</a> is my key to writing historical fiction. I want my readers to really believe they are in the past and I also want them to learn about history. So whenever I start a new novel, I make use the following items, just as if I were going to a foreign country.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKRIgCLKz1B7fJyiItIywd5TqiS90esPxPyhL4im-U0pE_odGPIaLqzrbr7aVXbh_C5qLosUXL1vCLmF9fO9CbNXqicPX9HG4DPHmZF6lDSHGdGAA7HVNDofmyP5gfQDD1uHOnlBPw0Sz/s1600/green_nevada_directory_1862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKRIgCLKz1B7fJyiItIywd5TqiS90esPxPyhL4im-U0pE_odGPIaLqzrbr7aVXbh_C5qLosUXL1vCLmF9fO9CbNXqicPX9HG4DPHmZF6lDSHGdGAA7HVNDofmyP5gfQDD1uHOnlBPw0Sz/s200/green_nevada_directory_1862.jpg" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">1862 Directory</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>1. Guide Book</b><br />
Before I travel to a new country I always read a guide book about the history and customs. I do the same thing with traveling into the past. At the moment I’m reading books about the history of the American Civil War and the Silver Boom in Nevada. One of my best guide books is the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007EC7L4/theromanmyste-21">1862 Directory to Nevada Territory</a>, an exact facsimile of the Wild West version of the yellow pages... or should I say 'Google'?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Bret Harte 1836-1902</td></tr>
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2. Phrase Book</b><br />
Just as it’s good to learn a few phrases when traveling to a foreign country, I like to get the speech patterns of the past down. For my Roman Mysteries, I made the language modern but used lots of Latin words. For the Western Mysteries I’m storing up choice phrases from the letters of Mark Twain and the diaries of Alfred Doten. (e.g. Americans in the 1800s didn't use many contractions, but they loved the word <i>ain't.</i>) I also <a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-blogs-and-press/blogs/booktrust/376/">listen to audiobooks to get the speech rhythms right</a>, just as I'd listen to some language podcasts before going to Italy or France. One of my current favourites is <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1609987934/theromanmyste-21">Great Classic Westerns</a> read by marvellous narrators like Bronson Pinchot. I also love the <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1312/1312-h/1312-h.htm">stories of Bret Harte</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Dressing the west</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>3. Clothing</b><br />
Take the right clothes for climate and culture. Wearing period clothing can really get you into the mindset of your characters and make them seem real and immediate. For my Roman Mysteries, I wore a linen stola and woollen palla, plus leather sandals based on a Roman template. For my new Western Mysteries series, I have bought a buckskin jacket and cowboy boots. At the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, I learned my buckskin was actually pigskin! And one of my best experiences was a demonstration of what western women wore under their skirts during the 1860s. This took place during a Civil War re-enactment weekend in Virginia City at the Tahoe House Hotel. <i>(left)</i><br />
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The 19th century diarist Alf Doten tells me what he ate and drank on the Comstock in the 1860s. When I go to a foreign country, I want to eat what the locals do. Otherwise I may just as well stay home. Same thing when writing about the past. However, I do draw the line at grizzly-bear-cub mince-pies and oysters from tin cans, both dishes which Alf Doten appreciated. And I won't try the Pousse L'Amour drink in Professor Jerry Thomas's book on cocktails published in 1862: <a href="http://archive.org/details/howtomixdrinkso00schugoog">How to Mix Drinks, Or: The Bon-Vivant's Companion</a>. If I did, I'd never get anything written!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDea2dpVstN9RsGZrtp-BGxnc0GvlJFbZ6mqWb-M6BjhdrHR39LM_ucvIxkcF4MKgTqgBZaoBqDVENepzEd6eyVNETPGguLBd0UjPLbsaNHTOyBTtS24c-K-YtfQxZRQ5E-ixpd-7SX98/s1600/anne_dinsdale_period_weaver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDea2dpVstN9RsGZrtp-BGxnc0GvlJFbZ6mqWb-M6BjhdrHR39LM_ucvIxkcF4MKgTqgBZaoBqDVENepzEd6eyVNETPGguLBd0UjPLbsaNHTOyBTtS24c-K-YtfQxZRQ5E-ixpd-7SX98/s200/anne_dinsdale_period_weaver.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Anne Dinsdale, weaver</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>5. Eyewitness</b> - Talk to Someone Who’s Been There<br />
It’s always a good idea to talk to a native of the foreign country if you can. The historical author has a wonderful resource in re-enactment events. Men who dress up as Roman legionaries usually know exactly what each piece of armour is for. Women who wear corsets and hoop skirts can describe how itchy and dusty they get. A Nevada Cowboy Fast draw expert told me why you usually only have five bullets in a six-shooter; it’s safest to leave the first chamber empty. Living history experts are the closest you’ll get to interviewing a person from the past. There are a lot of amateurs and experts eager to share their knowledge with you.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6U6TrA_Cnc-KfA44cqcET0fUSYB5-rqIocZPUmds8PSpE82JajCltO54qO4VO49OdAaWg40DM_FGW67r3SfuldDB3NABt4jLdDIM05zmlQcoB-5TeQnMXG8BZdf0-JgANXAtaYaTRAXC/s1600/medium_rabbit_virginia_city.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6U6TrA_Cnc-KfA44cqcET0fUSYB5-rqIocZPUmds8PSpE82JajCltO54qO4VO49OdAaWg40DM_FGW67r3SfuldDB3NABt4jLdDIM05zmlQcoB-5TeQnMXG8BZdf0-JgANXAtaYaTRAXC/s200/medium_rabbit_virginia_city.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Virginia City rabbit</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b>6. Go there!</b><br />
Even if your story takes place centuries or millennia ago, it’s always useful to visit the site of the event if possible. You’ll meet people who are experts on the history of their region and who might know things not in books or on the internet. Also, you’ll get an idea of climate: wind, air, light, pressure, humidity, etc. I always like to make a note of what food is in season, what flora is blooming and fauna are migrating. Research is a great excuse to travel. Writing an historical novel gives you lots of fun goals as well as icebreakers for starting conversations with the natives.<br />
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<div style="text-align: right;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgt2FpSuK4XML3N9ttJ-_K5GuhmHt-1Ca3cFozD6O4M1baRVXvzP4RTWBKEPtdTsNe0G5zwP0momsFX-iUlz-UBSr1c9sR6MUoraPLmDcPIFh3OOyF8PEKtFBNqfD2R0NwKEywRqeFpuN/s1600/pinkys_spittoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgt2FpSuK4XML3N9ttJ-_K5GuhmHt-1Ca3cFozD6O4M1baRVXvzP4RTWBKEPtdTsNe0G5zwP0momsFX-iUlz-UBSr1c9sR6MUoraPLmDcPIFh3OOyF8PEKtFBNqfD2R0NwKEywRqeFpuN/s200/pinkys_spittoon.jpg" width="186" /></a><b>7. Souvenirs</b><br />
Whenever I visit the setting of one of my historical novels, I try to bring back a period artifact. It can be a genuine antique or a convincing replica. There is nothing like handling an object from your time period to bring it alive. If you write for children you can bring some of these artifacts to festivals, libraries and schools and let the kids handle them. My three favourites are my replica sponge-on-a-stick (ancient Roman toilet paper), my <i>as</i> of Domitian (an antique coin) and my brass spittoon from the 1890’s. <i>(left)</i><br />
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<i>The first book in my Western Mysteries series is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>. <br />
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It is available in hardback and <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/217204/the-case-of-the-deadly-desperados-western-mysteries-book-one-by-caroline-lawrence">audio version</a>. </i><i><br />
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<i> And you can find out about all my books on my website <a href="http://www.carolinelawrence.com/">www.carolinelawrence.com</a></i></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-53579592683407274912012-06-20T09:48:00.009+01:002016-08-19T07:48:48.837+01:005 Colorful (Modern) Characters from Nevada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">by Caroline Lawrence</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Every author of historical fiction needs some mentors, advisors and allies. Elsewhere, I have been thinking about colorful characters of the Wild West but today I would like to introduce you five colorful characters of the <i>Modern</i> "Mild West" who have made my Western Mysteries a joy to research.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>Above: Me and my sister Jennifer the driver (AKA 'Hawkeye') in 2008 about to go on a road trip to scout out a good location for a series of children’s historical novels set in California or Nevada. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">No. 1 - StinkE AKA StinkE</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">StinkE and me in 2008</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In November of 2008, when I first arrived in Virginia City on a location scouting expedition with my younger sister Jennifer (AKA ‘Hawkeye’), the first person we saw was this guy. ‘Stop the car!’ I cried. Jennifer stopped the car and I got out and ran over to him. (I should explain that even in Nevada people do not usually dress like this. Especially on a week day.) ‘You look great!’ I gushed. ‘Who are you?’ ‘My name is StinkE with an E,’ he replied in an authentic drawl. Later on I discovered that he always dressed like this. Unless he undresses that is. I have since seen him in just his long-johns, thankfully with the back flap firmly in place. StinkE and Mrs. StinkE (yes, there is a Mrs StinkE!) are stars of Virginia City’s annual ‘outhouse’ race. He is usually the favorite. He has had lots of practice. I saw StinkE again in May 2012 and he introduced me to his donkey <i>(see bottom of this post)</i>. ‘They never told me his mother was pregnant when they gave her to me,’ complained StinkE, ‘but on the fourth of July she gave birth to this one. So I named him Independence.’ When I gave StinkE a complimentary copy of my book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>,</i> he shook my hand. I can now verify the fact that he has real, <i>bona fide</i> ingrained dirt!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>(above: StinkE with a E and Caroline in November 2008)</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">No. 2 - McAvoy Layne AKA Mark Twain AKA 'Lazarus'</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">McAvoy Layne in Genoa, Nevada</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Why was I considering Virginia City as the setting for a series of historical western books for kids? Several reasons, but the deciding factor was that Sam Clemens lived here before he became Mark Twain. Two years ago I was back in Virginia City with my sister Hawkeye. This time my husband Richard (AKA ‘Goes the Wrong Way’) was along for the ride. On our way home to California, we happened across the Genoa Cowboy Festival. As we drove through the oldest town in Nevada, all done up cowboy style, I saw this guy walking along the road. ‘Stop the car!’ I cried. (I shout that a lot.) Jennifer AKA ‘Hawkeye’ stopped the car and I leapt out and accosted Mr. ‘Mark Twain’. He graciously allowed me to get a snap of us together. I have since got to know McAvoy Layne. He is a clever, generous scholar and one of the best Mark Twain impersonators around. He is unofficial leader of a group of Nevada Historians who call themselves the ‘Never Sweats’. Here is how he signed off a recent email:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;"><i>Your Eminent Beer Archon and Keeper of the Kalendar, </i></span><i>e. Pluribus Lazarus, member in good standing of Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment, Boss Poet of the Comstock, Capt. of the Clemens Cove</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>Volleyball, Drinking & Fighting Club, Emperor of the Hogwash Guild, Chief Liar by Seniority, and Friend of the Maid of Orleans</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">No. 3 - Guy Rocha AKA 'Rex Veritas'</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Guy Rocha in Carson City</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In Carson City, Guy Rocha is a celebrity. He once gave me an impromptu tour and everywhere we went people called out ‘Yo! Guy! How's it going?’ Recently bestowed with the hugely impressive title <i>Distinguished Nevadan</i>, he is a retired Nevada State Archivist, wrestling coach and 'Never Sweat'. I first met Guy on the internet via his <a href="http://nsla.nevadaculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=661&Itemid=418">Mythbusting series</a>. Some people would call him a party-pooper. I call him a genius. Here is an excerpt from a Twainish tribute that McAvoy Layne (colorful character No. 2) composed for him:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">He is the High Priest of Punsters, who can make lesser punsters go back down the hole they came out of to lick their wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Persuasive? Rex can persuade a fish to come out and take a walk with him, and he will tell you a truth for a dollar, when he could get a dollar and a half for telling you a lie. </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Humor? Slip a little whiskey in his Red Bull, and Rex can make a cast iron dog laugh. </span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Confidence? Rex Veritas carries with him the calm confidence of a Christian holding four aces. We all know Rex is the best historian in the Silver State, where facts are not essential, and whenever Rex uses a big word its meaning is usually a secret between himself and his maker. His face deserves to be framed in sagebrush, we firmly agree, and hung on the wall in the Rotunda in Washington, next to Mark Twain...</span></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I couldn’t have put it better. In fact, I couldn't have put it anywhere near that genius. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>(above: Guy Rocha shows me a marker for historic Chinatown)</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">No. 4 - Carolyn Eichin AKA Proprietress of the <a href="http://www.bstreethouse.com/">B St House B&B</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Every hero has a mentor, the wise person who sends them on the quest, gives them advice and often an object of great significance called a ‘talisman’. My mentor is Carolyn Eichin, proprietress of the <a href="http://www.bstreethouse.com/">B Street House B&B</a> in Virginia City. Back in November of 2008, when my sister and I phoned to ask if they had a room, she said they were planning to go back to their winter quarters the day after but that they would <i>delay their return to stay open one more day</i>. This turned out to be not just a kindness, but serendipity in the highest. Not only is Carolyn a Nevada historian, but she is probably the best cook west of the Rockies. Her four-course breakfasts are legendary and will keep you going till suppertime. She has also become one of my most faithful proofreaders. Best of all, she gave me a 'talisman': the Diaries of Alf Doten. Like Mark Twain he was a failed prospector who became a journalist. Doten wrote about every aspect of daily life, from things as mundane as the cost of meals and laundry to exciting accounts of shoot-outs, mine disasters and suicides. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>(above: Pauline Markham from an article by Carolyn Eichin) </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">No. 5 - Bob Stewart AKA The 'Unreliable'</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Illustration by Kelly Davis</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Another ‘Never Sweat’ is Bob Stewart, ex-newspaper-reporter, political aide and bureau of land management sage. Now a resident of Carson City, I first came across him when Carolyn Eichin (</span>colorful character No. 4) told me about a lecture he was giving at the hotel in Silver City. Although his 'Never Sweat' nickname is the 'Unreliable' he is in fact <i>hugely</i> reliable. He is another one of my valued proofreaders. With a journalist’s attention to detail and accuracy, he is a font of information for Carson City and its environs. Although Bob is an expert in many areas, his current obsession is proving that a small unnamed cove on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe is the place where Mark Twain once camped for a few days until he famously started a forest fire. The only problem is a California author <i>also</i> claims to have found the site and his cove is on the California side of Tahoe. So the two are feuding. Yes! Twain scholars clash over the site of a campsite! David Antonucci is Bob Stewart’s arch-nemesis! O</span>n Thursday, June 21 2012, they had a duello in South Lake Tahoe. Not pistols at dawn, but powerpoint at dusk. The <a href="http://www.northtahoemuseums.org/calendar.html#The_Mark_Twain_Tahoe_Mystery_Public_Festivity">debate</a> took place on the grounds of the Gatekeeper's House Museum in Tahoe City.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It has been a profound pleasure to have made such colorful friends over the course of researching my western mystery series. I guess it is just as well that, unlike them, I am sensible and sober. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">StinkE, StinkE's dog, StinkE's donkey and Caroline Lawrence</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Caroline Lawrence's first Virginia City mystery, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>, is out now. </span></div>
Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-59711921204947482252012-02-25T22:55:00.005+00:002016-05-18T18:21:24.253+01:00Murder in Carson City (1862)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Jackson Marsh</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The period during which my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20">P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries</a> are set was a particularly rich one in Nevada history. Between Tuesday November 11th and Sunday December 21st 1862 over thirty legislators were hammering out new laws for Nevada Territory. There were at least three clever reporters in the provisional capital, Carson City. These included the 26-year-old Sam Clemens – soon-to-be-but-not-yet Mark Twain – who was on his first assignment from the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. Thanks to the abundance of journalists, not only were the lawmaking sessions well-covered, but we also have an unusually complete record of background events during those forty days. These include weather, dances, weddings, bar-room brawls, bonfires and even murders, of which there were no fewer than five. This is the account of just one of the murders. It is taken directly from the <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=cl&cl=CL1.SDU&e=-------en-logical-20--1-----all---">Sacramento Daily Union</a> and was probably written by that newspaper's drily witty correspondent in Carson City, Andrew Jackson Marsh. </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Carson City, N. T. , Monday, Nov. 24, 1862</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">my husband Richard, not Con Mason</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The good people of Carson are enjoying the sensation of a first class murder, which came off here about one o'clock this morning. A full grown, cold-blooded murder, with thrilling accompaniments, had not happened right here in Carson for upward of a fortnight previously. Consequently this affair has all the charm of novelty! The victim was a young man known by the name of Con. Mason, and is reported to have borne one or two aliases, and to have come to this coast overland from the Pike's Peak region. The murderer is — nobody knows who for a certainty, and probably the law never will ascertain. Several parties have been arrested, and the wildest and most contradictory reports are circulated, as if to mislead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">These facts I do know, however: That about one o'clock this morning a pistol shot was fired in the street; that a few minutes later a man came into the Ormsby House and stated that he had just stumbled over a dead man; that in company with several men and a lantern I went to the spot, three or four squares west of the Ormsby House, and there found a well-dressed, youngish looking man lying stiff and stark on his back, his hat on his breast, his chestnut hair dabbling in a large pool of blood, and his glazed eyes staring upward at the stars of heaven. He was lying in front of a small wooden house with "to let" on the door, and a porch which may have afforded concealment to the lurking assassin. The man appeared to have been shot dead in his tracks, without a word of warning, and to have fallen just as he was found. There was a round hole under his left ear, and a corresponding hole nearly opposite under the right ear, which probably marked the passage of the leaden messenger of death into and out of his head.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">You can read the full account <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18621126.2.12&cl=CL2.1862.11&srpos=0&dliv=none&st=1&e=-------en-logical-20--1-----all---">HERE</a>; it includes a French love interest, a couple of suspects and a possible motive for the murder.</span></i></div>
Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-46631901415400142512011-12-13T10:47:00.002+00:002011-12-13T11:05:51.772+00:00Saloon Archaeology Museum in Reno<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tickets from Piper's Opera House</td></tr>
</tbody></table>On the fifth floor of the Ansari Business Building at the University of Nevada's Reno campus is a gem of a museum, currently showing a fascinating exhibition of Western Archaeology. The University of Nevada, Reno Anthropology Research Museum is part of the Anthropology Department. At the time of writing (December 2011) the exhibition called Archaeology of the Mining West features artifacts from saloon digs at Virginia City, the Silver Boom town featured in the 1960s TV show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052451/">Bonanza</a> and now in my new <a href="http://www.westernmysteries.com/history">Western Mysteries</a> series of books for kids aged 9+. (There is also a small case of items from one of the excavations of the ill-fated Donner Party, where pioneers had to resort to cannibalism to survive.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jessica Axsom with pictures of a dig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I first heard about the museum from Dr. Jessica Axsom <i>(left)</i>, an archaeologist at the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office in Carson City. Every morning for a week in November of 2011, Jessica gave me access to their little reading room so I could do research. On the last day she showed me a whole box of artifacts from Battle Mountain, (where my great-grandmother Corinne Prince was born in the 1870s.) Jessica also showed me pictures of her dig in the Chinatown area of Virginia City, where my books are set. She didn't have any artifacts from Virginia City, but she told me I could see some at the small Anthropology museum in Reno.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ansari Business Building</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Jessica told me to ask for Sarah Heffner, a graduate student in charge of the Virginia City exhibition. A few hours before we were due to fly out of Reno, my sister and husband and I drove to the impressive campus, found the Ansari Business Building and went up to the 5th floor. We were lucky enough to ride up in the elevator with someone who knew Sarah and she kindly took us to the museum. Serendipity: Sarah was there! The museum is literally one room with about half a dozen cases and a research room tucked behind. It is manned by graduate students like Sarah, a "Museum Technician", and volunteers like Robert. (The exhibit itself was designed by a Museum Training for Anthropologists class.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sarah Heffner, Caroline & volunteer Robert</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">antique bottles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>A glass case explained that Dr. Donald Hardesty is the recently retired professor of archaeology who was responsible for excavating sites of the Pony Express, the Donner Party and various saloons in Virginia City. In the four or five cases devoted to artefacts found in his digs, I was thrilled to see items from various saloons around Virginia City. The Boston Saloon is particularly fascinating because it is the first African-American Saloon ever excavated. As Dr. Hardesty says, "Archaeology is another way of travelling into the past." Entering the Boston Saloon you might have seen a gaslit space filled with pipe smoke, the smell of lamb chops and fine wine, and the sound of trombone music above the babble of happy voices. (To find out how they deduced this, have a look at this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI8aiS0UPQo">2-part film clip</a>.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cases in the small museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Also on display were artifacts found on the site of Piper's Corner Bar, (later Piper's Opera House), the Hibernia Brewery and O'Brien & Costello's Shooting Gallery & Saloon. It was thrilling to see tickets from the Opera House, poker chips charred by Virginia City's great fire of 1875 and gun shells from beneath the saloon shooting-gallery. There was even evidence of children found in some of the saloons: marbles and a doll's arm! Yes, Virginia City was a wild place, even for kids.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">toys from Piper's Opera House Saloon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Artifacts from saloons included bottles, bungs, white and red clay pipes, dice, animal bones, oyster shells, buttons, bullets, coins and even a tooth powder box. A <a href="http://www.onlinenevada.org/virtualgalleriesview?action=page&page=8&id=161">water filter</a> made in London and a <a href="http://www.onlinenevada.org/virtualgalleriesview?action=page&page=6&id=162">glazed earthenware spittoon</a> were represented by photos. There was also a case devoted to the Chinese population of Virginia City, (Sarah Heffner's special subject), including Chinese coins, pottery, tiny medicine bottles, a bone toothbrush and an opium pipe. It was a delightful half hour travelling back in the past. If you have any interest in the archaeology of the Wild West – or Virginia City – and find yourself on the Reno campus, I urge you to go along to the University of Nevada, Reno Anthropology Research Museum. Just tell them Caroline Lawrence sent you!<br />
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P.S. You can see more about Saloon Archaeology <a href="http://www.onlinenevada.org/virtualgalleriesview?action=cover&id=160">HERE</a> and you can find out about the Western Mysteries <a href="http://www.westernmysteries.com/">HERE</a>.</div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-28719345742246408222011-10-31T11:22:00.002+00:002015-02-13T18:19:09.276+00:00Twain's Bloody Massacre<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoPIPT-QjGZ9jdmWps5pWfdMpwyds8KjZIn6dd_b_o_Cm1ulzEMyEjiWB_0a9B9nVqK8AKa0ITt7UpO-cy3YQFMkZQAUmTNEAYaxXb4cgleV8g0vHkuAXXAVzb4kiHPRKzWFhXe4IHnUU/s1600/sam_clemens_1862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoPIPT-QjGZ9jdmWps5pWfdMpwyds8KjZIn6dd_b_o_Cm1ulzEMyEjiWB_0a9B9nVqK8AKa0ITt7UpO-cy3YQFMkZQAUmTNEAYaxXb4cgleV8g0vHkuAXXAVzb4kiHPRKzWFhXe4IHnUU/s320/sam_clemens_1862.jpg" height="320" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Insensitive, moi?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Was a real life incident in July 1863 part inspiration for one of Mark Twain's most famous newspaper hoax articles?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[Warning: I am about to quote some fairly graphic descriptions of death by Bowie knife]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Before Mark Twain was a genial, white-haired, much-beloved raconteur, he was a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, pipe-puffing reporter with "mutton chop" sideburns and no mustache. <i>(left)</i> He lived in Virginia City (famous for being the setting of the TV series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052451/">Bonanza</a>) and he wrote for the <i><a href="http://flavias.blogspot.com/2010/09/territorial-enterprise_03.html">Territorial Enterprise Newspaper</a></i>. The Comstock, as that region was called, was wild and woolly, full of "thieves, murderers, desperadoes, ladies, children, lawyers, Christians, Indians, Spaniards, gamblers, sharpers, coyotes, poets, preachers, and jackass rabbits." Despite this rich vein of journalistic gold, Sam Clemens – who had not yet adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain – was not afraid of slandering local residents or even of making up hoax stories to fill blank pages of the paper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">His first hoax, early in October of 1862, was an article about a <a href="http://www.twainquotes.com/18621004t.html">Petrified Man</a> found in the Nevada desert east of Virgina City. Twain describes a prospector with a wooden leg who was found turned to stone at a place called Gravelly Ford. He describes the man's position, and if any of his readers had bothered to adopt the pose – or even mentally visualise it – they would have realised immediately that Twain was joshing them. (He even signed that article "Josh") One of his main aims in writing this hoax piece was to vex an enemy of his, a man named George Sewall with whom he was feuding. And he succeeded. People generally do not expect the printed word to be an outright lie.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">A year later, Twain wrote another hoax, a truly grisly piece about a man living in Empire City who supposedly kills and mutilates his family, cuts his own throat from ear to ear, then rides three miles before dropping dead on the steps of a Carson City saloon. Once again, careful readers would have read the clues and figured out that this story wasn't true. After all, how can a man ride three miles with his throat cut from ear to ear? (see map above right)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But readers of the morning paper pushed away their breakfasts in horror upon reading Twain's grisly report of the unhinged father's murder and mutilation of his family.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TE readers put off their breakfast by Twain's gory article</td></tr>
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<i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
Territorial Enterprise, October 28, 1863</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">A BLOODY MASSACRE NEAR CARSON</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>From Abram Curry, who arrived here yesterday afternoon from Carson, we have learned the following particulars concerning a bloody massacre which was committed in Ormsby county night before last. It seems that during the past six months a man named P. Hopkins, or Philip Hopkins, has been residing with his family in the old log house just at the edge of the great pine forest which lies between Empire City and Dutch Nick's... About ten o'clock on Monday evening Hopkins dashed into Carson on horseback, with his throat cut from ear to ear, and bearing in his hand a reeking scalp from which the warm, smoking blood was still dripping, and fell in a dying condition in front of the Magnolia saloon... </i>[even more graphically bloody details follow, which you can read <a href="http://www.twainquotes.com/18631028t.html">HERE</a>.]</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbYFTb4eAifJEYq7TSfXpqYa2XtjSXEuHBPO22Dukv-w3NdMB-jfzCZKkr8UPtarHVqT9r5aB5PtwZHuiYkePm4M__oD4sFoFEPPJp77i3W9oUe5imYfREbnyq0eBFmN_lDFStcLmxUWU/s1600/journals_alf_doten.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbYFTb4eAifJEYq7TSfXpqYa2XtjSXEuHBPO22Dukv-w3NdMB-jfzCZKkr8UPtarHVqT9r5aB5PtwZHuiYkePm4M__oD4sFoFEPPJp77i3W9oUe5imYfREbnyq0eBFmN_lDFStcLmxUWU/s200/journals_alf_doten.jpg" height="200" width="181" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The Journals of Alfred Doten</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I've been reading (and re-reading) the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000KWE34C/romanmysterie-20">Journals of Alfred Doten</a> as part of researching my Western Mysteries stories set in and around Virginia City in the early 1860s. Like Mark Twain, Alf Doten was a failed prospector turned journalist. Throughout his life he kept meticulous and detailed journals, recounting the weather, cost of things and concrete details of life in the California gold fields and later on the Comstock, in Nevada.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This morning over breakfast I pushed away my own yogurt and strawberries in dismay as I read Doten's sad and distressing entry for 16 July 1863.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">July 16 - About 8 oclock this evening a man by the name of Patrick Comerford committed suicide at the Mineral Hill tunnel, some 2 miles below here [Como, Nevada]. He was living near the mouth of tunnel with some half dozen others - he went into the tunnel and with a bowie knife he cut his throat - first ripped it up from upper part of breast bone to his chin & then cut across nearly from ear to ear, severing the jugular, windpipe &c - did the job securely - his partners heard him groan and went in and found him - he died in a few minutes - one of them immediately came up to town &c told the story - several people went down there - Briar went - he acted as Coroner and the jury gave verdict in accordance with the facts - he was an Irishman and about 35 or 40 yrs old - no reason could be assigned for the rash act - he seemed to be all right enough but somewhat troubled in his mind, and at times somewhat abstracted </span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Journal of Alfred Doten p 719</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ybXReKrvy4H2WqvBeX9flVvoXs6I3Iok_3HcnTodwTiPYia4EsH_MJ9Bx6g-WPLfhFSqgUfYwfSLqICC5TKVNMdI75TckM-fnNRH7xZSKqAm9YpoAhLc1aMl2ZSh4QppL3vJbKQNfFE/s1600/richards_bowie_knife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ybXReKrvy4H2WqvBeX9flVvoXs6I3Iok_3HcnTodwTiPYia4EsH_MJ9Bx6g-WPLfhFSqgUfYwfSLqICC5TKVNMdI75TckM-fnNRH7xZSKqAm9YpoAhLc1aMl2ZSh4QppL3vJbKQNfFE/s200/richards_bowie_knife.jpg" height="200" width="108" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As a writer who constantly draws inspiration from things I read and hear about, I am pretty sure that poor Patrick Comerfield's bloody suicide in July 1863 was partly the inspiration for Twain's "Bloody Massacre" hoax, written three months later. The gruesome details of Comerford's suicide must have spread like wildfire even if not reported by local papers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Thus it is not too surprising that many Comstockers believed Twain's similar but greatly embellished account of a bloody suicide by Bowie knife. In fact, the article caused such horror and outrage that, Twain had to print this retraction the very next day:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Territorial Enterprise, October 29, 1863</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I TAKE IT ALL BACK</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The story published in the Enterprise reciting the slaughter of a family near Empire was all a fiction. It was understood to be such by all acquainted with the locality in which the alleged affair occurred. In the first place, Empire City and Dutch Nick's are one, and in the next there is no "great pine forest" nearer than the Sierra Nevada mountains, etc. </span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[For more retrospection about this hoax read Mark Twain's <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3189/3189-h/p5.htm">Sketches New and Old</a>.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">You would think Twain might have learnt his lesson, but no. Six months later, in May of 1864, he wrote a different sort of hoax, this one about the Ladies of Carson City. As a result of this third hoax the hot-blooded young reporter was challenged to a duel by pistol and had to flee Nevada. But that's another story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[The second book in my <a href="http://www.westernmysteries.com/">Western Mysteries</a> series, is called <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0147510333/romanmysterie-20">P.K. Pinkerton and the Petrified Man</a> </i>in the USA and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0087JUKJM/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse</a></i> in the UK.]</span></div>
Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-18257231030102533992011-09-22T13:52:00.001+01:002011-09-22T15:16:51.993+01:00Western Mysteries ABCs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A basic GLOSSARY for British children reading the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">Western Mysteries</a> who might not know what a Desperado or a Stagecoach is... or where Nevada and Utah are.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP6U2nA_0jLF_FFW53jmDz04zvvjbtr6oInkJ0jd-JMB1FHlzx5-e4yABJQCU-foW3IXkm3sfRia4rMg7aDZu4MhD3QLiM-XZ8UvrujWnnDZGcCHDF73K2om6PFPQTNwU52jJAKPRB2Gg/s1600/states_territories_1862_map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP6U2nA_0jLF_FFW53jmDz04zvvjbtr6oInkJ0jd-JMB1FHlzx5-e4yABJQCU-foW3IXkm3sfRia4rMg7aDZu4MhD3QLiM-XZ8UvrujWnnDZGcCHDF73K2om6PFPQTNwU52jJAKPRB2Gg/s400/states_territories_1862_map.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">America in 1862</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A is for America</span> - the country across the Atlantic Ocean where people speak English with funny accents. It is also known as the United States, but in 1862, the states only went halfway across America with a few on the west coast. A great chunk of land in the west was called "Territory". Towns in the Territories were often lawless and wild.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGawLMMcCSzx689VI04UJ46K41eafX40UTRHus1dxERp9gO9Cg2vvd2m4H_Xr3WON61zw8sk4FDLK-NghL9tVq3-StDoUExKxLsGv6cTnm2d_6uA0hpzxuhfvhLDO00o3TEgK-7_HTQFA/s1600/small_PK_wanted_poster_red_type.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGawLMMcCSzx689VI04UJ46K41eafX40UTRHus1dxERp9gO9Cg2vvd2m4H_Xr3WON61zw8sk4FDLK-NghL9tVq3-StDoUExKxLsGv6cTnm2d_6uA0hpzxuhfvhLDO00o3TEgK-7_HTQFA/s200/small_PK_wanted_poster_red_type.jpg" width="170" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is P.K. a Desperado?</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">B is for Ball & Blackpowder</span> - this is what old-fashioned bullets were made of. You also needed lint and a tiny little metal cap that you put on the back of each hole in the cylinder of your Revolver to make a spark which set off the powder and get the ball flying towards its target. Later on they put the cap and ball and powder in one metal case called a cartridge. This is what we now call a Bullet.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcic4QQVImpeI-AUw_8gBPAVGQrZizxkCiK_jHNWy4iUgFITa11CI1itO30MzjkVy6ZM25qqUn2zLhqj9sIYJfpESn3-EyklszGc39vkpOzAaDMRO_GiFaJMo7_lMMMeNj5CBF9nck7ho/s1600/Ping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcic4QQVImpeI-AUw_8gBPAVGQrZizxkCiK_jHNWy4iUgFITa11CI1itO30MzjkVy6ZM25qqUn2zLhqj9sIYJfpESn3-EyklszGc39vkpOzAaDMRO_GiFaJMo7_lMMMeNj5CBF9nck7ho/s200/Ping.jpg" width="93" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A Chinese Youth</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">C is for Chinese (not Cowboys) </span>- in the early 1860s, when <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Western Mysteries</a> are set, there were far more Chinese out west than Cowboys. Cattle drives did not begin in earnest until 1866.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">D is for Desperado</span> - a desperate person who is usually on the run after committing murder, robbery or other serious crime.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">E is for Emigrants</span> - most of the people who flooded to America in the 1800s were emigrants from Euorpean countries like England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, Russia, etc. And, of course, the thousands from China.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">F is for Frontier</span> - the place in the American West where settled land gave way to wilderness populated by wild animals and Native American tribes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQdtIUSQp5nQEl-l1RQQVHilD7470YlhgGY7d1ZBDjOILg3XNLk-SXNZSL_JpHHGPx4OQh4zdVzFaic-9WCeySDzlSin9uvegJg5ENV2_7qWa4FwFjOJum8HJEyhvw8QrcDXYJoutFdQ/s1600/gunman_in_duster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQdtIUSQp5nQEl-l1RQQVHilD7470YlhgGY7d1ZBDjOILg3XNLk-SXNZSL_JpHHGPx4OQh4zdVzFaic-9WCeySDzlSin9uvegJg5ENV2_7qWa4FwFjOJum8HJEyhvw8QrcDXYJoutFdQ/s200/gunman_in_duster.jpg" width="122" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A Gunslinger</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">G is for Gunslingers</span> - almost everybody carried a firearm in the 1860s out west, even women & kids.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">H is for Horses</span> - The West in the early 1860s was a world mostly driven and powered by animals with hooves like horses, mules and oxen.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOfkA_3W4_JbYm1MkXToIMylOcFr2vohzQA043ryADLsRfRlHTAYIeZhKZMrZZRy8Z5sbPe0ZlrjCGw346Ys4c7nzY7UCD_3N-_WzrMh0TZPoQHGDB6-60xVYnieW6sgERA_Ni-W-jxfo/s1600/richards_tomahawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOfkA_3W4_JbYm1MkXToIMylOcFr2vohzQA043ryADLsRfRlHTAYIeZhKZMrZZRy8Z5sbPe0ZlrjCGw346Ys4c7nzY7UCD_3N-_WzrMh0TZPoQHGDB6-60xVYnieW6sgERA_Ni-W-jxfo/s200/richards_tomahawk.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">An Indian Tomahawk</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I is for Indians</span> or Native Americans - the tribes of people already living in North America when the emigrants arrived were as varied as the people from European countries, sometimes more so.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">J is for Jackrabbit</span>, also coyote, grizzly bear, prairie dog, buffalo and all the other unique wildlife found in the West.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoIOEqr_Ub7rv3_gfesJ3tGM6Ol-gOkzWo3W-tAafrBH4hO_BNQYAyhLGZ_XiH2YRG8nqOV0AibKu2Q77BO_K4DKIm6YWrO56rDRAoiEY3p0ZsPOerNy2HZruxy8pG3UNJfjsHPI2jq3s/s1600/richards_coal_oil_lamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoIOEqr_Ub7rv3_gfesJ3tGM6Ol-gOkzWo3W-tAafrBH4hO_BNQYAyhLGZ_XiH2YRG8nqOV0AibKu2Q77BO_K4DKIm6YWrO56rDRAoiEY3p0ZsPOerNy2HZruxy8pG3UNJfjsHPI2jq3s/s200/richards_coal_oil_lamp.jpg" width="143" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A Kerosene Lamp</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">K is for kerosene</span> or coal-oil, which is what folk used to light their lamps. They used candles, too. In 1862 gas had not quite reached Virginia City.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">L is for Lincoln</span> - who was president between 1861 and 1865 when America was fighting a terrible Civil War over slavery and freedom.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLfWlEz-qmCTugc9ca2O7ZD_dDwfbaz3WIqlVetC57mzxHLswKTCk3roLd1Rqos1yTYdRT25kOKB90BgVsRHObWp2qOl00Og-z7_1yb1ZLXpEZWmOkHgwGBfkwzgLiiQyYNLT3CnQ5Gs/s1600/MT+Sideburns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLfWlEz-qmCTugc9ca2O7ZD_dDwfbaz3WIqlVetC57mzxHLswKTCk3roLd1Rqos1yTYdRT25kOKB90BgVsRHObWp2qOl00Og-z7_1yb1ZLXpEZWmOkHgwGBfkwzgLiiQyYNLT3CnQ5Gs/s200/MT+Sideburns.jpg" width="137" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">26-year-old Mark Twain</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">M is for Mark Twain</span> - his real name was Sam Clemens and he was one of America's greatest authors and humorists. He joined the Civil War for about two weeks then headed west to Nevada Territory with his brother Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the governor. After trying his hand at prospecting, Mark Twain became a reporter in Virginia City where he remained for two and a half years. Many years later he wrote Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, among others.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">N is for Nevada</span> - then a "Territory" and now the triangular state to the right of California, <i>(see maps)</i>. It is full of deserts, mountains and minerals.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">O is for Ore</span> - rock and/or dirt containing precious metals or minerals. The Gold Rush in 1849 brought a huge wave of people to California, then ten years later the Silver Boom brought thousands Nevada, to the Comstock Lode beneath Mount Davidson.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">P is for Pinkerton</span> - the first detective agency in the world. The founder, a Scotsman named Allan Pinkerton, coined the phrase "Private Eye". Their head office was in Chicago, Illinois (one of the high-up states in the middle).<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUYUZuO-nDXAieBMSfdBi68TnDbtBknRDZ7_8VXUyADty4CrE8Uvv_QGMD-Q8Thyw6qMKboEsHqdyVnkIWFBoY46YDh9wdwnl5-11eZNtdn6ibXijw2d7G7ZIMIamVl4Osgjz39BR5lA/s1600/miner_quartz_stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUYUZuO-nDXAieBMSfdBi68TnDbtBknRDZ7_8VXUyADty4CrE8Uvv_QGMD-Q8Thyw6qMKboEsHqdyVnkIWFBoY46YDh9wdwnl5-11eZNtdn6ibXijw2d7G7ZIMIamVl4Osgjz39BR5lA/s200/miner_quartz_stamp.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A Quartz Stamp Mill</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Q is for quartz stamp mill </span>- a machine with heavy iron pistons that crushed quartz so that silver and gold could be extracted.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">R is for religious revival</span> - America was going through a great Christian revival in the 1860s and almost everybody was deeply devout.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">S is for stagecoach</span> - a large, closed carriage pulled by four to six horses; it was used to carry passengers, goods and mail on a regular route. Sometimes you could ride on top.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">T is for tobacco</span> - like religion, almost everybody had tobacco. They either smoked it, sniffed it or chewed it. Those who chewed usually spit their tobacco-tinted saliva into vessels called spittoons. Ew.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzppp-iO4if2WJhWyCrK_MRrzJYH7t73Lhjn0Tmfzzg1xZKNZpnMYQJjbYzYdF6u3KspcZDiJUjMGzj0sy5hJl9IAcOFNqstxoBHsiBydftJGczcccXMkyEeIWXcpAONNE2tqsDhY7-8E/s1600/richards_stagecoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzppp-iO4if2WJhWyCrK_MRrzJYH7t73Lhjn0Tmfzzg1xZKNZpnMYQJjbYzYdF6u3KspcZDiJUjMGzj0sy5hJl9IAcOFNqstxoBHsiBydftJGczcccXMkyEeIWXcpAONNE2tqsDhY7-8E/s400/richards_stagecoach.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A Stagecoach</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">U is for Utah</span> - now the state to the right of Nevada on a map, then it was a "Territory", a part of America which did not yet have the full rights of the other states.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKf1nHx9KD6NFSkDVI1bVDxl92oiSaBHeNuL4auRfzgiZ3fRjZUtP26VYeL949BwfsSNa-5c4ICsPdHk-SeX55foo94HolMXbs7PIBSZEtohMNL0saoROTBqv7W4xqNDhOjrh7yuUSaKk/s1600/small_washoe_map_1862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKf1nHx9KD6NFSkDVI1bVDxl92oiSaBHeNuL4auRfzgiZ3fRjZUtP26VYeL949BwfsSNa-5c4ICsPdHk-SeX55foo94HolMXbs7PIBSZEtohMNL0saoROTBqv7W4xqNDhOjrh7yuUSaKk/s200/small_washoe_map_1862.jpg" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Nevada Territory 1862</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">V is for Virginia City</span> - the mile-high city on a steep mountain above a buried "ledge" of silver called the Comstock Lode.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">W is for Washoe</span> - the region around Virginia City, named after a lake to the west <i>(see map)</i> and also a tribe of Indians who lived there.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">X is for "X marks the Spot"</span> - Prospectors were people who prospected or "looked out for" areas where gold or silver could be found. Then they "staked their claim" i.e. announced it as theirs. They guarded their claims with bowie knives, revolvers, rifles... and their lives.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Y is for Yankee or Yank </span>- slang for somebody from the northern states or on the Union side of the Civil War. A person on the other (Confederate) side was often called a Reb or Rebel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEVDaLJ70mcaTyvel5GpDVsnzUtJZNgTYt_kElvb9UlmHVy2hHy8CyojFJdsKq8VQKdFvoRS0RAk-1OoB46tnWajv3Hl_dpa3pBhHmJjMj90anyooKdBe-quhYCSThe4EJ6P8x7s5d1aI/s1600/news_zephyr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEVDaLJ70mcaTyvel5GpDVsnzUtJZNgTYt_kElvb9UlmHVy2hHy8CyojFJdsKq8VQKdFvoRS0RAk-1OoB46tnWajv3Hl_dpa3pBhHmJjMj90anyooKdBe-quhYCSThe4EJ6P8x7s5d1aI/s200/news_zephyr.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Washoe Zephyr</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Z is for zephyr</span> - by definition a warm and gentle breeze. In Virginia City, a Washoe Zephyr was what people jokingly called the gale force wind that sometimes swept over the mountains and threatened to uproot trees and houses.<br />
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<i>If you would like to read a book with all these words and a heck of a lot of adventure</i><i>, get <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a> by Caroline Lawrence. It is available in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">hardback</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0053YS776/theromanmyste-21">Kindle</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005F5E7MC/theromanmyste-21">unabridged audiobook</a> format. Suitable for children aged 9+. Perfect for American history at Key Stages 2 & 3.</i><br />
<div><i><br />
</i></div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-58367989748437893792011-08-24T09:07:00.002+01:002011-08-24T09:09:10.419+01:00Stagecoach Etiquette<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">These tips for people travelling by stagecoach come from a 1877 issue of the Omaha Herald newspaper. They give you a good idea of how uncomfortable it must have been to make long journeys by stagecoach in olden days, and they don't even mention the poor sods who had to sit on top!</span><br />
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</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgRuGYcfuLMAErecv7143r63DJ6lt6-XO9Wb88OtDmUElDoAvMOL7YHsQnhyphenhyphenPol9WiBCdw40MzPSQorDz6prgiuEOwvPI-LQF0YntM1kRfVVZgBZv9X97aP7zGsP2Xs_rW6-2DSWF1Vc/s1600/overloaded_stagecoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgRuGYcfuLMAErecv7143r63DJ6lt6-XO9Wb88OtDmUElDoAvMOL7YHsQnhyphenhyphenPol9WiBCdw40MzPSQorDz6prgiuEOwvPI-LQF0YntM1kRfVVZgBZv9X97aP7zGsP2Xs_rW6-2DSWF1Vc/s320/overloaded_stagecoach.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">an overcrowded stagecoach</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The best seat inside a stage is the one next to the driver. Even if you have a tendency to sea-sickness when riding backwards - you'll get over it and will get less jolts and jostling. Don't let "sly elph" trade you his mid-seat.<br />
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In cold weather, don't ride with tight-fitting boots, shoes or gloves. When the driver asks you to get off and walk, do so without grumbling, he won't request it unless absolutely necessary. If the team runs away - sit still and take your chances. If you jump, nine out of ten times you will get hurt.<br />
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In very cold weather abstain entirely from liquor when on the road, because you will freeze twice as quickly when under its influence.<br />
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Don't growl at the food received at the station - stage companies generally provide the best they can get.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ovzbxWpgjhKi_CSlakuNV1swMMIH49tuAnT0DFfVC3hx9ozKnhbk4Eo8b_KWsHf6zbUIw_sC2K9YJN2nf7gQB7Nm854tJidZgtoPBvawPTMfxVju7-amrlZftCGLCCpxrEtEQ6JN_78/s1600/mountain_stagecoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ovzbxWpgjhKi_CSlakuNV1swMMIH49tuAnT0DFfVC3hx9ozKnhbk4Eo8b_KWsHf6zbUIw_sC2K9YJN2nf7gQB7Nm854tJidZgtoPBvawPTMfxVju7-amrlZftCGLCCpxrEtEQ6JN_78/s320/mountain_stagecoach.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">roads were hair-raising</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Don't keep the stage waiting.<br />
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Don't smoke a strong pipe inside the coach.<br />
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Spit on the leeward side...<br />
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Don't lean or lop over neighbours when sleeping.<br />
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Take small change to pay expenses.<br />
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Never shoot on the road as the noise might frighten the horses. Don't discuss politics or religion.<br />
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Don't point out where murders have been committed, especially if there are women passengers.<br />
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Don't lag at the wash basin. Don't grease your hair, because travel is dusty. Don't imagine for a moment that you are going on a picnic. Expect annoyances, discomfort and some hardships.<br />
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<i>Find out more about Stagecoaches, Saloons, Spittoons, and Scalpings at my </i><a href="http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/230571-the-western-mysteries-with-caroline-lawrence/" style="font-style: italic;">Western Mysteries</a><i> session on Friday 26 August 2011 from 4.00-5.00 at the </i><a href="http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/230571-the-western-mysteries-with-caroline-lawrence/" style="font-style: italic;">Edinburgh Book Festival</a><i>. </i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2jc_4pCpxe7vYKyjunGae5COl5ANnCCmYZKCPsYwsGrZiYQK-UC-1cG7znTLMfYh65HbOfXu6VAMJOM5yiJvYRhkVZIGDmaEjHr4BCug_XzERUA7xGdevcqMkSbu651qVz7nWPutnO38/s1600/deadly_desperados_trailerS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2jc_4pCpxe7vYKyjunGae5COl5ANnCCmYZKCPsYwsGrZiYQK-UC-1cG7znTLMfYh65HbOfXu6VAMJOM5yiJvYRhkVZIGDmaEjHr4BCug_XzERUA7xGdevcqMkSbu651qVz7nWPutnO38/s400/deadly_desperados_trailerS.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">watch the mini-trailer on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmkR2bquKj0">YouTube</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmkR2bquKj0">Trailer for the first Western Mystery, The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-52685852583368273472011-08-17T20:19:00.003+01:002011-08-17T20:21:40.501+01:00Virginia City 1862<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Virginia City, Nevada Territory - September 1862.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-Q3unMFdY-y23FCBAU_pygy3qmrU_TD1D3tjDVWRog4hBu9P2T1XBu4exRH63Yr_cXCxImgKJdmI92PybsR1MqBv79tA4GHYtYzzklg8vhLqC4SzsC0JApnwF6DEjd02ArfAcvxHX4Q/s1600/pk_pinkerton_by_richard_lawrence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-Q3unMFdY-y23FCBAU_pygy3qmrU_TD1D3tjDVWRog4hBu9P2T1XBu4exRH63Yr_cXCxImgKJdmI92PybsR1MqBv79tA4GHYtYzzklg8vhLqC4SzsC0JApnwF6DEjd02ArfAcvxHX4Q/s200/pk_pinkerton_by_richard_lawrence.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">P.K. Pinkerton, Private Eye</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When desperados kill the preacher and his wife in a small frontier town, their foster child P.K. is forced to go on the run. P.K. must get a valuable letter to the Recorder’s Office before anyone else can get their hands on it. It’s not easy: Virginia City is full of gamblers, hurdy girls, saloon-keepers and gunmen, all of them on the make. But there are possible allies: Sam Clemens, the new reporter for the paper, a gambler called ‘Poker Face Jace’, a derringer-packing Soiled Dove, and a Chinese photographer’s apprentice named Ping.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmK0HwSGRz4KCjyrr1Yfz6HItSPvYymNTBEoFWqjmc9kfH_Va7EuplBv5WXV2WljF2zK9K-_uZ3o75Z5S7ehMLWNj4Ims1XAFm5q6dNYIBHkbr4zHdM2sn17uAIn5iD7KkUEGC3_yKz8g/s1600/Washoe+map-border.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmK0HwSGRz4KCjyrr1Yfz6HItSPvYymNTBEoFWqjmc9kfH_Va7EuplBv5WXV2WljF2zK9K-_uZ3o75Z5S7ehMLWNj4Ims1XAFm5q6dNYIBHkbr4zHdM2sn17uAIn5iD7KkUEGC3_yKz8g/s200/Washoe+map-border.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Map of the Washoe</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Virginia City was a famous mining town in Nevada that sprang up on the slopes of Mt Davidson in 1859, ten years after the California Gold Rush. But it was silver, not gold, that was found in quantity in this barren part of Nevada, so some have dubbed it the Silver Rush. When Mark Twain arrived in September 1862 he described Virginia City in this way: ‘It claimed a population of fifteen thousand to eighteen thousand, and all day long half of this little army swarmed the streets like bees and the other half swarmed among the drifts and tunnels of the “Comstock”, hundreds of feet down in the earth directly under those same streets.’<br />
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In the 1860's Virginia City must have been one of the most colorful places on earth, with prospectors, miners, saloon-keepers, gamblers, dancing girls, deserters, actresses, desperados, lawyers, schoolmarms and newspapermen. In the last category are some well-known names (Dan De Quille, Alf Doten, Joe Goodman) and one stellar one: Mark Twain. Their dry-as-dust humor, tall tales and hoaxes produced a uniquely Western flavor of literature which some call "Sagebrush Humor."<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF6QUA_wgUC5ZMoiyCcdwq0lkDakSR7AJOinzYGV98-mh-PrTWF2kdll_hReBMN-p4-66FoPsD-Zk07TEMxU5iIzfGsxVjmeonZBJ7VfrsZfYGPY1934qW-yCM-sEQG-jDOL49ITvJQU/s1600/Sam+Clemens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF6QUA_wgUC5ZMoiyCcdwq0lkDakSR7AJOinzYGV98-mh-PrTWF2kdll_hReBMN-p4-66FoPsD-Zk07TEMxU5iIzfGsxVjmeonZBJ7VfrsZfYGPY1934qW-yCM-sEQG-jDOL49ITvJQU/s200/Sam+Clemens.jpg" width="175" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Sam Clemens is Mark Twain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The Comstock in 1862 was an extreme example of what we might call "politically incorrect". People gambled, cursed, smoked, spat, drank, carried firearms, murdered one another, ate opium, sparked, and exhibited racism at its worst. It was an ethnic melting pot, boasting Irish, Germans, several tribes of Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese and Mexican residents. Many of the inhabitants had come west to avoid the horrors (or duty) of fighting in the War between the States. Almost everyone came to get rich, though there were a few who came to save souls of others or lose their own.<br />
<br />
In short, Virginia City was a crucible; it made some great, and destroyed others. What will happen to 12 year old P.K. Pinkerton? Read the Western Mysteries to find out.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.westernmysteries.com/">Western Mysteries</a> author Caroline Lawrence will be talking about her new series at the Edinburgh Festival from 5.00-6.00pm on Friday 26 August 2011. For more info, and to book, go <a href="http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk/event/230571-the-western-mysteries-with-caroline-lawrence/">HERE</a>.</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-87415984921167314192011-07-01T00:02:00.000+01:002011-07-01T00:24:21.429+01:00Historical Inaccuracies Rule!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvlDeN-wqmvuyQVSelO7bMGOGhIttxGwinfoK3engv4pDHoa4wQqaI-y3nS5zpk5Vqvxrt4L7fKWFLqmoWGJxEYFI0BGBNqfmn_ro8inwDE4mEOUco7axjiV1_3IQvZaG6vvsmwi7UfVk/s1600/romans_at_bus_stop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvlDeN-wqmvuyQVSelO7bMGOGhIttxGwinfoK3engv4pDHoa4wQqaI-y3nS5zpk5Vqvxrt4L7fKWFLqmoWGJxEYFI0BGBNqfmn_ro8inwDE4mEOUco7axjiV1_3IQvZaG6vvsmwi7UfVk/s200/romans_at_bus_stop.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Try to avoid anachronisms</td></tr>
</tbody></table>One of the challenges of writing historical fiction for children to balance accuracy and fun. It's no good having a bazillion accurate facts if the books are dry as dust. And it's no good telling a ripsnorting yarn if your story isn't at least 95% accurate.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In my <a href="http://www.romanmysteries.com/">Roman Mysteries</a> I was meticulous about getting historical details, events and people as accurately as possible, but I made my hero – the 10-year-old detectrix <a href="http://www.romanmysteries.com/characters/flavia">Flavia Gemina</a> – as independent as any 21st century schoolgirl. Maybe more so. I needed to make Flavia and her pals accessible so that children could identify with them and enter the world and so absorb the details of the period. It was a balancing act, challenging but fun. I tried not to let too many inaccuracies creep in, but one or two per book were necessary. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmmK0fh2GB2H451voiPx-gdlVB_-hnvwKvHiDAEW-3Y6JtHbxuwa-wmCdlDIM2nbHTD_Cxv8rUs9zZOOQE9SD39mCEwWPTkeg3yTroPbP8O4hAd4hx2hzaR87SwK_uz7kKPcM-rF17hE/s1600/sheriff.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmmK0fh2GB2H451voiPx-gdlVB_-hnvwKvHiDAEW-3Y6JtHbxuwa-wmCdlDIM2nbHTD_Cxv8rUs9zZOOQE9SD39mCEwWPTkeg3yTroPbP8O4hAd4hx2hzaR87SwK_uz7kKPcM-rF17hE/s200/sheriff.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia City re-enactor</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I have the same problem with my new <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">Western Mysteries series</a>, set in Virginia City, Nevada Territory, in 1862. To me it is deeply thrilling. I have the Civil War, Indian battles, the Salting of Silver Mines, Runaway Slaves, Mark Twain & other priceless primary sources. Plus Virginia City is still there and chock full of museums, mine shafts, lively saloons (!) and historical re-enactors. But it's still going to be a hard sell to children aged 9+ in the UK. To them this time and place is deeply unsexy. Their grandfathers liked Western movies for heaven's sake. How uncool is that? </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So, in a bid to make the period immediately engaging and fun, I went to five of the most famous visual images of the Western: blazing six-shooters, the Stetson hat, sheriff's badges, swinging saloon doors and WANTED posters. The problem is, all five of these iconic artefacts are basically myth. Especially in Nevada Territory in 1862. But I decided to indulge myself with two of them. </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_lzcmvfprrt3FWHd5CcCrPUuj83i0LsGx8elFipWa5lE9FJbdYUpjl9Rc1C53X2-7NMxyhTlACZS9hTNxOeot-eEP-1WfY6sg-zO7YOVLaDjh-5fm-dWvh1kYc4djWNvTxwdwJUnQlw/s1600/small_deputy_caro_with_gun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_lzcmvfprrt3FWHd5CcCrPUuj83i0LsGx8elFipWa5lE9FJbdYUpjl9Rc1C53X2-7NMxyhTlACZS9hTNxOeot-eEP-1WfY6sg-zO7YOVLaDjh-5fm-dWvh1kYc4djWNvTxwdwJUnQlw/s200/small_deputy_caro_with_gun.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the author with replica Colt & badge</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
<b>Myth #1 - Blazing six-shooters</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is the image of 90% of the Westerns you see on TV or in cinemas. The myth is so strong it has spawned Cowboy Fast Draw as a new sport, especially popular in states like Nevada and Arizona, where almost anybody can carry a loaded firearm. I had huge fun in May at the Genoa Cowboy Festival. I got to fire a revolver at targets with wax-filled cartridges. Anything under 1 second is considered good. The champions can draw, cock, fire and hit the target in under half a second. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Denied!</b> At the time my books are set – 1862-63 – cartridges were brand new. Most guns needed to be painstakingly loaded with black powder, cap, ball and wad. (I've tried this, too.) With this kind of ammo, misfires are common. When you DO hit something they often set the victim's clothes on fire. How often do we see that in movies? In old westerns, a bullet means instant death. In reality people often survived after being shot multiple times. That myth I can bust. Accounts of real historical shootouts are exciting, shocking and sometimes even amusing. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdC964U09CidipOYSa8lovjGcYKTl67T6A7eN2n9c4v6HUCd0N6UtGE-yPzWKaIN3lpJpklvEUVG3QuMy1daNq88lq6YF9OggsizDbHmut-Hl-wTvtWt3dVMUu4hUXyPAPrnMYh08tT_s/s1600/sheriff_peasley_1866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdC964U09CidipOYSa8lovjGcYKTl67T6A7eN2n9c4v6HUCd0N6UtGE-yPzWKaIN3lpJpklvEUVG3QuMy1daNq88lq6YF9OggsizDbHmut-Hl-wTvtWt3dVMUu4hUXyPAPrnMYh08tT_s/s200/sheriff_peasley_1866.jpg" width="121" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheriff Tom Peasley</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Myth #2 - Sheriff Badges, etc. </b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Think of Gary Cooper in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044706/">High Noon</a></i>, dropping his badge in the dust as his response to the refusal of the town to acknowledge its authority. Or Henry Fonda in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051087/">The Tin Star</a></i>, where the sheriff's badge symbolises his redemption. Surely that's not a myth?<br />
<b>Denied!</b> During my last research trip to Virginia City I learned that lawmen did not wear badges until 1874, a full dozen years after my first book is set. Nor did marshals, sheriffs or police (yes they had them too) wear any distinctive uniform for many years. So how did you know you were facing the law? Fascinating. I'm going to use the reality here, too, as it could provide lots of drama. But I'll carry on wearing my Virginia City Deputy Sheriff's star to parties and book launches.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAkyzWtwBuYGQ-V-FDTW9prvngTkuIx8TSl50sEBlP3AA4c83SRW0N67jdXaS5Cv26laM21MYAoQAyC5DUiF2Kwj-rhXptbeHNtkUzP70O9-Kd2_cz0cWFbrcnCBAGg1LI-0IhU02vaA/s1600/john_wayne_hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAkyzWtwBuYGQ-V-FDTW9prvngTkuIx8TSl50sEBlP3AA4c83SRW0N67jdXaS5Cv26laM21MYAoQAyC5DUiF2Kwj-rhXptbeHNtkUzP70O9-Kd2_cz0cWFbrcnCBAGg1LI-0IhU02vaA/s200/john_wayne_hat.jpg" width="139" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Duke in his hat</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><br />
Myth #3 - Stetson Hats</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Ten-gallon hats, Stetson hats & cowboy hats! Think of Steve McQueen and his disgustingly realistic-looking sweat-stained hat in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054047/">The Magnificent Seven</a></i>. Or John Wayne and his famous white(ish) cowboy hat. <i>(right)</i> Surely those are a legitimate icon of the 1860s? </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Denied! </b>Most men in Virginia City wore something Dickens would have worn. Mr. Stetson didn't sell his first hat until 1865, a few years after my books are set. Mark Twain, (my vocabulary source for 1862), describes himself as arriving in Virginia City with a slouch hat, a soft felt hat usually of brown or black. That's the type of hat my character is wearing on the front cover of my book. So in my books my male characters wear plug hats, stovepipe hats or slouch hats. And my women are almost universally in bonnets. The dude on the black and white <i>carte de visite</i> up above is Tom Peasley, a famous Virginia City Sheriff from 1866. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2Q6f81xwOoVQSkx5BQzZChIX2RIiBOlr5tRXk7bKu7YXKyoejdCn_jGxmvGokz1MqVBv7nWUIXLG0jGMAP5W7cWOXfnOm5XbBHSvKsTpAzh1umf0wJELim8abBQAB09_kfG08P3Q75A/s1600/richards_small_saloon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2Q6f81xwOoVQSkx5BQzZChIX2RIiBOlr5tRXk7bKu7YXKyoejdCn_jGxmvGokz1MqVBv7nWUIXLG0jGMAP5W7cWOXfnOm5XbBHSvKsTpAzh1umf0wJELim8abBQAB09_kfG08P3Q75A/s200/richards_small_saloon.jpg" width="147" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Myth #4 - Swinging Saloon Doors</b><br />
Is there anything more iconic (or fun) about a wild Western town than The Stranger swinging in through those butterfly doors? The piano player stops, the room goes silent, everybody turns to stare and you can be sure there will be a fist-fight or a shootout before long.<br />
<b>Denied!</b> One scholarly resident of Virginia City tells me that saloons there never had the famous swinging doors so beloved of Western movies. One reason may have been the hurricane force wind fondly known by the locals as the "Washoe Zephyr". It was strong enough to blow off tin roofs and carry away small mammals. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3JahDGEO0jHwYHxK8Y3_iw0SovFX335N66usw6daaGSjunNu0ufxm2WKfAhm8IpmE_9SEI9t0_xaExS5UrWWcUwkyk4gGG5NIpiuR9O97ETTEHmHZ-U32GXmvM71b4ILUreb1wjfJ1M/s1600/wanted_el_indio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig3JahDGEO0jHwYHxK8Y3_iw0SovFX335N66usw6daaGSjunNu0ufxm2WKfAhm8IpmE_9SEI9t0_xaExS5UrWWcUwkyk4gGG5NIpiuR9O97ETTEHmHZ-U32GXmvM71b4ILUreb1wjfJ1M/s200/wanted_el_indio.jpg" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">El Indio</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><br />
Myth #5 - WANTED posters</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Think of all those great Western movies where the WANTED poster tells you exactly what the bad guy looks like. One of my personal favourites is in Sergio Leone's <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059578/">For a Few Dollars More</a></i>, where the evil laughing baddie El Indio is freeze-framed mid-cackle and the image becomes his WANTED poster. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Denied!</b> My Nevada historian friend assures me that WANTED posters from the 1860s and 1870s were probably printed handbills with a plain verbal description. I have a replica of the WANTED poster for Lincoln's assassin up on my wall and she's right. Exclamation points, yes. Pictures, no. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
But swinging saloon doors and WANTED posters are iconic images from the Western genre, so I've decided that both of these particular myths will appear in my book and on my website. I want to tell readers – especially young readers – that this is a series about the Wild West, with cowboys and indians; gambling and drinking; horses and mules; guns and knives; action and excitement. I can do that instantly with saloon doors and WANTED posters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1kSQ9JrcmApkdZia8o9iZrS8o0qr8ONGnm25KY09Ifl2lLcYiIZciJWa_UnwpViWycM0T20vdB2Xc32G7X-GtCsUQd2twS7SogAARCiumVwt-Pt0ymyVul36lhcBfZdqos8nFVDcYR9M/s1600/deadly_desperados_final_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1kSQ9JrcmApkdZia8o9iZrS8o0qr8ONGnm25KY09Ifl2lLcYiIZciJWa_UnwpViWycM0T20vdB2Xc32G7X-GtCsUQd2twS7SogAARCiumVwt-Pt0ymyVul36lhcBfZdqos8nFVDcYR9M/s200/deadly_desperados_final_cover.jpg" width="125" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So the naughty swinging doors became the <a href="http://www.westernmysteries.com/">portal to my website</a> and the illustrated WANTED poster became the cover image for the book.<br />
<br />
Wisely used, historical inaccuracies can be the spice to bring the past to life, but like spice they should be used sparingly and knowingly. The historical author should know exactly what she is doing and why. Inaccuracies through ignorance are not allowed, so if I get something wrong, don't be afraid to tell me! </div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a> is the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookclub/8555222/Family-Book-Club-The-Case-of-the-Deadly-Desperados.html">Telegraph Family Book Club</a> choice for June. Read the review and see questions for book group discussion <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookclub/8555222/Family-Book-Club-The-Case-of-the-Deadly-Desperados.html">HERE</a>. </div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-76925758780843269542011-06-14T23:49:00.001+01:002012-03-20T22:46:03.129+00:00Truly Gritty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">My Top Five GRITTY Westerns for kids.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div>Everybody has their own definition of a “western”. Here’s my definition:<br />
A Western doesn’t have to have cowboys or Indians but it<br />
should have horses and/or mules.<br />
should be set in the American west in the 1800s.<br />
should have six-shooters, smoking, gambling and drinking.<br />
should have a hero who fights against overwhelming odds.<br />
should have some harsh but beautiful landscapes & big skies.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiGX6TdpL2HHHF_sONOglH6q6S7SoAzZWULv7bMjptwLeTpWdGAGuycc3lBYmqK6gLqpHq_nnsTQpvUe4ebnpAAJBjitT6LjGFt9PvuuYVWoS5E7rwC447WebmSE0CpwPVLKX0vVaiB6o/s1600/true_grit_paperback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiGX6TdpL2HHHF_sONOglH6q6S7SoAzZWULv7bMjptwLeTpWdGAGuycc3lBYmqK6gLqpHq_nnsTQpvUe4ebnpAAJBjitT6LjGFt9PvuuYVWoS5E7rwC447WebmSE0CpwPVLKX0vVaiB6o/s200/true_grit_paperback.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>Because Westerns are usually about survival of individuals in the extreme situations of a frontier world, they are usually too violent and politically incorrect for children. The ones that ARE aimed at children are often too sanitized for my liking. I like gritty reality with a dollop of danger. So here are five of my favourite Western books; ones suitable for kids but which also have grit, grime and menace. I’ve placed them in order of ascending grittiness.<br />
<br />
1. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0064406849/theromanmyste-21">The Ballad of Lucy Whipple</a> (U) by Karen Cushman<br />
This is the tale of a girl in a California mining camp during the American Gold Rush. I like this story because it transports you to another time and place, with wonderful details about the plants, animals and climate of the Sierra Nevada mountains combined with food, clothing and equipment of gold miners in the 1850s. This is probably the safest of the five books on my list, because it was written especially for children, but like all good stories it is compelling enough for adults to enjoy, too. Plus it has plenty of grit and grime.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFW2H8R6ltz20gIHKEk3bk0Gfx7Uz0eIRhXoYjC8URrREAU89ukQLUsojrkHSeXDvEVn3ySdfYdnBTRT4WUaukW5rjbz8ezPZYIPLwjW1Xb64CWTEPGhzpn_Fhchq2Hoon-b1A-8rDcGM/s1600/hondo_paperback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFW2H8R6ltz20gIHKEk3bk0Gfx7Uz0eIRhXoYjC8URrREAU89ukQLUsojrkHSeXDvEVn3ySdfYdnBTRT4WUaukW5rjbz8ezPZYIPLwjW1Xb64CWTEPGhzpn_Fhchq2Hoon-b1A-8rDcGM/s200/hondo_paperback.jpg" width="122" /></a></div>2. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553280902/theromanmyste-21">Hondo</a> (PG) by Louis L’Amour<br />
Louis L’Amour is considered one of the greatest Western writers and this is one of his greatest books. The story follows a strong, silent hero named Hondo who helps a woman and her son living in hostile Apache territory. The best bit of the book is a section at the end where Hondo teaches the boy how to track and hunt Indian-fashion. The John Wayne movie is good but doesn’t have the tips about tracking and desert survival.<br />
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3. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747572631/theromanmyste-21">True Grit</a> (PG) by Charles Portis<br />
This deadpan masterpiece by Charles Portis is one of my top ten fave books of all time. It recounts the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Mattie Ross who hires a fat, half-blind Marshal to help her avenge her father’s cold-blooded murder. Both of them have ‘grit’, (which can mean ‘courage’ as well as crunchy dirt.) True Grit is one of those books you can read over and over and always find something new. Both movie versions are good, but the book is better. Best of all is the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1407477897/theromanmyste-21">audio book</a>, read by American author Donna Tartt. She captures Mattie Ross’s voice perfectly.<br />
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4. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671040588/theromanmyste-21">Boone’s Lick</a> (PG) by Larry McMurtry<br />
Like Charles Portis, Larry McMurtry is another great American author. His Pulitzer-prize-winning <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330317547/theromanmyste-21">Lonesome Dove</a> was made into a highly-acclaimed <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096639/">TV mini-series</a>. His screenplay of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795/">Brokeback Mountain</a> won an Oscar. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671040588/theromanmyste-21">Boone’s Lick</a> is based on the real events of an Indian massacre in 1866, a year after the Civil War ended. The narrator is fifteen-year-old Shay. Some scenes are quite brutal, but it’s suitable for readers 10+. As with True Grit, there is a <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002SQD9IO/theromanmyste-21">superb audiobook version</a>, read by actor Will Patton, who makes McMurtry’s drily funny characters even better than they are on the page. No mean feat.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhj5jUbHCpPowdVyI9ptxvEAct6Nm0s6b-BtsVURryX_752AXb1bZyXL1NXezN_Tyyw-CQ3UP6ZZvuRicEjfR_3aPNezK8n3ySLA6nFPR44pL_GzmTw2P4M3kDQJ6UAKNSQaiQVyPCtdc/s1600/us_deadly_desperados.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhj5jUbHCpPowdVyI9ptxvEAct6Nm0s6b-BtsVURryX_752AXb1bZyXL1NXezN_Tyyw-CQ3UP6ZZvuRicEjfR_3aPNezK8n3ySLA6nFPR44pL_GzmTw2P4M3kDQJ6UAKNSQaiQVyPCtdc/s200/us_deadly_desperados.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>5. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007329555/theromanmyste-21">St. Agnes' Stand</a> (15) by Thomas Eidson<br />
WARNING: This book has harrowing scenes of torture by Apache. It made me understand why you always save the last bullet for yourself in an Indian attack. (gulp!) <gulp!>But if you have a strong stomach, it is a beautiful Western with a powerful message of love and redemption. And don’t forget my new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>, which falls between <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747572631/theromanmyste-21">True Grit</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671040588/theromanmyste-21">Boone’s Lick</a> on the <i>True Grittiness</i> scale.<br />
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Western Mystery #1, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399256334/romanmysterie-20">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>, is out in the US now. Western Mystery #2, The Case of the Petrified Man, is coming in 2013. </gulp!></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-44438332111088121342011-06-14T08:01:00.000+01:002011-06-14T08:31:05.854+01:00Inhabiting the West<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>yee-haw!</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNy5i4oTVxAwaKL96ovXVtUW9uGYQBGQfqSMUZFfYn6It0e2z1fJXwgnr27xkP1dtcmXC822FnjLRthla9d7W_-67Bmh1BjoEV3w-e06SoHJG8h0C4_O17i-aREa-z3Vh_e6ILkYcUwDs/s1600/richards_stagecoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNy5i4oTVxAwaKL96ovXVtUW9uGYQBGQfqSMUZFfYn6It0e2z1fJXwgnr27xkP1dtcmXC822FnjLRthla9d7W_-67Bmh1BjoEV3w-e06SoHJG8h0C4_O17i-aREa-z3Vh_e6ILkYcUwDs/s320/richards_stagecoach.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">Virtual Stagecoach for my Western Mysteries Blog Tour</td></tr>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">This is the final dusty stop on my blog tour to promote my new “Dime Novel”, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>. It has been quite a journey but I have enjoyed it. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
The first stop on my tour was a big ole <a href="http://hayfeverblog.net/?p=342">Hay Festival</a>. I did not see many Bales of Hay but I saw some International Personalities & also a passel of Authors of Dime Novels. I must have got some of that there “Hay Fever” because I shared some special secrets about my own Dime Novel. Yup, I told them all about <a href="http://hayfeverblog.net/?p=342">Reading People & Writing Character</a>. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The next day my Virtual Stagecoach took me to Bart’s. <a href="http://bit.ly/isb6UN">Bart’s Bookshelf</a>, that is. It was kind of dark in there but that Darren made me & my Driver feel real welcome. We sat by the cosy fireplace sipping whiskey while I described some places I had visited to help me <a href="http://bit.ly/isb6UN">Write about the West</a>. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Day Three was bully. I had been riding beside Douglas, the driver of my Virtual Stagecoach. I hopped down & I strode into the <a href="http://bit.ly/lxqLAV">Book Bag</a> (is it a Saddlery?) & announced my <a href="http://bit.ly/lxqLAV">Fave Five Western Movies for Kids</a>, and also my 5 for Adults, too. Nobody took a bullwhip to me, and the two lady proprietresses said I had “great taste” so I guess they liked my choices. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1408405818"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQa4_sukGQl8mj07qHbWKPCGywf7c2xcRdju75bX6gn_ewaL4yeHMHT5MjvuiKoINu1JaMQlW2C2oLQpdXt5yOVHBbMK_4_3t9-KQeQkudGiiExtpiJtRCaTI-GUHeLQhaSLQ0HyzpWsg/s200/final_orion_desperados_cover.jpg" width="125" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">My "Dime Novel"</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On Saturday June 4th, Douglas drove me over to the <a href="http://bit.ly/jGecbh">Book Zone Saloon</a>. It was mighty dark in there, too, but as our eyes adjusted we saw lots of <a href="http://bit.ly/jGecbh">Child Detectives</a> including my three Favorites. One is called “Nancy”, one is from London & one is a mite strange. The proprietor was real friendly. He was also called Darren. I suppose I will have to put a Saloon-keeper called “Darren” into my next Dime Novel... </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">There was no Sabbath Rest on Day Five. Our stagecoach made 12 Heroic Stops. Still, it was worth it to talk about <a href="http://bit.ly/lgvgCN">Story Structure</a> over at Miss Becky “<a href="http://bit.ly/lgvgCN">Bookette</a>” Scott’s Lending Library. Miss Becky is real cheerful & she <a href="http://bit.ly/lWsVGv">liked my book</a> a lot. I blush to say she called it “genius”. Aw, shucks. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On the sixth day of my trip I visited a retired Schoolmarm in a town called <a href="http://bit.ly/k0DHDu">Serendipity</a>. She wants to write them Dime Novels, too. I told her my <a href="http://bit.ly/k0DHDu">5 Favorite Places to Write</a>. Miss Viv liked my books so much that she rushed out to the local stationer & bought a passel of ’em. Not my Dime Novel, I hasten to add. My Writers’ Notebooks. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6Gu6kG_DNDhT8nPI-1aOU6z9N6CFAb45QsvRLjD6JtHEHMyCRumBm4VvPnVeWULMSn4Hc13sd5P0DJs4ctEY84zRowHU-3hJ5JzN6W2fvkVST43Z9pjD1vJSAR8cUXgrv7iTrGxSfpc/s1600/small_sarsaparilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6Gu6kG_DNDhT8nPI-1aOU6z9N6CFAb45QsvRLjD6JtHEHMyCRumBm4VvPnVeWULMSn4Hc13sd5P0DJs4ctEY84zRowHU-3hJ5JzN6W2fvkVST43Z9pjD1vJSAR8cUXgrv7iTrGxSfpc/s200/small_sarsaparilla.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="105" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">Sarsaparilla</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Monday the 7th was my seventh stop and I was glad to wet my gullet at the <a href="http://t.co/cbenzGZ">Fiction Thirst Saloon</a>. The proprietor Rhys was only about 15 or maybe 16 yrs old. So we drank sarsaparilla instead of whiskey. I reminisced about my childhood and I told him about <a href="http://t.co/cbenzGZ">The First Gunslingers I Ever Met</a>, back in the days when things were still in black & white. One of them dressed All in Black & one of them wore Trowsers so Tight they Split & one of them was a Master of Disguise. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Well, by Day 8 I was getting tuckered out. So I stopped by <a href="http://bit.ly/ixgic7">Miss Jenny's Wondrous Place</a>. It was all done up in purple velvet with stars on the roof and real pretty gals there, especially the proprietress, Jenny. I didn’t want to inquire too closely as to what sort of an establishment it was – some of those gals had real pale skin and sharp teeth – so I tried to distract them with <a href="http://bit.ly/ixgic7">Some Music</a>. Some of their gentlemen and lady callers seemed to like my choice of songs. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">There followed another day of relaxification - Day 9 - over at <a href="http://bit.ly/mSiUpz">Angel's Boarding House</a>. Funny, but that place was kind of purple, too, but with leaves this time, not stars. And here is the strange thing: I told Miss Emma AKA "Angel" about my <a href="http://bit.ly/mSiUpz">Favorite Inspirational Music</a> and she showed me pictures on the walls that seemed to move & play the very songs I had been describing! I guess she is some kind of Magician or maybe one of them Spiritualists. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Day Ten. After my two restful purple days, we stopped by <a href="http://bit.ly/ilUiNx">Sheriff Karen’s Eurocrime Jail</a> to bail out <a href="http://bit.ly/ilUiNx">My Favourite Character from the old West</a>. He is now riding along with us. He has 5 Christian names & 1 Silver Tooth. He wears his gun around his neck but uses belt AND braces to hold his pants up. And he just ate the cheroot I offered him. My stagecoach driver Douglas says he “stinks like a pig”, but I kind of like him. I wonder if you can guess who he is?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1408405810"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhssJ5GHUH1sN9BE-LelMKnyDOvPJbg4bv0KzF7lmbWCe9TY12w7ombuteYSY2n-WhbtID5a1oXacK2umwVSCYVm4I_NwkcECVPEBfApLA7qnJNYaHTALW1QoVyjwgF5hEVt7U5Dy0AArw/s200/small_dime_novel_deadly_desperados.jpg" width="134" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">not the final cover</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The rains came on Day 11 of our journey so that little beads of water dotted the window of <a href="http://bit.ly/9bwGDD">Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted Books & Elixir Wagon</a>. I told him <a href="http://bit.ly/9bwGDD">How We Chose the Cover</a> for my Dime Novel. He seemed pleased and said he kind of preferred the version we didn’t use. My feelings weren’t hurt none. I just hope that won’t stop him from reading it. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Miss “<a href="http://t.co/T9SmIFY">Book Maven</a>” Mary runs a respectable joint. I stopped in there on Day 12. I was expecting tea in china cups, but she gave me whiskey & a plug of tobacco! Once I recovered from this shock, I told her why I am now spending more time in the <a href="http://t.co/T9SmIFY">Wild West than in Ancient Rome</a>, even though I can talk Greek & Latin & some of them other Dead Languages. Miss Mary writes some mighty exciting books, too. Like a book about a young man who posed in not even his union suit for that there Italian statue called <a href="http://amzn.to/l3XXJm">David</a>. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">My next stop was at the claim of an Old Timer name of <a href="http://bit.ly/kt5L5E">Mr. Scottish Book Trust</a>. They call him “Scotty” for short. I waited a while at the mouth of his tunnel & then who should appear but his daughter! I pulled <a href="http://bit.ly/kt5L5E">Seven of my Best Writing Tips</a> out of my Carpet Bag and traded them for a few "feet" of her mine. Heather seemed pleased with the trade, so my 13th stop turned out to be a lucky one. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Well, the end of my trail has now hove into sight. For my last stop, my stagecoach driver Douglas has said why don’t I give a lecture on “Inhabiting the West”. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I guess all those things I have been talking about over the past two weeks help me to “inhabit the west”. I talk to people & hear their stories. I listen to music & study maps & look at some of those stereoscopic photographs. And I walk around a lot, daydreaming. I reckon the best way to inhabit the west is to go there – not Virtual but Real-like – and breathe in that Sagebrush-scented Atmosphere & look at that Big Sky & maybe Ride a Horse. But if you can’t afford the fare, then the next best thing is to Read a Book. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwWnAHYnU2_eEu9v7E8Zdy9omWD2jy_mh9wbie5JpFMtLwmENaT15yymaE8eB4muRGtBPcp3-Z369m4aKG1ZhoBoP0GFrVKQujTXSjXt309Vq_QyK-38sUXvm38nWgjgs_SYgUKlxSNQ/s1600/caroline_nina_douglas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwWnAHYnU2_eEu9v7E8Zdy9omWD2jy_mh9wbie5JpFMtLwmENaT15yymaE8eB4muRGtBPcp3-Z369m4aKG1ZhoBoP0GFrVKQujTXSjXt309Vq_QyK-38sUXvm38nWgjgs_SYgUKlxSNQ/s200/caroline_nina_douglas.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">"Douglas" (left) with Caroline</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So as an added Extra Bonus I am going to tell you my Five Favorite Books for transporting you to the West, especially if You are a Kid. I am going to telegraph those choices to Prospector Zac in a place called <a href="http://christchurchkids.wordpress.com/">Christ Church in New Zealand</a> because it is too far for Douglas my Stagecoach Driver to take me and our horses might get damp. But I will also post them tomorrow on this here <a href="http://tomboycowgirl.blogspot.com/">Notice Board</a>.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all those people who hosted me on my Western Mysteries Blog Tour and especially to my stalwart Stagecoach Driver, Douglas. Nina Douglas, that is. Yes, Douglas is a Girl. <i>(above)</i></div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-59063008571901342262011-06-05T08:01:00.000+01:002011-06-09T09:53:31.644+01:00Hero's Journey in Westerns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMkbeY7koJm5qd8KA7IADxamLHMeCjxaPvfw-6yLfd7rE7X-mQ5NENlCCTnkyn7G7fjlj2vGiyVQa_zl0U4IBCr3oFLoMAC71K3fTc2lkCb3ghOhExumpcZH6MWnfWqv2yCVhMl_E_i9E/s1600/deadly_desperados_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMkbeY7koJm5qd8KA7IADxamLHMeCjxaPvfw-6yLfd7rE7X-mQ5NENlCCTnkyn7G7fjlj2vGiyVQa_zl0U4IBCr3oFLoMAC71K3fTc2lkCb3ghOhExumpcZH6MWnfWqv2yCVhMl_E_i9E/s200/deadly_desperados_cover.jpg" width="125" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I’ve just blogged about The Hero’s Journey over at <a href="http://bit.ly/lgvgCN">thebookette.co.uk</a>. This story-writing plot-structure was devised by Hollywood screenwriter Christopher Vogler after reading Joseph Campbell's book on world mythology, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0586085718/theromanmyste-21">The Hero with a Thousand Faces</a>. The template is a great tool and can be applied to many myth-based stories, i.e. stories in which the hero goes on a quest of some sort.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As promised, here is <i>my version</i> of Vogler’s twelve steps as I’ve applied them to my first Western Mystery, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>, and as I detect them in two other recent Western films: <a href="http://www.truegritmovie.com/">True Grit</a> and <a href="http://www.rangomovie.com/">Rango</a>.<br />
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<i>Warning: Here be Spoilers!</i></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>1. The Ordinary Hero in his Ordinary World </b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A hero exists in an ordinary world, yearning for something more. Deep down he knows he is called to something greater. To us the hero’s world might be fascinating and exotic, but to him, it’s ordinary: sometimes comfortable, sometimes oppressive, sometimes both. 14-year-old Mattie Ross, the hero of True Grit, lives in Yell County near Dardanelle, Arkansas. She is her family’s book-keeper. The world makes sense to her, everything adds up and her parents even depend on her in various ways. Rango is a chameleon; his ordinary world is a safe but boring terrarium with a few lifeless friends. The hero of my new Western Mysteries series, 12-year-old P.K. Pinkerton, lives in the flyspeck town of Temperance in the Nevada desert with his Methodist foster parents. P.K. is a social misfit who doesn’t know how to ‘read people’.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>2. The Call to Adventure</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In Greek mythology the messenger god often comes down from Mount Olympus to summon the hero on a quest. Sometimes the ‘call to adventure’ is a disaster that forces the hero to leave his comfort zone. In True Grit, it is the sudden and violent death of Mattie’s father that calls her away from her accounts. For once, things don’t add up. Meanwhile, over in his terrarium, Rango is bored. ‘What our story needs,’ he says, ‘is an ironic unexpected event that will propel the hero into conflict…’ He gets this wish in an unexpected way, when his owners swerve to avoid an accident and his entire ‘world’ is flung high up into the air. In the first Western mystery, P.K. Pinkerton finds his foster parents scalped and dying. His mother urges P.K. to run; the killers are after him! In some screenwriting templates, this step is called the Inciting Incident.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>3. The Mentor</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In Greek mythology, the mentor is usually a god or goddess. In modern versions, the mentor is a wise older person who knows the hero’s abilities and encourages the hero to use them. If the hero refuses to heed the Call to Adventure the mentor encourages her and often gives helpful advice. The mentor does not usually participate in the quest but sometimes they – or a different mentor – appear at a ‘life or death moment’ for the hero. In True Grit, you could say that Mattie Ross’s first mentor is her dead father; he ‘calls her on the journey’. Her second mentor is Rooster Cogburn, who teaches her and helps her in her hour of greatest need. The armadillo ‘Roadkill’ sets Rango on his journey; he wears his experience as a scar. Later, the personified ‘Spirit of the West’ helps Rango in his bleakest hour. P.K.’s first mentor is his dying foster ma Evangeline. She tells P.K. to run and to take his medicine bag. Later P.K. meets Poker Face Jace, who will teach him to understand people.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>4. The Talisman </b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It is often at this point that the hero receives a talisman, an object of magical value which represents his authority to go on the quest and which also helps him. Theseus had his father’s sword. Luke had his father’s Light Sabre. In the western genre, the talisman is often a gun. Mattie has her father’s Colt Dragoon. Rango gets a gun, too. So does P.K., but his real talisman is his father’s “detective button”. Sometimes the talisman has magical abilities, but its greatest power is what it symbolizes, an important aspect of the hero’s destiny.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>5. Crossing the Threshold</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A single step can take the hero from his ‘ordinary’ world into the world of adventure. As the hero passes into the new ‘World of Adventure’, she often meets some ‘Threshold Guardians’: characters who would prevent her from entering the new world. She often has to battle them with strength or skill, or both. This is a kind of preliminary test to make sure she is worthy. In True Grit, Mattie crosses a threshold when she makes Blackie swim the river in order to prove to the ‘threshold guardians’ (Rooster & LeBoeuf) that she has the right to come on the adventure. Rango’s threshold is the desert highway he must cross to enter ‘the land without end, the desert and death are the closest of friends…’ My 12-year-old hero climbs on top of a passing stagecoach and flattens himself “as flat as a postage stamp” as it passes through Devil’s Gate from the desert into Virginia City AKA Satan’s Playground.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>6. Enemies & Allies</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In the new world, the hero begins to meet various characters. Some are enemies. Some are allies. Some are both. One fun archetype in this type of story is the apparent enemy who later becomes a friend. True Grit and Rango are both chock full of interesting and unpredictable characters. In my book, P.K. makes valuable allies in the form of several newspapermen, a Soiled Dove named Belle and a Chinese boy called Ping. And of course there is Poker Face Jace, who knows how to read body language.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>7. Training</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As the hero gets closer to his goal, he must often learn new skills in preparation for meeting the ultimate opponent. Mattie learns that hunting a wanted man ‘ain’t no coon hunt’. Rango learns how to play a new role, that of a gunslinger and action man. P.K. Pinkerton learns to find his way around Virginia City and how to read people.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>8. Approach to the Inmost Cave</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The tension and stakes increase as the hero nears the ‘inmost cave’ where he will battle the ‘monster’ for the prize. Think of Theseus, who travels from Corinth to Athens, vanquishing baddies, beasts and tricksters along the way. This is not the big battle but it prepares our hero for the big battle.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>9. The Supreme ordeal or Battle </b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">There may have been several battles along the way but this is the big one, the one that counts. Theseus finally lands in Crete and descends into the labyrinth to fight the minotaur and win the prize of his people’s lives. Often the hero first comes face to face with death and his own mortality. It is at this point that the hero realises their true identity, often as a leader. Mattie must face the man who killed her father, Ned Chaney. Rango must face the Mayor, the worst of several baddies. P.K. must face Whittlin’ Walt, the most notorious desperado in Nevada Territory.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>10. The Reward</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If the hero wins the battle, he gets the reward. This can be a sword or a golden fleece or a beautiful princess. Mattie is after revenge; Rango seeks water and P.K. wants to cash in a valuable document. But the prize itself is almost always immaterial. The real prize is the knowledge the hero gains, sometimes even if he ‘loses’. In the Western genre the lesson is often a hard one. Mattie learns that revenge does not come without a price. Rango learns that as sheriff, he can be a real contributing member of a community not just a play actor. P.K. learns … well, I’ll leave that for you to find out.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>11. The Resurrection</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In Greek myths, this is the part where the hero emerges from the Underworld. He is the same, but different. His journey has changed him forever. Mattie almost dies but is brought back by Rooster Cogburn’s almost superhuman effort. Rango is reborn as sheriff and takes on the name he gave himself: Rango. P.K. realises who he really is.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYEq5D05djMZ-LBS7JO-bIMvrBbNa9E-uH-VwYTba4DvaPKljZ3_t83VR_DRlfC3P6wu2tY13ckkFWGr_J0l1gD2RUnl0zAVse4ZR67efH3_E7Sw7o1tNsoyOzBzVYRxDEJwPZBhrTnLo/s1600/mattie_in_snake_pit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYEq5D05djMZ-LBS7JO-bIMvrBbNa9E-uH-VwYTba4DvaPKljZ3_t83VR_DRlfC3P6wu2tY13ckkFWGr_J0l1gD2RUnl0zAVse4ZR67efH3_E7Sw7o1tNsoyOzBzVYRxDEJwPZBhrTnLo/s320/mattie_in_snake_pit.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mattie Ross in the snake pit</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>12. Return with the Elixir</b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In mythology Jason returns with a fleece that will heal the sick. Mattie pays a great price and learns a terrible lesson, returning with the knowledge of what the world is really like. Better she had never gone on this particular quest. In the hands of the Coen Brothers, hers is a bleak story, with a bitter ending. Rango, on the other hand finds his place in the world, among new friends and lovers. P.K. returns from the depths of a mine shaft with a new certainty about his particular calling and identity.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The Hero’s Journey Structure is both formulaic and powerful. It isn’t right for every story, but when it can be applied it makes for some mighty good storytelling. Have fun with it y’all!</div></div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-90764125451468685112011-05-20T09:03:00.000+01:002011-05-20T09:04:24.798+01:00Western Mysteries trailer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Here's the mini trailer for the first book in my new Western Mysteries series, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>! Yee-haw!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/-2yOPRTaQzA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-54268986467470753612011-05-10T17:13:00.000+01:002011-05-15T21:59:53.974+01:00Genoa Cowboy Poetry 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrA-SFiGuZAN3O5_yWji7Lx5fmeExceDGjtxbAIvJF667qp-VndwXBmFog9SjMEm86uPN95ymKOxkKIeipq18HvasOxUzzs7LD_LznOaVcT0rqKoJ8z0wDqm7dmqzxjGz7y895Cdb119c/s1600/beer_delivery_genoa.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrA-SFiGuZAN3O5_yWji7Lx5fmeExceDGjtxbAIvJF667qp-VndwXBmFog9SjMEm86uPN95ymKOxkKIeipq18HvasOxUzzs7LD_LznOaVcT0rqKoJ8z0wDqm7dmqzxjGz7y895Cdb119c/s400/beer_delivery_genoa.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big beer delivery to Nevada's oldest saloon in Genoa</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When we arrive at our Virginia City B&B our innkeepers hand us a <a href="http://www.cowboypoetrygenoa.com/">brochure for the Genoa Cowboy Poetry Festival</a>. What? Another Cowboy Festival? Sheesh! Wasn't one enough? Should we go? Is this serendipity? Or redundancy?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GfJjEeEIK9_wUmpiJ5LNY-coL66i5yFzNkpS0tVc703IXspAIftN_2tVmBOo1BfVX-EJWK6lCwHCsyLNj99DkT2u-Wo3Gkboa_Wv8h2LhuTRm1ewITr475bK7_eI6qgr7C-5Tq1N700/s1600/fast_draw_jennifer02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GfJjEeEIK9_wUmpiJ5LNY-coL66i5yFzNkpS0tVc703IXspAIftN_2tVmBOo1BfVX-EJWK6lCwHCsyLNj99DkT2u-Wo3Gkboa_Wv8h2LhuTRm1ewITr475bK7_eI6qgr7C-5Tq1N700/s200/fast_draw_jennifer02.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>Browsing the <a href="http://www.cowboypoetrygenoa.com/events-and-information/all-event-schedule.html">Genoa Cowboy Poetry Festival schedule</a>, I see they have a stellar lineup of musicians, including my personal fave <a href="http://www.davestamey.com/">Dave Stamey</a>. They also have re-enactors: Don Thompson as Snowshoe Thompson, Dick Clark as Kit Carson, Mike Curcio as Wyatt Earp, etc. They offer fun activities like a Carson River Bird Walk, a saddle making seminar and lots on poetry and writing. Then I see that Mark Twain will be there on the very morning we are due to head back to the San Francisco Bay Area. If we go via the old stagecoach route we will pass through Genoa. That settles it! We're going.<br />
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On Friday 6 May we take our leave of our wonderful innkeepers and bid farewell to Virginia City. On the way out of town we take the alternate Truck Road down to Carson City. It's beautiful and deserted. We've had superb weather for our sojourn and timed it just right. (Within days it will be snowing again.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1wDUsclnJ7WCyRcBiWGLYTDrTRoAiV-C3-XSyc-I2pIBY1oXCVTPsOdl1M4UMMcToS0oMHe0-J_KUkDws9i5czVK86NVqMQUs7k6rpVCEpuNKGZS5yqWjRqAuXuODpToXWBDP8R5g_s/s1600/Caro_McAvoy_Layne_closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1wDUsclnJ7WCyRcBiWGLYTDrTRoAiV-C3-XSyc-I2pIBY1oXCVTPsOdl1M4UMMcToS0oMHe0-J_KUkDws9i5czVK86NVqMQUs7k6rpVCEpuNKGZS5yqWjRqAuXuODpToXWBDP8R5g_s/s200/Caro_McAvoy_Layne_closeup.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><a href="http://www.genoanevada.org/">Genoa</a> is a beautiful little town snuggled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. We arrive to see lots of cowboy types, Civil War soldiers and women in hoop skirts. And MARK TWAIN! "Stop the Jeep! I have to get out!" I run up to him and tell him I've come all the way from England to see him. And I have. One of the organizers snaps a picture of us. Then I run to buy the three of us a day pass. $50! Just to hear Mark Twain?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi55X0L7Vr2bpF9K8womeOeSC4Xe_c6tsnE2oYvZme6gcQ9-nzGZp1DD1rF4hnykdcVIVvOhIFdu86vTvgztyHWOhPfxNpE_qSK-pYScm3qDX8LrPaAvIxyBR7zMo1sXqmBk6QOPj9ey3U/s1600/mary_wyatt_poster.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi55X0L7Vr2bpF9K8womeOeSC4Xe_c6tsnE2oYvZme6gcQ9-nzGZp1DD1rF4hnykdcVIVvOhIFdu86vTvgztyHWOhPfxNpE_qSK-pYScm3qDX8LrPaAvIxyBR7zMo1sXqmBk6QOPj9ey3U/s200/mary_wyatt_poster.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mary & her derringer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>It is totally worth it. McAvoy Layne is a re-enactor who channels Mark Twain. His talk is perfect for us, all about his stagecoach trip west and Mono Lake and Virginia City and all the places we've been visiting. I'm especially impressed that Layne doesn't just quote <a href="http://futureboy.us/twain/roughing/roughing.html"><i>Roughing It</i></a>, but has read Twain's letters, too. I will definitely be following him and make a note to visit his <a href="http://www.ghostoftwain.com/">Mark Twain Center</a> in Incline Village, Lake Tahoe.<br />
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But our $50 family day pass has bought us more than McAvoy Layne as Mark Twain. It gets us two free carriage rides with Buddy from<a href="http://www.happyhoofers.com/"> Happy Hoofers</a> in Washoe Valley, who tells me he knows exactly where Steamboat Springs is. It gets us an audience with <a href="http://www.randdranchhorsebackriding.com/index.htm">Wrangler Rich</a> who has a ranch near Carson and promises he'll take us on horseback up into the mountains. We make notes to see Steamboat Springs with Buddy and go riding with <a href="http://www.randdranchhorsebackriding.com/index.htm">Wrangler Rich</a> on our next trip. Maybe the <a href="http://www.nvgunfighters.com/">Nevada Gunfighters</a>, too!<br />
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The family day pass gets us into the delightful little Genoa museum with it's mock-up of a jail and also of a recorder's office.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7sOJldFJfekknzyF09mm__sKjcD2Lg38_F9ruJg0kwh4Lv0XaSdejL6zZs4DmremE6yK1kValYPMpU9uVaE2LLP6jSJZtKke7gz9ip_s379iGz7NsMLsZHLnzJYK7bqNMimZ2puEUlc/s1600/fast_draw_suncream.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7sOJldFJfekknzyF09mm__sKjcD2Lg38_F9ruJg0kwh4Lv0XaSdejL6zZs4DmremE6yK1kValYPMpU9uVaE2LLP6jSJZtKke7gz9ip_s379iGz7NsMLsZHLnzJYK7bqNMimZ2puEUlc/s200/fast_draw_suncream.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Santa Clarita didn't allow guns</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Best of all our day pass gets us into the <a href="http://www.cowboyfastdraw.com/">COWBOY FAST DRAW</a> where we meet the fast draw champions of Nevada and get to practice firing real six shooters! At the <a href="http://www.cowboyfestival.org/">Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival</a>, the only person allowed a proper pistol was Joey Dillon. Folk resorted to using their holsters for sunblock!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglb8R3-PZoY-xSs6Q78QVKYT03urrfCHp5XFyHizqIwJ1l0BHO7uX_s06UuSKslUT1zT8XRPRJtkF5ZBNK55r11uSuc4BLgmiSPLKkbbhJvagJCB_JRewhotvJEHC_hRAcYMLSzyUaTG8/s1600/wax_cartridges.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglb8R3-PZoY-xSs6Q78QVKYT03urrfCHp5XFyHizqIwJ1l0BHO7uX_s06UuSKslUT1zT8XRPRJtkF5ZBNK55r11uSuc4BLgmiSPLKkbbhJvagJCB_JRewhotvJEHC_hRAcYMLSzyUaTG8/s200/wax_cartridges.JPG" width="83" /></a></div>But here in Nevada everybody is packing heat, from Mary with her derringer to the Nevada Gunmen. Anyway, the fast draw guys let us shoot at targets with wax filled Colt Peacemaker .45 caliber cartridges. Yee-haw! It is so much fun. My best time is just over a second. I can do even better but it only counts if you hit the target. The real experts aim for half a second! My mentor is "Chisum" but there are some other fast-drawers there including one who is the spitting image of John Wayne. Imagine getting snapped with "Mark Twain" & "John Wayne" in one morning.<br />
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I will definitely be back for the <a href="http://www.cowboypoetrygenoa.com/">Genoa Cowboy Poetry Festival</a> next year. Hopefully with the first Western Mystery, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1444001698/theromanmyste-21">The Case of the Deadly Desperados</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">some great living history re-enactors at Genoa</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nevada gunmen enjoy a beverage</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wrangler Rich and his quarterhorse</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buddy gave us rides in his "vis-a-vis" buggy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Goes the Wrong Way" & "Hawkeye"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main Street Genoa Cowboy Poetry Festival May 2011</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDvNuY-JqbVLYkXc5Q40-sHgQn-8-ylbUNCUl9iLOLkPzcwHBv6j8qsQwzwxTrWEIyLmzl9F9Rhek7WGeym2UBnpeJkFw5iZhI0k2WwHpD3tqyu3Zz8D5kDro_2kt2nY0OovOAd72vYRI/s1600/cowboy_fast_draw.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDvNuY-JqbVLYkXc5Q40-sHgQn-8-ylbUNCUl9iLOLkPzcwHBv6j8qsQwzwxTrWEIyLmzl9F9Rhek7WGeym2UBnpeJkFw5iZhI0k2WwHpD3tqyu3Zz8D5kDro_2kt2nY0OovOAd72vYRI/s400/cowboy_fast_draw.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buddy drops us at the fab Cowboy Fast Draw</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6rnZdcQzxSwj_Dm9JX0Wi6nbXYmS9RAg3wT9GZnEwqJONYOGtby_mBkqNyGnCfoLz3JYj3YFMbcEqrxOBQnKQNLrpkwvCm3LoMg8YEwdMs61X4ZzeoDVCyyLPbU7nPu6MBDwrAYxWNJs/s1600/caro_chisum.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6rnZdcQzxSwj_Dm9JX0Wi6nbXYmS9RAg3wT9GZnEwqJONYOGtby_mBkqNyGnCfoLz3JYj3YFMbcEqrxOBQnKQNLrpkwvCm3LoMg8YEwdMs61X4ZzeoDVCyyLPbU7nPu6MBDwrAYxWNJs/s400/caro_chisum.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My mentor is "Chisum"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ0CXAo32nslB6vA-Qs2zqSKNbujxbrYZL_Tjlcptsj-hcCw6pjBDnJX8xxrg9H_gaht3gb3WZeK-7Bk0Ux7ki0O29KA_nmN1GRl5IA7PXKyPsbuCpyst8_8oBn4VKcLBLv9ueEasRklQ/s1600/jen_fast_draw_champ.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ0CXAo32nslB6vA-Qs2zqSKNbujxbrYZL_Tjlcptsj-hcCw6pjBDnJX8xxrg9H_gaht3gb3WZeK-7Bk0Ux7ki0O29KA_nmN1GRl5IA7PXKyPsbuCpyst8_8oBn4VKcLBLv9ueEasRklQ/s400/jen_fast_draw_champ.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At first "Hawkeye" is unsure...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJJB6ZwudGIu-QeNMDvdTehMni2jNhHKR7HPE1upFGWgW-whYm3PWULkX0p6N2gXm4-XjTa9QyCOLoyNEkD5umLSjt1H-QlAVoN28VezK5Gs49FtdzQEIq57Y2t0L2Vqinoos_2lMfUw/s1600/fast_draw_jennifer01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJJB6ZwudGIu-QeNMDvdTehMni2jNhHKR7HPE1upFGWgW-whYm3PWULkX0p6N2gXm4-XjTa9QyCOLoyNEkD5umLSjt1H-QlAVoN28VezK5Gs49FtdzQEIq57Y2t0L2Vqinoos_2lMfUw/s400/fast_draw_jennifer01.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...but then she finds the fun in Cowboy Fast Draw. Yee-haw!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjw_DT7djCrp4gx6aYBu3pgDJKx-eDQ_z0S1RNGq1kEeI3fhcmxXcMuERtAZmxm5qDhyA3bmUELvTC6uvK1Ax7dZgZS219sEoFYVMjh0vPO5nAOQyEJLr4Kf878OSAXVFOEUuEkFg5Y4/s1600/rich_fast_draw_champ01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjw_DT7djCrp4gx6aYBu3pgDJKx-eDQ_z0S1RNGq1kEeI3fhcmxXcMuERtAZmxm5qDhyA3bmUELvTC6uvK1Ax7dZgZS219sEoFYVMjh0vPO5nAOQyEJLr4Kf878OSAXVFOEUuEkFg5Y4/s400/rich_fast_draw_champ01.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nevada champ "Short Keg" Gentry shows "Goes" the ropes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PvrnmNM2bQCsTf_-fJa-zZSZf6VnzKj8tHIgoYdLqfOLEouYVNvCXOAt-iCkgYoK-c3pjtwk7jKDOqrLWQoWlBdeO05WJ49KGsl2isRCQ5WEdMhB84JASwDxiblYEG2MYkrbsJBkIME/s1600/caro_john_wayne.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PvrnmNM2bQCsTf_-fJa-zZSZf6VnzKj8tHIgoYdLqfOLEouYVNvCXOAt-iCkgYoK-c3pjtwk7jKDOqrLWQoWlBdeO05WJ49KGsl2isRCQ5WEdMhB84JASwDxiblYEG2MYkrbsJBkIME/s400/caro_john_wayne.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I meet "John Wayne". My joy is complete.</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-55016722853755503892011-05-08T17:40:00.000+01:002011-05-08T18:21:09.019+01:00Ghost Fort Churchill<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5X1S5tkCodIirmJXRocuPN8LoQBCbKBQWOb119QyKYIiSJner9hCelshl1srctueSRPYHFow1UUx49iBKLkL28XPcR48Sc43PyFHVVKOzxz1hTxn7hzEdaxK1TUEj322K4Zj8XEn8brE/s1600/Pyramid_War_explanation.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5X1S5tkCodIirmJXRocuPN8LoQBCbKBQWOb119QyKYIiSJner9hCelshl1srctueSRPYHFow1UUx49iBKLkL28XPcR48Sc43PyFHVVKOzxz1hTxn7hzEdaxK1TUEj322K4Zj8XEn8brE/s200/Pyramid_War_explanation.JPG" width="153" /></a></div>In 1860 a series of events at a place called Williams Station in Nevada sparked off a battle near Pyramid Lake between Paiute Indians and whites from the area in and around Virginia City. The first battle resulted in the deaths of 76 whites. <i>(see the explanation right) </i>Until Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn sixteen years later this was the largest casualty of whites at the hands of Native Americans. A second retaliatory battle resulted in the deaths of about 160 Paiutes. As a result of these troubles and also to protect the Pony Express, a fort was established on the Carson River along the Emigrant Trail. It was called Fort Churchill after Brigadier General Sylvester Churchill, the Inspector General of the US Army at that time.<br />
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</div><div>During the years my books are set, the presence of soldiers at Fort Churchill was an important aspect of Virginia City life. The fort was abandoned in 1870, only ten years after it was established, and is now a ghost town. Or perhaps we should call it a "Ghost Fort". I wanted to see it because I like to stand in the places my books are set to get a feel for the terrain and atmosphere.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWszcunHnKxUV-6GjPWQNKehNc8yG_JznzfR951TNIt0f_JCnRugXIMXJ1-PGJsTAQmSnWQasbQpDQpcctlDxqr5ti3APAC9QjPD1rDsVo4jAm4vrRnAFOs7KpJpxEmExDkynAhNTkjdQ/s1600/fort_churchill_road.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWszcunHnKxUV-6GjPWQNKehNc8yG_JznzfR951TNIt0f_JCnRugXIMXJ1-PGJsTAQmSnWQasbQpDQpcctlDxqr5ti3APAC9QjPD1rDsVo4jAm4vrRnAFOs7KpJpxEmExDkynAhNTkjdQ/s200/fort_churchill_road.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div>So on Thursday 5 May 2011, my sister "Hawkeye" and my husband "Goes the Wrong Way" and I set off from Virginia City just after 9.00am. Our silver Jeep takes us down Six Mile Canyon. Instead of turning north on highway 50 we carry straight on over, as our innkeepers have advised us, staying on Fort Churchill Road. At first it's paved but soon turns to gravelly dirt. As our innkeepers promised, the road is deserted and beautiful, following the course of the Carson River. Large cottonwoods line the banks and grouse run among the sage brush. We can see the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains away to the west. </div><div><br />
</div><div>At one point we stop and get out to look around. The sun is warm, the breeze is soft, the world is silent. We see grouse and squirrels, ducks and geese. There aren't many bugs up in Virginia City but there are plenty down here by the river. I have to shake them out of my hair before I get back in our Jeep. </div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjsRlyEJAieNJUtq16AX-MFg4gxgf5z4SHyE3W9X0qDdK_gelnMSdz5ZS3cRXmtHuaeDsn3BPJdqsqtnwmzLZNczQGT_2KU_obzvsb9XXfqXBRze2tJkxYpy3WEU0tP9qt0UtAl_U2HD4/s1600/bucklands_station.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjsRlyEJAieNJUtq16AX-MFg4gxgf5z4SHyE3W9X0qDdK_gelnMSdz5ZS3cRXmtHuaeDsn3BPJdqsqtnwmzLZNczQGT_2KU_obzvsb9XXfqXBRze2tJkxYpy3WEU0tP9qt0UtAl_U2HD4/s200/bucklands_station.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div>Fort Churchill National Park is marked by a flagpole and a gem of a visitors' center. The adobe ruins of barracks, storehouses and other fort buildings blend perfectly into the landscape. We are surrounded by mountains on every side and I understand why they offer star gazing evenings here on special occasions. There would be virtually no light pollution. A small but clear exhibit in the museum shows the layout of the camp and even tells us something about the plants of the region. After the fort was decommissioned, a local resident called Buckland bought it for only $750. He used timber, staircases, etc to build Buckland's Station. He and his wife had five children, all of whom died in infancy or childhood. Their gravestones can still be seen at the cemetery at Fort Churchill. </div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-Q0LRw6CycU6ECqOhWC9MsnDsPckE0vDZhSfAMFTmasDaaVtpMt574PbV2PfMCP0L_qxuEK2EoRbom7tE7cw-E_dTnBh2GvE1GEJOlwlH6nXJHNWdm0dM5lQKIlGYCGaZ8KdUiNHVMk/s1600/pyramid_lake.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-Q0LRw6CycU6ECqOhWC9MsnDsPckE0vDZhSfAMFTmasDaaVtpMt574PbV2PfMCP0L_qxuEK2EoRbom7tE7cw-E_dTnBh2GvE1GEJOlwlH6nXJHNWdm0dM5lQKIlGYCGaZ8KdUiNHVMk/s200/pyramid_lake.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div>After a good look around I convince "Hawkeye" to drive us to Pyramid Lake. My iPhone promises the journey will take less than an hour. (My iPhone turns out to be right) The road north through Silver Springs takes us through barren brown hills with virtually no trees. It is hauntingly beautiful. My great, great, great grandparents came from Battle Mountain. I've never been there but the landscape looks similar from pictures I've seen. About 45 minutes later we pass into the Indian reservation and shortly after that crest a rise to see a turquoise lake with a brown pyramid shaped island in the center. This is Pyramid Lake, bigger than Tahoe, almost more barren than Mono. A thousand pelicans flock at its southern end. It reminds me of scenes from sci-fi films of alien planets. </div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9XTBPTBZy6owvlT6riCHoDigMwyv65jxEVjFApH76jjJq8bJUP_TlAtN3wXx9P2A33JIDF9XidUO5HLuk-5zYDn56nt86zI8jWm0zLWd-dNm0wiYX9v5hjEttiT1McBjsxaEhEeedrpA/s1600/pyramid_lake_visitor_center.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9XTBPTBZy6owvlT6riCHoDigMwyv65jxEVjFApH76jjJq8bJUP_TlAtN3wXx9P2A33JIDF9XidUO5HLuk-5zYDn56nt86zI8jWm0zLWd-dNm0wiYX9v5hjEttiT1McBjsxaEhEeedrpA/s400/pyramid_lake_visitor_center.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>A strange building that looks like steps rises up from the sagebrush horizon. This is a new visitors' center for the lake, designed to look like the pyramid at the center. Unfortunately it's closed, but a sign outside gives us lots of information. We drive up to a village called Sutcliffe but "Hawkeye" and "Goes" are not as enchanted with the lake as I am, so soon we are on the road back to Reno. </div></div><div><br />
</div><div>Pictures below of Fort Churchill etc. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdTGx3puiMv54UPB5BqBd-oR1GTPG2YwcZ2tNet9YBdXDlUZKEJqNtCkYmtgpPVC4_HKaoxw-fr4j55LvIas2WGdwY0KUO8ajxG-Sj1EPnbcnDSbHX8FdijNJlzXKFCDGM_NM0fJ_u5k/s1600/fort_churchill_visitors_map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdTGx3puiMv54UPB5BqBd-oR1GTPG2YwcZ2tNet9YBdXDlUZKEJqNtCkYmtgpPVC4_HKaoxw-fr4j55LvIas2WGdwY0KUO8ajxG-Sj1EPnbcnDSbHX8FdijNJlzXKFCDGM_NM0fJ_u5k/s400/fort_churchill_visitors_map.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">plan of Fort Churchill<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74DeHOPHw2HTmoyv0Twi8Ed5EsLuwH1muWCLmMHqjwlohOOoJshLhkY2iWWNT1WAXEjECRLwXn9MprJFoD33g9GCzFa0-CkS5cdAokoS8yQ0-agRDJeIlYDtXT5kjeThoE9lRuTeDwLQ/s1600/fort_churchill_nv.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74DeHOPHw2HTmoyv0Twi8Ed5EsLuwH1muWCLmMHqjwlohOOoJshLhkY2iWWNT1WAXEjECRLwXn9MprJFoD33g9GCzFa0-CkS5cdAokoS8yQ0-agRDJeIlYDtXT5kjeThoE9lRuTeDwLQ/s400/fort_churchill_nv.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>view of the ruins with sign identifying what's what</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6b5L6EDHTOEzS97Ctai8_C0_sCahS5C3x0GicpRQWZSjfDs5lSaROdre3DJewgPoXC8-G1EXGtPTP-gyGtLyrGDEZCQb3FVza_q4RtTsk20BSCVOyu3H20SWpoDbbVOAAPc2LJgtnrI0/s1600/jeep_at_fort_churchill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6b5L6EDHTOEzS97Ctai8_C0_sCahS5C3x0GicpRQWZSjfDs5lSaROdre3DJewgPoXC8-G1EXGtPTP-gyGtLyrGDEZCQb3FVza_q4RtTsk20BSCVOyu3H20SWpoDbbVOAAPc2LJgtnrI0/s400/jeep_at_fort_churchill.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Visitor's center at Fort Churchill</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM26Y-s9-JioqU7YfNvqBUufDWxEj3V8wdjBzevX-7liqCOTYuWrse4N7UZIaG1d_g3uq2rz5Dz0cBPnBfwgu0Y8UyPP2xyp4C6eGEKIheSwQt0NE4cONFn8TR-r5Cy3U7zNBaKyPIuvI/s1600/brigadier_general_sylvester_churchill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM26Y-s9-JioqU7YfNvqBUufDWxEj3V8wdjBzevX-7liqCOTYuWrse4N7UZIaG1d_g3uq2rz5Dz0cBPnBfwgu0Y8UyPP2xyp4C6eGEKIheSwQt0NE4cONFn8TR-r5Cy3U7zNBaKyPIuvI/s400/brigadier_general_sylvester_churchill.jpg" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">portrait of Gen. Sylvester Churchill</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh64bjUwZuJriujCRlE8ishUofUJxI3cKZZtEvci0jxaT1Pxl3EzQ2qVbXsoK-dcBtJVKbdSiSwtWkeuyxzr4LaDuajxpTt_OTClbSJMBLKAvrMhMbMzsaxGDnZEjGksUGe4pF5PKlAvP0/s1600/stewarts_quarters_fort_churchill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh64bjUwZuJriujCRlE8ishUofUJxI3cKZZtEvci0jxaT1Pxl3EzQ2qVbXsoK-dcBtJVKbdSiSwtWkeuyxzr4LaDuajxpTt_OTClbSJMBLKAvrMhMbMzsaxGDnZEjGksUGe4pF5PKlAvP0/s400/stewarts_quarters_fort_churchill.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain Stewart's quarters. See the spittoon?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hQk2LSlhFoTT-sXezaXLV1V_lADUZzBFU3TZPmTpgjr-JKvruuai1gIlCRQFRpkNAuT1jG_T1S14cHWRLrk_Ahf7en0gyKnPomwUDmuL5wL5CFoys0jhW9En8zL_cxgptDJcZNtcA1o/s1600/pyramid_lake_visitor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hQk2LSlhFoTT-sXezaXLV1V_lADUZzBFU3TZPmTpgjr-JKvruuai1gIlCRQFRpkNAuT1jG_T1S14cHWRLrk_Ahf7en0gyKnPomwUDmuL5wL5CFoys0jhW9En8zL_cxgptDJcZNtcA1o/s400/pyramid_lake_visitor.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pyramid Lake visitor center sign</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4kNAD_zLbos-VcjMKI5Wtdl7Jtu2QfvrwgOH7c924V5s7hgzygRl7QQRHTWiE3DK_rclGdUSwgUHG8QlTvFbC0AZyA_bvaN9HtUHu8wfNG_aMnXXIFQaf2Rd_2YANBQ3p9FGIy1qrCKo/s1600/mountains_on_road_to_reno.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4kNAD_zLbos-VcjMKI5Wtdl7Jtu2QfvrwgOH7c924V5s7hgzygRl7QQRHTWiE3DK_rclGdUSwgUHG8QlTvFbC0AZyA_bvaN9HtUHu8wfNG_aMnXXIFQaf2Rd_2YANBQ3p9FGIy1qrCKo/s400/mountains_on_road_to_reno.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mountains on the road from Pyramid Lake to Reno</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLcKIHGaCeSSQekCWZ6IQwTH_50IeVa8h4MESth5l6oZ89zpBYnlsPvQLKcTb4s0jhDXbu_4DEZxfJd1nnvV-SPnrQn_jHTCFOZJP96TSqDFrx7jj7BjEu9Cu-I_YEGs81veNekh6BN6o/s1600/sugar_loaf_virginia_city.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLcKIHGaCeSSQekCWZ6IQwTH_50IeVa8h4MESth5l6oZ89zpBYnlsPvQLKcTb4s0jhDXbu_4DEZxfJd1nnvV-SPnrQn_jHTCFOZJP96TSqDFrx7jj7BjEu9Cu-I_YEGs81veNekh6BN6o/s400/sugar_loaf_virginia_city.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back to Virginia City</td></tr>
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</div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-80865252385735586132011-05-07T22:44:00.000+01:002011-05-07T22:44:13.707+01:00Old Carson City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfaT6xVOeN7XiY6ogdxlbozmLbLL9iudrdmHIPAGDh5Jl2PTwhlZLS8ABH9inTRCGr_oFihry0pxcWHCjtWHtWotFX_jk_EFPQ5Ez0bxFJgLbjCSFiNzDvZKPFad0GhnkKQlkoQiTCIY/s1600/caro_breakfast_BstBnB.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfaT6xVOeN7XiY6ogdxlbozmLbLL9iudrdmHIPAGDh5Jl2PTwhlZLS8ABH9inTRCGr_oFihry0pxcWHCjtWHtWotFX_jk_EFPQ5Ez0bxFJgLbjCSFiNzDvZKPFad0GhnkKQlkoQiTCIY/s200/caro_breakfast_BstBnB.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me eating breakfast at the B St B&B</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Carolyn Eichin of the <a href="http://www.BStreetHouse.com/">B Street B&B</a> is an extraordinary woman. Not only is she a superb cook, preparing the best breakfasts Richard and I have ever eaten, but she's an expert on Nevada history. She and her charming husband Chris told us about a lecture at the Nevada Textiles Archive in Carson City on the morning of Wednesday 3 May. After our exhausting adventure at Bodie it's nice to drive a couple of miles and hear about women's bonnets and men's top hats. I'm not allowed to post any pictures but I get some good ideas for hats to plonk on my characters' heads.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdUhd1Kbo_9kxEK1d6seFKCzNmpOu4TbeWxbJr1npjIr2IS7ux_5W_y_sbR7QTLlujcOs3WIeXJftp2DhuTob-K5YzcnVPrFs9cLBVlxjpFdnF0NeG6ITpUUiVLqSGWM8VI_5ZTkppMs/s1600/nevada_state_museum.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdUhd1Kbo_9kxEK1d6seFKCzNmpOu4TbeWxbJr1npjIr2IS7ux_5W_y_sbR7QTLlujcOs3WIeXJftp2DhuTob-K5YzcnVPrFs9cLBVlxjpFdnF0NeG6ITpUUiVLqSGWM8VI_5ZTkppMs/s200/nevada_state_museum.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nevada State Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>After the lecture we're shown the archives and delight in other period pieces of clothing. Then it's off to the Nevada State Museum, a modern black glass building next to the Carson City Mint. It's a great exhibition with lots of the types of artefacts I love. Some sasaparilla bottles, a stereoscopic viewer with an 1860s photo of Devil's Gate (on the road to Virginia City) and lots of buttons. I'm especially excited about the hundreds of buttons because in the second Western Mystery we discover that P.K. Pinkerton, my hero, is obsessed with collecting things. Like bugs, bullets and buttons. There is also a Smith & Wesson 7-shooter, P.K.'s gun. <i>(see bottom of this blog for pix)</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmknD6olf4HEJ-QHH3IISgpWxrk2MIRyFscGTIG7JSMgSvsZRX7UCF1S1xAu6Ct-j-Qq3D_92Q-NfuJWM2nQbZUG1_wpxmdHXAywO6eCXx5Pt9IKQb42shz9vSA3DZ0oXIY-cYDcENUY/s1600/orion_clemens_house.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvmknD6olf4HEJ-QHH3IISgpWxrk2MIRyFscGTIG7JSMgSvsZRX7UCF1S1xAu6Ct-j-Qq3D_92Q-NfuJWM2nQbZUG1_wpxmdHXAywO6eCXx5Pt9IKQb42shz9vSA3DZ0oXIY-cYDcENUY/s200/orion_clemens_house.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orion Clemens house in Carson City</td></tr>
</tbody></table>After the museum we take the walking tour of Old Carson City. Chris mentioned it as something worthwhile and is it ever! Especially on a beautiful spring day like today. They give us a map at the museum, but even if you didn't have the walking map you can follow the handy blue line painted onto the sidewalk. I especially wanted to see the house Orion Clemens lived in. He was Mark Twain's older brother, and secretary to Governor Nye in the early 1860s.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGnq5fyIfbOD9Gdkb8I9fafem4AsgihhH94HziRcI7EEzGH2SGdtQwOTq41FjLUAH9s29ayZeiJVnY-tO-pDyJSyKmEMEoDqHSxQoHmYKvUv2OhRt65dCQMSdGDiy_yX2RgtQNFbCrIk/s1600/carson_city_horse_hitchingpost.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGnq5fyIfbOD9Gdkb8I9fafem4AsgihhH94HziRcI7EEzGH2SGdtQwOTq41FjLUAH9s29ayZeiJVnY-tO-pDyJSyKmEMEoDqHSxQoHmYKvUv2OhRt65dCQMSdGDiy_yX2RgtQNFbCrIk/s200/carson_city_horse_hitchingpost.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">horsehead hitching post </td></tr>
</tbody></table>We also see the house from John Wayne's final film, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075213/">The Shootist</a>, along with houses belonging to characters who might appear in future Western Mysteries. After the challenge of high-altitude Bodie it is a joy to stroll through the leafy Victorian neighborhood of Old Carson City.<br />
<br />
Back to Virginia City in time for tea at the <a href="http://www.BStreetHouse.com/">B Street B&B</a>. Carolyn gives me an 1974 dissertation on Police, Water and Fire Departments in early Virginia City so I can get to grips with the structure of the town in the early 1860s. There aren't many places in the world where you can eat homemade tropical fruit macaroons and peruse a scholarly article both provided by the same talented lady. The <a href="http://www.BStreetHouse.com/">B Street B&B</a> is simply superb.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPcamOgtAYnS1gUJWcpUU-hRdW5zO8qQstnszMKodfy7Y4yGfqs9MACIqNUkzpx3U2CgUlBueZmwc6-r3xtxkXsOuVs_twILbnSd7Gweorwdkt476QiM1DBP5B_9rVdrZKixoyijf6Nk/s1600/carson_city_sarsaparilla_bottles.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPcamOgtAYnS1gUJWcpUU-hRdW5zO8qQstnszMKodfy7Y4yGfqs9MACIqNUkzpx3U2CgUlBueZmwc6-r3xtxkXsOuVs_twILbnSd7Gweorwdkt476QiM1DBP5B_9rVdrZKixoyijf6Nk/s400/carson_city_sarsaparilla_bottles.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">P.K. is partial to sasaparilla</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0fqPE5xmpAm9yqYv7Q9ggLi2hyLzb8j99w5ecSuUkDmqWlPzbuDsjRYD7qibA7_mB0ICD1iL3bq5iYhVWyUxWveTnO-yCjL9HjGXkJbcfwBQb6A0XLg6AOsULasxMzEYMvifF8g9Zrw/s1600/carson_city_badge_handcuffs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0fqPE5xmpAm9yqYv7Q9ggLi2hyLzb8j99w5ecSuUkDmqWlPzbuDsjRYD7qibA7_mB0ICD1iL3bq5iYhVWyUxWveTnO-yCjL9HjGXkJbcfwBQb6A0XLg6AOsULasxMzEYMvifF8g9Zrw/s400/carson_city_badge_handcuffs.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Badges weren't known in Virginia City until 1874<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrkpjbU2WC9MbN2iDTLd4S5TDVJn__uyOvox2JBOfvTrmCaSsFxY0kYRkzZBaWkCsvbUyDa-NhHXTsDT4AXQpg69qoGz-xd5gLtXDqbgLabP-cSP-dxv0lMFwe0QwezPK0rlUXGbk7CQ/s1600/carson_city_shoe_buttons.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihrkpjbU2WC9MbN2iDTLd4S5TDVJn__uyOvox2JBOfvTrmCaSsFxY0kYRkzZBaWkCsvbUyDa-NhHXTsDT4AXQpg69qoGz-xd5gLtXDqbgLabP-cSP-dxv0lMFwe0QwezPK0rlUXGbk7CQ/s400/carson_city_shoe_buttons.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">P.K. is obsessed with collecting things... like buttons</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI4bCGnqW2IZprKkPfvkV3q8i7jFlH8TLfhivDqyS6U61nraf4KD5-e7St1FWpLAzb1lS9W1JOlfETvKGMEWv01aNM_GkelUbOK07POnw9SOelPFbh1-fBZMHVjRff1YZAZ9K03OBjCzs/s1600/carson_city_stereoscopic_viewer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI4bCGnqW2IZprKkPfvkV3q8i7jFlH8TLfhivDqyS6U61nraf4KD5-e7St1FWpLAzb1lS9W1JOlfETvKGMEWv01aNM_GkelUbOK07POnw9SOelPFbh1-fBZMHVjRff1YZAZ9K03OBjCzs/s400/carson_city_stereoscopic_viewer.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stereoscopic viewer with picture of Devil's Gate</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwNJpXKmBzaXhVdSXzJla-pBci7MWSOyawIcfZ17EI9fJr8BK_hFhSEP0d28syj_Fh66G9rOrzOvyqUtZR_csd0zZeoXQYSs0a7PSqPrlW6YHcJv1zGeWVXhKr8dCt8ij392L6wnFq_Kk/s1600/smith_wesson_7shooter_nevada_state_museum.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwNJpXKmBzaXhVdSXzJla-pBci7MWSOyawIcfZ17EI9fJr8BK_hFhSEP0d28syj_Fh66G9rOrzOvyqUtZR_csd0zZeoXQYSs0a7PSqPrlW6YHcJv1zGeWVXhKr8dCt8ij392L6wnFq_Kk/s400/smith_wesson_7shooter_nevada_state_museum.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Smith & Wesson 7-shooter just like P.K.'s</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
</div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-3966868569284978892011-05-06T15:49:00.000+01:002011-05-06T15:52:41.936+01:00Bodie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58e_JXXzD08JetVLWiIqLkjA1hddxEDajd4CAYH1m1-b20jgKg6TI6i-O0EP8GKc-CSQsoE1TarpsqoUwvmH1ZlbQT8Tc5KeA1Q4H7MOYBKjuq6hGuc67oP1RprB3Ld0lLrVNurHEeaY/s1600/bodie_houses.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj58e_JXXzD08JetVLWiIqLkjA1hddxEDajd4CAYH1m1-b20jgKg6TI6i-O0EP8GKc-CSQsoE1TarpsqoUwvmH1ZlbQT8Tc5KeA1Q4H7MOYBKjuq6hGuc67oP1RprB3Ld0lLrVNurHEeaY/s400/bodie_houses.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bodie, ghost town of the gold fever era</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Ghost town experts will tell you that Bodie is one of the best if not THE best ghost town in the world. Located near Mono Lake on the California Nevada border, it was one of those old mining towns that sparked up like a flame, burnt brightly with gold fever, then flickered and died.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72kijAO60ilPMgkGsO55V6hxQWdIyJIXrHrs-KDLfDhLwIX1vvFoTvVPwbkYNxktSRPH3vmYgUHvKDvHOFlD2fST_8CVE0egSXqYC-__NaycFQLI7vEOpaTq5cij1fciInDvyw6DPxW4/s1600/road_to_bodie.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72kijAO60ilPMgkGsO55V6hxQWdIyJIXrHrs-KDLfDhLwIX1vvFoTvVPwbkYNxktSRPH3vmYgUHvKDvHOFlD2fST_8CVE0egSXqYC-__NaycFQLI7vEOpaTq5cij1fciInDvyw6DPxW4/s200/road_to_bodie.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Bodie is off the beaten track. On Tuesday 3 May 2011, it was particularly off the beaten track. Melting snow and mud meant visitors had to walk the last mile and a half of the dirt road just to reach the town. Parts of the road were dry, parts muddy quagmires, parts covered with snow that threatened to slip you up or swallow your foot up to mid shin as it broke through the icy crust. The high altitude makes your heart pump and has you gasping for air. It took us nearly an hour to walk that mile and a half.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfA03kYJMMsLRPJ7GBTt8LPCR-9Q9l2XykEcSmMyf2AgL_fj-VDOgyBVvrF4xOU3ORx0_GfdG-YntCf_3Ckj11h5nZKAO1Qr0A4sS6P0hRugBkv0OgcTUfS6D_NpxuSaPS0_Z8cweoaYk/s1600/bodie_IOOF.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfA03kYJMMsLRPJ7GBTt8LPCR-9Q9l2XykEcSmMyf2AgL_fj-VDOgyBVvrF4xOU3ORx0_GfdG-YntCf_3Ckj11h5nZKAO1Qr0A4sS6P0hRugBkv0OgcTUfS6D_NpxuSaPS0_Z8cweoaYk/s200/bodie_IOOF.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Once there we found the town only accessible in parts. Icy streams gushed on either side of the path and parts were marshy with water. Snow drifts huddled up against the northern exposures of crooked houses and buildings. The best footwear would have been Wellington boots as it was slippery, wet, treacherous. Of about a dozen other explorers, only a few wore adequate footwear. A German couple wore waxed hiking boots but I saw one girl in sandals and a young man had decided to go barefoot rather than ruin his shoes.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv5gNau15ikB80dRL8ZhLqpzY-_l0HEPV3UYTJ_2Vlu-JfSpcMzFj8qt25GeRzLKwMIC3ryf5-nVakZ_xfDZ53__MpIFKhWrs36MEPIkrM2AUaThRrB-St0uTtsXpic1Ir37Dnku0Mrn0/s1600/bodie_outhouses.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv5gNau15ikB80dRL8ZhLqpzY-_l0HEPV3UYTJ_2Vlu-JfSpcMzFj8qt25GeRzLKwMIC3ryf5-nVakZ_xfDZ53__MpIFKhWrs36MEPIkrM2AUaThRrB-St0uTtsXpic1Ir37Dnku0Mrn0/s200/bodie_outhouses.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>But it was worth it. This is what Virginia City would have looked like in about 1860, when the tents had given way to wood buildings but brick or stone edifices were still rare. Certain vistas reminded me of Grafton T. Brown's 1861 lithograph of Virginia City, where you can see outhouses and mine equipment behind frame houses on a steep hill. The boardwalk at Bodie was welcome and when we arrived in Virginia City later that day I realized how deadly her steep streets would have been with icy snow and mud on them.<br />
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The firehouse at Bodie was especially gratifying because it still had some hose carriages and jumpers inside, plus a row of hanging coal oil lamps. Here are a few more pictures of this amazing ghost town of the gold-fevered West.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk7BDJFd_sjr89351SPdieScxxZhplm7btPriOhhtGJcJPq2Xsyb2VhaFvB0Ry1GhQ6RbWxL3vcnAcHpyhGyikuawQok_6zM7DnkvmbY05aztMLl5YficS-0IvkP8CwOIjRoQ4ZPp1c1g/s1600/bodie_firehouse.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk7BDJFd_sjr89351SPdieScxxZhplm7btPriOhhtGJcJPq2Xsyb2VhaFvB0Ry1GhQ6RbWxL3vcnAcHpyhGyikuawQok_6zM7DnkvmbY05aztMLl5YficS-0IvkP8CwOIjRoQ4ZPp1c1g/s400/bodie_firehouse.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bodie's Firehouse on a snowy spring day</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVP8E7JlDKTKbBS3Byc6BYqGBuZUTACZlmvQfiRu4UW2P8KSRhcuDhZTJMYTI8OkmpkfhcD6kTMysvEzWZIrVscU6lmckFO1ELic9nIfiWEcwwilzkf6ytwHJX0-E-wA1vo57wrujzuw/s1600/bodie_lanterns.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVP8E7JlDKTKbBS3Byc6BYqGBuZUTACZlmvQfiRu4UW2P8KSRhcuDhZTJMYTI8OkmpkfhcD6kTMysvEzWZIrVscU6lmckFO1ELic9nIfiWEcwwilzkf6ytwHJX0-E-wA1vo57wrujzuw/s320/bodie_lanterns.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coal oil lamps in Bodie's firehouse</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeO2PoI0iMZqtI1-Xyril1zF_bcfo72sLf5-ysMOBAb75MDMXxZ8QVo_3X4ixiM2LsNiAT_1C_6y67dKzypBGNAdd75JJZvLGLOB3RgH6aBTTOaKQnrkj9yNXlJEi_qXB7RgJamPzKVg/s1600/bodie_mines.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWeO2PoI0iMZqtI1-Xyril1zF_bcfo72sLf5-ysMOBAb75MDMXxZ8QVo_3X4ixiM2LsNiAT_1C_6y67dKzypBGNAdd75JJZvLGLOB3RgH6aBTTOaKQnrkj9yNXlJEi_qXB7RgJamPzKVg/s400/bodie_mines.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bodie's firehouse with Mine Buildings behind</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6QyH9SmephYLdETrowKcL80WqnMQA85NsYULX7tpFXMz3ac8fooQZGmezlhB_FvPT8cdgIqwueeI46ZzeV0DdsvdE9yFi3mUICmcC3heNF9p_Mhcz-QSCpcyb3cZQFcd5iziUOl7LC-M/s1600/caro_bodie_boardwalk.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6QyH9SmephYLdETrowKcL80WqnMQA85NsYULX7tpFXMz3ac8fooQZGmezlhB_FvPT8cdgIqwueeI46ZzeV0DdsvdE9yFi3mUICmcC3heNF9p_Mhcz-QSCpcyb3cZQFcd5iziUOl7LC-M/s400/caro_bodie_boardwalk.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Bodie's boardwalk 3 May 2011</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-DG0CcM0_aCjOXoQHVfLn5gPnDoLb34-n7KjwcGcVDqXjrWj62tRyyRfzCO_Qc8A-UKXL2tIxMeOUJ7nktHJnqXVB_d2thjxQBkDm-q8l5hsKGCuzBke6Pt7SyD45zEBarGgeS3pGSA/s1600/rich_jen_bodie.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-DG0CcM0_aCjOXoQHVfLn5gPnDoLb34-n7KjwcGcVDqXjrWj62tRyyRfzCO_Qc8A-UKXL2tIxMeOUJ7nktHJnqXVB_d2thjxQBkDm-q8l5hsKGCuzBke6Pt7SyD45zEBarGgeS3pGSA/s400/rich_jen_bodie.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard & Jennifer enjoying a breather</td></tr>
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</div></div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-66198301496189040622011-05-04T17:15:00.000+01:002011-05-16T20:30:42.459+01:00Eastern Sierra Adventure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiObz4CPm9gfUS1wpu4b4KgXgu69_GcrMCT-EHY7Q-IhnPEQk_5We7RdTQI6vLP6DqfA_rq-2dkVpkLGUoXk-8VfBk8BA2b9McqMw5cvftxPyH4ceYbTnFbbLyDOUVjzLHoLHbtdCk7RfY/s1600/ghost_town.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiObz4CPm9gfUS1wpu4b4KgXgu69_GcrMCT-EHY7Q-IhnPEQk_5We7RdTQI6vLP6DqfA_rq-2dkVpkLGUoXk-8VfBk8BA2b9McqMw5cvftxPyH4ceYbTnFbbLyDOUVjzLHoLHbtdCk7RfY/s400/ghost_town.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robber's Roost on the 395</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The Cowboy Poetry Festival is over and it's Monday morning. Time for our road trip up the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains to Virginia City, where I want to do some more research on my<a href="http://www.westernmysteries.com/"> Western Mysteries</a> series of books for kids.<br />
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My sidekick is my husband Richard. His Indian name is "Goes the Wrong Way". My Indian name is "Stands in Confusion". So it's just as well that my sister Jennifer is with us. Her Indian name is "Hawkeye". If we were on a wagon train west, "Goes" and I would be the ones travelling in circles and just missing all the waterholes. Hawkeye would be our driver, scout and hunter. She's the one who sees all the little critters on the ground even though she's busy driving.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgng99vDUIcEHg1Y4jnUvvpJ4oUotUL_wj2RC564JGXJnIW7F0cHBnBJB8WEpUDP561zWX-z0WwfZ22Em06DN9Qv9ATCqhpSGC0-ygR7771HuUGmleTguxBVK8UWUYm6sfGaTtSAuzr9Jc/s1600/jeep_vasquez_rocks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgng99vDUIcEHg1Y4jnUvvpJ4oUotUL_wj2RC564JGXJnIW7F0cHBnBJB8WEpUDP561zWX-z0WwfZ22Em06DN9Qv9ATCqhpSGC0-ygR7771HuUGmleTguxBVK8UWUYm6sfGaTtSAuzr9Jc/s200/jeep_vasquez_rocks.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Which brings us to our transport. It's a cramped rental with a parsimonious front window. Front window size is important for me, because I have to be in the back seat. But Hawkeye rings the car rental agency in Valencia and asks if she can change it. They say yes. She and I drive there to find our proper transport waiting happily. An adventurous little silver Jeep. And nobody else has reserved it. We can have it if we want it. We do.<br />
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Every long journey must begin with farewell to family and a fortifying meal. So Hawkeye, Goes and I meet my Santa Clarita family for brunch at the Egg Plantation. What a great place! The English manager gives us our own private area out back and we have a real pioneer meal of three egg omellettes, pancakes and coffee and EVERYBODY IS HAPPY. Bittersweet farewells to those we have to leave behind then off to Adventure in our silver Jeep.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_s2-ywKdJD9WAbEOJRYtG8r1MY4w5gVCfvkph1GA3OjZZMpXJHiihhRPaXQQiRJA2JHbCYb2XFuis1DU14O721-91CpCJJnod-C8wYnFimNbsVk9K2H1xbXFgF9guJqXiDrUkiMPwLEI/s1600/gorn_kirk_vasquez_rocks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_s2-ywKdJD9WAbEOJRYtG8r1MY4w5gVCfvkph1GA3OjZZMpXJHiihhRPaXQQiRJA2JHbCYb2XFuis1DU14O721-91CpCJJnod-C8wYnFimNbsVk9K2H1xbXFgF9guJqXiDrUkiMPwLEI/s200/gorn_kirk_vasquez_rocks.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>An hour or two later we are heading east on Highway 14. Our first Adventure is spotting Vasquez Rocks off to the north of the highway. Hawkeye is a relaxed sort of person and has never been there before, so we nip off the highway and find it. Vasquez Rocks are famous for being the location of many, many films, especially Star Trek films. Especially the episode Arena, where Kirk battles a Gorn. (left) When "Goes" and I went on the Santa Clarita Valley film tour, our guide was telling us about some funky cafes in the area and I thought he mentioned one called the "Gorn Cafe". When I found out I misheard I was so disappointed. "Gorn Cafe" denied!<br />
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After Acton, Highway 14 turns north and takes you past the towns of Palmdale and Acton. Edwards Airforce base is on your right and Reefer City a blur on the left. After Mojave you start seeing Joshua trees and now you are in the desert proper. At Indian Wells near Inyokern we join up with the 395, which will take us virtually the rest of the way.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4BVVGOYST0Dgc9xH1IS031gAAPQtKVwXiKaGcojQdd9ASNUFCU386yT4UoQ-nbaNK9ooXzs9vHYh-Rzpct2E_Vq2ZN1moliMiLehfD2C1RSBV94mNXoVfMk_yUZJAhcNbs1Q3nBR_4c/s1600/red_rock_canyon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM4BVVGOYST0Dgc9xH1IS031gAAPQtKVwXiKaGcojQdd9ASNUFCU386yT4UoQ-nbaNK9ooXzs9vHYh-Rzpct2E_Vq2ZN1moliMiLehfD2C1RSBV94mNXoVfMk_yUZJAhcNbs1Q3nBR_4c/s200/red_rock_canyon.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Red Rock Canyon takes us all by surprise, even Hawkeye. There is nobody else there, just a pair of fishermen packing up their tackle. Like Vasquez Rocks, it's another favorite with Hollywood. Films like Jurassic Park, Westworld and The Mummy were all shot here. One of the fishermen tells us not to miss Lone Pine further up the road. It's the site of a movie museum. We look at Red Rock Canyon, then pile back in our silver Jeep.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9no2oVaY-oSYt2gPDuMPvSG9cEwwo6Pxc701WqAv9E7Xjj6VYoC_7NnfpV8UQO9hesM9aTEqFsQyTzi83Aanvp0imnZCYKGXOD4_-pU5Dy1hnI-KPrQH9eh_1XK9aklCgTZcuYUw1cm0/s1600/roscoe_precious.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9no2oVaY-oSYt2gPDuMPvSG9cEwwo6Pxc701WqAv9E7Xjj6VYoC_7NnfpV8UQO9hesM9aTEqFsQyTzi83Aanvp0imnZCYKGXOD4_-pU5Dy1hnI-KPrQH9eh_1XK9aklCgTZcuYUw1cm0/s200/roscoe_precious.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>Then one of those straight highways right out of the American Myth. An empty ribbon of road stretching to the horizon with desert, mountains, a blue sky... and a Free Ghost town? Whiskey Flats is owned by Roscoe and his bitch Precious. You have to stop and visit his Antique Shop. The sign outside says: Buy Something. Buy Anything! I love the way he labels everything with signs: Hanging Tree, Cowboy Tower, Jail, House, Wagon. He came to say hi even though he's closed on Mondays. An historic plaque tells us this used to be known as Mojave Station.<br />
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Lone Pine is a gem of a town on a flat ribbon of highway with the Sierra Nevadas rearing up on one side and farms and ranches on the other. It is another popular spot for movie makers and every September is host to the Lone Pine Film Festival. You will also find the Beverley & Jim Rogers Museum of Film History. Full of posters, props and other memorabilia of B, C and D Westerns and other films made here. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that part of Iron Man was filmed here. Those mountains aren't Afghanistan. They're the Eastern Sierra Nevadas. Jagged, blue, snow-capped, breathtaking.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLw66lp7q5sNYrM8s4rM-eiLuPiAgO-mztHYjHOGXWqs6njk1tcMqcyqJUvejGsjDv1N98Pu0zMoPPG6Q0T5F04Y_SpirmFP-gp1hqEk3mSmBKDvAoPaMR2Y43l2wH3ZgoLHhO812B90c/s1600/tony_stark_afghanistan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLw66lp7q5sNYrM8s4rM-eiLuPiAgO-mztHYjHOGXWqs6njk1tcMqcyqJUvejGsjDv1N98Pu0zMoPPG6Q0T5F04Y_SpirmFP-gp1hqEk3mSmBKDvAoPaMR2Y43l2wH3ZgoLHhO812B90c/s400/tony_stark_afghanistan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iron Man was filmed near Lone Pine, not Afghanistan</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
After Lone Pine, the 395 chases the exciting West Walker River which jumps and froths and leaps, full of all that icy snowmelt. This is the place to put on your waist high rubber boots and go fishing for trout. We take a quick detour to Mammoth Lakes, which is a big disappointment. It's bristling with hotels and ski lodges... but nary a lake. Quickly back on the 395 to Lee Vining, the town on the shores of America's Dead Sea, Mono Lake. We arrive around 8.00 at dusk. It is cold and crisp up here with snow on the mountains and the scent of pine resin.<br />
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There are a handful of motels there but only one place to eat, Nicely's. This will be our stopping place before we press on to Virginia City.<br />
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</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-33973561049691914022011-05-03T15:47:00.000+01:002011-05-04T06:20:28.399+01:00Cowboy Fest 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBJ8bHlIeGVzMmQDBBp3LIpyCTK6hyphenhyphenxdWtAeMSSnr8aDjxTmR8Kwh1ntu_AwT9X6LdjVpJ3zn6Arlx7PlVXdFuCRZd0be2cEmfSVoa13cW8usSJ01GmHaejA2Ft4QM7z1GUbQvH84EAs/s1600/camptown_caro_dave_.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBJ8bHlIeGVzMmQDBBp3LIpyCTK6hyphenhyphenxdWtAeMSSnr8aDjxTmR8Kwh1ntu_AwT9X6LdjVpJ3zn6Arlx7PlVXdFuCRZd0be2cEmfSVoa13cW8usSJ01GmHaejA2Ft4QM7z1GUbQvH84EAs/s200/camptown_caro_dave_.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Wow! Another ripsnorting weekend at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival!<br />
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Even before the weekend started we took a <a href="http://tomboycowgirl.blogspot.com/2011/04/santa-clarita-films.html">Tour of Santa Clarita Valley film studios</a> and sights on Thursday 28 April and on Friday evening we attended the <a href="http://tomboycowgirl.blogspot.com/2011/05/melody-ranch-movie-night-2011.html">Melody Ranch Movie Night</a>, a fun open-air dinner on main street of a western town, followed by a screening of the film "Stagecoach".<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9E4z5cw53LSTOakLUJREB7xosAZzOh0YgrL6LIex1BvwKzHyVXLF_6EOqufyiNcomJCBNLvF13mT7dVJGbJC87jRYVXk78ISht7bBW8j9q6I6PWXiwXOGclPCc_hsiQO15Fip34E8gps/s1600/als_balcony.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9E4z5cw53LSTOakLUJREB7xosAZzOh0YgrL6LIex1BvwKzHyVXLF_6EOqufyiNcomJCBNLvF13mT7dVJGbJC87jRYVXk78ISht7bBW8j9q6I6PWXiwXOGclPCc_hsiQO15Fip34E8gps/s200/als_balcony.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>My highlights of the weekend proper were the Behind the Scenes Tour of Melody Ranch. We found out where Al Swearengen drank his coffee, where Wu kept his pigs and lots of other fascinating facts about the history of the site.<br />
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A new event sponsored by Buckaroo Book Shop (AKA OutWest) were some literary panels. I especially loved the discussion of True Grit, comparing the two films to the book. It was chaired by <a href="http://www.ccourtneyjoyner.com/">C. Courtney Joyner</a> who told us things I never knew, e.g. that Charles Portis himself wrote the alternate ending for the John Wayne version of the film!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDliQ5WCRfRpXb0npiovMjLlMVzDaANMHlkxP4W2u_VPW4eS6jQ0qwxtccDHCRmAl1-ahQsiGElG-RAAU4p2E32lckmelMx-wP7ZAtKrAy0MI6UfVRGdD3ymn_fvXpiRKYVA4Oom5urI/s1600/ann_with_hat.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDliQ5WCRfRpXb0npiovMjLlMVzDaANMHlkxP4W2u_VPW4eS6jQ0qwxtccDHCRmAl1-ahQsiGElG-RAAU4p2E32lckmelMx-wP7ZAtKrAy0MI6UfVRGdD3ymn_fvXpiRKYVA4Oom5urI/s200/ann_with_hat.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>I was there with my husband Richard and sister Jennifer. We heard some of our favorite musicans, like the Brass Band of California who are always lively, funny and accurate. (I got some tips about 1860s Music Hall traditions.) We also managed to catch Wylie and the Wild West and the Hot Club of Cowtown. I missed Sourdough Slim and his saw-playing sidekick, but Richard and Jennifer loved them.<br />
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It was great to meet re-enactors like the Buffalo Soldiers and <a href="http://www.natural-fiber-arts.com/">Ann Dinsdale</a>, <i>(above)</i>, who was spinning and weaving on the porch next to Sheriff Bullock's house.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEwAJUapmpKbqO72mAfuE9y1pRogU9j3418malfnIHnxNpIwffqwfO-ETGWvN7eoSRTD4xLx7osvFevonfrLA_xQYzLr0lknTW44ny32Smf5itSj9hb0Ol4O8-hBs4dM7HlQK-GTANRw/s1600/hurdy_girls.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhEwAJUapmpKbqO72mAfuE9y1pRogU9j3418malfnIHnxNpIwffqwfO-ETGWvN7eoSRTD4xLx7osvFevonfrLA_xQYzLr0lknTW44ny32Smf5itSj9hb0Ol4O8-hBs4dM7HlQK-GTANRw/s200/hurdy_girls.JPG" width="141" /></a></div>The merchandise was another highlight, too. I was tempted by a coyote pelt, but ended up buying a beautiful carpetbag from Jerry Tarantino. I can use it to carry my spittoon to school events and literary festivals when I promote my Western Mysteries in costume.<br />
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Food'n'drink were great, too. There's nothing like drinking coffee from a tin mug and eating peach cobbler while listening to Don Edwards over on the Main Stage.<br />
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It was great to meet some old friends and also to make new ones. I've never been anywhere as friendly and fun as the Cowboy Festival. Here Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the fun we had! Yee-haw!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkGAM0PpyEt92K8X9J0GP1emDX1NM2p3zedhWQzbfeFbFiOCw5zBxusOJfIq2eulHytzIq_u3uzMMDL4peNdJNoJ8228RbABFFVY8Jw8MY1Q-2ieOvO_IaBal-MblPtOsjBl96AhYAmBs/s1600/cowboy_punk.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkGAM0PpyEt92K8X9J0GP1emDX1NM2p3zedhWQzbfeFbFiOCw5zBxusOJfIq2eulHytzIq_u3uzMMDL4peNdJNoJ8228RbABFFVY8Jw8MY1Q-2ieOvO_IaBal-MblPtOsjBl96AhYAmBs/s400/cowboy_punk.JPG" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Punk cowboys were in evidence!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxbEO0N27bVncXYy0_t4JVpfBL8B2e-Vx3emV426DpoFdjxLbzas5GqJBEFon3_-K7iVlpt1zODji26elC_m-jIFM5MnkeaHC0KXILf3zzWZyDm8aWVHrQ5kFL8gVoeZ8jb7AUaWVEM6c/s1600/hustead_ropes_us.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxbEO0N27bVncXYy0_t4JVpfBL8B2e-Vx3emV426DpoFdjxLbzas5GqJBEFon3_-K7iVlpt1zODji26elC_m-jIFM5MnkeaHC0KXILf3zzWZyDm8aWVHrQ5kFL8gVoeZ8jb7AUaWVEM6c/s400/hustead_ropes_us.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Hustead lassoes us!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWEu7ovpgo040neMf0MC-HYw9VVKwGtjTpqzKHW3jG5EMc_xBrOWb3dNtSpiy8kmncDd-UOzCpaNfxoMuvsOsh9roMhoufs2_vi4aFNXHpx2F9WZv6BoU1Ui8WZV_6B-fe1GWLmnvEKQ/s1600/wild_bill_scarlet_lady.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWEu7ovpgo040neMf0MC-HYw9VVKwGtjTpqzKHW3jG5EMc_xBrOWb3dNtSpiy8kmncDd-UOzCpaNfxoMuvsOsh9roMhoufs2_vi4aFNXHpx2F9WZv6BoU1Ui8WZV_6B-fe1GWLmnvEKQ/s400/wild_bill_scarlet_lady.JPG" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild Bill Hickock got himself a Lady friend!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmUkevnI9tok1xsUlxxD26YoqTsaNv9mZEjctA6OJ_2V5-4crwamq1HiUEpukzaZp21q7OHIhYb3CdGiN_U8W1dc7U9eTOXl5ZmCNJgaNtP91IRmfBZcASJ8v9oJ8r9yYyULJq_FW89Q/s1600/scrimshaw_rick.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmUkevnI9tok1xsUlxxD26YoqTsaNv9mZEjctA6OJ_2V5-4crwamq1HiUEpukzaZp21q7OHIhYb3CdGiN_U8W1dc7U9eTOXl5ZmCNJgaNtP91IRmfBZcASJ8v9oJ8r9yYyULJq_FW89Q/s400/scrimshaw_rick.JPG" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scrimshaw Rick shoots, skins and makes his clothes himself!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Eg72G5jkX8ySSntY2MzQKyQH0ac0Udxk0xq0osPwHF7hp29dCFYgXaGj8-PAHh_XwpzNHaEDOSP8m47dlXhf1jvVprjyJECV7nwUAVk6XWvz6U0MCop-yXLR9vw0S2gGzOqRhTgP1Nc/s1600/period_couple_melody.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Eg72G5jkX8ySSntY2MzQKyQH0ac0Udxk0xq0osPwHF7hp29dCFYgXaGj8-PAHh_XwpzNHaEDOSP8m47dlXhf1jvVprjyJECV7nwUAVk6XWvz6U0MCop-yXLR9vw0S2gGzOqRhTgP1Nc/s400/period_couple_melody.JPG" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some people were totally authentic!<br />
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</tbody></table>But everybody had a great time. Can't wait till 2012... Yee-haw!</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-53355786770482572682011-05-01T16:17:00.000+01:002011-05-01T16:20:52.884+01:00Melody Ranch Movie Night 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJW8BiHBy1eyOtQxpgIgHC5wLquiYN5RTpOmx3LJKm_xC436r_HF45bM1epoxWq1RTP8PkL8ZA8_UqUvOZ7nEUJDJn1RlU3GNTE46yG3NplyGceYdFcxnly-xBY9pAsDiZhuM5xweQsQ/s1600/melody_ranch_sundown.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJW8BiHBy1eyOtQxpgIgHC5wLquiYN5RTpOmx3LJKm_xC436r_HF45bM1epoxWq1RTP8PkL8ZA8_UqUvOZ7nEUJDJn1RlU3GNTE46yG3NplyGceYdFcxnly-xBY9pAsDiZhuM5xweQsQ/s200/melody_ranch_sundown.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Last year (2010) my faithful sidekick Richard and I had a great time at the <a href="http://tomboycowgirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/high-noon-at-cowboy-festival.html">Melody Ranch Movie Night</a>. It's part of the <a href="http://www.cowboyfestival.org/">Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival</a> my husband and I are attending. This is the one weekend a year you can tread the streets of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047736/">Gunsmoke</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348914/">HBO's Deadwood</a>. As we're back at the festival we signed up for this year's movie night, Friday 29 April 2011. Once again, we had a great time.<br />
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Last year we got rides to and from the shuttle pick-up point thanks to the kindness of strangers. This year, too. Show cowboy John Hustead gave us a ride there in his pickup truck and Agua Dulce residents Paul and Carrie Riley gave us a lift back. Thanks, kind strangers who are now friends!<br />
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Last year we got a thrill arriving on the streets of "Deadwood" at sunset. Same thrill this year.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeEBi_QuFlQXitEyOnChA8A3ObjflZhKxSCaJag-Kl9jIwvEZRFlwQmkNwCaD5WfRa6Nr0UjVDwZyLOFPq-lBxt8dyrqjNuP-mMV-CJiHCtq3y1Bbx0wu91Ab1LqaowihWK3XCPXgEFDE/s1600/movie_night_food_line.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeEBi_QuFlQXitEyOnChA8A3ObjflZhKxSCaJag-Kl9jIwvEZRFlwQmkNwCaD5WfRa6Nr0UjVDwZyLOFPq-lBxt8dyrqjNuP-mMV-CJiHCtq3y1Bbx0wu91Ab1LqaowihWK3XCPXgEFDE/s200/movie_night_food_line.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>Last year we met some great Western movie fans. Some in costume, some not. Among them was western reporter Mark Bedor who told us to go to White Stallion Dude Ranch in Arizona. This year we were able to tell him we had followed his advice!<br />
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Last year I bought a fancy fringed buckskin jacket made by Tribe. This year I wore it and got lots of compliments. That jacket is a great ice-breaker.<br />
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Last year we ate some delicious food: salads, fried chicken, roast pork & beans, plus coffee in a souvenir mug. Same this year: the food was excellent.<br />
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Last year we watched "High Noon" after a fascinating introduction to the film. This year we saw "Stagecoach" after hearing an original ode to John Wayne, composed and recited by Larry Maurice.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilE4xKwsFg2PGFRqS3TSwz8vAdY5J_tMBme0UAJ3G3a4mDPlnBqPWjcdAebAyPy1Kd3W2U7xZEi0xYjE0iQ3yFAcxTPXYyV0qSxrRDyzYprxMDUki7KBd6jwwc90FFaV3eAQ1kYsHf8AU/s1600/movie_night_intro.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilE4xKwsFg2PGFRqS3TSwz8vAdY5J_tMBme0UAJ3G3a4mDPlnBqPWjcdAebAyPy1Kd3W2U7xZEi0xYjE0iQ3yFAcxTPXYyV0qSxrRDyzYprxMDUki7KBd6jwwc90FFaV3eAQ1kYsHf8AU/s200/movie_night_intro.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br />
Last year we enjoyed the comments, applause and laughter of a lively crowd. Same this year. Especially some of the comments offered up.<br />
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2011's Melody Ranch Movie Night was a great night out. Just like last year. Only one small fly in the ointment: it got durned chilly sitting out there on the Main Street of Deadwood. But you pays your money and you takes your chances. Next time I'll bring something to keep me warm. Now what was the cowboy version of a hot water bottle? </div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-69019080038782738762011-04-30T00:13:00.000+01:002011-04-30T06:31:36.881+01:00Santa Clarita Films<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This year the <a href="http://www.cowboyfestival.org/">Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival</a> offered a new event - the SCV (Santa Clarita Valley) Film Tour.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNWjI9YRJP5QyZE1nfbEO7qCNYAzLcyNcdCm8dS1GfF14u2zX23Hc5Qwb7KQsI5sJQ1HdTO1U0r5DjEOENGkrNmIB-Kghf2HwmziAIUZy1I6xXARFZwFgWIakQzudA-BaZuIX3n1_C5Y/s1600/newhall_sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNWjI9YRJP5QyZE1nfbEO7qCNYAzLcyNcdCm8dS1GfF14u2zX23Hc5Qwb7KQsI5sJQ1HdTO1U0r5DjEOENGkrNmIB-Kghf2HwmziAIUZy1I6xXARFZwFgWIakQzudA-BaZuIX3n1_C5Y/s200/newhall_sign.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>Santa Clarita Valley, on the outskirts of LA, is like Hollywood's back yard. It has been used for films since the beginning of the film industry in Southern California. Some have even dubbed this area "Newhall-ywood". (Newhall is one of the several towns that make up the city of Santa Clarita.) The 55 of us who had booked the tour met at Heritage Junction, the old Railway station. There we watched a few clips from movies filmed at the station itself (e.g. Frank Sinatra in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047542/">Suddenly</a>, Charlie Chaplin in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014358/">The Pilgrim</a> and John Cusack in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099703/">The Grifters</a>) as well as scenes from the surrounding area. The most popular clip was that of Kirk fighting a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708418/">Gorn</a> at Vasquez Rocks, from a Classic Star Trek episode, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708418/">Arena</a>. After the clips, we filed out to the waiting bus, popping our tickets into a spittoon & getting a brown bag snack in return.<br />
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Our guide was E.J. Stephens, a knowledgable and enthusiastic lecturer from the <a href="http://www.scvhs.org/">Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society</a>. We spent an hour at the NCIS set at Valencia Studios then another two hours driving around the hills while E.J. pointed out features of interest.<br />
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Here are fifteen fascinating facts I learned from the tour:<br />
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1. Apart from Melody Ranch (the venue of the <a href="http://www.cowboyfestival.org/">Cowboy Festival</a>) there are dozens of other film ranches and <a href="http://www.filmsantaclarita.com/Index.aspx?page=10&recordid=10663">studios</a> dotted around Santa Clarita: Valencia Studios, Blue Cloud Ranch, Sable Ranch, Disney's Golden Oak Ranch, Firestone Ranch, to name a few. Many residents are totally unaware of their existence.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuwSlJ_oEqIkWGcIjnz_GSbGOwT7cU1PdKrE3Cqz11disfhUNfc9r5fxrHoomkeB54MLC2_C8_AfT02zOriuRFfGv_WHTwk-ikJqrArx2nuKBW1aQyObpq34mZGNV2E0z-9vWDJXYZsP4/s1600/lynn_valencia_studios.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuwSlJ_oEqIkWGcIjnz_GSbGOwT7cU1PdKrE3Cqz11disfhUNfc9r5fxrHoomkeB54MLC2_C8_AfT02zOriuRFfGv_WHTwk-ikJqrArx2nuKBW1aQyObpq34mZGNV2E0z-9vWDJXYZsP4/s200/lynn_valencia_studios.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>2. NCIS is filmed at Valencia Studios. Set designer Lynn Wolverton Parker generously spent an hour showing us the sets and props, which was fun for fans of the series.<br />
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3.The final sequence in the very last silent film was shot on the Sierra Highway: Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard walking into the sunrise in the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027977/">Modern Times</a>.<br />
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4. The hit TV series <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1489428/">Justified</a> is not filmed in Harlan County, Kentucky, but right here at Santa Clarita Studios.<br />
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5. The high school in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/">Pleasantville</a> is Valencia High School.<br />
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6. James Dean possibly ate his <a href="http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/sg093005-dean.htm">last meal</a> at Tip's Restaurant (now Marie Callender's)<br />
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7. Some scenes of Twilight (those meant to be Arizona) were filmed in and around the Hyatt Valencia.<br />
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8. <a href="http://www.halfwayhousecafe.com/">The Halfway House Cafe</a> (halfway between L.A. and Palmdale) has appeared in so many films that they have a whole page of film clips and stills on their website.<br />
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9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/">The Birds</a> actress <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tippi_Hedren">Tippi Hedren</a> has a big cat sanctuary called <a href="http://www.shambala.org/">Shambala</a> in the hills. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of lions on the metrolink train just before it gets into Palmdale.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTrVQ8XdoSjHb41tVHRvCF7AtON_BZGTbSOryXFtfrn7g9bPfvFMsM9qpappDbkpTC9bpoxdZVOghxrCkAHWqrUihOCemyMHNcaSgB9Q8BIAx9bqLB7Rmy9EIkdy2gyJHwkFe8ZBvmRA/s1600/vasquez_rocks02.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTrVQ8XdoSjHb41tVHRvCF7AtON_BZGTbSOryXFtfrn7g9bPfvFMsM9qpappDbkpTC9bpoxdZVOghxrCkAHWqrUihOCemyMHNcaSgB9Q8BIAx9bqLB7Rmy9EIkdy2gyJHwkFe8ZBvmRA/s200/vasquez_rocks02.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>10. The famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasquez_Rocks">Vasquez Rocks</a> are named after a bandit who hid out there for a while. He was later hung.<br />
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11. The man in the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708418/">Gorn</a> suit is named Bobby Clarke and still lives in Santa Clarita.<br />
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12. There is a gibbon preserve up in the hills near Vasquez Rocks.<br />
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13. Steven Spielberg filmed most of his first movie, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/">Duel</a>, on the roads around Santa Clarita Valley. At the end of the film, the demon truck falls over dramatic cliff at Mystery Mesa on <a href="http://www.sosfilmworks.com/mmcliff.html">Agua Dulce Movie Ranch</a>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjVcy5iAiewvfaKrkurqLqz30QRRyYNc4pSb27HVr_0DVVLagqTDkXmSgEDQOuYGOm86AimUk6HRa5s3x0LWXit5enUp0c6D3VzU__A2kN-RVn7ZXmkPXtqhH-ahuDab1sJOveFMzqtU/s1600/beales_cut_1872.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjVcy5iAiewvfaKrkurqLqz30QRRyYNc4pSb27HVr_0DVVLagqTDkXmSgEDQOuYGOm86AimUk6HRa5s3x0LWXit5enUp0c6D3VzU__A2kN-RVn7ZXmkPXtqhH-ahuDab1sJOveFMzqtU/s200/beales_cut_1872.jpg" width="159" /></a></div>14. Mystery Mesa has also featured in Iron Man, Thor, etc. According to E.J., it was saved from development thanks to the presence of "sea monkeys", an amazing type of brine shrimp that can lie dormant for years until water is added and they revive. If a film-maker ever needs a handy cliff, that's the place to go.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">15. Beale's Cut (above) was is a deep cut in a pass made by Phineas Banning in 1854 as part of a road he built to provide service to Fort Tejon. Originally made for real stagecoaches, it appears in the 1939 John Wayne film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/">Stagecoach</a> and many others. Today it is on private property. </div><br />
Thanks to E.J., his wife Kimi, Lynn Wolverton Parker, the organizers at the <a href="http://www.cowboyfestival.org/schedule.asp">Cowboy Festival</a> and the <a href="http://www.scvhs.org/">Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society</a> for a great tour!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinzuvkrkPDqNS4Y8XBeWBgr_La8VhWkIDKVSM7Y3ceDLuuu3DczXcaUslUaXbyztr1rB4VAPn_iRto6MzFnZvUVGupxHwqKcV0KdbDJnNiuzqd6_a9zjxQHZzikYq_sYykqE1qtN_hGKQ/s1600/caro_rich_valencia_studios.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinzuvkrkPDqNS4Y8XBeWBgr_La8VhWkIDKVSM7Y3ceDLuuu3DczXcaUslUaXbyztr1rB4VAPn_iRto6MzFnZvUVGupxHwqKcV0KdbDJnNiuzqd6_a9zjxQHZzikYq_sYykqE1qtN_hGKQ/s320/caro_rich_valencia_studios.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard and Caroline at Valencia Studios</td></tr>
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</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-2251522387287055732011-04-19T09:38:00.000+01:002011-04-19T10:12:51.492+01:00Sweetgrass<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVaOhJXaRkvi9Fo018lMhpWdVNF8EpdjHMkuhLGDyM19Pqh560Wwy-DkPfMVqDKpCiTL-AYVEKLkK9nUppQApKnbq9im1Vj81kw_Bdoeivy2peDqkh6s1_QVT23glxbUT4uTrOdiClX4U/s1600/sheep_from_sweetgrass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVaOhJXaRkvi9Fo018lMhpWdVNF8EpdjHMkuhLGDyM19Pqh560Wwy-DkPfMVqDKpCiTL-AYVEKLkK9nUppQApKnbq9im1Vj81kw_Bdoeivy2peDqkh6s1_QVT23glxbUT4uTrOdiClX4U/s200/sheep_from_sweetgrass.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>This is my Western decade, and I'm embracing it in every way I can. That's why my ears pricked up when I heard one of my<a href="http://filmspotting.net/"> favourite film podcasters</a> praise a documentary about sheep farming in Montana. Then last week I went to the Renoir Cinema in Bloomsbury to watch <a href="http://meekscutoff.com/">Meek's Cutoff</a> and they showed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbF_8e151ds">this charming trailer</a> for the film that had piqued my curiosity last year: <a href="http://www.sweetgrassthemovie.com/">Sweetgrass</a>.<br />
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The scenes in the trailer are the opening scenes of the film and that is what brought me back to the Renoir three days later for a screening of <a href="http://sweetgrassthemovie.com/">Sweetgrass</a> followed by a Q&A with one of the filmmakers. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3626583/">Lucien Castaing-Taylor</a> is a thoughtful, bearded Englishman now based out of Harvard. He introduces the film by warning us that we are in for two hours of sheep with no talking. In fact the film is well under two hours and there is plenty of dialogue between the two main shepherds. But yes, it is mainly watching sheep from the time of shearing through lambing through taking them up into the mountains for the summer and then bringing them back to a holding pen near the train tracks, so they can be shipped off for slaughter.<br />
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One of my favourite scenes can be seen in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbF_8e151ds">trailer</a>. In the farmyard, the shepherd rises up on the horizon and calls his sheep. They slow down, turn, one or two of the most clued-up start towards him. Soon a great, woolly, bleating, adorable mass of them flock after the shepherd. Ah. Bless. They know his voice. Just like Jesus says: "My sheep know my voice." Oh, wait. There's a tractor behind them, urging them in the right direction. Lol.<br />
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As they swarm after him, the sheep baa enthusiastically and loudly. There is something wonderful about the sound of sheep. They say "Baaa!" but they say it just like a human. It is comical and endearing.<br />
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It's no wonder that in the New Testament, 23.5% of Jesus's parables (my guestimate) have to do with sheep. We identify with them. We like them. They are woolly headed, thick and usually hungry. They like to clump together. But they can be ornery critters and spread out, when the mood takes them. Just like us.<br />
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In the Q&A after the film, Lucien is his own worst critic. He says the first 20 minutes of the film are the best. They are, but there are some gems in the following hour or so. He says the sound is too rich, dense, textured and dramatic. I think he's wrong on that score. The sound is wonderfully done. Especially when he shows us stupendous wide angle vistas but we can hear John grunting, muttering and urging his horse Jake to "watch your step". And the intense sounds put us right there in the Beartooth Mountains.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTlDVwYzUeFrF_JEfuxG-ZjpGVH5Hglr9r6By-v3zhDCjg0ziCYXphN4Qhc_BZZAXs8QnHil9FcgpnUZZ213ECS3RoTZWNAnWo6vPCpNoD2sf5O8xVXmPnL3q654TfNFMob0IuPYLME6A/s1600/little_lucien_renoir.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTlDVwYzUeFrF_JEfuxG-ZjpGVH5Hglr9r6By-v3zhDCjg0ziCYXphN4Qhc_BZZAXs8QnHil9FcgpnUZZ213ECS3RoTZWNAnWo6vPCpNoD2sf5O8xVXmPnL3q654TfNFMob0IuPYLME6A/s200/little_lucien_renoir.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>In a throwaway comment, Lucien mentions that the shearing scene is distressing for the viewer. Again, I disagree. You can clearly see that the sheep quietly submit to the firm, confident grasp of their shearers. There is something wonderful about seeing the shaggy outer layer sheared off; each swipe leaves a textured track and the sheep look like courdouroy when they're pushed out into the watery spring sunlight. Then the filmmakers poignantly cut to a shot of the newly-sheared sheep standing miserably in a spring snowstorm and the camera holds on them for several minutes. They do not complain, but one of them looks accusingly out at us. That's the distressing scene.<br />
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Some of the questions the audience put to Lucien were about the two main shepherds, craggy old John and peevish Pat. Lucien almost batted aside the question, saying he wanted the focus of film to be on the sheep, not the shepherds. I'm with the filmmaker on this one. The humans are prosaic. It's the sheep that are poetic.<br />
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People don't usually identify with cattle (unless we're on a crowded tube train) but we do identify and empathise with sheep, and this gives the whole idea of a Western "cattle drive" a new twist. Instead of identifying with the "cowboy" we identify with the critters they are herding. We are the flock being driven, trusting that our shepherd will be patient and loving like Jesus, not angry and frustrated like Pat, who at one point descends to a profane rant that would have <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348914/">Deadwood</a>'s Al Swearengen blushing. Pat is tired and bored and sick of sheep and his knees are giving out. At one point this middle-aged man makes a mountaintop phone call to his mother and nearly dissolves in tears. It's not pure self-pity: he's upset because his beloved sheepdog has bleeding paws and his horse is nothing but "ribs and bones".<br />
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The myth of the Western is the myth of freedom and choice and the loner riding off into the sunset. And as you watch <a href="http://www.sweetgrassthemovie.com/">Sweetgrass</a> you realize that's just what it is: A MYTH. This compelling film shows us that the reality of herding cattle or sheep (or whatever) is that it is a kind of prison. You can't just take off and ride west when you're looking after a flock of critters who depend on you. Sometimes you can't even get a phone signal.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxKbFyXS5wqO8Yo3fQLUN2r978q5HSsXa1b_NwWwpxyJWAD6P4i4I5rfaTptDqikzsD0psfHv8TVqPde8stIRkKSAHgP_67caqwDQJDcZQHN4nL94IoEWHgGxgtJUpcAeevJu6oqS0cLU/s1600/sweetgrass_title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxKbFyXS5wqO8Yo3fQLUN2r978q5HSsXa1b_NwWwpxyJWAD6P4i4I5rfaTptDqikzsD0psfHv8TVqPde8stIRkKSAHgP_67caqwDQJDcZQHN4nL94IoEWHgGxgtJUpcAeevJu6oqS0cLU/s400/sweetgrass_title.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-65162121309980857172011-04-15T20:30:00.000+01:002011-04-15T20:30:09.218+01:00Dirty 21-Mile House<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">In 1852 a man named William Host built a tavern on the stage route from San Jose to Monterey. The same year he sold it to a certain William Tennant, and he became landlord of the 21-Mile House, so-called because it was 21 miles south of San Jose. You can find a <a href="http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMCMK_Vasquez_tree_and_site_of_21_mile_house">marker of this historic site</a> on the NW corner of Tennant Ave and Monterey Hwy in Morgan Hill. According to the <a href="http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMCMK_Vasquez_tree_and_site_of_21_mile_house">plaque</a>:<br />
<br />
<i>This famous tavern and stage stop was located 21 miles from San Jose on the road to Monterey. The 21-Mile House was built in 1852 by William Host beneath a spreading oak that later was called the Vasquez Tree. The house was sold to William Tennant in November 1852. Now destroyed, this stopping station was a place where horses could be changed, fed, and stabled, and where tired and hungry passengers could refresh themselves</i>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvYWwI-TYnoJdScJwfpwHKXw2lexSBrL1ijZTIKHhbJ1Qe-LZ2tLEXNkxlFcdsNUatl4vv-mlpj37tKCj3JT3Eqhut-4PWnVG84K9P4oAKr67bkdVumZahIrXBNNOb5Wu0OboWd0wZpo/s1600/brewer_party_1864.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvYWwI-TYnoJdScJwfpwHKXw2lexSBrL1ijZTIKHhbJ1Qe-LZ2tLEXNkxlFcdsNUatl4vv-mlpj37tKCj3JT3Eqhut-4PWnVG84K9P4oAKr67bkdVumZahIrXBNNOb5Wu0OboWd0wZpo/s320/brewer_party_1864.jpg" width="226" /></a>One famous visitor who refreshed himself at the 21-Mile House was William H. Brewer <i>(right, in the chair)</i>, a California state geologist who went up and down California recording details of life and landscape between 1860 and 1864. His journal is called <i><a href="http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/up_and_down_california/5-1.html">Up and Down California in 1860-1864; The Journal of William H. Brewer</a></i>.<br />
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Brewer and his party stayed at the 21-Mile House three times, each time camping out rather than staying inside the tavern. Brewer's entry for a blistering May evening in 1864 reads:<br />
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<i>We got to the 21-Mile House and camped under the old oak trees. We had camped there before, once in ‘61, and again in ‘62. The spot seemed familiar and awoke pleasing memories, and that night, on the ground under the trees, sweeter sleep came than had for many a long night before...</i><br />
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Another visitor, Alf Doten, was less impressed. Arriving one October night in 1862, he and a friend dined and slept in the tavern. The next day, Doten gave it a scathing review in his private journal:<br />
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<i>Oct 3 1862... got there at sunset - put up there – got a dirty supper – served up in a dirty manner, on a dirty table, in a dirty house, by a dirty waiter – when bedtime came, we turned in to two dirty little beds, in a dirty little room & slept cold, not having enough bed clothes, & fleas & bedbugs giving us Jesse – waked up an hour or two before daylight from the cold – some ½ doz other travellers there, all in the same uncomfortable fix - all got to shouting to each other and "carrying on" - no more sleep...<br />
</i><br />
<i>Oct 4 1862 ... Rose very early - after dirty breakfast, paid our dirty bill of $5.00 & left - won't stop there again, I guess...</i><br />
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But in April of 1863 Alf was passing through again, and had no choice but to give it a second chance. Apparently his experience this time was more pleasant, probably due to the fact that his musical talents were appreciated:<br />
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<i>April 29 1863 ... After breakfast I started for Fred Lucas's - rode Kit with banjo rolled up in my overcoat & lashed behind saddle, carpet bag ditto - led Georgie ... couldn't ride Kit very hard on account of her being heavy with foal - stopped occasionally on the road to let her have a bite of green grass & cool off - at 6 PM I arrived at the "21 Mile" house & put up for the night... after supper, at request of Mr Tennant, the landlord - I gave them some banjo and songs in bar-room...<br />
</i><br />
<i>April 30 1863 ... My bill was: horses 75¢ each - $1.50 and 2 meals $1.00 & a bed 50¢ - Total $3.00 - left about 8 1/2 oclock...</i><br />
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But in May of the same year he found things 'dirty' again:<br />
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<i>May 9 1863 ... at 2 PM arrived at 21 mile house - got dirty dinner, served up in dirty manner by Miss Maggie Tennant in a dirty dress & frowsy hair - knew me - Had quite a chat together - Took me into parlor - got me to write off the words of "<a href="http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/foster026.htm">Open thy lattice to me</a>" for her - I rode on... </i><br />
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A Starbucks now stands in the place of the tavern.</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615260719081266444.post-31336087620867205302011-03-05T20:34:00.001+00:002012-06-21T06:02:38.401+01:00Rango Cheatsheet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1-AzYxp7Q0nGoW99Gsv3Nz-o_zhBVqT7AW1XkGVDwrTLx6Zswo6airKzjVd5Kmbn0LttmIVpIq0rB2T4eDQ32H_EslrMKAoby4to8GwCFcDuvSi2snOvjywI25xBpnIo3U-riatbNxA/s1600/rango_hero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1-AzYxp7Q0nGoW99Gsv3Nz-o_zhBVqT7AW1XkGVDwrTLx6Zswo6airKzjVd5Kmbn0LttmIVpIq0rB2T4eDQ32H_EslrMKAoby4to8GwCFcDuvSi2snOvjywI25xBpnIo3U-riatbNxA/s200/rango_hero.jpg" width="152" /></a></div><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1192628/">Rango</a> "Cheatsheet"! Impress your friends & family by identifying these film references in the film Rango!<br />
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Breaking the 4th wall: characters use forefinger to draw a square (the "fourth wall") no less than three times in the film. Also, lots of self-conscious screenwriting terms and phrases like "Every story needs a hero", "What our story needs is conflict", "It is metaphor", etc.<br />
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Here are the film references I spotted starting from the beginning:<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059017/">Cat Ballou</a>/<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/">Blazing Saddles</a>: musicians singing story are visible to us and to the players in the film.<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120669/">Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</a>: when Rango is flung against a windscreen<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/">Big Lebowski</a>: Chameleon/rock creature sounds like Jesus Quintana ("dios mio!")<br />
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Sergio Leone's "No Name" Trilogy: <br />
(<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058461/">Fistful of Dollars</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059578/">For a Few Dollars More</a> & <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/">GB&U</a>)<br />
Spirit of the West = The "Man with No Name" i.e. Clint Eastwood<br />
Rattlesnake Jake = Lee van Cleef<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/">Good, Bad & Ugly</a> (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/">Il buono il brutto il cattivo</a>) = bird's cry used to bleep swear word<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/">Once Upon a Time in the West</a> = squeaky windmill from opening sequence<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/">Django</a>: the gattling gun in Rattlesnake Jake's tail<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/">Star Wars IV</a>: visual echoes of Mos Eisley Cantina in the Saloon<br />
ALSO the fight in canyon is like final Death Star canyon sequence<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUp1cxrfqin7I-6bTrJYMAINs8clyy7ZH6KTUHsaMcPbmuAZijXU1eIrE0TKY7fBo81myqzts6wwGCSEXd55zM75Qs24c0-L-mhpziiqOQd0YBk_exNwOsv2mZvdGPLvc0D5Oqu5aGds/s1600/jabba_buford_rango.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUp1cxrfqin7I-6bTrJYMAINs8clyy7ZH6KTUHsaMcPbmuAZijXU1eIrE0TKY7fBo81myqzts6wwGCSEXd55zM75Qs24c0-L-mhpziiqOQd0YBk_exNwOsv2mZvdGPLvc0D5Oqu5aGds/s400/jabba_buford_rango.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jabba the Hut (Star Wars IV) & Buford the Barkeep (Rango)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403865/">True Grit</a>: Rango calls little girl Priscilla "Little Sister"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/">Jurassic Park</a>: dinosaur/bird uncovers someone on the toilet<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/">Chinatown</a>: Ned "The Mayor" Beatty mimics John Huston's villain AND<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/">Chinatown</a>: theme of water in desert, drowned man in desert, etc...<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056217/">The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</a>: hero is a fraud<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044706/">High Noon</a>: hero discards badge/star<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/">Apocalypse Now</a>: bats/helicopters fly out to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"<br />
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I have heard there are also references to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/">Ghostbusters</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063442/">Planet of the Apes</a> & <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/">Deliverance</a>. (But I didn't get those...)</div>Caroline Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07249424644829463560noreply@blogger.com14