Writing Gold Digger

Writing Gold Digger
By Vicki Delany For Historical Novel Review
June 3, 2009

What a good time to have been invited by Mirella Patzer to be a guest blogger at Historical Novel Review. People have commented on the difficulties of writing a historical novel in attempting to keep the facts accurate.

I’m new to this historical mystery thing, being mainly a writer of contemporary police procedurals, specifically the Smith and Winters series from Poisoned Pen Press. Canada’s Rendezvous Crime has just released Gold Digger: A Klondike Mystery, the first book in my new series set in Dawson, Yukon Territory, in 1898, during the Klondike Gold Rush. I’ve long considered the Klondike Gold Rush to be an incredibly interesting historical event. Not the least because it stood at the exact end of the 19th century (1896 –’99) and the beginning of the ‘modern’ world. The Klondike Gold Rush has been called the Last Great Gold Rush, last because once the twentieth century began, industrialization and corporations pushed out free-wheeling independent prospectors and gold-seekers. It was perhaps the last time in North America when thousands of people could simply leave home, sell everything, and set off – on foot! into the wilderness in the hopes of making a fortune.

I’m fortunate in that the Klondike was extensively photographed. One of the reasons the Klondike Rush is so well known is that it was the only one of the gold rushes to leave a rich photographic record. The age of photography was just beginning, and the camera was becoming portable enough to be transported out of a confided studio and stiffly posed portraits to come into the street (and to the gold fields) and capture scenes and people unaware. I guarantee that you’ve seen some of the iconic photographs (think Alaska license plates).

So the history is well-documented, and well-photographed, to give me plenty of sources to ensure historical accuracy. And I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

With one notable exception.

There was not one single murder in the town of Dawson, Yukon Territory, during 1898 – the year that 40,000 people flooded into town. In contrast to the nearby town of Skagway, Alaska, where gangsters such as Soapy Smith ruled and crime and corruption was rampant.

The law, in the form of the North-West Mounted Police, precursors to the RCMP, was already in the Yukon before tens of thousands of people began flooding in to search for gold, and thus the rule of law was in place. The boundaries between the U.S. and Canada were still in dispute at the time, and the government had sent the NWMP to strengthen its claim to the territory. The police enforced the laws strictly – no one was allowed in from the U.S. without a year’s supply of goods (a lesson from the winter of ’97-98 when the town was on the verge of starvation), everything closed on Sunday for the Lord’s Day, vile language was not allowed, guns were strictly banned.
At the same time the police realized that some things needed to be permitted in order to keep the peace in a town full of miners and gold-hunters. Therefore, although prostitution and gambling were illegal in the rest of Canada, they were permitted in the Yukon, but kept under close police supervision.

This is important historical stuff, and largely contributed to the image of Canada as a peaceful, law-abiding place that the country enjoyed for much of the twentieth century.

In order to create a mystery novel, which some people call a ‘murder mystery’ I had to jettison the sterling record of the NWMP and create a murder. In the second book in the series, Gold Fever, there will be two. And, despite one of the main characters being a NWMP Constable, the Mounties will prove unable to solve the crime and it will be left to my protagonist, Fiona MacGillivray, to do so.

Sometimes, you just can’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Vicky Delany Author Interview

Welcome, I’m so glad to have this opportunity to chat with you. Can you share with my readers the essence of the story you’ve penned?

At its essence Gold Digger is about a strong woman attempting to survive in a man’s world. Fiona MacGillivray is a woman with a past (which will be revealed slowly as the series progresses) and not much interest in being respectable. She, along with her 12 year old son, Angus, travelled to the Klondike to take part in the gold rush, and using the money from the sale of some stolen jewllery she goes into business as the proprietor of the Savoy Dance Hall. Her business, and the life she has made for Angus and herself, is threatened when a thourougly disreputable journalist is murdered on the stage of the Savoy. Gold Digger is the first in a series, and it is intended to be fairly lighthearted.

You’ve chosen a very interesting title. What inspired the title? What inspired the book?

Gold Digger came to me as the title almost from the beginning. It’s a double entenre. Gold Digger, as in a participant of the gold rush, but also as in the sense of a person out to make money. It was said that the dance hall owners, bar tenders, shop owers were ‘mining the miners’. The book was inspired when I was on a canoe trip some years ago with a group of people from Europe. I said something about how our anscestors would have thought we were fools to spend good money, and our valuable vacation time, doing what they considered hardship. Then I started telling my friends the story of the Klondike gold rush, and thought… that would make an interesting setting for a book!

What makes this book special to you?

I love that time period. In many ways, not just in terms of the date, it stands at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The roles of women were changing, Canada was being formed into a country, technology was improving day by day. People were hugely optomistic about the future, and it was that optomism that drove them to head off into the wilderness looking for gold. There was so much hope and promise, yet, as we all know, in many ways the 20th century didn’t turn out so well.

What makes this a book that people MUST read and WHY?

Anyone interested in Canadian history should read it – a lot of our mythology comes from that time, particularly regarding the North West Mounted Police (precursors to the RCMP). Dawson was truly a wild-west town with the stamp of ‘peace order and good government’. I think of it as Dodge run by the Mounties. It’s a fun romp in an interesting time and with interesting people.

What sparks your creativity? Any tips to help others spark their own creativity?

Reading. I read a great deal, and I truly believe that anyone who wants to write should be reading as much as they have time for. Don’t have time to read? Turn off the TV.

What has been the biggest stumbling block in your writing? Can you share some tips to help others get past similar problems?

Time. Time. Time. When I started to think about writing, I had three kids and a full time job. It was only once the kids got older, and I had some time to myself, that I became what I call a “Sunday Writer”, i.e. could snatch a bit of time on a Sunday afternoon to write. Then they got older and independent and eventually grew up and moved out. My advice to anyone who wants to write but really doesn’t have the time because of family and work and other commitements, is to hold onto that dream – jot down your ideas, write in the snatches of time you do have, read a lot, and wait it out. Your time will come.

Tell me about the most unusual things you have done to promote your book?

I bought a gorgeous hat, very much 19th century. I wear it to all my events for Gold Digger. I stand out, to say the least. Otherwise, I don’t do anything ‘unusual’. I go to bookstores, conferences, do book tours. I have a web page (www.vickidelany.com) and am part of a group blog (http://typem4murder.blogspot.com).

Each author is different in the way they create a work of fiction. Please describe for us how you plan or plot a story.

I always began with the setting. Setting is very important to me in my writing. After setting comes characters and then the plot has to fit in. This is the same for the Klondike series as with my police procedural series set in a small town in the Interior of British Columbia. (Valley of the Lost, In the Shadow of the Glacier). I usually do a rough outline, in that I know who did ‘it’ and why, and have an idea of where the plot will go. But not always – for the forthcoming Winter of Secrets (November, 2009 - the third Constable Molly Smith book) I had the first scene in my mind and wrote it down and carried on. I was almost finished the book before I knew what had happened and who was responsible. It was a very interesting exercise.

Authors are very unique in the way they write, the tools they use, when they write, etc. Please describe a typical writing day for you? How do you organize your day?

I write 100% on the computer. When I was working full time, I wrote every day when I got home from work, but now that I’m retired, I write in the morning. Get up, put the coffee pot on, read e-mail and the headlines in the paper, and start in. I usually write for 3 or four hours. Seven days a week, when I’m home. Not a word if I’m travelling. In the evening I do the ‘business’ part of the writing career – such as this interview.

What is your current work in progress?

I am working on the first draft of Constable Molly Smith #4, as yet unnamed. The next in the Klondike series, Gold Fever, is finished and at the publishers and will probably be released in Spring/summer 2010.

Can you tell us where to find more information about you and your books and how readers can reach you?

My web page is www.vickidelany.com and I blog at Type M for Murder (http://typem4murder.blogspot.com). Most of my promotion for Gold Digger will be in Ontario – there is a link from my web page to my tour schedule. Keep an eye on the blog in the fall, because there will be a contest to win a copy of Winter of Secrets.

What would you like our readers to know about you and your writing?

I love to write and I love to read, and I really love to get e-mails!

Book Review by Vicky Delany - Book Review

Fiona MacGillivray is a woman with a past. To escape it, she has travelled from England to Canada to the northern town of Dawson. Here the gold rush is in full swing, its madness luring the most wicked, ambitious, and determined of the world in the hopes they will strike gold and be rich.

But Fiona is smart enough to let others do the hard work of mining and reap the greatest rewards for herself. She sets up a dance hall complete with saloon, live entertainment, and exclusive gambling rooms. Before long, it becomes one of the finest in all of Dawson. Money, gold dust, and gold nuggets are all accepted forms of currency in her tightly run establishment. In this way, Fiona is able to support her twelve year old son while making outrageous profits and carving out a comfortable living.

A newcomer by the name of Jack Ireland is causing a stir. He is a reporter from San Francisco who wields his mighty pen ruthlessly, destroying lives at will by his written word. After he beats up a popular dance girl, his throat is cut and he lies dead in a pool of his own blood on Fiona’s dance hall stage.

Almost everyone is a suspect, because almost everyone hated the man. Constable Richard Sterling, a dashing officer at the local North West Mounted Police detachment leads the investigation. Soon suspicions turn to the dance girl who was beaten up. Fiona is incensed and sets out to prove the young woman’s innocence.
Gold Digger is more than a “who dunnit”. It is an accurate historical portrayal of the Klondike at the peak of its gold rush madness. Numerous colourful and quirky characters line the book’s pages. Miners, storekeepers, reporters, police officers, whores, drunks, and gamblers are just a few of the people so carefully crafted and described by Delany.

The book is the start of a new series, and as a result, there is much to be revealed in future stories. So readers will have to wait patiently to read more about the strong heroine, her charming son, and the handsome NWMP officer who is showing a strong interest in the lovely Fiona. Brava Vicky Delany! Better hurry with that next novel. Readers are already patiently awaiting it.

Gold Digger is a must read and brings to life an exciting era in Canadian history.

Gold Digger by Vicky Delany

It’s the spring of 1898 and Dawson, Yukon Territory, is the most exciting town in North America. The great Klondike Gold Rush is in full swing and Fiona MacGillivray has crawled over the Chilkoot Pass determined to make her fortune as the owner of the Savoy dance hall. Provided, that is, if her 12-year-old son, growing up much too fast for her liking; the former Glasgow street fighter who’s now her business partner; a stern, handsome NWMP constable; an ageing, love-struck, ex-boxing champion; a wild assortment of headstrong dancers, croupiers, gamblers, madams without hearts of gold, bar hangers-on, cheechakos and sourdoughs; and Fiona’s own nimble-fingered past don’t get to her first.

And then there’s a dead body on centre stage.

Interview with Molly Roe - Author of Call Me Kate

1. Welcome, I’m so glad to have this opportunity to chat with you. Can you share with my readers the essence of the story you’ve penned?

Thank you for your interest in my book. Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires is the story of Katie McCafferty, a girl living in the Pennsylvania coal region during the Civil War. After her father is critically injured in a mining accident, Katie seeks work as a domestic to help provide for her family. She must leave her family and friends in Murphy’s Patch to work at the estate of a coal baron in a nearby city. There she hears a group of wealthy industrialists discuss plans to ruthlessly squash an upcoming draft protest. Among the protesters are people from her community, including her childhood friend, Con Gallagher. Katie is conflicted about the best way to intervene, but she eventually launches herself into the events of the day, including the draft protest, putting her job and life at risk.

2. You’ve chosen a very interesting title. What inspired the title? What inspired the book?

The title is in two parts. The first Call Me Kate reflects the coming of age of Katie, who matures during the course of the story, hence the change from Katie to Kate. The second part, Meeting the Molly Maguires, specifies the setting, the early Molly Maguire era. The Molly Maguires, the legendary secret society of Irish miners, were considered labor heroes by some people and terrorists by others.

The book was inspired by the information I learned while researching my family history. My sense of wonder was kindled at the way people lived in the nineteenth century. Life was very difficult, but people somehow kept surmounting the obstacles set in their way. While growing up, I’d heard many stories about the Molly Maguires, but never knew how intimately connected they were to both sides of my family tree.

3. What makes this book special to you?

The basis of the story is really very personal. It’s the fictionalized story of my ancestors who came to Pennsylvania because of the Great Famine in Ireland so it’s an homage to them. Catharine McCafferty was the name of my great-great-grandmother and her mother’s name was Mary McCall, the names of the characters in the novel.


4. What makes this a book that people MUST read and WHY?

The idea that people will be forced to relive the mistakes of the past if they do not study history is definitely a motivating factor. The themes in the historical events are eerily repetitive: immigration, war protests, injustice, the greed of big business, the abuse of the working man, and the list goes on. We need to keep teaching the younger generations to learn from the past. Since I teach seventh and eighth graders, the educational value is always in my mind.

5. What sparks your creativity? Any tips to help others spark their own creativity?

Connecting with people from other generations or cultures often sparks creative ideas. I’ve always enjoyed hearing the stories of the older generation, and now I find dialogue with the younger generation also fascinating. Reading is another way my ideas emerge. I’ve always been a reader and constantly wondered “what if” when reading the works of other writers. My number one tip to beginning writers is to read, read, read.

6. What has been the biggest stumbling block in your writing? Can you share some tips to help others get past similar problems?

Time is probably the biggest hurdle. Teaching teenagers is very demanding, and grading papers sometimes saps my energy. Historical fiction requires a lot of research and fact checking at libraries and historical societies, and I have limited travel time during the school year. I use the summer to accomplish as much research as possible. Regarding time, everyone has different biorhythms so each writer must find what works personally.

7. Tell me about the most unusual things you have done to promote your book?

I haven’t done anything too dramatic regarding promotion, although a friend jokingly suggested a float in the local St. Patrick’s Day parade. I’ve promoted my book at talks in several historical locations in northeastern Pennsylvania and managed to get it accepted into gift shops at two state and one national historical site. I’m currently creating a WebQuest for middle school students related to Call Me Kate that addresses Pennsylvania history and language arts standards.

8. Each author is different in the way they create a work of fiction. Please describe for us how you plan or plot a story.

For Call Me Kate and Sarah’s Story I developed a timeline of the actual historical dates of the events that occurred. The dates are set so I have to fill in the fictional part between those dates. For the fictional part of the plot, I follow a framework that was described in a writer’s workbook. I start with a core sentence describing the story and break it into parts that represent the main sections of the novel. Then I enlarge on the core theme and build on each part in stages. This becomes the basic outline. When I looked back at it after the novel was written, I realized the story took a few unexpected turns. When I get blocked on a certain section, I jump ahead and write the parts that I am confident about.

9. Authors are very unique in the way they write, the tools they use, when they write, etc. Please describe a typical writing day for you? How do you organize your day?

I’m an absolute night owl so my ordinary writing time is between 10 PM -1:30 AM. This is definitely my best time and always has been. My scheduled work day is from 7:15 to 2:45, but I’m usually in my classroom until at least 3:45. When I get home I nap for an hour, then make dinner, grade papers and finally settle in to writing for a while. Some nights I get a lot done, but as long as I write two pages I’m satisfied. I use my desktop computer at home for writing. When away I use my laptop. Somehow being in the same place at my desktop helps me avoid distractions so I rarely use the laptop at home.

10. What is your current work in progress?

I am currently working on the second book in the McCafferty sisters’ trilogy. The tentative title is Sarah’s Story: The Curse on Centralia. The setting of my first novel was a re-creation of my maternal great-grandparents’ town. This second novel is set in Centralia where my father’s grandparents lived from the 1860s to the 1900s. Sarah’s Story continues examining the Molly Maguire history with the murder of a mine superintendent.

11. Can you tell us where to find more information about you and your books and how readers can reach you?

My publisher, Nicole Langan, has lots of information on the Tribute Books website, www.tribute-books.com. My e-mail address is mollyroe3@yahoo.com. I also have a blog, http://conversationsfromthesideporch.blogspot.com/

12. What would you like our readers to know about you and your writing?

My writing arises from a pride in my heritage and in my ancestors’ stoicism. My pen name is a tribute to Mollyroe, the townland in Donegal, Ireland, where my great-grandfather was born. I firmly believe that we need to acknowledge that our ancestors paved the way for an easier life for us here in the present.

Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires by Molly Roe Book Review

The year 1862 was a tumultuous one for the people who lived in north eastern Pennsylvania. The onset of the Civil War caused suffering to the coal workers and their families. Poor mine conditions and no social assistance programs left families destitute. Hardest hit were the Irish families who had fled the famine in Ireland to carve a better life for themselves only to find life harsh in the new world.

Fourteen year old Katie McCafferty is the daughter of a poorly paid coal miner. Life is hard and children are often forced to work to aid their families. Katie is no exception. First, she works as a housekeeper for a priest and later as a maidservant in the mansion of a wealthy family.

Despite all the hardships, the Irish community is closely knit and helpful. Mine accidents are common and families lose fathers, sons, and even grandsons. Katie is no exception. When her own father is left paralyzed, the family faces severe financial hardship.

Katie McCafferty has a friend who is in dire trouble. His name is Con and they have been bonded since childhood. When Con joins the Molly Maguires, a radical Irish organization to fight the rising anti-Irish sentiments and abuse of the times, she learns his life is in danger. In order to save him, she disguises herself as a man and joins the all-male Molly Maguires as a draft resister named Dominick.

Call Me Kate: Meet the Molly Maguires takes the reader into a detailed, historically accurate, journey of life of a young girl who lived in the coal regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania at the onset of the Civil War.

The story is easily read, written for young adult and adult readers alike. Molly Roe brings to life the dangers of the mines in the 1800’s and its ruthless owners. She tells of how Irish immigrants, whether American citizens or not, were forced to fight in the Civil War.

What I enjoyed most about Molly Roe’s novel is its uniqueness. It swept me into an era I was unfamiliar with, bringing to life it’s sights and smells, even its tragedies. Although Kate is not a true historical figure, she is molded after strong Irish women immigrants of the time. I highly recommend this novel, not only for the good story, but for its brilliant research.

Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires

Fourteen year old Katie McCafferty risks job, family, and eventually her very life to rescue a lifelong friend. Disguised as a draft resister, Katie infiltrates a secret Irish organization to prevent bloodshed. Tragedies challenge her strength and inginuity, and she faces a crisis of conscience. Can Katie balance her sense of justice with the law?