Magpies may not, as is commonly thought, collect shiny objects, but Jenny would probably believe they did.
The process of editing a draft includes deciding what interesting historical tidbits, pleasing bits of dialogue, and vivid images to include, and which ones must be omitted to keep the narrative from dragging. I could probably struggle with that balance forever if I didn’t, at some point, force myself to call a halt. For example, I first cut and then added back the scenes where a cowboy comes off a cattle drive wanting saddle decoration, and where Clara reads Freida’s letter. On the other hand, I first added and then cut a scene with Mamie and Jenny where the two of them discuss what happened to any babies that came along. I also cut some details about the tools the blacksmith makes for Tom. I may eventually put some of these deleted passages on my website in the “Deleted and alternate scenes” section (http://www.karenawyle.net/deleted_scenes.html).
Acknowledgments
An introductory caveat: I consulted so many websites that I may well have missed a few in putting this section together, most likely those consulted for late revisions. My apologies to the omitted! Those I have managed to include are presented in no particular order — and it’s a long list.
I consulted Wikipedia so often that I haven’t bothered to mention every time I did so.
This time around, I had a new resource for checking whether a word or phrase was already in use during my time period, namely Google Books Ngram Viewer (at https://books.google.com/ngrams/). One selects a time span, sources to be searched (e.g. American English), and search term, and can see a graph showing the percentage of times the word or phrase was used in the appropriate section of the enormous Google Books collection. I also made frequent use of the Online Etymological Dictionary.
My go-to source for last names is Behind the Names, though I also consulted others I neglected to note. For likely names of ranches, I took inspiration from a “Travel” article on the online Fox News channel.
When I needed something to fill the sacks Tom Barlow was loading into a wagon in March, Jordan McBride, member of the NaNoWriMo Facebook group, helpfully pointed me to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novel Farmer Boy. As for facts about covered wagons, I consulted History Daily, The Oregon Territory and its Pioneers, and a website whose title I couldn’t find at https://www.learningabe.info.
The following sources helped me shape Jenny’s and other prostitutes’ experiences at Madam Mamie’s:
—Angela C. Fitzpatrick’s 2013 dissertation, Women of Ill Fame: Discourses of Prostitution and the American Dream in California, 1850-1890;
—excerpts from Anne Butler’s Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West, 1865-1890, provided in a review whose author I unfortunately neglected to note;
—Phillip A. Snyder’s Foreword to Upstairs Girls: Prostitution in the American West by Michael Rutter;
—Women of the Old West: Prostitutes and Madams by Emma R. Marek;
—“What Sex Was Like in the Old West,” by Jacoby Bancroft;
—“Wild Women of the Wild West - inside the brothels worked by the ‘white doves’,” by Matthew Growcott and Jane Alexander;
—“A Brothel Reveals Its Secrets,” by Amy Laskowski;
—“Victorian Era Feminine Hygiene,” by Kristin Holt;
—“The Soiled Dove Takes Flight: The Introduction of Prostitutes into Common Western Mythology,” by Mirya Rose Holman;
—“Labor of Love: Prostitutes and Civic Engagement in Leadville, Colorado, 1870-1915,” by Darby G. Simmons;
—“Red Light Ladies in the American West: Entrepreneurs and Companions,” by Alexy Simmons;
—Lengends of America.
For period slang for “penis,” I consulted Timeglider. As for other slang, I found more options than I could find uses for at Mess No. 1, NPR History Department, The Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation, Rootsweb (maintained by Ancestry.com), and Legends of America. An article at The Irish Times provided guidance about forms of address an Irishman might be likely to avoid.
My sources on various issues related to lower limb amputation and phantom pain included:
— “The prevalence of phantom limb pain and associated risk factors in people with amputations: a systematic review protocol,” by Katleho Limakatso, Gillian J. Bedwell, Victoria J. Madden, and Romy Parker;
—Prosthetic Restoration and Rehabilitation of the Upper and Lower Extremity, by Mary Catherine Spires, Brian Kelly, and Alicia Davis;
—The Textbook of Clinical Sexual Medicine, edited by Waguih William IsHak;
—“Sex and Intimacy After Amputation,” by Erin Deegan;
—various articles by various authors in the compendium “Post Amputation Chronic Pain Profile and Management,” edited by Craig Murray;
— “People with lower limb amputation and their sexual functioning and sexual wellbeing,” by multiple authors, published in Disability and Rehabilitation, April 2014;
—and finally, a thread on Reddit.
Concerning the availability of commercially produced hair dyes, I consulted:
— “From 1500 BC to 2015 AD: The Extraordinary History of Hair Dye,” by Deven Hopp (on the Byrdie website);
—Hair: An Illustrated History, by Susan J. Vincent;
—“United States, Commission on Philadelphia Custom-House, January 1, 1877”;
—“The Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor, Massachusetts Dept. Of Labor and Industries, Division of Statistics, 1878.”
For how horses show affection and liking:
—“How Do Horses Show Affection?” by Franklin Levinson;
— “How To Read Your Horse’s Body Language,” by Jennifer Williams, PhD, on Equus;
—Various threads on Quora.
For how horses interact with each other, including hierarchical behavior, I checked websites including:
—“How to Introduce Horses,” on The Horse;
—“How Horses Interact and Communicate,” on Veterinary Practice.
Concerning observance of the Sabbath:
—Sunday Rest in the Twentieth Century (whose longer title I failed to note), edited by Alexander Johnson, which includes many references for the latter part of the 19th century;
—“Second Great Awakening,” author not indicated, on the Ohio History Central website;
—“Mormon Sundays,” by William G. Hartley;
—“Church Building and Community Making on the Frontier, A Case Study, Josiah Strong, Home Missionary in Cheyenne, 1871-1873,” whose author either was not indicated or whom I failed to note, via JSTOR;
—Another JSTOR article I failed to record, dealing with Sabbatarianism.
Concerning fighting with one leg:
—“The One-Legged Wrestler Who Conquered His Sport, Then Left It Behind,” by David Merrill, on Deadspin;
—“One-legged fighter Matt Betzold just wants a chance to get punched in the face like anyone else,” by Shaun Al-Shatti, on MMA Fighting;
—“One-legged German kickboxer wins world title,” by Mark Bergmann, on Bloody Elbow.
Concerning laudanum overdoses:
—“What Is Laudanum?” by Brittany Tackett, M.A., on ProjectKnow;
—“‘The laudanum evil’: Maryland’s 19th century opiate epidemic,” by Christina Tkacik, on AP News.
My sources for bird facts included Gilligallou Bird Inc. and Sciencing.
I double-checked the likely availability of pumps (for water) at Illinois Archeology.
I gleaned information about wages from Hathi Trust Digital Library, Outrun Change, Cowboy Kisses, and Semantic Scholar.
An article on Curbed told me to use coal rather than wood in the stoves at Mamie’s.
I confirmed that I could include a cattle drive (peripherally) at History Nebraska.
Sources for photographer equipment and techniques of the period included an online library article from Oregon State University.
Various YouTube videos helped me with the basics of Western saddle makin
g, as well as techniques for embellishing the same.
I found some non-medical remedies for stress on Legends of America and the Huffpost blog.
Sarah Wassberg Johnson of The Food Historian, Catherine Lambrecht from the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, and historian Rachel Laudan kindly answered my questions about the availability of lemons and lemon juice (and hence the likelihood of lemonade at particular times of the year).
I found ideas for Tom and Jenny’s sleeping arrangements at author Theresa Hupp’s blog. That information led me to seek expertise in quilting. Beta readers Wendy Teller and Dedaimia Whitney were both helpful in this regard. Dedaimia referred me to quilt historian Janice Frisch, who in turn passed me on to the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska — where Communications Coordinator Laura Chapman and Collections Manager Sarah Walcott gave me the rest of what I needed.
I once again owe a multitude of thanks to cover designer Kelly Martin of KAM Design, and to all those who helped me choose between several gorgeous alternatives, including my daughters Livali Wyle and Alissa Wyle, husband Paul Hager, Debora Frazier, and the members of the April Moms Facebook group. Paul also helped me with my protagonists’ likely word usage by pointing out that any word used in the King James Bible would probably be familiar to them.
And of course, I am extremely grateful and much indebted to my beta readers for this book, Jennifer Bourgeois, Steven Karel, Linda Lizenby, Glenda Morris, Nik Parker, Wendy Teller, and Dedaimia Whitney.
Finally, given how much this book builds on the research I did for its predecessor, What Heals the Heart, I once again thank all those who assisted me so much in that research.
About the Author
Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. She now considers herself a Hoosier. She and her husband have two wildly creative daughters. (Return readers may notice that I no longer claim to have a sweet though neurotic dog. She left us in June 2019. We miss her.)
In addition to writing fiction (science fiction, afterlife fantasy, and now historical romance), Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, and politics junkie. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, personal identity, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.
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What Frees the Heart Page 23