Hi Karen, welcome!
Karen: Thanks so much for hosting me today.
Let’s dig in. Last time we chatted about a location that stirred your muse. What else led to the creation of WILD ROSE PASS?
On the March 27th blog, I mentioned how sixteen years ago, my husband and I spent Christmas week hiking in the Big Bend National Park. Driving home that New Year’s morning, we missed our turnoff and followed TX-118 north toward a remote jumble of mountain peaks and ranges. The snow-covered Davis Mountains beckoned, and I breathed a contented sigh, sensing I’d come home as we passed through the rustic, west-Texas town of Fort Davis, named for the historic fort at its city limits.
That missed turn cost only a half hour’s drive, but the area’s geology and history captured my imagination. When I learned a friend’s great-great-grandfather had not only worked as an Indian scout for Fort Davis’ cavalry in the 1870s but had been captured as a young child and raised by Comanches, an idea took root.
I grilled my friend for any family stories, records, or resources she could recall. Several newspaper articles and a book mentioning her forefather José Maria Bill emerged. This was a beginning, but I needed more, so I gladly drove the four-hundred miles / six hours to Fort Davis. Restored as a National Historic Site, the fort housed a research library. I pored over its dusty documents, where I discovered the actual quartermaster reports—painstakingly written with a quill pen—dating from as early as October 1868.
Bill made his living as an Indian scout, guide, and packer for the fort, netting five dollars a day, as opposed to the soldiers, who earned fifteen dollars a month—a fine wage for a person, who had no formal training.
While at the fort, I also came across the records of a Colonel Benjamin Grierson, who began Army life as an enlisted man, was field promoted during the Civil War, and became the commanding officer at Fort Davis in the 1880s. My initial idea blossomed into a plot.
What social issues would an inexperienced, battle-field commissioned officer face with his peers—all West Point graduates? Would he be respected or admitted into military society? And would an orphaned, Comanche-raised outsider be considered marriageable material?
What would a free-spirited daughter of the commanding officer think of him? If she were a nonconformist, who yearned to escape the rigid code, clothes, and side saddles of 1880s military society, would she find the daring new lieutenant exhilarating? What if she were expected to keep with family tradition and marry West Point graduate James West, the up-and-coming lieutenant? Perhaps a love triangle?
Those budding thoughts bloomed into my latest historical novel: Wild Rose Pass, Book I of the Trans-Pecos Series.
Excerpt:
Reining his horse between catclaw and prickly-pear cactus, Ben Williams squinted at the late summer sun’s low angle. Though still midafternoon, shadows lengthened in the mountains. He clicked his tongue, urging his mare up the incline. “Show a little enthusiasm, Althea. If we’re not in Fort Davis by sunset, we’ll be bedding down with scorpions and rattlesnakes.”
As his detachment’s horses clambered up Wild Rose Pass, the only gap through west Texas’ rugged Davis Mountains, Ben kept alert for loose rocks or hidden roots, anything that might trip his mount. A thick layer of fallen leaves created a pastiche of color shrouding the trail from view. He glanced up at the lithe cottonwood trees lining the route, their limbs dancing in the breeze. More amber and persimmon leaves loosened, fell, and settled near the Indian pictographs on their tree trunks. When he saw the red- and yellow-ochre drawings, he smiled, recalling the canyon’s name—Painted Comanche Camp.
“How far to Fort Davis, lieutenant?” called McCurry, one of his recruits.
“Three hours.” If we keep a steady pace.
Without warning, the soldier’s horse whinnied. Spooking, it reared on its hind legs, threw its rider, and galloped off.
As he sat up, the man groaned, caught his breath, and stared into the eyes of a coiled rattler, poised to strike. “What the…?”
Flicking its tongue, hissing, tail rattling, the pit viper was inches from the man’s face.
A sheen of sweat appeared above the man’s lip. “Lieutenant—”
Buy Links:
Amazon eBook ~ Amazon Paperback ~ Barnes & Noble NOOK Book ~ Barnes & Noble Paperback
About the Author:
Author of the Trans-Pecos, Sacred Emblem, Sacred Journey, and Sacred Messenger series, Karen is a best-selling author, motivational keynote speaker, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life. She writes multicultural, offbeat love stories that lift the spirit. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved annually, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Westerns spurred her to write (pun intended). Wanderlust inherent, Karen enjoyed traveling, although loathed changing schools. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Hill Country with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.
