You’re not likely to find me flipping channels looking for the Food Network. Fact is, my hubby does most of the cooking and baking at our house. But don’t ask me to write about a new setting without a cookbook from the time period and location. For The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series, I pored over the Church History Cook Book from …
Bob’s Corner: No E-Reader, No Problem
Howdy from Bob’s corner! TODAY is Release Day for Dandelions on the Wind, the first novella in Mona’s new series, The Quilted Heart. The three mid-1860s stories are available this spring exlusively in e-Book format, but you don’t need a fancy schmancy handheld e-Reader to read Dandelions on the Wind. Since you’re reading this post, I’m guessing you already have a computer, iPod/iPad/iPhone, Android …
Mollie Kathleen Gortner: A Cripple Creek Woman
The fascinating women of the 1800s were not dissimilar to you and I, even though their circumstances varied greatly and required extra doses of pluck. They loved and lost. They laughed and cried. They tried and failed. Many tried again and were victorious. Relationships and community mattered to them. Faith played an important role in their strength and resiliency. Mollie …
Research, Cookbooks, and Christmas Plum Pudding
Research can be many things: Fascinating, engaging, time-consuming, surprising, delightful. Even yummy. If you’ve been reading The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek novels, you know Miss Hattie attends First Congregational Church in Cripple Creek, Colorado. In Two Brides Too Many, the Sinclair sisters began attending the church. By the end of Too Rich for a Bride, Ida’s husband Tucker Raines …
Make That 8 Sinclair Sisters Gift Ideas
Can’t believe I’d forgotten #8 when I first made this list! We all know books make great gifts. What makes an even better present? A themed gift package centered around a book. Since I’ve heard from a few folks who are gifting my Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek books this Christmas, I decided to add to the fun and put together seven …
Bob’s Corner: Mining with a Steam Shovel
Howdy, and welcome back to Bob’s Corner! Today, I thought we’d talk about another type of ore removal. Since a gold mine is normally thought of as a below-the-surface operation, we tend to think of mineshafts, elevators, and total darkness. In reality, Cripple Creek District gold is just as likely to be found in surface material. Or, at least material that …
Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek RECIPES
I read fiction for a variety of reasons: compelling characters, fascinating settings, appealing hypotheses, historical information, a sense of community, spiritual nourishment, encouragement, distraction, insight, entertainment. Oh, yes, and the food. My favorite stories often feature teatime or mealtime conversations. It’s no wonder then that my Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek novels include dialogue centered around a supper table or a tray of goodies in a …
Bob’s Corner: Mine Elevators and Ore Cars
Bob here. Welcome back to my Corner. Today, I want to share a little about the workings of a hard-rock gold mine at the end of the 19th century. In the Cripple Creek District, the mines were mostly vertical shafts, blasted through solid granite. In a previous post, Headframes and Hoists, I explained that this had to do with the …
Bob’s Corner: Headframes and Cable Hoist
The pursuit of riches drew tens of thousands of colorful characters to Cripple Creek in the 1890s. The boom town provided me a canvas on which to draw my stories in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series. Good news! My hubby Bob agreed to flesh out the workings of a gold mining camp in that era for us. Headframes and Cable Hoists …
Cripple Creek
Denver and Colorado Springs were popular towns in Colorado Territory, and have remained so since Colorado received statehood in 1876. Although Cripple Creek is often overlooked, the gold mining camp’s footprint is deep and widespread in Colorado’s historical soil. Cripple Creek, nestled in a saddle valley on the southwestern slopes of Pikes Peak, became a booming gold mining camp in …