Inspired by the Mysteries in my History
The Great Loveda Brown grew out of a desire to know more about the lives of my pioneering ancestors. As the self-designated keeper of the family trees, I wanted to know more about the people who formed the roots, the branches, the leaves, and yes, the nuts.
Passing down generational stories is as old as fire rings, but somehow a few special members in my family remained shrouded in mystery and kept to the shadows. What happened to the couple with the scandalous divorce? Why was that person tried for murder? Who came over on the Mayflower and what were their aspirations?
The horse thief. The elopement. The Viking. The Cherokee. Meningitis. The 1918 flu pandemic. Suicide.
Why? The question was as tantalizing as it was a tribulation. There was always another why behind the why! The further I dug, the deeper the mysteries grew until I had to write it all out in order. I needed something much bigger than a family tree chart. I needed a novel.
The book I wrote is a fascinating look into why people do what they do. For better or worse, we’ve arrived via a network of choices made by people who are no longer here to see how the story ended. The early 1900s were a time full of global juxtapositions, when inventions overtook the old ways, things that were possible became worth fighting for, travel began to be commonplace, and the women on my family tree were doing things you would never have guessed by looking at their sober and sepia-toned photographs.
The Idyllwild Mystery Series was born. I wanted to give these strong and ornery ladies a voice in the fictional characters of a novel. What history and society locked away, I coaxed from the shadows and invited to dance. I plant that spirit of optimism and exploration, uncertainty and instability, isolation and imagination, deep into each plot for Loveda Brown.
And always, I ask the page, “why?”
“Is the wilderness truly an appropriate place for ladies of refinement, such as yourself?” Mr. Peabody asked.
Mrs. Keen drew herself up even taller. “Mr. Peabody, it is the exact place for ladies. The American West was tamed with the blood, sweat, and tears of our pioneering foremothers. We are but the sixth state to give women the vote, and we are certainly not going to let them down now. Our daughters will have a voice.”
It may take a great many books to do it. But they will.
The Great Loveda Brown
An Idyllwild Mystery, Book 1
When Loveda Brown arrives in the tiny mountainside town of Idyllwild, California, as yet the Wild West of 1912, she is running from her husband. But when a body turns up the next day, she realizes she might have worse things following her…that cold, clenched fist holds something that forces Loveda to stay in Idyllwild and use all of her wits to stop another murder from happening. Probably her own.
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