DOUBLE JEOPARDY--The Story Behind the Story--and a Contest!
Double Jeopardy – The Story Behind the
Story – with Giveaway
The story behind
the story is often told in the form of back cover copy on the book, but I think
it goes way beyond that. Sure, that bit on the back tells us a little about the
main characters, the overall plot, and perhaps some about the decisions the
main characters must make, because always—let me repeat this—always the choices
they are faced with conflict with each other. At first glance, it seems they
cannot have everything.
So let’s delve a
little deeper into the story behind the story.
Rebecca Campbell
was born in New York City, the only child of wealthy socialite Matilda
Applewhite Campbell and Robert Campbell. Her mother is everything Rebecca—Becky
to her friends—wants to be. Beautiful. Poised. Confident. Instead, she seems
doomed to inherit all her traits from her father, who she adores. Reckless.
Impulsive. A daredevil.
Becky’s father is
gone more than he’s home. When a year passes with no word from him, she sets
out, on her own, for his last known location—Silver Valley, Colorado. On her
arrival, she learns he has been murdered. Determined to make his mine a
success—his last letter promised that as soon as he struck it rich, he’d send
for her and her mother—and to find his killer, she settles in at the mine.
But somebody
doesn’t want her to succeed. And after a series of accidents and near-misses,
she admits she’s in over her head. And the only person she can trust is Zeke—or
can she?
The hero is Ezekial
Graumann. Most everybody calls him Zeke. Zeke and his family own a fairly large
piece of land in southwestern Colorado near the town of Silver Valley. Zeke has
two married brothers, as well as two unmarried sisters. In good years, with
enough rain, their land can support the three families if they are diligent and
careful with their stock. However, the last few years have seen droughts and
not enough snowfall, and the grazing is poor. Zeke wants to build his own
house, maybe get married and have his own family, but the land won’t support
another household.
Unless he can buy
water rights from a spread upstream. But he doesn’t have the money to do that. So
he looks around town for some weekly work to earn enough to buy the water
rights and receive his share of the family land.
And along comes
Miss Rebecca Campbell. She is feisty, stubborn, and doesn’t know anything about
mining. Yet her determination to find her father’s killer and her resolve to
make his mine successful gnaws at Zeke’s heart. And soon he finds himself
imagining what it would be like to have her at his side as his wife. Except
she’s obviously not ranching material, either.
But when accidents
happen at the mine that threaten her safety, he must acknowledge that his
feelings for her are more than mere curiosity. Now he must choose between
saving his ranch or saving this woman who has stolen his heart.
And now for a
little of the history behind the story. When most people think about opening up
the Wild West, they picture cowboys, wagon trains, and, of course, the gold
rush. And all of those would be true and very important to the reasons why
folks left the relative comforts of the East—that being everything east of the
Mississippi—to head into the Great Unknown.
The Colorado Gold
Rush started in 1858 and lasted until around 1861, and brought thousands of
miners, ancillary workers such as drovers, liverymen, blacksmiths, prostitutes,
saloon keepers, and swindlers. However, apart from a few areas such as Cripple
Creek, which saw its biggest mining deep into the 1890s, most of the gold
petered out as quick as it was found.
An interesting
tidbit is that silver was discovered because so many were looking for gold.
Exactly twenty years after gold was first discovered, silver was found in the
area of Leadville and covering a three-hundred-mile swath from the San Juan
Mountains to the Foothills west of Denver.
Robert Campbell, Becky’s
father, learns of this find, and heads for southwest Colorado, intent on
getting in on the ground floor of silver mining in the area. Little did he know
that the wealth he counted on would evaporate less than fifteen years later
when the government stopped minting silver dollars, a decision that increased
gold prices and sent silver prices into the basement.
I will randomly draw
from all who leave a comment over the next nine days to win a print (US only)
copy of Double Jeopardy. Which means,
if you stop by every day and leave a comment, you’ll have nine entries.
Double Jeopardy is available at https://shoplpc.com/double-jeopardy/
Amazon.com, and fine booksellers in your area.
About Donna:
Donna lives in Denver with husband
Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name,
and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been
published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a
member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In
Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches
writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges
in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively
for both. Donna is
represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com Receive
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Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter
What Can Be Online University: https://what-can-be-online-institute.teachable.com/
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