My Dad's story.

My Dad was fascinated by the Lost Blue Bucket Mine.  I know he wrote a couple of articles on it.  I found a Bulletin story, with a picture of him with a map showing the line of geological gold deposits and where it intersects with the path of the wagon train. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19831110&id=I5ZTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=M4cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5054,3617362

So it's weird that here I am also writing a story about it.  A genre fiction story, to be sure, but still curious.

It's also a curious feeling to know I have two books finished.  They only need that last clean edit, and they should be ready to go.

I'm not quite ready to dive into writing again.  I'm certainly not in the mood to re-write.

So I've been researching The Lost Blue Bucket Mine.

I intend to try to visit the actual locations of the wagon train route.  For those of you that don't know it happened in eastern Oregon.

Weirdly, the whole story is a parallel to the Donner Party.  Stephen Meek, lesser known brother to Joe Meek, leads a wagon train on a 'shortcut', gets lost, the pioneers suffer from bad water and heat, and so on.

I read a review of a book based on the incident, and the reviews were scathing because of the historical inaccuracy.

(I realize there is a movie, but I'm purposely avoiding it.  I don't want to be influenced, or accused of copying.)

Well, while I want to be right in the tone and the overall details, I'll be messing quite a bit with the actual story.

But I'm fiction, right?  Not only fiction, but genre fiction.  I think being historically accurate as often as possible makes the story better, but...it is a story.

I'm looking forward to this book, but I've come around the conclusion that the more I prepare in advance, the more I think about it and plan it, the easier the book will be and the less rewriting will be necessary.

When I started this writing journey three years ago, I was winging it.  I didn't believe in plot outlines. But when you write yourself in enough corners, you realize planning it out a little is a big savings in time and effort.

I'm giving myself a couple of weeks to plan out the book.  (At the same time The Death Spend No Gold is being edited.)

I'll probably start writing around August 1.