I fell for my husband's small, coal mining town of Roslyn, Washington soon after he took me there for the first time over 12 years ago. With the old western buildings, the storied taverns, and the multicultural cemetery alone, it was evident I was walking through a ghost town.
Several years later, I was fortunate enough to sit down with one of the town's most knowledgeable history buffs, Nick Henderson. He has a treasure trove of Roslyn's anecdotes at his disposal. I started writing fast in my notebook once he told me of a potential mistaken murder that occurred around the time of the strike between Western Miners and United Miners of America in the early 1930's. I knew I was on to a story at that point.
When I form a plot, I often take a historical footnote and build around it. Since there's not much more interesting than a murder scheme gone awry, I decided to use that as my thread, and from there I began to integrate other aspects of Roslyn: the scenic winery, many of the actual storefronts and favored locations. The wheels of my mind started turning more, and I had an "aha" moment. What if I made my protagonist a switchboard operator and had her overhear certain aspects of the murder scheme? How interesting/engaging would that be?
Taking into account that my husband's family are the telephone (and technology, etc.) providers for the Upper County, I thought it would be fun to give a nod to days gone by. Though my novel is set a good decade before her time, I interviewed Marian Weis (my husband's grandmother) on what it was like to work as a switchboard operator. After six to eight weeks of research for "Swiftwater," my ideas had time to marinate, and my characters were forming faster than I could write them down. What if I made my switchboard operator a woman who was in love with one of the miners who stood to lose a lot if he didn't pledge abiding loyalty to one union over the other?
While I wish the process was simplistic from thereon out, that hasn't been my experience. I began typing this story over three years ago, and in that time, it's seen six revisions, some more drastic than others.
After editing the novel several times myself, I learned of a talented editor (Jennifer Moorman, Harper Collins) that one of my few writing mentors (E. Hank Buchmann) worked with to get his books in publishing shape. I strongly believe writers come to a place where they can't see their own work with clear eyes anymore and greatly benefit from the instructive pen of another writer/editor. While Jennifer's insightful edits haven't been the "end" of the writing process for "Swiftwater," she carried me so much farther and made me believe for the first time I could publish my novel set in the oft-unheard of, but densely fascinating town of Roslyn.
Though I feel like a capable writer most of the time, Jennifer Moorman (my editor, who works for Harper Collins for her day job) makes me better. She practically knows how to spin straw into gold. What I mean by this is: I can have all the needed elements on the page, but she enhances my words, chisels down that what is needless and leaves me with the best possible version of myself. What I appreciate about Jennifer is not only her intuitive nature, but the devotion and interest she takes in the story. Once Jennifer returns a manuscript to me (she has also edited my forthcoming novel, "The Emblem,") I go through it to accept/reject all her recommendations. I accept most that she advises, then she reviews it one more time and returns it to me several weeks later.
While many writers would feel "good to go" at this phase, I think one thing that's taken me longer with "Swiftwater" is the fact that I'm writing from a different time period, examining actual events and deciding as I go how much I can stray from fact. The fiction banner affords me a lot of creativity, but one thing that made me stop in my tracks and take a critical eye to this work was the release of "Coal Wars" by WSU Professor David Bullock (2015). I didn't know this account even existed until I was almost done writing my book.
In so reading his work, I saw I needed to make a few crucial changes: move the dates of the strike earlier, for one. The protagonist of "Swiftwater," Julie Fletcher is introduced to the reader as an elderly woman who visits Swiftwater Cellars. Because of her age, I thought I'd have to move the dates of the strike later. In wrestling through the pages of "Coal Wars," I no longer felt I could do that. In my sixth version of "Swiftwater," Julie would be in her mid nineties. While it might be asking readers to expand their imaginations in how she is still out and about, enjoying a glass of No.9, it's not impossible.
Another reason my process has taken longer is because I had my highly critical, historically accurate husband take a red pen to "Swiftwater" before handing it over to my writing mentor/former teacher/author Douglas Bond who had further ideas for me. I'm excited to go with the brand he's started, InkBlots Press and know that in his shaping and molding me, my novels will become better and richer than I'd imagined. I hope my readers will notice the difference found in novels that are reworked and refined many times over.
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