I’ve invited Beverly Scott, author of Sarah’s Secret to visit Ascroft, eh? today to talk about her new historical novel set in the American West.
Welcome, Bev. Let’s get started, shall we?
Tell us about your novel. What prompted you to write about this historical event? How closely did you stick to the historical facts? If you used them loosely, how did you decide whether to deviate from them?
Bev: I heard family rumors about my grandfather at a family reunion about twenty-five years ago. I was 
intrigued and wanted to learn more. When my career wound down, I began a genealogy search at the National Archives since my grandfather was a Civil War Veteran. As I sorted through the yellowed pages of forms, correspondence and depositions, I discovered he was born in Indiana in 1840 as John Howard, (we knew him as Harvey Depew or H.D.) and the rumor was true! He had another family.
I continued my genealogy journey searching the US Census. He and his family were listed in the 1870 Census in Texas but he was missing in the 1880 census. Going back to the Archive documents, I found clues: his wife Harriet stated he left her destitute with her sixth child in 1878 when he went into town for a load of corn and never returned; H.D. claimed he worked cattle and that he had been a cook. Since 1878 was at the peak of the long-horn cattle drives from Texas to Kansas, perhaps he joined a cattle drive. However, there was no record of him in Texas or Kansas. He literally disappeared in 1878.
I found him under his new name in 1890 in Wyoming. He had filed a land claim. There, he met and married my grandmother, the local school teacher. With so little information about my mysterious grandfather, I concluded the story needed to be fiction. I used the bones of the story I had uncovered but the emotions, motivations and dialogue are from my imagination. I filled in the context and historical background of the story. The section focused on the character based on my grandfather is almost totally created from my imagination.
I used historical facts that I found in my research and wove them into the story. For example, I discovered there was a town in Kansas, Nicodemus, which was settled by freed slaves after the Civil War. I knew that my grandmother’s family had been opposed to succession and supported freeing the slaves. Since my protagonist, Sarah was traveling North by wagon through Kansas to return to Nebraska and her family, I thought it would add interest to the story to describe Sarah and her children unexpectedly encountering a black family in the middle of Kansas living near Nicodemus.
Sarah follows a narrow path with her seriously ill daughter to find help. She discovers a welcoming family descended from former slaves who willingly share their modest home for several days while Sarah nurses her daughter back to health.
What research did you do for this book?
Bev: Since I began doing genealogy first, my research began at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. which held a treasure trove of documents, the result of my grandfather’s pursuit of Veterans Benefits. I also visited my grandfather’s birthplace, the other places he lived either in his first or second marriage. I used census records to track down births and residences. At the time, I hadn’t expected to use this research for a fictional story but it turned out to be invaluable.
Once I determined that the story would be fiction, I read books and stories about the time period, such as the period of long-horn cattle drives from Texas to Dodge City, Kansas, I pursued specific questions on-line such as “was there a bridge in 1911 across the Canadian River between Texas and Oklahoma?” I found books of cowboy slang and read descriptions in libraries of dugouts and sod houses written by homesteaders besieged with drought, snowstorms, and hostile Indians. When it supported my story, I used quotes from the depositions in the National Archives files and descriptions from hand written family stories donated to historical museums.
After I began writing, I was grateful for the easy access via ‘Google’ to find information in the moment when I needed to know some historical details. I also discovered that much of the fun of writing historical fiction is the research and integrating what I learned into the story to give more vivid details to the reader.
Do you use a mixture of historic figures and invented characters in the novel? Which is more difficult to write? Which to you prefer to write and why?
Bev: The characters in my novel are totally invented. I did not use any public historical characters. I based the character of Sarah on the qualities I remember of my grandmother. As I wrote the section focused on Sarah, my writing flowed and it was easy. I felt as if I was channeling my grandmother. I am sure many of those qualities are imaginary memories since I have only childhood recollections of her before she died when I was in the seventh grade.
Sam, the character who represents my grandfather in the story, is totally created from my imagination. Since I had no knowledge of what my grandfather was like nor did I have any family members who knew him, I had the opportunity to invent his character. I struggled how to describe a man who would abandon his first wife and family and yet, be the kind of man Sarah would marry. Once I settled on who he was and how he would act, then I thoroughly enjoyed the creative process of writing his adventures. Because I felt more license to be creative, I had more fun writing about Sam, but Sarah was easier.
In an historical novel you must vividly re-create a place and people in a bygone era. How did you bring the place and people you are writing about to life?
Bev: Because I had visited the places that were key locations in the story when I was doing my genealogy search, I had a visual picture of these places. Since most of them were rural or small towns, I could more easily visualize their appearance in the 1880’s or the early twentieth century. I utilized photos, descriptions and books to help me create the places, people and dialogue in the story. Several of the historical museums I visited had letters and hand-written stories of early settlers, their lives, the challenges they faced and the dwellings they built. I also found stories written by cowboys who drove the cattle north, vividly describing the details of a long-horn cattle drive. I read, too, about the wild frontier atmosphere in Dodge City. Finally, my real extended family was mostly from rural and farming communities. Their language and dialogue was familiar from my childhood.
There often seems to be more scope in historical novels for male characters rather than female characters. Do you prefer to write one sex or the other. And, if so, why?
Bev: Since my novel is based on the lives of my grandparents, I wanted to include both characters. For me, as I mentioned above, it was easier creating and writing about Sarah. I believe that is because I had memories of the real person she was drawn from. However, with the greater creative license in developing Sam and his adventures, I had more fun.
I agree that male characters do seem to have more “scope” in historical novels. I specifically wanted to write about a strong female character. We need to have more stories of women and the importance of their contributions to our history. I am pleased that I wrote about a primary woman protagonist who can offer inspiration and be a role model to us today.
Thanks for answering my questions, Bev.
Readers can learn more about Bev and her writing by visiting her website and connecting with her on Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon, and Goodreads.
Sarah’s Secret is available on Amazon and other online retailers.
About Beverly Scott: Bev specialized in serving executives and managers as a leadership coach and 
organizational consultant for over thirty-five years. She taught organization psychology and founded The 3rd Act, a program whose mission supports positive aging. As she grew into her own third act, she started a genealogical journey to uncover the details of her grandparents’ lives, which culminated in her novel, Sarah’s Secret. Bev previously focused on publishing non-fiction work, including the second edition of “Consulting on the Inside,” which she co-authored with Kim Barnes, published in 2011. She has written numerous professional articles and contributed to “70 Things to Do When You Turn 70,” edited by Ronnie Sellers and Mark Chimsky. Bev blogs on several sites, including her own, “The Writing Life” www.bevscott.com. She enjoys traveling, visiting with friends, reading and spending time with her grandsons. She lives with her spouse in San Francisco.
Twenties, a century ago, when hemlines go up and morals plunge, when every bright promise brings a dark underside. Prohibition brings illegal bootlegging and gangsters, while big-time sports attracts gamblers and the fixing of the 1919 World Series. At the center of these powerful forces stands Babe Ruth, the awesomely talented man-child who is reinventing baseball as a power game.
history. His first historical work told the story of the writing of the Constitution (“The Summer of 1787”). It was a Washington Post Bestseller and won the Washington Writing Prize for Best Book of 2007. His second book (“Impeached”), grew from a judicial impeachment trial he defended before the United States Senate in 1989. “American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America” explored Burr’s astounding Western expedition of 1805-07 and his treason trial before Chief Justice John Marshall. “Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America” debuted in February 2015. He has received the 2013 History Award of the Society of the Cincinnati and the 2016 William Prescott Award for History Writing from the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
artists, under the tutelage of the great Leonardo da Vinci, who must navigate the treacherous life of 15
Island. In addition to writing, teaching writing, and reviewing for literary journals, Donna works as a model and actor; highlights of her work include two seasons on Showtime’s Brotherhood and an appearance in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Donna is the proud mother of two sons, one a future opera singer, the other a future chef.
Archer series, my new crime series follows Kate Clifford, a young widow from the northern border with Scotland, as she navigates her way through the clash between the royal cousins King Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke. The first book in the series, The Service of the Dead, is set in winter, 1399, as rumors spread that King Richard declares that his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, has forfeited his right to the inheritance of his father, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Such a betrayal will not go unchallenged by the Lancastrian heir. A civil war is inevitable. That’s the historical backdrop.
And I’m having fun with this young widow determined to choose her own future. Kate’s household includes a former assassin turned cook, a burglar turned maidservant—both fiercely loyal to her, a pair of Irish wolfhounds, and her late husband’s two bastard children—whom Kate loves as her own. With such martial/criminal/animal protection you would think no one in their right mind would mess with Kate, but her life is complicated and her past even more so. And, of course, there are many people not quite in their right minds, especially in the midst of civil war, which begins in the second book, A Twisted Vengeance.
history, and has continued to study the period while working first as an editor of scientific publications and now for some years as a freelance writer. Candace has published 13 crime novels set in 14th century England, Wales, and Scotland. The Owen Archer series is based in York and currently extends over 10 novels beginning with THE APOTHECARY ROSE; the most recent is A VIGIL OF SPIES. The Margaret Kerr trilogy explores the early days of Scotland’s struggle again England’s King Edward I, and includes A TRUST BETRAYED, THE FIRE IN THE FLINT, and A CRUEL COURTSHIP.
Today is Canada Day and my homeland is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the modern nation. Although I’ve lived away from the country of my birth for almost half my life now, if I’m asked, I still immediately identify myself as Canadian.
It seems appropriate that last week, as Canada Day neared, Tracey Warr at The Displaced Nation invited me to chat with her about my experience as a writer living away from my homeland. I talked about where I come from and how my past and present influence my writing. If you want to know more about the interview you’ll 
parents and the town of Stony River where far too many know she was sexually assaulted as a teenager. Deliverance arrives in the form of marriage to the charismatic, twenty-six-year-old Ronald Brunson, a newly ordained Methodist minister who ignites in her a dormant passion for social justice. He tells her war and racial discrimination are symptoms of the “moral rot” destroying the country, conjuring up something dark and rancid in her mind, thrilling in its wickedness. He sweeps her away from New Jersey to serve with him at a church in a speck-on-the-map prairie town in Minnesota. What lies ahead for her over the next seven years is the subject of Tricia Dower’s penetrating study of a marriage and a woman’s evolving sense of self as she confronts the fear that keeps her from an unfettered future. 
Tricia hails from Rahway, New Jersey. You can find her on the “Rahway’s Own” website with other individuals the town has recognized for innovation and creativity. A graduate of Gettysburg College and a Phi Mu, she built a career in business before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her literary work has crossed borders and won awards. She expanded a story from her Shakespeare-inspired collection, Silent Girl (Inanna 2008) into Stony River, which was published in both Canada (Penguin 2012) and the US (Leapfrog 2016). She gave a character from Stony River her own novel in Becoming Lin (Caitlin Press 2016), now available in the US.
I was delighted to be included, with approximately 40 other writers, in 
dianneascroft.com 