Okay, folks. Here’s the deal.
Pete Risingsun, my coauthor, and I did a vast amount of research when we wrote “The Curse of Dead Horse Canyon” trilogy. The depiction of the Cheyenne culture is accurate. The history referred to in the stories really happened, save that which was clearly made-up, though even that was feasible. Abandoned mines definitely are a pollution issue. The astrology is actual for the time and place and characters involved, which is weird and another blog in itself.
But if there was one thing that was made up it was the source of the conspiracy, i.e., the Pearson Underground Residence Facility (PURF).
Or was it?
My jaw dropped when a friend sent me this article about just that, such a facility on an even grander scale than I have in our novel! Check it out here.
The article in The New York Post linked above opens with the following paragraph, “The federal government has secretly spent trillions building an elaborate network of subterranean ‘cities’ where the rich and powerful can shelter during a ‘near-extinction event,’ a former Bush White House official sensationally claimed.”
Much of its source and, if you’ll excuse the expression “from the horse’s mouth,” can be found in this short video (12 minutes) where Elizabeth Austin Fitts, who served as the assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Housing between 1989 and 1990, talks about it on Tucker Carson’s podcast.
While I knew there were plenty of underground bases (because the History Channel says so, right?) which made PURF credible, I had no idea it was even worse than I imagined!
So if anyone out there thinks that part of the story is a stretch, bear in mind that they have actually spent even more, by several orders of magnitude, than I have noted in the books. We’re talking TRILLIONS whereas in the story it was BILLIONS.
The money probably came from those “magic money machines” the DOGE team found, right? The actual corruption coming out these days makes my fictitious situation pale by comparison.
While Pete and I were writing these books I was amazed by how many actual situations–historical and otherwise–fit perfectly. Particularly, as we researched Cheyenne ceremonies, much came out that drove and further defined the storyline. I didn’t know anything about the Massaum as the Earth Giving Ceremony, the meeting of Indigenous leaders at Walker Lake, Nevada, or any number of other things when I conceived this story. I knew how it would end but I had no idea how.
As I look back, I can’t help but wonder where this story came from? Mine and Pete’s imagination? I may have mentioned this before, but I’m what they call a “pantser,” not a “plotter.” In other words, I write “by the seat of my pants.”
I start with a very general idea/theme in mind. I populate it with characters and turn them loose. I’m more of a scribe than an author making the story up. I simply watch what they do and write it down. My characters repeatedly get themselves into scrapes where I have absolutely no idea how they’ll get out.
But they do. Usually in some way I never dreamed of.
Did I channel these books rather than make them up?
I think most of us can agree there are other dimensions out there. Psychic phenomena are very real and no doubt operate in some other reality beyond what we can currently detect. Did these stories actually take place in one of them?
I had much the same experience while writing the Star Trails Tetralogy, especially in “The Terra Debacle: Prisoners at Area 51″ in developing the science behind a telepathic walking plant.
One of the reasons I love research is all the amazing, serendipitous factoids I uncover that fit and often drive the plot and action. It’s as if the story is already out there, just waiting for some writer’s muse to whisper it in their ear.
I must say, not knowing what will happen makes writing as much fun as reading. I like to think that if it has me in suspense that such will be conveyed to my readers as well.
Here’s one teaser from “Revenge of Dead Horse Canyon: Sweet Medicine Spirits – Novavose” where I had absolutely no idea what would happen. The character in question popped up quite late in the book, but she fit perfectly.
If you’d like to get the entire trilogy in a single mega-ebook that also includes some bonus material about that Earth Giving Ceremony, you can pick one up on Amazon here.
Let me know in the comments what you think regarding where stories come from as well as whether you find my stories predictable. Like I say, I know how they’ll end, but rarely if ever know how it comes about.
The Curse of Dead Horse Canyon 