Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Five Reasons to Read - And Write - the Oregon Trail with guest blogger Kathleen D. Bailey

 

 by Kathleen D. Bailey, author of Redemption's Hope

Twenty years ago, I had a glimmer of an idea for a novel. An impoverished young widow takes a place as cook on a wagon train, only to discover that the scout for that train is the man who betrayed her three years before. He’s under contract and she has nowhere else to go, so they find themselves slogging across the plains together. Old issues come out, new ones form in the pressure cooker that is 100 wagons filled with 200 to 300 scared, tired people. By the time they reach Oregon Country, both have changed immeasurably.

That gleam in this author’s eye became my first published book, “Westward Hope,” in 2019. I’ve since followed it with “Settlers’ Hope,” 2020, and “Redemption’s Hope,” out July 22 of this year. “Settlers’ Hope” takes place in an Oregon Country hamlet, with survivors of the trail, and “Redemption’s Hope” follows the trail in reverse, as Jenny Thatcher looks for the Native man she thinks she can love. But the Trail marks everything they do, from Oona Moriarty’s quest to find her brother (“Settlers’ Hope”) to Jenny’s retracing the route she took in 1846.

The Oregon Trail. The Great Migration. Opening the West. The Wagon Train era. Its names are legend; its legends are legend. Who hasn’t heard stories of the Americans who shook off their newly-minted country, less than a century after the Revolution, to see what lay beyond those hills?

The Oregon Trail is a gold strike (another beloved Western trope) for the reader.

1. It has tremendous range, from the transcendent novels of Jane Kirkpatrick to a simple novella. Choose your own adventure, there’s plenty of Trail literature, from an afternoon’s read in the hammock to something you can write a thesis about.

2. It can take you to another place, right in your own country. The Plains, desert and Western mountains are an exotic setting to anyone who’s never been there. Chimney Rock, Castle Rock, Independence Rock. Buffalo hunts. Amber fields of grain and snow-capped mountains. Bonus: the characters you’re reading about haven’t seen it either.

3. Oregon Trail books are a history lesson. You learn what they ate, how they ate it, what they packed and what they did when supplies ran low. You learn about the Louisiana Purchase and “Manifest Destiny,” all wrapped around a good story.

4. About that story…Anything can happen when you throw a group of strangers together under almost impossible conditions. You learn about the resilience of the human spirit, and also just how nasty we can be.

5. In the hands of a Christian author, Trail stories are a venue for strengthening your faith. (See #5, below).  


As satisfying as the Trail is for readers, it’s just as big a boon for writers. 

1. The Oregon Trail and its time period (1840s till after The War) is pretty forgiving from a research standpoint. You don’t need to know a lot of battles, dates and who massacred whom. (I’m doing a Lexington-and-Concord story right now, and believe me, there’s no comparison.) You do have to be careful if you throw in real historical characters, making them as accurate as possible, and you do need to have a rough framework of what’s going on Back East. But the real drama in your story will be between the men and women who board those wagons in St. Joseph, Missouri.

2. And drama there will be. Everyone on the Trail had a story. They were running from something or someone (Michael Moriarty in “Westward Hope”), they were running TO something or someone (Oona Moriarty in “Settlers’ Hope”), they were at rock bottom and had nothing better to do (Caroline Pierce O’Leary in “Westward Hope”), or they were good stable people who happened to have wanderlust (Ben Harkness in “Westward Hope”). Face a couple of them off against each other and watch what happens.

3. The Trail itself becomes a character, as the emigrants battle, well, everything. They fight river currents, arid deserts, plagues on their cattle and plagues on themselves. As they reach the higher plains, they throw out almost everything they brought, to make it easier on their suffering horses or oxen, and they learn what really matters. Or they don’t. (Ina Prince in “Westward Hope.”) People die on the Trail and are buried in places their loved ones know they’ll never visit again. Families become fluid, with parents taking in orphaned children and elders dying in the dirt.

4. By its very nature, the wagon train lends itself to high drama. It’s like a small town on wheels, and it has the best and worst of small towns. There’s gossip, backbiting, challenges to the wagon master’s authority. There are petty cruelties. A person’s past catches up with them on the trail, no matter how hard they try to outrun it. But there’s also transcendent kindness, as the emigrants help one another with everything from a loose wheel to childbirth. They are in this together. They don’t have anyone else. 

5. And it remains one of the best venues for exploring our Christian faith in fiction. Like Abraham, these pioneers went out to a land they knew not, or didn’t know enough. Like the Israelites, they turned their backs on their former lives in the hopes of something better. The Trail reduced every man, woman and child to their essence, and when they came to the other coast, most were forever changed. In the hands of an inspirational fiction author, at least part of the change will be spiritual. 

When I was doing library talks on “Westward Hope,” I occasionally encountered people who were skeptical about an inspirational novel. They would ask me, “Just how much religion is there in your book?” It’s a simple question to answer, I’m an inspy author, my faith permeates the books – I hope. My standard answer to “how much religion” is, “I wouldn’t want to take on the Oregon Trail without a belief in something bigger than myself.” There are no atheists in foxholes, or so the saying goes, and I doubt there were many on the Trail.

So check out the Great Migration, and I may be joining you. I thought I was done with the Trail, but new situations and characters are kicking around in my head, and I just might let them out!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Two distinct sets of villains. Two orphaned children. A man without a country and a woman with too much past...All in a rambunctious young country where anything goes, especially in the West. Seriously. What can go wrong?

“Redemption’s Hope” is the third and last installment of Kathleen D. Bailey’s “Western Dreams” series, following “Westward Hope” and “Settlers’ Hope.” The novel takes Jenny Thatcher, a secondary character in the first two books on the ride of her life, from the Oregon Country to New Mexico to San Antonio to New Orleans and back, as she looks for her dream and finds herself in the bargain.

White Bear, the Cheyenne brave, has a foot in two worlds but feels at home in neither. He longs to reconnect with the spirited white woman who had sought refuge with his family three years before. Is his true home with “Blue Eyes,” the woman he knew for only three days? 

Only if he finds her.


Kathleen Bailey is a journalist and novelist with 40 years’ experience in the nonfiction, newspaper and inspirational fields. Born in 1951, she was a child in the 50s, a teen in the 60s, a young adult in the 70s and a young mom in the 80s. It’s been a turbulent, colorful time to grow up, and she’s enjoyed every minute of it and written about most of it. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband David. They have two grown daughters.

Connect with Kathy at Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn 

 

What do you love about reading (or writing) about the Oregon Trail?

One commenter will win an ebook of Redemption's Hope and one commenter will win a New England gift pack (US only for gift pack) 



25 comments:

  1. Well good morning, and thanks to Carrie for hosting me. I'm thrilled to be here. (I'm here most days opining about something, but I'm thrilled to be here and be INVITED.) I've been hanging around Seekerville for years, back to the "unpubbed island" days. I was a Contest Diva in 2015 and sailed off the island in 2019. I've learned a lot here and made some lifelong friends! I'll be around all day and look forward to answering your questions.

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    1. Hello, dearest kaybee! Always a joy to have you with us - be it on the blog or in the comments :)

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  2. Kathy, you are correct that the Oregon Trail has fueled the American imagination for a couple of centuries now. I love the fortitude of the pioneer stock and my personal roots are in the Pacific Northwest, so I have a deep love for that area of our beautifull country. I love these books and the characters you've created. Thank you so much for sharing them with the world.

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    1. Thank you, Glynis. It's nice to know people who "get" what I am doing.

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  3. Kathy, good morning! I love seeing your enthusiasm not only for the Trail, but for those pioneers... they've been given a kind of short shrift these days. I'm not a fan of that, I see the raw courage that it took to settle the West.... and so many immigrants coming up from Central America, coming in from Asia, and the pioneers, forging their way to new opportunities. Amazing times.... so good to see you here today!

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  4. Ruthy, I was hoping you'd stop by, you have always been an inspiration to me. Yeah, it seems to me that the entire panorama of American history is "raw courage," from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to the Trail to the rich mosaic of American life today. We've made a few mistakes along the way, but who hasn't? Oh, and we also helped whup Hitler, which is one period I will NEVER write in because so many people are doing it better. This is a great country, Ruthy, and I think it's something we both try to show through our work.

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  5. This is Kayla James. Wow. I have been watching a lot of cowboy shows of late and of course I have heard of the Oregon Trail, but that might be interesting to write. Your post has actually sparked a story premise in my head. It might work. I wonder if I can try and write several manuscripts all at once because I have way too many ideas in my head.
    Being entered into the drawing might be fun. Are there any physical books in the pack, though? If there are I can't read those, please.

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    1. Don't have physical book of "Redemption's Hope" yet, sorry. Good luck with your book. There are thousands of stories that can stem from the Trail, and yours might be one of them.

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  6. Good morning, Kaybee! It's nice to see you on the other side of the blog screen!

    I'm an avid fan of the West - the westward migration, cowboys, cattle drives, the various Native tribes and their histories. It's all fascinating, especially since I live in the middle of it.

    One of my Amish historicals takes place on a wagon train. About the time of the first emigrants to Oregon, many Amish were leaving eastern Pennsylvania for points west: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. It was challenging to write about this fairly small group of people against the ever-changing background as they traveled. Everything posed a challenge for them and external conflict was everywhere. Ever since then, I've had a westward migration series cooking in my mind. Maybe someday it will actually get onto the page!

    Congratulations on the third book in the series!

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    1. I keep forgetting that Illinois and Indiana are considered the west. Well, I grew up in Illinois and live in Indiana so maybe I should write an Oregon Trail novel soon. Lol.

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  7. Thanks Jan, always nice to hear from you. I can only imagine the challenge a Plain family, or group of families, would have on a wagon train full of Englischers. They would be the first ones to be picked on for being "different." And there would be a huge conflict if the train was attacked and the rest of the pioneers took up arms to fight Indians, renegade whites or whatever. Saw this plot on James Arness's "How the West Was Won" and several times on "Wagon Train." Definitely an issue... and there's always the Plain girl who falls for the Englischer guy, or vice versa.
    Oh Jan, hope your westward migration story simmers and boils over so I can read it!
    Kathy Bailey
    Your Kaybee
    Encouraging other writers in New Hampshire

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  8. Kathy, it's obvious there is a lot of passion behind these stories. And I've been intrigued by White Bear since you went into that teepee to get to know him better. ;-) He and Blue Eyes sound like a match made in heaven.

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    1. Oh, Mindy, they are, they are. That's what I was going for -- that there was nobody who would do for either of them but each other. They're both larger-than-life characters who "get" each other.
      If anyone's blog-hopping today, I also have an interview with Jenny on Kelly Goshorn's "Romancing History." Jenny in her own words...

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  9. I love stories about the old west and especially wagon train stories. I loved this series and was blessed to be on the launch team for Redemption's Hope.

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    1. Carolyn, good morning! I was blessed to have you. You write a great review, and you really "get" what I was going for. Keep in touch.

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  10. So proud of you, KB, and what you've accomplished. In my childhood, wagon train tales were common. Today's kids aren't exposed to them like my generation was, which is a shame. We need more stories like yours that reveal the strength and determination of our early forefathers. They were hearty folks and sacrificed much to settle our country. Thanks for sharing their stories!

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    1. Thank you, Debby. You are always so encouraging. Another great plot point in our history is the American Revolution, and I am blessed to live an hour and a half from Lexington and Concord. So my current WIP is about that. But the frontier just won't let me go. I haven't done a barroom brawl yet, a cattle drive or the Oklahoma Land Rush. Oh my muse is calling...

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  11. Kathy, so sorry to be late joining in today. I wanted to be here earlier, but had appointments and shopping all morning. You know that I love the series and was glad to be part of the launch team for Redemption's Hope. I love the Oregon Trail and western stories. After all, I do live on the Oregon Trail. My ancestors didn't travel to Nebraska by way of the Oregon Trail, but my great grandparents came up from Texas by covered wagon. My grandmother was born along the way in Oklahoma Territory. It was near the town of Vinita, OK, and she was named Anna Vinita, but she always went by Vinita as her name. I have seen the entire trail, although not at once. I have visited St. Joe, Missouri where it all started, and I have seen the end of the trail in Oregon City, Oregon. St. Joe has great museums and depicts well the start of the trail. Oregon City was a bit disappointing. They readily admitted to us that their museum needed a lot of work. We actually gave them the contact information to the director of the museum here in Kearney--the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument--which is a museum that spans the interstate. They were excited to get that info. It was 10 years ago we were there, so I hope they were able to improve their museum. My dad grew up in the shadow of the Scottsbluff hills, and whenever we went to visit my grandparents, we passed Chimney Rock. Like the pioneers, it was a landmark for us, as it meant we were half an hour away from their house. So as you can tell, I do love anything related to the Oregon Trail. As you know, I don't need to be entered into the drawing. Whoever wins your prizes will be in for a treat. Glad to see you here today!

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  12. Thanks, Sandy. I'm so glad you love the books! What a rich heritage you have, and what fun to live in the middle of it all! I had to depend on Google, and in the very earliest stages, encyclopedias and other reference books. (I have been at this series a while.)
    "Anna Vinita" is a great name! Do you have any family stories about her?

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    1. Kathy, I knew my grandmother well. I was 32 when she passed. She was very special.

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  13. Wagon train stories take the reader away on journeys with none of the amenities American East Coast and British Victorian era enjoy. Talk about hearty folk roughing it along the trail! I think Debby mentioned that schools really don't explore the gritty reality those pioneers endured and I agree, that is too bad. The adventure of crossing the untamed land of our nation might actually inspire kids of all ages to explore beyond their gaming devices and television.

    I'm so proud of all your successes!

    Audra

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  14. Thanks, Audra. Good points made. And I'm thrilled that you'll soon be writing again!

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  15. I guess that's it. This has been a fun day, as all my days with the Seekers are. Thanks so much for stopping by, and to Carrie for hosting me!

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  16. Who won the giveaway for this post?

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    1. The giveaways are announced in the Weekend Edition which will be posted on Saturday.

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