Story Elements: A Midwest Summer Night's Dream

The heroes of the Old West always intrigued me, probably because I'd grown up with TV shows like Bonanza, The Rifleman, The Virginian and The Lone Ranger, all rugged men who survived hardships with stoic grace, but who never hesitated to help others whenever needed.

While I never base characters on anyone I know, I do sometimes borrow names for some of my heroes and heroines. My sister Annette's a genealogist, and traced our family history back to a French Canadian fur trapper named Peter LeVert. The Anglicized version of LeVert is Green, and my paternal grandmother's name was Nettie Green. So my hero became Jebediah Greene.

The imprints of the Native Americans who lived on the Eastern coast also influenced me while growing up. Their names were everywhere. The road I grew up on was an Indian name, I believe from the Lenne Lenape tribe though I'm not certain. This story begins in Tipton, Missouri, a major stop for stage coaches.

Several Native American tribes made their homes in Missouri, but for this story, I chose the Osage. The women of the tribe took care of the farming, the men hunted and sometimes fought to protect their people. Men and women alike were storytellers, artists, musicians and healers. Osage artists were famous for their wood carving and beadwork. They seemed like the type of tribe I would fall in love with, so I let my heroine, Winona, fall in love with their ways too. She'd never been particularly fond of domestic chores in Philadelphia, but the camaraderie of the Osage changed all that.

I'd read about the mountain man Jim Bridger who made his living as a hunter, trapper, trader and guide. He was also an illiterate who loved books and hired others to read to him. In this way, he memorized passages from Shakespeare and recited them along the trail.


Shakespeare's provided inspiration to countless writers, too. One of my favorite movie versions of Shakespeare (besides the Franco Zefferelli production of Romeo and Juliet) is A Midsummer Night's Dream with Kevin Kline, Rupert Everett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christian Bale, and others.





While my story's not a fantasy, both the hero and heroine love this Shakespeare play and make reference to it.

On a side note, I found this Beatles rarity while looking for the movie above. Enjoy!

An early Christmas present

Years ago, I read about mountain man Jim Bridger, who worked as a guide and scout, but basically lived free in the incredible pristine wilderness of the unsettled West. Though illiterate, he memorized many passages from Shakespeare's works, which he'd recite. This fascinated me, and I bought a few books about Jim. Once I realized how famous he already was, I knew I couldn't do him justice by writing about him anymore than he'd already been written about. But I loved the idea of a mountain man reciting Shakespeare.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of my favorites, so I wove the title into A Midwest Summer Night's Dream. It's one of the many stories I had languishing on the hard drive for a few years, and decided to finally finish it this year. My wonderful critique partners helped make it into a story I was proud of.

I nearly self-published it, but it's very difficult to find an image to accurately depict the 1800s, let alone a Western historical romance with a Shakespearean twist. So I subbed the novella.

This week, I had an acceptance from Siren/Book Strand! I've been doing the happy dance since. It's scheduled for an April 2012 release. Woo hoo!

Here's the newly tweaked blurb:

Open sky, Shakespeare, solitude. All Jebediah Greene needs. Alone since his teens, he’s never known loneliness, until he leaves Winona Young in California. Worse, he fears she’ll trap herself in a loveless marriage of convenience. After acting as her guide to San Francisco, how far will Jeb go to win her heart?

Reading provides escape for Winona Young. Usually. Fleeing Philadelphia, she learns her distant suitor isn’t who he seemed. Neither is her mountain man guide, in a good way. Intelligent, but mule-headed, Jeb’s impossible to speak to, in any language. Winona falls in love with the stunning beauty of the wilderness, with the simple ways of the Osage people, and with Jeb. But books can’t teach her how to tame a mountain man.