Guest Author -Rita Hestand

The Fun Behind Writing the Historical Western Romance

When I wrote Jodi's Journey, I had already bought two research books that I knew would help me along the way. Both were key books to research for my subjects in the novel. So what, you might ask. All historical writers research and buy books. Big deal. Well, yes, I thought it was. The first book I bought was a couple of years ago, called Contraception and Abortion in 19thCentury America. Wow! Yeah, what a topic huh? No one thinks about there being abortions way back, but there were and they were mostly discreet little facts. I ordered this book from a company that specializes in hard to find books. So needless to say it isn't a widely read book these days. But it sure had some interesting facts.

It was common in the 1800's for a woman to have anywhere from 12-17 children in her lifetime. Multiply that times how many months she had to carry the child and you have a lot of years for a woman to be pregnant. Pregnancies were also a large contributor to their early deaths. Women were lucky to live into their forties and fifites back then, because not only did they remain pregnant most of their married life, but they helped in the fields, cooked the meals, did the wash and took care of all the other children they had. So it is not astonishing to think that women had it hard back then and the only 100% way a woman could have sex and be assured of not having children is if the man used "withdrawal". But as you can imagine this was not popular with most husbands. And husbands could be quite demanding back then of their wives. Did you know that a woman could be sent to the insane Asylum for refusing her husband too often. Oh yes, it happened. Nevertheless most women looked on having to seek some way out of having so many children as a scandal and sin and blamed the doctors for giving them advice they ask for. This book covered most of the writers, lecturers and doctors that sometimes openly and other times not so openly spoke or wrote on the subject. It is a must have book if this topic comes up in your book. For it gives actual case histories of some women.


Another book I bought later, and read like crazy for three solid months was The Trail Drivers of Texas. Written by the acutal men who took part in trail drivers on the Texas trails. I bought this book in San Anotonio,at the Alamo store and it was packed full of information about the cowboy, the way they lived, thought, and the acutal problems they had on the trails. It was fascinating and informative. So many accounts of drovers and cattlemen that it was a fact book from beginning to end. This book allowed me to see the trail and to write the book, Jodi's Journey now coming out in March at Whimsical Publications.


Then after thoroughly reading all this, I went on line and discovered things like a new invention with coffee and talk about interesting. But I'm not gonna tell you all about it, you'll have to read Jodi's Journey to learn this one. This was taken off line on a research site, and it was absolutely thrilling to find it.


There's also a book called The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800's, which gives many different subjects to research, from what they wore, how they talked, what their jobs consisted of, how they traveled, what was carried in wagons, and on horseback by the cowboys.


With every historical writer, there is new and different ways to research but it is what you learn along the way that makes all of it not only entertaining but educational too.


So the next time you read a historical western romance, perhaps you will understand that the writer doesn't sit there and dream all this up, they have to delve deep into the history itself to write it correctly. It is fun, interesting and you sure learn a lot. That's why I write it!


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