An Adventurous Spirit

by Laura Strickland


The women of the West were no ordinary women. Ordinary women stayed at home, back East. They got married, had children and kept a house. A few of the more stubborn among them might opt for a career in medicine or, more likely, midwifery. A widow could open her house to boarders, and an unmarried woman might hold a position in a shop.

It’s my firm opinion that the ladies who came West wanted something more. Whether they came in search of freedom and independence, maybe to fulfill talents or desires denied to them at home, or they acted to escape some terrible fate, they were among the more daring of our forebears. The women willing to take a chance. To break the mold—and the chains their sisters wore.

It took guts to hop aboard a Conestoga, a stage coach or a train, and head off into the unknown.  But the West offered them opportunities they would never have back home. While life was hard for many, like the wives of miners, loggers, and especially homesteaders, rules and mores were a bit looser. As also happened for many men and for people of color, lines between what was acceptable and unacceptable blurred. Through necessity, a woman might run a ranch on her own. She could ride a horse as well as any cowboy; she could become a photographer, a surveyor, an outlaw. She could open a brothel and still command a measure of respect.

I believe the women who populate our town of Wylder in the Wylder West Series are no exception. Although they are diverse and their reasons for coming to Wylder differ, be they young or old, pretty or what used to be called “handsome,” they share one important attribute. Strength. They have known adversity, or are caught up in it now, and are willing to battle their way out. They refuse to lie down, and they refuse to accept the word, “No.”

Come meet the ladies of Wylder, Wyoming. You may find you share one quality fundamental to all of them, an adventurous spirit.




 

Comments

  1. Sarita LeoneMarch 8, 2021 at 6:36 AM

    Laura, I love this! Yes, I agree--the women who populated the wild west were strong, intelligent adventurers!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  Western Music by Laura Strickland   When I’m writing, I’m usually also listening to music. It serves as a magical elixir for me, one that transports me to the time and I place I’m creating on the page.   Music summons a mood, with which I then strive to infuse my writing. It’s no different when I’m penning my Wylder West stories. For my first book, A Walk on the Wylder Side, I dug deep into some of the music to which I listened years ago, from artists such as Neil Young, The Eagles, and The Farm Dogs, to mention but a few. But what is true Western music? It’s not really the Country/Folk songs of the Seventies, love them as I do. Turns out, like the West itself, it has a nature all its own. Just like our town of Wylder, Western music is a combination of what the people who settled the West brought with them: Latin, Celtic, Anglo, African, and everything in between. All this was influenced by the way of life these settlers founded out West, which wasn’t easy. Cowboys on the t
Read more

The Music of Dance to a Wylder Beat by Marilyn Barr

Image
       To manage my sensory processing disorder, I have a few tricks to quiet my distracting senses while I write. One is to light a scented candle which corresponds to the character narrating the scene I am writing. Nartan Sagebrush’s candle scent is “Tobacco” while Olive Muegge’s scent is “Orange Clove”. Another trick is to play the couple’s song on repeat while writing. It drowns out the birds outside my kitchen window and helps my mind focus on the core issues of the story. The core issue of Dance to a Wylder Beat is the need for community. Nartan’s secret Shamanic dancing and Olive’s paranormal secret keep them on the outskirts of Wylder society.                     Listen to this haunting song here - https://youtu.be/k750IIdKq08                 In the late 1870s, the Arapaho nation’s way of life was being destroyed by the Us Government. Their nomadic existence was at odds with the settlements, like Wylder, popping up along the railway line. The Arapaho followed the migratory her
Read more
Image
    Welcome to Wylder!   When I first heard about The Wild Rose Press’s new series, Wylder West, I felt excited. There’s nothing like a submission call to get an author all worked up. And the idea of having a part in creating a fictional town set in the late 1880s Wyoming Territory really sparked my imagination. I had no idea, then, what Wylder, Wyoming might become. What happens when you gather a group of authors who love to write and let them lose in a fictional town? I’ll tell you what: storylines begin to burgeon. Characters of every description take shape. Heroes face off against villains, heroines pull at your heartstrings. Trials and tribulations clamor for attention. But that’s not all. Businesses come into being. A saloon here, a rooming house there, a gunsmith’s, a mercantile, a whorehouse… Streets take on names, ranches spread out on every side through the country all around. And pretty soon you know who lives and works where. It’s as if you’re walking those dust
Read more