The Wylder West

                                                                              The Tale of McCurdy’s Corpse by Laura Strickland   In my Wylder West story, A Wylder Undertaking, hero Angus (Gus) Wright is an undertaker, and a pretty decent fellow. He treats his clients and customers with respect, sets a fair price for his coffins, and always gives bereaved relatives time to pay. But a look back at the Old West proves not all undertakers were so scrupulous. Not long after the turn of the last century, an outlaw called Elmer McCurdy had the bright idea of robbing a train. But the hold-up went badly, and McCu...

                  At the staff meeting where The Wylder West meeting was announced, my first reaction was ‘I could never write a book like that’. Despite my house being surrounded by horse farms, I thought writing a book set in the American Wild West was too much of a stretch for me. However, that night I dreamed of a mystical man trying to hide his gifts to blend in as a common settler. I chalked up the dream to going to bed directly after the meeting with a belly full of cookies.                 Two days later, one of my colleagues in my Shamanic Meditation Group session announced someone was ignoring a calling. I had been an apprentice for over a year and received very few callings. I didn’t believe the statement was directed at me, despite having three nights of the same dream visitor. A nightly visitor with rippling pectoral mu...

  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. Co...

            Our little town of Wylder is growing by leaps and bounds. While we can’t travel back to 1878, we can grow a small piece of Wylder with a Three Sisters Garden. The three sisters are represented by beans, corn, and squash in this traditional Native American companion planting. This trio originated in one of the Mesoamerican tribes, but the legend spread north in tribes such as the Cherokee, Iroquois, Oneida, and as far north as North Dakota with the Mandan tribe. (oneidaindiannation.com)           Successful harvests depended on the interrelationships between these sister plants. The beans nitrogenize the soil to provide a rich environment for the others and replenish what is taken by the other plants. The corn provides the structure for the vines to climb. The squash acts as a protector with its spines for killing pests and broad leaves to prevent the sun from drying out the soil. The sisters represent the spiri...

  Women who populated the wild west were strong, smart, and capable of doing just about anything —which makes me believe they should have had clothing suited to that way of life. And I suppose they did, to an extent. But every time I think of a woman walking beside a wagon on a dusty trail or sitting for days in a cramped stagecoach wearing layers of fabric, my head reels! I can't imagine doing that!  It is lots of fun to research women's clothing of the time. In A Wylder Christmas , the heroine Violet goes to the mercantile for some "unmentionables" for her unexpected houseguest. It was entertaining (and informative!) to learn about undergarments of the time.  Wondering about fashions of the day? Fashion History Timeline is filled with some interesting facts and photos!