Am I a writer or a Researcher?

For years now, I have been toiling away on River and Ranch and a series of non-fiction books that are in my ecosystem but in a separate space from this, my ongoing love affair with memories of my youth compounded by two amazing road trips through empty country ‘out west’.

How's that for what must be a compound sentence laden with dependent clause and who knows what else? I do love knowing the ASCII code for curly quotes (both double and single), btw.

But I digress.

The River and Ranch world has steadily grown over the years as I have researched certain specific topics. The original intent being to develop back stories for characters and book themes. This has proven difficult to manage as the surprises and interesting bits have steadily piled up and suggested additional book themes.

For example, kuan yin has grown from a little understood ‘voice’ in Cale's head, to a raison d'etre for both Cale and Lane. How? Simple research into Buddhism opened up small and large ideas and issues that invited changes to the direction my book series was heading.

On a related note, the monk, who for a long time was a character on the edge of my ecosystem with no clear reason to be in the books, somehow stepped up and became much more than I had originally held in my head. Researching this monk character led to Zhang Qian, a famous Chinese explorer, very much the equivalent of a Marco Polo, but one who started on the east side of the continent and worked his way west, the result of which was the foundation of the Silk Road.

Along the way, the monk became the son of Zhang Qian and the Xiongnu woman who was forced upon Zhang by his Xiongnu captors during his main ten+ year long voyage of discovery across the heart of Asia. The Xiongu woman is never mentioned by name in the research I have done. I find reference only to her being a Xiongnu, and likely a slave, which seemed to imply that she had been captured by the Xiongnu, thus giving her an even more unknown origin. Like Sacajawea, she is lost, as so many other unwritten bits of history that have fallen out of oral traditions. But - that leaves me with a largish slate of potential angles to take. And take them I am, as the monk's story has expanded into more than he had in his first iteration in the original River and Ranch.

One area of fascination springing from this research is the Xiongu. No one knows what happened to them. Or where they may have gone. Turns out the Huns disappeared in much the same manner as well. The Huns, at least, I had heard about. But I had not heard about how they disappeared from the earth, like the Xiongnu, leaving a trail that no one has been able to follow.

In this time of COVID, their disappearance can possibly be viewed as pandemic events in their time, the results of which were devastating to the cultures that originated them, somehow, and for which those cultures had no cure or answer. Only mass death and rapid disappearance, leaving no trace for history to find.

Interesting speculation, for which there will never be an answer.

All of which is just a small bit of the written trails I have wandered over the past couple years. All of which is to say my world, which is Cale and Lane's world keeps getting bigger and more fascinating. My intent is writing a story, but the research takes me down these rabbit holes that are proving to be endlessly interesting.

R is for Research

Sometimes I feel like writing the fiction of River and Ranch and New Grass Growing is the underpinnings on a Master's degree in Idaho history and geography. It is still an ongoing process and throughout has been a compelling aspect of writing. I can't wait to get back to Idaho and (re)visit the places I have learned more about and discovered over the course of writing these books.

Sacajawea. Sharkey Hot Spring. Lemhi Pass. Tendoy. Viola and her store. On and on the list goes. Lemhi Pass itself. This is the place where Lewis and Clark first topped out on a pass and peaked into Idaho. The Last Chance vein has kept miners interested for most of the time ever since.

The fiction of River and Ranch rests upon Cale and Lane watching over a rare earth mine on Lemhi Pass. This is reality. That Last Chance vein is a gift that just keeps on delivering. One mining company has hoovered up many of the mining claims and is actively exploring the space. Their efforts are apparently enough to keep them going. The historical mining claims and grounds apparently include existing tailings piles, which apparently are containing enough rare earth rich material to make the tailings piles the first rare earth materials to be "mined" on the North American continent in quite a while, and they've been sitting next to the adit just waiting for someone to sample them. No need to mine them, just transport them to the processing facility.

Which brings up to the next interesting bit that research has uncovered. Not only does China have a large majority of rare earth reserves, China also has the relevant tribal knowledge and the only REE processing facilities on the planet. Everyone else is playing catchup on the processing front. China, meanwhile, just keeps pouring chemicals into shallow holes on the mountaintop and recovering what they can from trenches in the valley below. It seems to me that China has a lead on destroying their environment more so than processing rare earth ore. Research suggests that China just goes ahead and does virtually whatever they want, wherever they want, with little regard for future consequences. Somewhat like the US did a hundred (or more) years ago, during this nation's heavy industrial development phase.

Research is fascinating. It reminds me once again of what the U.S. did to its own environment and native populations in the name of manifest destiny and development. As I research the Chinese portions of this project, I frequently see that. Hard to call the kettle black when our own original kettle is as black as anything the Chinese are doing.

Research. Fascinating stuff. It makes me think about more than just the fiction I am writing.