Lately I’ve felt that truth is definitely stranger than fiction. I’m sure that many of you have heard of the new immigration law in Arizona by now. Well, the news really struck me because, if you don’t already know, THE QUEEN OF CROWS was inspired by an event that took place in Arizona almost a hundred and fifty years ago called “The Long Walk.”

My full thoughts and the inspiration behind THE QUEEN OF CROWS are both included in the e-book, but I wanted to mention it to you here. I haven’t blogged much about my process for the e-book, in part because at the time I was developing it, I had too many balls in the air and wanted to focus on making it a good product. Remember, this was before I re-launched this site with a new look and theme.

Here’s what I wrote on the topic:

This story has evolved several times from its original incarnation, but the process of editing it has taken longer than some of my other stories. Why? Well, part of the reason is because this story was inspired by a historical event called the “Long Walk.” At the time, the U.S. government had planned to develop a center for Native Americans at a place called “Bosque Redondo.” The center would function as a kind of “rehabilitation” center, where Native Americans would be (for lack of a better word) Americanized. Needless to say, there’s a lot of pieces to the story that required research. For example, did you know that the Navajo refer to themselves as the Diné? Or that they lived in houses called hogans? — SOURCE: On Writing a Historically-Accurate Paranormal Short Story

While the e-book itself is centered around fiction, the inspiration was not. If you get the chance, I encourage you to read more about early American history. It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come, and how much things have stayed the same.

Even though some events have happened hundreds of years ago, just bringing them up can incur different emotional reactions in people. So, as always, your feedback and comments are appreciated because I feel that my role as a writer is to offer my thoughts and then let you think what you will about them.