Writing

Writing Prairie Madness, Conspiracy at Fort Union was an adventure. I've been writing for many years. My publications have generally focused on literary non-fiction, scholarship, and the fiction of human interactions. Writing an historical novel driven by solving a murder mystery is new territory, and I love it. If you want to spice up your writing experience--try a different genre.

"Everyone knows that a place exists which is not economically or politically indebted to all

the vileness and compromise. That is not obligated to reproduce the system.

That place is writing."

.........Helene Cixous

Prairie Madness, Conspiracy at Fort Union

April 1884, Fort Union, New Mexico Territory--a windy, drought-filled spring. The peacetime Army is restless, and life at the garrison is changing. Buildings are deteriorating, the laundress brigade has been mustered out, and soldiers are being brutally murdered. When the body of Sergeant Sean Flannery is found--strangled and stripped of uniform and weapons--Mary Margaret O’Keenan, the Company B Laundress and Flannery’s beloved, vows to bring his killer to justice.

With the help of Olivia Foote, the Post Trader’s wife, and County Sheriff Juan Otero, Mary relentlessly pursues Flannery’s murderer. In her attempts to gather evidence and information, she takes over the role Flannery was to play in a Fort Union theatrical production. Then, having succeeded in passing as man on stage, she audaciously dresses in Flannery's costume and visits nearby brothels, saloons, and gambling rooms where she confronts whores, gamblers, and notorious outlaws. At the Fort, Mary questions enlisted men and officers alike--Flannery's best friend, First Sergeant Holloway, Walter Shiner, the garrison bully, and even the commanding officer.

Both Mary and Olivia encounter harassment, intimidation, and physical attacks. But the biggest hurdle Mary must overcome is her own insecurity as a barely literate immigrant and a laundress—the lowest rung on the military ladder. Before the mystery is solved, Olivia is compromised, and three more people meet violent ends.

When the trail of evidence leads not only to Flannery's killer but also to fraud and conspiracy reaching as high as the former Secretary of War, Mary and Olivia must flee Fort Union in the dead of night to seek civilian intervention.

Prairie Madness, Conspiracy at Fort Union is based on several unrelated but actual, historical events.

Copyright Romero 2008

For information: edwinar@wildblue.net

Coming

Watch for a preview of my new novel: Prairie Madness.

"I write to understand this moment." [Honor Moore]

Writing helps me understand and sort out my knowledge, feelings, needs, my place in the world, and the needs of others. Writing helps me accept and/or appreciate my inadequacies, meannesses, good deeds, selfishness, and generosity. I thank Honor Moore for saying it best--"I write to understand this moment."