Don't Worry, Be Hopi

When I decided to write the book that eventually became Tainted Mountain, I was drawn to the controversy surrounding man-made snow at Snowbowl, a ski resort in Flagstaff, Arizona. First of all, it seemed bizarre to have a ski resort at the edge of a desert, even if Flagstaff sits at 7,000 feet above sea level. Then I learned it is one of the oldest ski areas in the country, established in 1938. Snowbowl’s owners were caught in a drought, or maybe it’s called climate change, and they decided the solution was to pump treated wastewater from Flagstaff to spray on the mountain. There is some concern from environmentalists that the gray water could contain contaminates, such as undigested drugs, that could be dangerous for skiers as well as for the landscape.

The big controversy, though, is that the San Francisco Peaks, where Snowbowl is located, is sacred to thirteen tribes and features in their creation stories. They aren’t happy about what they call, “potty water” sprayed on their sacred land and have taken to calling Snowbowl, Toiletbowl.

So I started researching and I discovered the Hopi tribe. What an amazing culture. The tribe is one of the smallest and oldest tribes in the world. They believe they are a microcosm of the world and what happens on Hopi is a forewarning for the world. If they don’t do their part, the world will become unbalanced. If that happens, the Fourth World we know and love will end.

Then I found a book by some white guy preacher that was just plain crazy. It was written in the 90’s and this guy said the Hopi elders were desperate to get the message to the world that time was running out. We needed to heed their warnings about the end of the Fourth World.

It was pretty typical end-of-the-world stuff but this guy outlined prophecies that had been handed down for over 1000 years, from white men coming to ancient tribal land to men landing on the moon, including the advent of cars, trains, telephones and planes. I thought the white guy writing the book was awfully pretentious to say he spoke for the Hopi elders and it all sounded ridiculous in that conspiracy theory kind of way.

He gave a list of things we all needed to do like be gentle and kind and protect the earth. And at the very least, plant seeds. Growing plants would help balance the world and maybe even save it.

My imagination isn’t half as good as this guy’s but I write fiction and didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t use his paranoia to my benefit.

The more Hopi research I did, the more fascinated I became with this tiny tribe. But here’s the kicker on the Hopi: they are extremely secretive. A person can find out quite a bit about their history in books or speaking to tribal members but there’s a vast culture they keep private.

They have an elaborate religious ceremonial life and much of that takes place inside kivas, away from prying eyes. I’m okay with that. It is this strict adherence to the ceremonies that keeps the planet from spinning out of control.

So now, I’m hooked on Hopi. For instance, did you know that if you draw a straight line from the Hopi rez through the center of the Earth, it comes out in Tibet? And did you know the Tibetan word for moon is the Hopi word for sun and the Hopi word for moon is the Tibetan word for sun? Got goosebumps? I do.

Not long after I moved to Flagstaff I read accounts of strange lights in the sky. A quick Internet search took me to a blog site where Hopi tribal members discussed the visit from the Sky People. Intrigued, I was back on the research trail and found out the Hopi have a strong relationship with extraterrestrials. From way, way back. You can see it depicted in their pictographs and petroglyphs scratched into stone a thousand years ago. They believe the Sky People hang out in lenticular clouds that loiter over the San Francisco Peaks.

There’s so much about the Hopi who live in virtual isolation on three mesas in northern Arizona I couldn’t help but write about them. But I’m really white. I grew up in middle America, middling all the way around. So I want to be respectful of a culture in which I’m so much of an outsider it’s hard to even knock on the door. I searched around Flagstaff to find a traditional Hopi who would be willing to talk to me.

I found a couple of Hopi people who read my manuscript and asked me to remove a few scenes and eliminate the name of their main deity. In one of our discussions I mentioned the book I’d read and how I didn’t use much from it because it seemed disrespectful to Hopi.

The elderly man asked me what I meant. So I went on to explain some of the over-the-top warnings and allegations made by the white preacher dude.

I expected him to wave it off as the ramblings of an outsider. Maybe he’d even be indignant about the writer.

But he didn’t discount the book of warnings.

He raised his eyebrows, shrugged and gave me a mysterious little smile. Then he told me to do him a favor.

When I asked what, he said, “Plant some seeds.”

by Shannon Baker


Shannon Baker is a lover of mountains, plains, oceans and rivers and can often be found traipsing around the great outdoors. Tainted Mountain, the first in her Nora Abbott Mystery Series, is set in Flagstaff, AZ, where she lived for several years and worked for The Grand Canyon Trust, a hotbed of environmentalists who, usually, don’t resort to murder. It involves man made snow on sacred peaks, uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, kachinas, murder, and a woman determined to make some sense of it all. Shannon now makes her home in Boulder, CO. Surprisingly, Nora followed her and the next book in the series is set in this beautiful location.

Please join Shannon March 16th at 2:00 at the Broadway Book Mall to help celebrate the launch of Tainted Mountain. While Tainted Mountain is available from your favorite online bookseller, if you'd like to support our indie bookstores, you are welcomed to contact Ron or Nina Else at the Broadway Book Mall. They will be glad to help you.

A Thousand Words at Least by Ann Parker

Ann Parker is a California-based science/corporate writer by day and an historical mystery writer by night. Her award-winning Silver Rush series, featuring saloon-owner Inez Stannert, is set in 1880s Colorado, primarily in the silver-mining boom town of Leadville.

It shouldn't be a surprise that Ann writes historical mysteries based in Colorado. According to her website bio:

"Ann's ancestors include a great-grandfather who was a blacksmith in Leadville, a grandmother who worked at the bindery of Leadville's Herald Democrat newspaper, a grandfather who was a Colorado School of Mines professor, and another grandfather who worked as a gandy dancer on the Colorado railroads."

Thanks for joining us today, Ann.

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A Thousand Words, at Least…by Ann Parker


It all started when I was zipping around eBay, looking for old photographs of Manitou Springs.

I was partway through the writing of Mercury’s Rise, which takes place in summer 1880 in Manitou Springs. My protagonist, Inez Stannert, travels to Manitou to see her sister and her young son, after nearly a year’s absence. Inez’s friend, Susan Carothers, accompanies her. I needed old photos of Manitou and its environs to help me re-create the area, but I found more. Much more.

You see, Inez’s friend Susan is a photographer (unusual, but not entirely unknown for that day and age). Sooo, when I stumbled across a cabinet card taken in the Manitou Springs area circa 1880 that was “Photographed and Published by Mrs. A. Galbreaith,” my research antennae began to quiver, and questions arose.

A woman photographer, taking commercial photographs in the very area I was writing about? Talk about serendipity! So, who was Mrs. A. Galbreaith? What was she doing in Manitou Springs? Did she actually have her own studio?

Intrigued, I began a search.

Mrs. Galbreaith wasn’t listed in the 1879 or 1880 or 1882 city directories. Unfortunately, the city directories from 1883 through 1885 are missing, and she wasn’t listed in 1886 either. Luckily, I made a connection with a local historian, who was able to tell me that Anna Galbreaith was indeed a local photographer back in the mid-1880s, and that she also ran a Manitou boarding house (a proper one, I hasten to add) called the “Ohio House.”

I found a couple more tantalizing references to Anna G’s work, far from “home.” She appears in the Guide to the Julia Driver Collection of Women in Photography (Gen MSS 690), by Matthew Daniel Mason, in the Yale University Library, where she apparently has a couple of cabinet cards as part of the collection. The other reference I found was in a Princeton University document, WC064: Western Americana photographs collection.

Mrs. Galbreaith rated a few lines in each of these documents for her landscape card photographs (cabinet cards), which are stored in these various collections.

Her cards also spring up, occasionally, on eBay, and I was lucky enough to snag one of “The Narrows,” in Williams Canyon, shown here.

Now, this card has turned out to be worth far more than a thousand words, not just for the image and for leading me to Mrs. Galbreaith, but also for the information printed on the back.

The back is a bit of an advertisement for the area (a device commonly used for “tourist destinations” of the day), and includes a chemical analysis of the various mineral springs in Manitou (an analysis which proved very useful for my story), as well as names of the springs, and a description of the area and its sights. All very germane to Mercury’s Rise.

The front shows a young fellow posing in “the Narrows.” Hmmm. What are the Narrows? Well, pretty much just as they sound: a very narrow portion of Williams Canyon.

Knowing that, I had to go and see the place in person, so I put it on my “must see” list for my research trip to Manitou Springs. My local guide obligingly took me partway up Williams Canyon, through the Narrows. Photographs were duly snapped.

The upshot? Mrs. Anna Galbreaith plays a small but significant role in my story (and gives my fictional photographer, Susan Carothers, a reason to travel to Manitou in the first place, as well as providing a place for Susan to stay that is near Inez and the action). I liked the idea of two women photographers in 1880, getting together and sharing techniques and stories.

And the Narrows… well, that particular geological feature comes in for a few words as well in Mercury’s Rise.

All in all, that find on eBay ended up worth far more than a thousand words!

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Thanks again, Ann, for an excellent post.

The latest book in Ann's series, Mercury's Rise, won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, and was a finalist for an Agatha Best Historical Novel Award, a Willa Award for Best Historical Fiction, and a Colorado Book Award (Genre Fiction category). It has also been nominated for a Macavity–Sue Feder Historical Mystery Award. Publisher’s Weekly said, “Parker smoothly mixes the personal dramas and the detection in an installment that’s an easy jumping-on point for newcomers.” Library Journal added, “Parker’s depth of knowledge coupled with an all-too-human cast leaves us eager to see what Inez will do next. Encore!” 

Learn more about Ann and her series at her website. She is also a contributor to The LadyKillers blog.

Mercury's Rise and the other Silver Rush mysteries are available from independent booksellers' Indie Bound, amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other places where mystery books are sold.

A version of this post was originally published at Patricia Stoltey blog on October 31, 2011.

DIRTY JOBS: Writer

Mike Rowe from Discovery Channel's DIRTY JOBS has nothing on me. The toughest job around is...yes that’s right...being a writer. As you know, writing is hell on a manicure.

As grueling as my job is, I love it. I really do. Who could blame me, being a writer is amazing. I make stuff up all day long, my heroine says witty things to the hero, and the sex is always INCREDIBLE.

Even better, for my novel, The Body Dwellers, I spent days shopping the internet for pink combat boots, all in the name of ‘research’. My friends argue that researching pink combat boots isn’t really work. I prefer to think of my ‘research’ as a necessary evil. After all, poor footwear can cause real problems for a half-human, half-mutant woman on a mission to protect the man who betrayed her in order to save those she loves.

So how do you research? Are you an internet voyeur? Spending days surfing the web for the perfect character name, locale, or tiny detail that favors your manuscript just right? Or do you visit exotic locations? A writer friend of mine who's working on a novel set in St. John, goes on 'research' vacations to the island every year. Not bad, right?

But what about the other, less fun details? For example fight scenes? I learned a valuable lesson on this one (hint: don't try catching a knife mid-air). How about historical facts? Like the type of corset worn in Victorian England? Do you fudge the details?

Sometimes I wish I did (see example below).

Currently, I'm working on a second novel in the F**ked Up Fairytale series (CURSES! A F**KED UP FAIRYTALE will be released in March 2012). The 'research' hasn't taken me to alot of vacation destinations, and in fact, I've spent days researching amphibian parts. For example, I recently learned male frogs are less than...well endowed... In fact, they don't have genital at all.

Yep, that's right. I've been watching frog porn.

In the name of research.

Take that Mike Rowe.

~ j.a. kazimer (Writer & Frog Sex Expert)

Partially stolen from RomCom Blog, June 6, 2011