Aurora: Blog

This is a re-posr of an older story. When I first posted it readers said that it ended abruptly, and re-reading it I decided they were right. So I have revised some of it and extended it so that all the loose ends are gathered up and there are some explanations.
Martin

It's in the posting queue. In writing this I realise just how little I know about the US, and most of what I know about the 'West' is from watching movies and from an interest in railroads. I almost wish I'd sent Fitz and Co by train! But it wouldn't have been as exiting, and I wouldn't have learnt as much as I did from studying the Overland stage - reality not Jim Hardy and Wells Fargo. Yeah, I'm that old!

I also owe a debt to Mark Twain, much of the description comes from 'Roughing It' which I was able to read courtesy of Google Books, although I have expanded some descriptive bits. Information on guns comes from the many people on the internet who 'play' with these things - I know there are those who prefer the Colt to the Remington, but sighting the latter is easier!

Jake himself is now in Spain, and I have no idea what will happen to him and his ladies there, or perhaps it will be just a leisurely ride to Lisbon... as if!

Martin

Things are slow at the moment because of the subject matter in this story... just a small thing, a few rotten wooden posts and some rusty barbed wire, but the abuse is almost unbelievable. Honestly, if I wrote it as it is you'd be saying I'd exaggerated to make a story. Difficult to get the brain cell to concentrate.

Just a little something to while away an hour or s. Yes, the continuation of Jake's saga will be next on the list. I took minimal sex to mean well, just mentioning it really. Just in case someone wonders.

I now have Fitz and the girls crossing the US. The time is a problem here because as has been pointed out to me the transcontinental railway opened in late '69. But if I use that time line then within days of the completed line there were Pulman trains and that doesn't allow a lot of adventure.

A year earlier, which is where I have set it, the western part of the line wasn't out of the mountains and a stage coach between that and the Union Pacific? I don't know. What I can say is that conditions along the line were - in English vernacular - as rough as a badgers arse (I have no personal experience of this!) and taking a couple of ladies through that? Well plenty of opportunities for adventures, but I felt the stage journey would be more productive due to the availability of a contemporary account (Mark Twain)

And, as a Western fan (will we meet Rooster Cogburm? Probably not) there are endless possibilities for mayhem, Indians (am I allowed to say that?)and this heroine is a pretty good shot.

Mean while the honeymoon may become even more exciting!

Martin