Ann Parker talks about Objects of Desire

RHYS BOWEN: Ann Parker has been one of my long-time friends in the mystery community and we've done many events together. I adore her Leadville historical mysteries, filled with so many real characters and real happenings that you feel you are there.

I wonder how many stories start with a found object, or a found photograph? They've certainly sparked ideas for me, as they have for Ann. And what better excuse to collect things in the name of research! Welcome to Jungle Red, Ann.

ANN PARKER: Objects of Desire, or Confessions of an eBay Addicted Historical Author

My fascination with historical objects goes waaaaay back, to when I was but a young’un (pre-teen, at least), digging through my grandparents’ basements full of dusty boxes and ancient traveling trunks. I’d marvel over the treasure within: beautiful fans, old tintypes, elegant hats, indecipherable letters written in faded ink, worn buttontop shoes… the list goes on.

So, perhaps it’s no surprise that I browse brick-and-mortar antique stores and eBay when doing research for my Silver Rush historical mystery series. From antique stores, for instance, I have obtained a cobalt-blue, gold-latticed “poison bottle,” a magnificent metal clamp for holding papers, a well-used button hook, an old ceramic “cupel” used in silver assaying, and a table crumb brush. Most of these objects have found their way into my Silver Rush stories, which are primarily set in the silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado, in 1880.

 The cupel kept me company as I delved into silver assaying for the first book in the series, Silver Lies. In Leaden Skies, the poison bottle makes an appearance and my series protagonist, Inez Stannert, puts a button hook to good use.

I also scoop up old photographs and cabinet cards that catch my eye, and muse over the anonymous faces.

Who were these people, and what are their stories? Sometimes, these people from long ago find a place in my fiction. The three top-hatted gentlemen, for instance, became models for my “Lads from London”—British remittance men, who appear in both Mercury’s Rise and What Gold Buys.

Antique stores are dangerous to my pocketbook, and eBay is even worse.

My most recent eBay frenzy occurred when I was working on A Dying Note, the newest in my series. In this book, my protagonist Inez Stannert has relocated from the wild silver-boom town of Leadville, Colorado, to the somewhat-less-wild city of San Francisco, California. It’s now 1881, and Inez is managing a music store, which is quite a bit different from her previous position running the Silver Queen Saloon in Leadville (how this all comes about is another story for another post!). For plot purposes, I needed to get a better bead on Victorian “trade cards” that stores and businesses used for advertising. So, late one night, I turned to eBay, looking for examples from the 1880s.

Big mistake.

I indeed found examples, including some cards advertising music stores, even some from San Francisco, Inez’s new stomping grounds. But then I also found other cards—one for “Fine Hats” that featured a shoe full of flowers, another touting Coraline corsets, another extolling the virtues of Zoedone (a drink both “stimulating and invigorating, yet non-intoxicating” according to copy on the reverse side), and a card with an impressive image of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.… Before I knew it, I had clicked “Buy Now” for half a dozen or so.

I haven’t found a place for all of the objects, people, or businesses in my collection, but there’s always the next book!

Ann Parker authors the award-winning Silver Rush historical mystery series published by Poisoned Pen Press. During the day, she wrangles words for a living as a science editor/writer and marketing communications specialist (which is basically a fancy term for “editor/writer”). Her midnight hours are devoted to scribbling fiction. The sixth book in her series, A Dying Note, is being released this month. Publishers Weekly calls it “Exuberant.... brims with fascinating period details, flamboyant characters, and surprising plot twists.” Visit annparker.net for more information.

Those Old Snaps

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our last week's chat about grandmothers sent me on a frantic search through boxes in my attic.  I did not have a single picture of my dear grandmother that I could put my hands on. We used to have quite a few framed family photos in our central hall and our stairwell, but when we painted a few years ago I took everything down and stuck them in boxes--which ended up in the attic. As did most of our dozens of old photo albums. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of storage space in our big old house, except in the attic--which is HOT in the summer. Not good news for photos, old sticky-paged photo albums, or, heaven forbid, the boxes and boxes of my parents' old slides. (Oh, and not to mention the fact that all this stuff, especially those old slides, are flammable. Yikes!)

Debs at 9 (I think)

Debs' brother Steve

Trolling through the mess, I came across a legal-sized envelope filled with loose photos. There was the only picture of my great-aunt Ruth as a young woman, and the earliest photo of my grandmother. And there was the ONLY photo of my dad's parents. There was a studio portrait of me, and another of my brother, that I didn't even remember.  And lots more, and that's without even starting on the albums. I thought, if I don't take care of these, they'll deteriorate beyond saving. And if I don't label these, no one will know who these people are...

A couple of years ago, I bought a little Canon photo scanner, and I've had a pile of acid-free photo albums for years--all untouched. I cannot figure out how to find the time, or to organize, this project, and yet it breaks my heart to see the past fade away, and people forgotten.

REDS, do you keep old photos? (You all seem to have handy photos to post.) How do you manage to do it?

And then there's the thought--now we are all digital, which I guess is better. But is it sad that we are leaving no physical record of our lives NOW?


HALLIE EPHRON: Fortunately for me my husband is diligent about printing photographs every so often and putting them in an album. When our library got a wonderfully fast scanner, he spent hours and hours in there scanning our old photographs and so we have most of the 'keepers' online (in Dropbox) as well. Digital is easier to share, and it makes a great Christmas gift to send a relative a carefully culled collection of old photos on a flash drive.

Hallie

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Can Jerry come to our house? Our photos are tragic. In boxes, and some in a few albums, totally inaccessible. Luckily I have a family photo gallery on the third floor hallway wall, and there are many on display, and I have three old albums--at least I know where they are. I do love actual photo-photos--they seem more real somehow, and I love how you can date them by the scalloped edges, or the fading color, or the weight of the paper. (How do people look completely different now?)  Yes, digital is great, although now we have thousands of photos of every darn thing.  And every event.  ("Where's that?" I'll wonder. Luckily the phone tells me.). And it's fun to flip through a family album. Sitting in front of a computer together is just not the same.

This is a photo of me with  my little  sister Nina at the Lincoln Park Zoo--circa 1954.  Someday, that will someone's old family photo. It makes me think--I should label the back.

Hank and Nina

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh gosh, we are desperately in need of Jerry too. I was looking at the boxes of loose photos in the bottom of my closet this weekend but like Debs, it feels like an overwhelming project. I have a small wedding album, and an album my mother made of me as a baby with cute captions, and a family album my father and I put together. But there are hundreds more--and yes, I  too am the keeper of many slides, and old reel movies from growing up--the kind that jerk around and make you dizzy to watch. And we have a video of our wedding, which I know is disintegrating.

Somewhere I read about a company that digitizes everything--you simply put the stuff in a box and send it to them. I'm having trouble even getting to that LOL! (Never mind finding out what they charge...)

Lucy watering

DEBS: You all were SO DARNED CUTE!!!!

Hallie, we need Jerry, too! Do you think he would come to Texas if we promised barbecue and tacos? Or margaritas?

Hank, yes, so interesting. Why do people look completely different now? I have a framed photo in my hall of my daughter at the same age as me in the photo above, and the whole feel is so different. 

And Lucy, for my daughter's last birthday I had all her childhood home videos put on DVD. It was hours and hours of stuff I can't even remember taking! And I don't even want to tell you how expensive it was. Shocking. But at least I can think I saved something for posterity.

How about you, readers? Do you save the old photos? Do you have a system for them? Or are you happy with the ephemera of digital? (Just thinking about video and floppy discs, which we thought were the ultimate in technology, now gone the way of the dinosaurs...)

PS Here's a bonus, one of the photos I found when I was looking for one for the grandmother post. This is my Nanny, holding a photo of me she's just unwrapped at Christmas. I'm guessing this was 1978, just before I left for Scotland to get married. And Rick had taken that photo as a going away present for me. Life is really weird sometimes, isn't it?