Ghost-writing: #7 in the series of lessons from published books

Thoughts on working with a book-series "bible"

Strange to open a box filled with a book I’ve written, and see someone else’s name on the cover.

Quick note: please click on the “like” button if you can. If feeds the gremlin, that hungry thing.

Onward…

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In the spring of 2014, I received a note from someone at the company that has long published the “Boxcar Children” mystery series. (Albert Whitman & Co.)

I’d published a picturebook with them and, given that I am Canadian, they wanted to know if I could write a mystery set at the Calgary Stampede. They seemed to assume that I’ve been to the largest rodeo in my country.

I’d only ever been to one rodeo: the centennial celebration of Canada’s oldest, in the small town of Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, The town now has a population of 20. No, I’m not missing a zero. Those 20 are mostly relatives.

The timing of the question of “Would I?” was five weeks before the annual event. That in itself seemed to point in a direction. I bought a ticket immediately, fully aware that the cost to go and do live research would take a significant portion of the flat-sum contract pay. But our Unschool writer, Amy, lives there. I stayed with her and she showed me so many parts of the event that I would never have known about if I hadn’t attended the stampede with a local.

I used many details and stories she shared with me, including the tradition of “horse poop bingo” while waiting for the parade to start, and the neighbourhood warmth of sitting on a picnic bench in a local church parking lot for one of the many pancake breakfasts all over the city.

The afternoon I arrived Amy was still at work, and I went to Glenbow Museum (I mention this museum in the story, and my old history major self comes to the fore as I note in the story the longevity of the stampede and context). I took many photographs in the museum, then wandered the city and took more photos of people in their cowboy hats and boots, and all the festive window-painting. The stampede lasts ten days—party time for Calgary.

In the research and study of the event, I noted what most stood out for me. (The writing process journal piece.) Top of the list was the Young Canadians—the group of auditioned and selected teenagers who apply for a year’s worth of intense performance classes. It’s an honour to be included in this group that performs every night throughout the duration. Their stage is enormous, and moves on wheels in and out of the rodeo oval. I knew that I wanted to create fictional characters within this tradition. Really, from that moment and that decision, the entire mystery element of the story came to be.

Research has a way of doing that. It’s not merely information; it’s plotting.