Real People and Real Places
Mar 05, 2025 by E. Joe Brown
A few months back, I shared how I enjoyed writing historical fiction, and one of my goals is to use people, places, and events in the storyline of the Kelly Can novels. You've already seen how I've woven some of the history of the Millers' 101 Ranch into Charlie's life. I loved studying about the Millers and their ranch as I created my plan for Charlie. The Miller brothers and their ranch became characters, and they still are playing roles as I write book three.
As I wrote the first four chapters of Destiny, Susan hadn't entered my mind. But stopping in Elmore City made sense, given Charlie's travel toward northern Oklahoma. So, I studied what happened in Garfield County and Elmore City 100 years ago. I did the same for Shawnee in Pottawatomie County and Perkins in Payne County; you get the point.
I've already introduced E.W. Marland, an oilman and future Governor of Oklahoma. You've also met J. Paul Getty (he was in his twenties then), Harry Sinclair (an oilman before the Teapot Dome incident), and William Skelly (an oilman who later worked in aviation) as Charlie and Susan join the social and business life in Tulsa. Through banking, they meet and get involved with Black Wall Street (look it up if you don't know about it).
In books three, four, and five, you meet Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson (Texas oilmen), Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Will Rogers when our couple travels to California on oil business. They end up in much more than that, but I need to keep that to myself for now. They meet and get involved with several movers and shakers who created Los Angeles as we know it.
They invest in banking back east and will go to Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, and New York, but again, that's for another day.
As I've mentioned before, I'm in the last stages of writing book three, "A Cowboy's Dilemma." It features several new characters, some new real people, and certain new situations. I've also written most of what will become books four and five. I have ideas for six and maybe seven. Charlie and Susan are living in a very interesting timeframe. America was booming, and there are good reasons it has always been called the Roaring Twenties.
I'll be in Arizona from March 14 to 16 for the Tombstone and Tucson Book Festivals. If you’re there, please say hello.
Happy Trails!
Joe