DONIS CASEY: Write Errant

My November Tell Me Your Story guest is the delightful Catherine Dilts, author of the Rose Creek Mystery series, set in the Ozark foothills of northeastern Oklahoma, and the Rock Shop Mystery series, set in the Colorado Rockies. Recently retired from a career as an environmental compliance specialist for a global corporation, Catherine now gets to do what she always dreamed of – write fiction full time. After having thirteen of her short stories, seven of her own novels, and five write-for-hire novels (with three more in the queue waiting for release) published, Catherine still struggles to define success. Catherine is my fellow Type M 4 Murder blogger. Check her out!

My Mother Wasn’t Like the Other Moms

by Catherine Dilts

Cornfields rustled in the warm breeze, the dried ears ready for the combine harvester. A small lake reflected the October sun. Trees dotted the cemetery, shading monuments dating back to the founding of the town in 1883. My siblings and I stood beside the headstone, tears flowing freely.

Willow Lake, South Dakota, was my mother’s birthplace. We brought her back home, laying her ashes to rest next to her mother. I prayed she finally found peace, after a long life scarred by a horrific childhood memory. 

My mother wasn’t like the other moms. Our family was dysfunctional in subtle ways that left us kids floundering to find our way in life. I clung to stories, burying myself in novels. I got a degree in English literature, never intending to teach, which is the only logical thing to do with an English degree. I wanted to write fiction.

Decades later, I finally achieved my dream of publication. In 2012 I made both my first sale of a short story to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and sold my first novel, Stone Cold Dead. Since then, I’ve been traditionally published multiple times. That should make me content, right? I’ve achieved what so many writers dream of, but instead I keep scrabbling for another sale. Not for the money, which has so far been insignificant. For validation. To prove I really am a writer.

I suffered from an inferiority complex about my upbringing, and the strange family dynamics that made it hard to make and keep friends. Further back were my plain, hard-working pioneer ancestors. The bland, ordinary, white bread farmers struggling to make it season to season. A history marred by truly tragic events. Farms lost to drought and the Great Depression. Sad, flat, boring stories. 

Before the trip to Willow Lake, I didn’t want to know more about the past. I felt distressed when I learned the details of my ancestors. Then when our mother passed, my siblings entrusted me with her collection of photos, yellowed newspaper clippings, letters, and journals.

I recently read a book about Carrie Nation – a retelling by feminist author Fran Grace. She wrenched Carrie’s story back from unflattering biographies of the suffragette and temperance proponent famous for rampaging through saloons with her hatchet. One revelation for me was the examination of women’s roles in East Coast cities contrasted with the pioneer and rural women of the Midwest. The pride of tough women, struggling to survive on the harsh prairie, unashamed of their sunburned skin and calloused hands.

Rooting around in the family archives, I learned my great-grandmother Theresa was a member of the WCTU – Women’s Christian Temperance Union. These weren’t prudish women trying to squash everyone’s fun. They sought the vote and prohibition so they could change society for the better.

On a different branch of the family tree, my great-grandfather George was diligent about recording his daily life. The temperature, the weather, the going price for crops and eggs. When I opened his 1931 journal, I discovered it was also packed full of rich drama. Lofty highs of happiness and success, and bleak lows of loss and death. He also wrote a memoir about being a 12-year-old boy homesteading unbroken prairie in post-Civil War South Dakota. 

George writes of family gatherings, community celebrations, and his deep love for his sons and daughters, with several dying very young. His words can be poetic describing the prairie, and scathing castigating politicians. He was a proponent of hard work and honesty, fiercely patriotic, with rather progressive views.

His daughters, my great-aunts, went to college and had careers. Millie worked in a bank when it was robbed by “yeggs,” the slang for a thief or burglar. She was locked in the bank vault with another employee when the armed robbers fled.

Surprisingly exciting and interesting stories, set in a place and time that briefly overlapped Carrie Nation’s era. When I first opened the trunks and boxes full of unsorted “stuff,” I felt overwhelmed and reluctant to spend any time on this project. Now I’m finally ready to dig in with pride and enthusiasm.

As a cozy mystery author, I’ll focus on the positives, searching for my ancestors’ happy endings. Ultimately, my story is my family’s story. And theirs is a story shared by countless Midwestern families.

I write cozy mysteries to create my own safe world of happy endings. I’ll keep writing cozies and murder mystery short stories. But in the background, I’ll be reading journals, sorting photos, and researching my family’s past, trying to decide what to do with 150 years of intimately personal history.

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Catherine Dilts is the author of the Rose Creek Mystery series, Rock Shop Mystery series, and several installments in various Annie’s Fiction series. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and in anthologies. After a career in environmental compliance for a global corporation, Catherine now gets to write fiction full time. Most of her published short stories, novels, and write-for-hire projects have a cozy mystery flavor. Catherine and her husband live in a home with a view of Pikes Peak, where they attempt gardening at over 6,500 feet of altitude.
https://www.catherinedilts.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CatherineDiltsAuthor
https://encirclepub.com/product/the-body-in-the-cattails/