Good morning, all ya’all! I meant to post more this month, but got bogged down by various WIPs. Anyway, on May 17, the “Detectives, Sleuths & Nosy Neighbors” anthology by Inkd Publishing released. It featured my historical crime story, “God’s Truth.” It is the seventh story in the Lady Sheriff Series. If you’re interested in buy the anthology, you can do so here. Whenever a story of mine is published, I like to do a Fun Facts post on what inspired the story and some behind the scenes tidbits about it.
As mentioned above, “God’s Truth” is the seventh story in the Lady Sheriff Series. While you can pick up any of them and read a good story, I did write them in a certain order. But many of them have been published out of order, and a few who haven’t sold at all. You never know what an editor/the readers might be interested in. Two that haven’t sold have been used for my current novel, and two I still hope to place somewhere.
In previous posts, I’ve mentioned how various historical women were the inspiration for Sheriff Claire Williams (Lillian Holley, Florence Shoemaker Thompson, Jennie Walker). Today I want to shine a light on Maud Collins, who was the first female sheriff of Ohio. A mother of five, she had worked alongside her husband as a jail matron, while he served as sheriff. She was appointed through Widow’s Succession, after the murder of her husband, and fulfilled the remainder of his term. Sheriff Collins took a more active approach to her job, like delivering prisoners to the state penitentiary to conducting several murder investigations. In 1926, she ran for sheriff for herself and won, beating out two male candidates. She served until 1930.
“God’s Truth” features two characters, who are hobos. During the Great Depression, many people were out of work and lost their livelihoods. Some became hobos, they lived in shanty towns or small encampments, they road the rails, and did odd jobs to barter for food. My grandmother, who was a teenager in the early 1930s, remembered hobos calling. Her parents fed whoever visited. If my great-grandfather was home, their visitor was welcomed inside for a meal and he’d talk with them, make them feel at home. If my great-grandfather wasn’t home, my great-grandmother would serve their visitor on the back porch. My grandmother recalled that a cat was drawn on their fence, which was a sign to other hobos that a kind lady lived their and people were welcome. This family tale found its way into this story.
When the Great Depression began, Herbert Hoover was president and he received the public’s scorn for the hard times everyone was facing. In 1928, there had been a campaign promise made that there would be “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” Obviously, this didn’t happen. Well, his opponents used this against him in the 1932 election and the damage was done, and he’d live in the shadow of his successor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Shanty towns were called Hoovervilles, an automobile with a horse hitched to it was called Hoover Wagon, newspapers used as blankets were called Hoover Blankets. What was forgotten about Herbert Hoover is that after both world wars, Hoover came to Poland’s aid and organizes relief efforts that saved hundreds of thousands of Polish children’s lives. Following WWII, when Poland was more or less handed over to the Soviet Union in 1945/1946, Herbert Hoover advocated for their freedom. He may have been disliked in America, but in Poland, Herbert Hoover was a hero.
One of the characters in my story is named Howard Chase. I think when I was writing “God’s Truth” I was currently binging “Only Murders in the Building.” In the show, there is a character named Howard Morris, portrayed by the brilliant Michael Cyril Creighton. So, I kind of picture the Howard in my story looking like the Howard in the show.
The town gossip, Iva Kent, has been mentioned in many of the Lady Sheriff stories. She finally makes a cameo debut in “God’s Truth.” I had Ellen Corby, of “The Waltons” in mind when I wrote her.
Until next time!
Veronica Leigh 