My latest book – or series of books – is The Driver Trilogy. It takes place mainly in San Francisco, in the late 19th Century. I have here a few thoughts about how the series came to be, and perhaps about historical fiction in general.
I’ll start with The Driver, first book in the series. I love reading history books because they’re full of strange and wonderful stories. Anyone who thinks history is boring has been victimized by public education. That’s my opinion and I stand by it. There’s no such thing as “writer’s block.” There’s procrastination, but that’s not the same. If I run out of ideas to write about, all I need do is read an old newspaper.
My point is, I was looking for an idea for a new book.
As it happens, my son Brendan drives a bus for the San Francisco Muni. He’s one of those fortunate people who likes his job. He’s also been a newspaper reporter and several other things, but he likes driving best.
So of course it occurred to me to write about a streetcar driver. Not in this century, but in the 19th, when so much in the world was just beginning. There were no diesel or gas powered busses back then. It would be a few years yet before electric streetcars. San Francisco was blessed with cable cars to get up the steep hills. Otherwise, there were horse cars.
So my protagonist drives a horse car. It so happens he’s a sailor who has given up sailing, but that’s a back story. What other problems might he have? I just looked in newspapers from 1877. There were some murders. Also, there were anti-Chinese riots. They were instigated by a small minority of malcontents led by someone named Dennis Kearney. You can look that up yourself. The Police Department wasn’t big enough to put down the riots, so the Chief deputized a civilian militia armed with axe handles. The racist riots were put down by white guys. I told you there are amazing tales.
A lot of different elements go to make up a story. There’s the Driver, with a murder happening on his car, in the middle of a riot. The only known witness is a beautiful woman, whom of course he falls in love with. For the rest, you’ll have to read the book.
I found several other stories I couldn’t leave out of the series. One is the Stockton Lunatic Asylum, which for its time was far in advance in therapy. You could make an argument that mentally ill were treated better then than they usually are today. A completely different story is the old San Franciso City Hall, which was a magnificent, functional design. It was beautiful on the outside, a pile of junk within. I couldn’t leave out a story like that.
M. Louisa Locke and I often inhabit the same world and walk the same streets – those of Old San Francisco. And yet, wearing different glasses, we don’t often see the same sights. For instance, this City at the time was infested with fake spiritists, mediums, and fortune tellers, as well as other kinds of bunco artists. I’m not sure that has changed much in our current decades. By the way, a “spiritist” is not the same as a Spritualist. The latter is someone who belongs to the Spritualist Church. The former is anyone who talks to spirits.
I think Louisa is harder on psychics than I am. Her character Annie (in her book, Uneasy Spirits, among others) practices fortune telling for extra income, but seems embarrassed and almost ashamed of her deceptive practice. In my own book Spiritcatcher I take the side of the fake spiritualist and “spirit photography.” The second book of The Driver Trilogy, Murphy’s Ghost, involves a card reader and her husband’s phantom. I must say I admire a good humbug, as well as a real spirit when one turns up.
The third book in the series is called The Scratch. The title, and much of the storyline, emerged when I ran across a dictionary of 19th slang. A “scratch” was underworld and police slang meaning a forger or counterfeiter. I won’t even hint at the plot, since that would provide spoilers for the previous two stories. I’ll only mention that Driver is in the worst trouble he’s ever seen – even back when he was stranded on the ice in the Bering Sea.
However, I’ll mention that a new character shows up in the second and third story. This is Robert, former cabin boy, who accompanies Driver in his adventures. The name was inspired by Robin of Batman Fame, but don’t tell anyone! By the way, Driver can read Chinese. That’s because he never forgets a face, and Chinese words each have their own faces. Too bad he can’t speak a word of the language. Being dyslexic, he can’t read English.
Robert, on the other hand, speaks fluent Cantonese but can’t read it. I really like these characters.
If you don’t feel like reading my own books, that’s okay. But I hope you’ll find some good history books, or some old newspapers and magazines. Turn off the TV and Internet, and find your own history.
Oh, by the way. My next book is called McRae. It’s in the editing stage and should be out soon. It takes place before the earthquake of 1906. Did you know that Enrico Caruso appeared in Carmenat the Opera House the night before the quake? How amazing is that?
Steve Bartholomew, November 23, 2020
