Greetings and a great season to my readers. Here, for more holiday enjoyment, is the next episode of Mysteries at the Museum. This show will air on The Travel Channel on Tuesday, Dec. 28.

Franklin Institute: The Franklin Institute holds one of the first electronic instruments, but this warbling wonder is more than just a footnote in musical history. How did this play a part in triggering one of the biggest spy scandals of the century?

Washington State History Museum: On display at the Washington State History Museum is a 600 lb hunk of concrete with a disastrous past. More than a piece of junkyard scrap, this is a remnant from one of the most catastrophic engineering failures in U.S. history: the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. How did this state of the art bridge fail so spectacularly?

Strong Museum of Play: At the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, poised amongst history’s greatest toys, is a small plastic egg filled with some beloved bouncing goo: Silly Putty. Did you know that this sensational children’s novelty originated from a war shortage?

Detroit Science Center: On display at the Detroit Science Center is a truly macabre exhibit: 36 men, women and children that died two centuries ago are mysteriously preserved. But they aren’t the carefully prepared mummies of Egyptian royalty. These bodies were preserved by something else – and for decades science has struggled to figure out how… until now.

Johnston Ridge Observatory: At the Johnston Observatory in Gifford Pinchot National Forrest, the splintered remains of what was once a mighty 100 foot Hemlock tree stands as a visceral reminder. Like millions of other trees, it was napped like a toothpick by a blast 1600 times more powerful than an atom bomb. What’s capable of such a tremendous explosion?

Mariner’s Museum: At the Mariners’ Museum in Newport ,Virginia, thousands of artifacts chronicle man’s relationship with the sea. But one artifact, an ordinary supply box, speaks of the sea’s tremendous and mysterious powers. The box belonged to the USS Cyclops, a colossal ship that has since passed into legend. What happened to this notorious ship, and does this box hold any answers?

For all of you I'm wishing a happy and prosperous 2011.

More Mysteries for Holiday Watching

Tuesday Dec. 21 brings an exciting new episode on the Travel Channel's series on Mysteries at the Museum: This is Volume 7 of the series.  Take a moment to sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy some of our unique history that you
didn't know about. It might be right next door.

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, National Historic Site: Tucked away on the east side of Manhattan is Theodore Roosevelt’s childhood home. Inside are two particular artifacts on display that had a bigger impact on Roosevelt’s life than any other. Both of these artifacts share a strange feature, and saved the life of one of America’s greatest statesmen.

The Western Reserve Historical Society: The Western Reserve Historical Society carefully preserves Cleveland’s legacy, but one set of the museum’s artifacts remains shrouded in mystery. They are five postcards from the 1950’s that hold a distinctly taunting tone. Who wrote them and why? The story starts in the midst of one of the worst killing sprees in American history…

Museum of Science and Industry: Inside Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, there’s a vehicle that resembles a space hip or rocket, but it’s neither. In the 1960’s this amazing automobile helped a young California hot rod driver do something no one had ever done before- travel over 407 mph on land.

Titanic Historical Society: In Massachusetts there’s a museum that is dedicated to shedding new light on the ill-fated voyage of the world’s most famous ocean liner. Inside this official Titanic museum there is a single faded piece of paper. Do you know why this wireless telegram was unable to save the Titanic from her tragic fate?

Henry Ford Museum: On the outskirts of Detroit, the famed motor city, is the Henry Ford Museum. On display is a simple yellow city bus where visitors can see for themselves the very seat where Rosa Parks took a historical stand, by simply sitting down. But this story didn’t play out the way most of believe…

Big Foot Discovery Museum: Nestled in the heart of Northern California’s epic red wood forests is a museum dedicated to the region’s most famous alleged inhabitant, Big Foot. Can a recently discovered primate tooth put an end to the age old debate of whether or not big foot is real?

To all my readers, may your holidays bring health and happiness.

More Museum Mysteries

Before long, the Mysteries at the Museum series will be complete, but for now here's another episode for Tuesday, Dec. 14 on the Travel Channel. Hope my readers are enjoying these programs, which delve into some fascinating subjects about our history.

Mysteries at the Museum: Volume 7

Gerald R. Ford Museum: At the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, a vintage tape recorder from the 1970s was used inside America’s most important Executive Office. What incriminating conversations did this machine record? And how would it ultimately help destroy an American President?

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History: The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History houses a small antique vial which lies at the center of one of America’s strangest medical mysteries. The vial once held a drug known as Radithor, and some doctors touted it as the “greatest therapeutic force known to mankind”, but this revolutionary medicine was really a potion of death.

National Museum of American History: On display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, is a relic from a volatile era in American history. It appears to be an ordinary restaurant lunch counter accompanied by four fading vinyl chairs. How did this lunch counter becomes center stage in an event that would help overturn centuries of oppression, and change America forever?

The Museum of Science and Industry: Inside Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry there’s a giant World War Two Submarine. It’s a German “U-Boat”, known by its infamous number, 5-0-5. But during the war U-505 mysteriously vanished. How did U-505 end up in Chicago, and how did its sudden disappearance from battle nearly 70 years ago help bring Germany’s invincible U-Boat fleet to its knees?

New Jersey State Police Museum: Secured inside the NJ State Police Museum, sealed in plastic, is a faded piece of paper. It’s inscribed in dark ink, in sloppy handwriting, and it’s stamped with a curious insignia. At first glance, this seventy eight year old document looks inconsequential, but it sparked one of the biggest manhunts in American history. Was the person who wrote this note ever brought to justice?

Ruidoso River Museum: At the River Museum there’s an artifact from one of the most famous western tales ever told. It’s a Colt Thunderer revolver. The polished, ornately etched pistol was presented to one of New Mexico’s most famous Sheriffs, Pat Garrett… as a reward for killing America’s most legendary outlaw, Billy the Kid. But did Pat Garrett really kill the ‘Kid’?

Museum Mysteries

Hi Readers: Here, as promised, is the next volume in the Travel Channels' Tuesday night show, Mysteries at the Museum.

Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum: Inside a giant airplane hangar at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, there’s a flying machine whose size and reputation dwarfs all others, but this one of a kind aircraft never flew a single mission. In fact, many believed it couldn’t fly at all. So why was the “Spruce Goose” even built?

The Field Museum of Natural History: The star attraction at Chicago, Field Museum is a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton named “Sue”. It is the largest most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found, and this makes Sue the key piece of evidence in unraveling a mystery that has baffled scientists since the very first T-Rex fossil was discovered in 1902… What was life like for the world’s largest prehistoric predator?

William McKinley Presidential Museum: The William McKinley Presidential Museum houses a nightshirt once worn by McKinley that bears a a tear down the back. How did this tear come to be? The answers lie within the mystery of President McKinley’s final moments – a tragic demise that changed the history of the Presidency.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Art: Hanging amid fantastic works of art by Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Matisse and numerous others at this museum, are four empty picture frames. These frames hang as symbolic reminder of a shocking crime, and a 20 year old hunt to find out who was behind the biggest art heist in US history.

Johnstown Flood Museum: At a Pennsylvanian museum that’s dedicated to preserving the city’s rich cultural heritage, a 19th century brass pocket watch actually holds one of the Nations’ most unforgettable stories. It all begins with the time frozen on the watch’s face- a time that changed America forever.

Strong National Museum of Play: Not far from the shores of Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York, a museum is dedicated solely to the study of play, and one item here was actually an accidental byproduct of America’s involvement in a global war. Can you guess what childhood favorite this could be?

Find out the answers to these questions and more by tuning-in to Mysteries at the Museum Tuesday at 9 E/P on Travel Channel. Enjoy the show, and secrets that will be revealed.

An Interview with Patricia Stoltey

Today I welcome author Patricia Stoltey to my Historical Fiction blog. Readers, pull up a chair and let's talk about books. 

Joyce: Hi Pat, and thanks for taking the time from your busy schedule to answer some questions for our readers. I’m always curious as to when an author began writing, and how long it took to get published.

Pat: We’re not going to count the box of really bad poetry and short stories I wrote in my 20s and 30s, are we? My first attempt at a novel was The Troubleshooter, an action-adventure tale my brother and I wrote in the mid-80s. That book never made it to print, but Books in Motion turned the umpteenth revision into an audiobook in 1999. That only took thirteen years. Not bad for a first novel. The first draft of my second novel, an attempt at international intrigue and suspense, sits on a table in my office, waiting for me to decide it’s worth a rewrite from beginning to end.

My writing life improved in fall 2003. I’d retired from a demanding job in the real world and realized I had to find more to do than read novels and crochet afghans, I took a novel-writing class from a local author. When the class was over, several of the attendees got together and formed a critique group. The novel I started for that class was The Prairie Grass Murders, published in hardcover in 2007.

Joyce: How did you break into publishing, Pat?

Pat: After completing the4th draft of The Prairie Grass Murders, I unsuccessfully pitched it to an agent at the 2004 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference. After a few more queries also proved unsuccessful, I did another major revision, then pitched that 5th draft during a critique workshop at the 2005 conference. This time I received valuable feedback from the editor running the workshop, as well as an invitation to submit after revising the manuscript once again. Draft number six was the winner. My contract with Five Star/Gage led to a hard cover edition aimed at the library market.

The Prairie Grass Murders was also an audiobook with Books in Motion and a mass market paperback reprint with Harlequin Worldwide. The second Sylvia and Willie mystery, The Desert Hedge Murders, is now available in hard cover and as a Harlequin paperback.

Joyce: What genre or sub-genre do you write? Why did you choose this genre?

Pat: I focused on amateur sleuth mysteries for my first two books. I read a lot of mysteries and admired the way good authors think up plot twists, plant clues, and create great characters. I kept wondering if I could do that, so I finally gave it a try. I discovered it’s not as easy as it looks.

Joyce: (laughing). Nothing ever is, is it? So, tell us how much time you devote to writing each day.

Pat: I don’t write every day and that’s a problem I’m trying to overcome. After our books are published, we often get caught up in book promotion and spend way too much time at social media, personal appearances, conferences, and other opportunities to connect with readers. In the past, I’ve called myself a binge writer because I spend months thinking about a book without putting anything on paper, and then sit down and write like crazy until I finish a first draft. Lately, I haven’t even done that. It took me more than a year to get the revisions done on my last novel so I could start submitting to agents.

Joyce: Can we get a sneak peek at what you’re working on now?

Pat: Doing the queries and submissions for a historical women’s fiction, which has a working title of Wishing Caswell Dead. I’m clearing up my schedule and cleaning my desk. I have the first draft of a suspense novel sitting on the floor, waiting for my subconscious to tell me how to fix problems with the plot. And I have that idea in the works for a new Sylvia and Willie mystery. I’m still keeping up with my blog, my work with Northern Colorado Writers which includes starting a new critique group next month, and doing guest spots for blogger friends.

Remember when I said I had retired from a demanding job in the real world? I’m working harder now than I ever did before, but I will admit, I love every minute of it.

Joyce: How do you write? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Is it your characters or your plot that influences you the most?

Pat: Mostly I’m a pantser. If I have a complicated plot, I’ll lay out the chapters with two or three sentences as a guide to what needs to happen at that stage of the story, but I never stick to the plan. Characters have a way of leading us down new and interesting paths as we write.

When I started the Sylvia and Willie mystery series, the setting came first because I wanted part of the story to take place in Illinois where I grew up. The plot idea came from the setting, and the characters fell into place last. With the second novel in the series, I already had the characters, so the plot developed from the protagonists’ family relationships.

Wishing Caswell Dead followed a completely different path. The main character came first.

Joyce: What was the most usual way you came up with a story idea? What made you think, ‘hey, I could make that into a story?’

Pat: The historical, Wishing Caswell Dead. First I had a dream about a thirteen-year-old girl in a dated photo. It looked like a tintype. I played with ideas about that girl’s life and turned the dream into a short story about young Jo Mae Proud. When I reread the story after receiving a few rejections from magazines, I realized I had a whole long list of questions about the other characters and what would happen to Jo Mae after the story ended. Now her tale is a 66,000 word novel. Of all the things I’ve written so far, this one is my favorite.

Joyce: I’m wondering how you do research for your books. Also, what’s the most interesting bit of research you’ve come across?

Pat: Back in the 80s when I was working on The Troubleshooter, I spent hours and hours in a university library. Times have changed. Now I do most of my research online. However, my investigations for Wishing Caswell Dead led me to a small prairie museum near Mahomet, Illinois, where I saw actual tools and furniture and farm equipment used in the 1800s. That’s a lot better than looking at pictures in a book or on the Internet.

The most interesting bit of research? I think it was the time I spent learning about the Kickapoo Indian Tribe. Kickapoo artifacts figured in the plot for The Prairie Grass Murders. And there’s a Kickapoo character in Wishing Caswell Dead. This tribe had a fascinating history as they moved from Wisconsin into Illinois and then across the Mississippi to a reservation in Kansas and other settlements in Mexico, yet we don’t read that much about them in Native American history.

Joyce: Thanks for talking with us about your books and your writing career. The Desert Hedge Murders has an intriguing title. I think I’ll start with that one first, and good luck with your next book.

Pat: It was my pleasure joining you today, Joyce. I hope your readers will drop by my blog (http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com/ ) from time to time to see what’s going on in my writing life. I feature guest author/bloggers from a variety of genres on Thursdays, so it’s a good place to find that next book to read. I’m on Facebook as Patricia Stoltey, and I’m also a big Twitter fan: @PStoltey.

More Mysteries at the Museum

Here, for my readers, is a taste of what will be on tomorrow night's Travel Channel series, Mysteries at the Museum. Image Image is of the Old Red Museum in Dallas, TX.

Mysteries at the Museum: Volume 5


Old Red Museum: In the collection of the Old Red Museum in Dallas, there’s a 44-caliber rifle with a sawed off stock. It looks like many weapons that have been modified by criminals, but it’s possible that this rifle may have been used in an infamous crime spree. Can you guess who the legendary criminal may be?

National Museum of the Marine Corps: In Quantico, Virginia at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, a tattered flag from World War Two’s epic battle for Iwo Jima became the subject of the Nation’s most famous war photograph. How did this Pulitzer Prize winning picture alter history and why do some people suspect that it isn’t everything it claims to be?

National Railroad Museum: The National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin houses an ultra-modern locomotive known as the Aerotrain. When it was unveiled in 1956, it was supposed to change the way Americans traveled. So what derailed this futuristic locomotive, and why aren’t we all riding Aerotrains today?

Scripps Institute of Oceanography: Behind the scenes at the Birch Aquarium in San Diego, there are specimens that hail from a realm nearly a mile underwater. They are rare and mysterious organisms that survive in an uncharted frontier known as the Abyss. Can you even imagine what these deep sea creatures could be?

Library of Congress: In the Library of Congress, a tattered diary provokes one of exploration’s fiercest debates; who was the first person to actually reach the North Pole?

National Museum of the United States Air Force: The National Museum of the United States Air Force displays an artifact that paved the way for the exploration of man’s final frontier. At the height of the Cold War, was a team of aeronautical engineers able to create a parachute system that would produce a safe, high altitude aircraft?

Enjoy the show!

Mysteries at the Museum

The Travel Channel has an ongoing program on Tuesdays that takes the viewer to different museums to witness the strange and unexplained. For those of you who are fond of mysteries, or museums, like I am, here are the upcoming museum spotlights for next Tuesday's show, the 4th in this very interesting series. 

Mysteries at the Museum: Volume 4

The History Museum at the Castle: In the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, Wisconsin, a plaster bust is modeled after Harry Houdini, who has long passed on but whose mysterious talents still baffle the mind. Is it possible that this bust is actually possessed by the spirit of this famous magician? The answer lies in the suspicious circumstances that surround Houdini’s death.

The Henry Ford Museum: In Michigan, the Henry Ford Museum showcases an artifact that soared high above the roadways in 1926- a unique airplane named “The Josephine Ford”. At the time, the intrepid pilot of this airplane set out on a death defying flight to the end of the earth with one goal in mind. What was this pilot’s goal and why is his journey still shrouded in mystery?

Coos Historical and Maritime Museum: Located on Oregon’s rugged Coast at the Coos Historical and Maritime Museum, there is a peculiar object that looks like a piece of faming equipment, but in fact, it’s actually a piece from a diabolical weapon of mass destruction sent here by America’s former enemy. How did this artifact cause the only deaths resulting from enemy action to occur on mainland America during World War II?

The Chicago History Museum: A plain scrap of fabric, emblazoned with a striking design located at the Chicago History Museum was one of the banners designed for protests at the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Who made this flag and how did it play such a large role in changing the direction of our country?

Fall River Historical Society: The Fall River Historical Society in Fall River, Massachusettes houses an artifact that may have been the murder weapon in one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history. This hatchet head was the key piece of evidence used against Lizzie Borden in the murders of her parents; but did she really commit the heinous crime?

National Museum of American History: Among the many thousands of objects at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, is a worn and weathered eighty year old briefcase. This attache once belonged to a lifelong politician and diplomat and held countless, top secret and sensitive government documents. Why do curators at the Smithsonian believe this briefcase was party to one watershed event that changed the history of the planet?

I'll be posting the next volume later, so you can see what's coming after this.