Latest idea for a book
Oct. 12th, 2008 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroBy odd coincidence, the media I've consumed in the last 24 hours has had an unintended theme, which has given me an idea.
One of the things Bill Bryson writes about in his autobiography is the decline of the small family farm in Iowa, and thus many of the towns which made up the essence of Iowa in the 50s have disappeared.
I just finished watching the first part of Simon Schama's new series ("The American Future: A History"). It's about the use of water and thus agriculture & of course the Dust Bowl came into it.
Add to that the fact that one of my favourite non-fiction books is Jonathan Raban's Bad Land, the story of how the railroad companies conned thousands of homesteaders to try "Dry Land Farming" (a faux-scientific scam of epic proportions) in eastern Montana in the early 20th century.
What that all adds up to is that I've been reminded that the American midwest is as full of ghost towns as the Old West. Ghost towns of the old west have a whole literature & mythos surrounding them, and some are tourist attractions. I am guilty of having plans to add to that literature.
Abandoned towns and farms of the midwest (here I include Montana and the Dakotas which might not be strictly speaking correct) are less well known. They don't have the exciting gold rush and Wild West history, and for the most part they declined much more recently. In many places that decline is an ongoing process.
I think there's a niche market for me to get out there and document. So now I need enough savings and/or publisher's advance to fund a year travelling and researching rather than the six months I thought I could get a start on the Old West with, and the result would be two very different books[1].
I really am such a nerd I can get a kick out of Iowa and Nebraska, as long as there's decaying settlements. Deal with it.
Now y'all can see why I hate my chronic illness situation so much. I have the training and skills to actually do this, but for the intermittent brain fog and permanent lack of physical stamina.
[1] I understand that contemporary way to be doing it would be to start out with a blog and then hope to get a publication deal on the back of that.
One of the things Bill Bryson writes about in his autobiography is the decline of the small family farm in Iowa, and thus many of the towns which made up the essence of Iowa in the 50s have disappeared.
I just finished watching the first part of Simon Schama's new series ("The American Future: A History"). It's about the use of water and thus agriculture & of course the Dust Bowl came into it.
Add to that the fact that one of my favourite non-fiction books is Jonathan Raban's Bad Land, the story of how the railroad companies conned thousands of homesteaders to try "Dry Land Farming" (a faux-scientific scam of epic proportions) in eastern Montana in the early 20th century.
What that all adds up to is that I've been reminded that the American midwest is as full of ghost towns as the Old West. Ghost towns of the old west have a whole literature & mythos surrounding them, and some are tourist attractions. I am guilty of having plans to add to that literature.
Abandoned towns and farms of the midwest (here I include Montana and the Dakotas which might not be strictly speaking correct) are less well known. They don't have the exciting gold rush and Wild West history, and for the most part they declined much more recently. In many places that decline is an ongoing process.
I think there's a niche market for me to get out there and document. So now I need enough savings and/or publisher's advance to fund a year travelling and researching rather than the six months I thought I could get a start on the Old West with, and the result would be two very different books[1].
I really am such a nerd I can get a kick out of Iowa and Nebraska, as long as there's decaying settlements. Deal with it.
Now y'all can see why I hate my chronic illness situation so much. I have the training and skills to actually do this, but for the intermittent brain fog and permanent lack of physical stamina.
[1] I understand that contemporary way to be doing it would be to start out with a blog and then hope to get a publication deal on the back of that.
