And Now The Rest of The Story

Researching a Legend Part 13
A phrase Paul Harvey made famous, 'the rest of the story' fits into the research and writing of 'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone' and made it possible to tell all of the Doc Holliday story.'
It was a storytelling technique I hadn't considered until a New York editor suggested that I might write a story about the story. It made perfect sense once I thought about it. Now this part of the story would be pure fiction, which would be in another time and another place. However, the content of that part of the story would deal with the facts as they had actually happened years before.

Over a period of time I decided what kind of information the reader needed to make a connection between Doc Holliday's world in the 1800's and the current story about the story.
Doc's romantic interest Mattie Holliday, became a nun Sister Mary Melanie and lived until 1937. I had already determined that Sister Melanie and Margaret Mitchell were cousins as well as close friends. And during my research into the book 'Gone With the Wind' I became aware that Ms. Mitchell had used Sister Melanie's stories about hers and John Henry's life as background in establishing some of her characters in the book.

It would be great if I could sit down and talk to Margaret Mitchell, but that was impossible since she was killed in a tragic automobile accident in 1949.
Why not go to the source, Sister Mary Melanie? An interview or a series of interviews with Sister Melanie and a young reporter. The characters in my story about the story would now be an elderly journalist and a writer/producer researching the Doc Holliday story.
(To be continued)

2009 Horse Racing update:
There was no Triple Crown winner this year but there was still plenty of excitement about racing.
Birdstone, 2004 winner of the Belmont and Travers Stakes sired two of the 2009 racing stars Mine That Bird winner of the Kentucky Derby and Summer Bird winner of the same races his sire won in 2004, the Belmont and Travers.

Then we have the super filly Rachel Alexandra winner of the Kentucky Oaks, Preakness, Haskell and Woodward.
Say what you might about the individual races this years crop of three year olds is about as good as they get. Triple Crown winner notwithstanding.

If you go back and screen the classic races you'll see that even in his losses Mine that Bird, a come from behind kind of runner, could have won the Preakness and the Belmont but for racing luck and the possibility that his throat problem already existed, but didn't show up until later. It was a throat and breathing problem that led to an operation to correct an entrapped epiglottis and forced him to withdraw from the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

The excitement in this years racing is a combination of things, Rachel Alexandra being a big part of it, but between Mine that Bird and Summer Bird a lot happened in the area of breeding. It isn't every year that a Birdstone comes along, that sire has now matched Count Fleet the 1943 Triple Crown winner in American Classic Victories.

Of course the 2009 season is not over yet, presently though there's some R & R due for Trainer Chip Woolley to let that broken leg mend and get off his crutches. And Mine that Bird's rehab from surgery.
Following that rest period Chip Wolley and Mine that Bird will be heading to Santa Anita for a start in the Goodwood over the synthetic surface on October 10th and later the five million Breeders Cup classic over that same course in November.

Rachel Alexandra has opted out of races over the synthetic track called Pro-Ride Surface for that reason only. And that makes me wonder how Mine that Bird and Summer Bird will handle that synthetic track. For the answer we'll just have to wait and see.

Writers Notebook:
'Nobody ever mastered any skill except through intensive, persistent and intelligent practice.' Norman Vincent Peale. The quote is from his famous book 'The Power of Positive Thinking.'
John Steinbeck mentions practice a number of times in 'Steinbeck: A Life in Letters.'
Here's one of his quotes. '...I want to start on my long novel -- the one I've been practicing for all my life. It is the Salinas Valley one. I think that if I'm not ready to write it, I never will be.'
Steinbeck was referring to 'East of Eden.'
Those are common sense reminders that some writers seem to ignor. Look at it this way, assuming you have some writing talent, how much better your work could be if you actually practiced and worked on your craft?

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com