THE PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING FOR A MATE by Andrea Downing

  MUSE MONDAY Please join me in welcoming Andrea Downing to Muse Monday.
My latest book, Dearest Darling , is based on the premise that a love letter and a packet of tickets meant for one woman goes to quite another. The woman for whom they were meant was my hero’s ‘mail order bride,’ but my plucky heroine takes the tickets and ventures west.  Going west was an adventure; for men, there were lures of gold, huge tracts of land, wealth to be made.  Pioneer wagons did include women but few were single, and so by the middle of the 19th Century, men looked around and found something was missing from the life they had chosen—women!  What could they do about it?  Many wrote back home for introductions to eligible women in their old communities, possibly through Church organizations or just acquaintances.  Elsewhere, clubs formed to bring young ladies west and introduce them properly.  There was the Busy Bee Club in Tucson, AZ,  begun by six wives in order to stop the arguments over the few available females.  Up in Seattle, there were the Mercer Maids, and elsewhere in Washington, one man raised money to go back east and arrange for a ship filled with brides.  Unfortunately, the ship was hardly ‘filled’ and the venture not particularly successful, but it goes to show the lengths to which men went to find matrimony.
Finally, two newspapers, specializing in advertisements for mail order brides, appeared on the market.  Advertising was already fairly common, but these weekly periodicals were dedicated to procuring marriage for distant singles.  The weekly Matrimonial News was printed both in San Francisco and Kansas City from around the 1870s through the ‘90s,  and sent out to subscribers.  The advertisements it contained had to follow strict regulations and include information on appearance—including height and weight!, the person’s financial position as well as their ‘social position’ and, of course, the type of mate they were seeking. Gentlemen were charged for the privilege of advertising, women were not unless their ad went over forty words.  Nowadays, we hear stories of internet dating that has gone awry, of potential partners who turn out to be nothing like they advertise.  Imagine, then, writing long distance, having someone travel out to meet you,  and discovering your prospective mate was a dud.  In fact, several issues of The Matrimonial News contained a notice from one Judge that any man discovering his intended had artificially enhanced themselves could call their marriage null and void!
A slightly later magazine also dedicated to ‘lonely hearts’ was The New Plan.  Ladies had to sign an agreement to answer all letters with stamps included, even if it was just to say they were not interested.  What surprised me about these advertisements was the frankness about their financial situations and what they expected to inherit.   In my book, Dearest Darling , my hero really knows very little about the woman with whom he has been corresponding for a year; he has to trust she is as she presents herself.  And therein lies a problem with all correspondents.
But to find out what happens to Daniel, you’ll have to read the book.

Blurb:  Daniel Saunders has carved out a life for himself in Wyoming—a life missing one thing: a wife. Having scrimped and saved to bring his mail-order bride from New York, he is outraged to find in her stead a runaway fraud. Even worse, the impostor is the sister of his old enemy.But people are not always as they seem, and sometimes the heart knows more than the head. Excerpt: “Who the hell are you?” he blurted out.The woman took a step back. “My name is Emily Darling—”“Darling?” His eyes narrowed as his hands went instinctively to his hips.“I received your letter,” she continued somewhat breathlessly. “I know...”“Stop. Just tell me where Ethel is.” The blood rushed through his veins, pulling anger and uneasiness with it. “What’s happened to Ethel?”“I know it wasn’t meant for me,” the blonde continued, “but—”“But? But. Lady, are you telling me you received a dang letter meant for someone else, and you went and hightailed it out here with a train ticket and stage ticket meant for that someone else?”This impostor’s eyes widened. Emily’s eyes, not Ethel’s...“You know how the hell long it took me to save for that trip? You have any idea of the cost of all that?”“I...I thought—”“I don’t give a good gosh damn what the heck you thought. That money was meant for...” Total disbelief swallowed his tongue. Daniel took some paces and struggled to control his temper before he shot off his gun. “Damn!” he said at last. “Damn!” He stomped back to her. “Well, what the hell do you expect to do now— now that you’re here, may I ask?”“Well...” Emily visibly gathered herself and straightened up. “Marry you, of course.” Bio:  Andrea Downing likes to say that when she decided to do a Masters Degree, she made the mistake of turning left out of New York, where she was born, instead of right to the west, and ended up in the UK.   She eventually married there, raising a beautiful daughter and staying for longer than she cares to admit.  Teaching, editing a poetry magazine, writing travel articles, and a short stint in Nigeria filled those years until in 2008 she returned to NYC.  She now divides her time between the city and the shore, and often trades the canyons of New York for the wide open spaces of Wyoming.  Links to Social Media :  WEBSITE AND BLOG:  http://andreadowning.comFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/writerAndreaDowningTwitter:  @andidowning  https://twitter.com/AndiDowningGoodre...  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6446229.Andrea_DowningLinkedin:  http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?... AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE:  http://www.amazon.com/Andrea-Downing/e/B008MQ0NXS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0