Goodreads asked Paul F. Murray:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Paul F. Murray I remembered an old black-and-white Western TV show--I can't remember which one--in which an unfortunate mute young woman was trying to communicate with a group of ruffians by sign language, and they were making fun of her. I thought it would be an intriguing competition between two young women for the same young man who was trying to stick with his original goal of starting a cattle ranch, with one of the young women wanting him to abandon his goal of cattle ranching and to find gold for her, and the other supporting his idea of cattle ranching.

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