I ordered more authors’ copies of the three books in the “People of the Water” Cycle … and one of them is a collector’s item! The copy of “The Water Cure” on the left was printed with a glossy cover by mistake; as far as I know, all other copies have been printed with the satin finish (right)!
Since a time-traveling caboose figures prominently in the events of my “People of the Water” Cycle books, I thought I’d share this long-time overnight lodging option just north of Junction, the terminus of the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway. In case you’d like to do a little time-traveling to the past while visiting our amazing little town. https://livingstonjunctioncabooses.com/
An important scene in the third novel of the “People of the Water” Cycle takes place at this longtime attraction just west of Eureka Springs off of Highway 62.
Known briefly in the 1990s as “Eureka Springs Gardens,” the lavishly landscaped site is home to the largest spring in the area, and perhaps the only one open to the public that is bottom-fed, rather than fed by rainfall from the topsoil seeping through layers of limestone until hitting a rock layer that is not porous.
The site is also a stopover on the Trail of Tears, or “Trail Where We Wept,” as Cherokee character George describes it in the second novel, “The Crystalline Clarity.”
A small admission fee is charged at the family-owned site, where an informative film is shown and a museum displays area artifacts from history.
https://www.bluespringheritage.com/
In case you’re curious, the Sears catalogue kit home that was built by Stan and Jen in “The Water Cure” (and the setting for pivotal scenes in “The Crystalline Clarity” and “The Aqueous Solution”) was this one, no. 167. This catalogue page was very helpful in “blocking” the action there.
(I can’t believe I didn’t post this in April, when I did the post on my Facebook author’s page!)
In the first novel of my cycle, “The Water Cure,” main characters Jen and Stan order (and build) a Sears catalogue home kit on Stan’s salary as a railroad shop man.
This article explores why home kits would be much more expensive today than inflation can account for.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90929404/a-sears-house-today-should-cost-32000-why-cant-you-buy-one
If you visit my little town — or would like to! — you’ll probably have a lot a questions about it and its waters.
A commercially-owned site has a pretty good page that will likely answer most of your questions about the water. And the rest of the site may answer some of your other questions about history, lodging, dining, attractions and more.
One of our two local papers, the Eureka Springs Independent, published a very kind and positive review of the first book in my “People of the Water” Cycle, “The Water Cure” today. Copies of all three books in the cycle are still for sale locally, I believe, at the Gazebo Books store and the Eureka Springs Historical Museum Gift Shop — and you can find them on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format.
A wedding takes place near the close of the third novel in my “People of the Water” Cycle.
It takes place inside one of the most-visited attractions near Eureka Springs, Thorncrown Chapel. Designed by renowned Arkansas architect E. Fay Jones, the chapel may be the original epitome of the design phrase “bringing the outdoors in.”
And there is really no more beautiful nor appropriate place for the characters in “The Aqueous Solution” to exchange their long-delayed vows.
Admission is free, though sustaining donations are accepted. The chapel is occasionally closed to the public due to scheduled events and weddings. You can visit the chapel via certain runs of the Eureka Springs purple trolley route by request.
Chapter Five of Book 4, “The Unwept Tear,” is written! I’ve had some time to mull over next steps, and while things are still unfolding as planned, I want to keep the story moving. That’s a challenge in this Cycle of novels, where sometimes nothing (seemingly) happens for long periods of time. In keeping with the length and rhythm of the previous three works, this one is close to halfway there.
Arkansas’ ninth governor — the first after the Civil War, and first Republican governor — was an early and heavy investor in the future of the a-borning Eureka Springs, where the initial (and many subsequent) events of the “People of the Water” Cycle occur.
He helped found the railroad, a company that built much of the town and the Crescent Hotel, and the effort to build decorative retaining walls throughout Eureka with skilled Irish labor.
Enigmatic, private, passionate and opposed to the racism of the Ku Klux Klan, Powell Clayton used his influence to build the town, the state — even national foreign relations with Mexico late in his career.
His home in Eureka Springs — a beautiful gingerbread Victorian in shades of pink-to-brick — sits on Spring Street, across from the beautiful Crescent Spring gazebo.
A few links below will quickly acquaint you with this firebrand, a character mentioned in the first book of the Cycle, “The Water Cure.”
https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/pclayton.htm
https://www.eurekasprings.com/historical/powellclayton.html
W. Keith Brenton 