Featured Interview With Dan Jorgensen
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
A Minnesota native, I grew up in rural South Dakota, where I attended a one-room country school. I was the first member of my family to go to college and have had a long career as a writer, editor, educator and p.r. specialist. I now live in Broomfield, CO.
In addition to writing hundreds of news, sports and feature stories, both as a journalist and in public relations, I’ve authored seven books – including the just-released “And The Wind Whispered” – three songs and a one-act play, contributed to two anthologies, and am the senior writer for “Broadlands Living” magazine. My current writing focus is on historical fiction, particularly set in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I’m also fascinated with the great journalist of the 1880s and 1890s, Nellie Bly, and have made her a central figure in my work.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve been fascinated with books since I was a very young child riding on the range and herding cattle. I would carry bags of books and comic books with me and read for hours while caring for our cattle. We did not have a television until I was nearly in Junior High, so I also read at night, including one time when we were without electricity for over a week due to a severe ice storm and I read by lantern light (I felt very Abraham Lincolnesque at the time). 🙂
I started writing in high school, but got serious about it by taking journalistic writing in college and getting hired on a newspaper during my sophomore year — a job I kept all through college and beyond.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love adventure, mystery and, of course, historic fiction and historic mysteries — all influences on me. I also love the Old West and the interesting characters who populated it. In that genre I’ve enjoyed McMurtry and L’amour. In western mysteries, I love the works of Tony Hillerman and Craig Johnson. I’m a big Nevada Barr fan, and for the vast scope of his works, I’ve devoured everything written by James Michener. For adventures, I enjoy Ken Follett, Michael Connelly and Harlan Coben.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Set in September, 1894, the book opens with a murder in Wind Cave and a brutal robbery of a train filled with rich and famous vacationers on their way to Hot Springs. Over the next 24 hours, a veritable “Who’s Who of the Old West” joins together with an erstwhile group of locals – based on many of the real people who lived there at the time – to both resolve the murder mystery and take on the threat of the Doc McCarty outlaw gang terrorizing the region.
Nellie Bly, Bat Masterson, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, John Philip Sousa, and Deadwood Sheriff Seth Bullock and his visiting “deputy,” rising politico and close friend Theodore Roosevelt, are at the heart of the story, working hand-in-hand with two groups of teenagers who not only want to help, but also end up playing key roles in the story’s resolution. Among the teens are a Native American named Alvin Twocrow, the soon-to-be-famous African American musician Joe Hayden, sisters Laura and Minnie Thompson (daughters of a local newspaperman), 15-year-old Will Rogers, and his friend Lil Marr, destined to replace Annie Oakley as the entertainment world’s sharpshooter extraordinaire.
Holding them all together in both their defense of the community and solving of the murder is a grizzled old sheriff named Gene Akin, known in real life for his battles with feared outlaws, his creation of a defense group called “The Rough Riding Home Guard,” and his knowledge of a long-missing shipment of gold from Deadwood’s Homestake Mine.
This tale – its name derived from Lakota lore that says the Great Spirit came forth from Wind Cave to bring life and the healing hot waters to The People – shares events that changed the course of many lives, including the dignitaries caught up in the mayhem. Bly would meet her future husband Robert Seaman during this encounter and Masterson would shift his career from law enforcement to journalism. And Wind Cave, where the wind still whispers each and every day, not only would play an integral part in the story, but be “discovered” by Roosevelt, who just 8 years later would name it as one of the first national parks.
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