Q&A with Tim Piper

 

 

 

Tim Piper is the author of the new novel The Montana Gold Mine, the latest in his Jubilee Walker series.  

 

Q: What inspired this new novel in your Jubilee Walker series?

 

A: I was inspired to write another installment of Jubil’s adventures because some loose ends from previous books were still nagging at Jubil, including the mismanagement of the Crow Reservation, and I wanted to bring those to a conclusion in this episode.

 

I do introduce a couple of new events in this book that will be resolved in book five, which will be the final book in the Jubilee Walker series—for now, anyway.

 

Q: You say in the book’s Author’s Note that you took more “creative liberties” with this novel than with the other three--can you say more about that?

 

A: I wanted to try something different in this book, so the focus is slightly different from the first three books in the series.

 

The plot of each of my other books closely follows the historical record, with Jubil’s life woven into the story, but the plot of The Montana Gold Mine is centered mainly around Jubil’s fictional life, with the historical elements serving as more of a background than they have in the previous books.

 

I felt I needed to create some fictional events to tell this installment of Jubil’s story in the best way.

 

As a writer of historical fiction, I am not comfortable straying too far from the historical record.

 

I feel that if a writer is going to market a book as historical fiction, then they should not portray events or characters in a way that leaves readers with a false impression of the facts. There is enough misrepresentation and whitewashing of history that takes place without worsening the situation by writing fiction that calls itself historical but is not.

 

But we are talking about fiction here, so it seems acceptable to make some variances for the sake of the story, as long as I own up to them.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: Over the course of writing the series, I have done extensive research on American history in the 1860s and 1870s.

 

Since book four is based more on fictional events than history, it did not require a deep dive into any single set of events. Instead, I took a number of historical events that were otherwise largely unrelated and wove them into Jubil’s fictional life.

 

The most surprising thing to me was the extent of the corruption in President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration, and how the public largely overlooked Grant’s poor management of the government. He was so beloved as a war hero that his failure to rein in his subordinates was blamed more on them than on him.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope they are entertained by Jubil’s adventures and satisfied that faith and perseverance can win out over misdeeds—in fiction at least.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m writing the final book in this era of Jubil’s fictional life, The Black Hills Dilemma. I may choose to bring the characters back someday, at some future era in their lives, but for now they get to live in peace.

 

My next project after the Jubilee Walker series will be a historical fiction novel set in the 1960s. That one will be fun.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: For anyone interested in how I went about writing the Jubilee Walker series, watch for my guest article on the YA Outside the Lines blog.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Tim Piper.