{"id":294,"date":"2009-05-05T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T21:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/?p=294"},"modified":"2012-02-18T08:20:15","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T14:20:15","slug":"google-and-the-resurrection-of-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/05\/google-and-the-resurrection-of-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"Google and the Resurrection of Ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have no idea how other authors begin a new project.\u00a0 But with Bound by Your Touch<\/a> rushing toward the shelves (the first review<\/a> is already in!) and Written on Your Skin<\/a> off to print, it\u2019s time to start working on the next book.\u00a0 For me, that usually begins with a backstory that pops into my head, fully formed.\u00a0 (This is not as cool as it sounds.\u00a0 The backstory is what happens before the book starts.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, I would much prefer to have PLOTS pop fully formed into my mind.\u00a0 (Plotters, you have my undying envy.))<\/p>\n

The question then becomes: how does this backstory make for a plot?\u00a0 To answer this question, I\u2026 procrastinate. I play with random ideas, read everything I can get my hands on, and daydream to a long and inspiring playlist of Music that Deeply Offends My Boyfriend\u2019s Superior Taste.<\/p>\n

I also occasionally entertain myself by searching Parliamentary records and date-restricted Google results. During my most recent search, I discovered a Ghost in the Google Machine: Eva Fox-Strangway, birthdate: unknown; death: March 1910.<\/p>\n

Eva Fox-Strangway: who were you?\u00a0 Not who you said you were: that much is clear.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Your story seems as extraordinary as any piece of fiction. The internet has only two records of your existence: both New York Times articles, the first<\/a> of which details your arrest, and the second<\/a> of which records (after an amusing article on how ladies\u2019 Bible study groups will save us from the evils of suffrage) your death.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, you were clever, well-educated, ambitious, and beautiful \u2013 or \u201cpersonally attractive,\u201d as the newspaper so delicately put it.\u00a0 You also had a talent for lying.\u00a0 You came to the United States in 1907; to acquaintances on your ocean liner, you introduced yourself as the niece of the Earl of Ilchester.<\/p>\n

But you weren\u2019t the niece of Lord Ilchester.<\/p>\n

Who were you?<\/p>\n

Your new acquaintances were charmed by you; by the time autumn rolled around, you were a staple in America\u2019s most glittering social circles: Newport, New York, Philadelphia.\u00a0 But by the summer, you must have realized that you\u2019d overplayed your hand.\u00a0 You disappeared, leaving behind you a string of creditors who wanted recompense\u2014dressmakers, jewelers, the Savoy Hotel.<\/p>\n

You reappeared a month later in Montreal.\u00a0 You must have felt more daring than ever, for now you were not merely the niece<\/em> of Earl Ilchester, you were his countess<\/em>.\u00a0 You stayed at Place Viger Hotel.\u00a0 They caught on quicker this time.\u00a0 They seized your trunks for collateral.\u00a0 You fled to Toronto, where you were caught and arrested at the end of August.<\/p>\n

How did you get out of custody so quickly?\u00a0 Did you work some magic on the lawmen?\u00a0 For a year later, in autumn 1908, you were back in New York, where you now introduced yourself as Helen Drummond.<\/p>\n

Why did you go back to New York?\u00a0 With such talents of deception, I expect you could have moved to a new city and started your game from scratch.\u00a0 Instead, you chose to go back.\u00a0 Was there someone in New York whom you’d decided you couldn\u2019t leave behind?<\/p>\n

And why, of all things, did you choose to work as a journalist \u2013 side by side with someone who had interviewed<\/em> you when you were Eva Fox-Strangway? You liked living on the edge; that much is clear. And for a time, you succeeded.\u00a0 Somehow, the journalist didn\u2019t recognize you.<\/p>\n

And so you took bigger risks.\u00a0 (Why?\u00a0 What was driving you?)\u00a0 You went to the very police station where your photograph was hanging in the Rogues\u2019 Gallery, to ask questions related to your new job as a journalist.\u00a0 You became a public figure, briefly.\u00a0 You claimed to have known the President, and he never contradicted you.\u00a0 You gave speeches about women\u2019s right to vote.\u00a0 You interviewed U.S. senators and society leaders.\u00a0 You had your articles published in London newspapers.\u00a0 (Was that where you were really from?\u00a0 Were you amused at the idea of former acquaintances from the homeland\u2014former lovers, your mother, your brother or sister\u2014reading your words, all unaware of the success you\u2019d found under your new name?)<\/p>\n

But your end was nearing, although you didn\u2019t know it.\u00a0 An acquaintance spotted you and outed you to one of your fellow journalists, who scented a story.\u00a0 (Was his ardent pursuit of the truth motivated, perhaps, by his envy of your sudden rise to journalistic fame?)\u00a0 He confronted you.\u00a0 Asked you if you knew one Eva Fox-Strangway. You bluffed your way through it\u2014successfully, you must have thought.<\/p>\n

This was when you should have run.\u00a0 It seems you had the chance.\u00a0 But instead you stuck around (who or what was holding you there?\u00a0 Why was it so important for you to be in New York?), trading on the new friendships you\u2019d made, hoping you could secure a loan and keep your new life going.<\/p>\n

On March 3, 1910, they came to arrest you.<\/p>\n

You drank poison.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t kill you immediately.<\/p>\n

They shipped you off to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.\u00a0 They held a trial while you lay unconscious.<\/p>\n

You were sentenced to twelve months imprisonment.<\/p>\n

On March 9, you died of the poison you’d drunk.<\/p>\n

Eva, if I put you into a romance novel, I would knock that poison from your hand.\u00a0 I would give you a history that illuminated why deception seemed to be the only choice remaining to you.\u00a0 I would give you a mother who anxiously hunted through newspapers for the articles you published \u2013 or a brother who was searching for you tirelessly.\u00a0 I would give you a hero who appreciated the extraordinary nature of your talents, and who helped you turn them to something other than petty thievery.\u00a0 I would give you a happy ending.<\/p>\n

There’s only one thing I wouldn’t do: I would never, ever strip of you of your incredible nerve.<\/p>\n

That journalist who asked you about the criminal, Eva Fox-Strangway?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry,\u201d you told him, \u201cbut I can\u2019t help you in this.\u00a0 You see, I haven\u2019t been in the habit of associating with swindlers of any kind, international or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such incredible steel.\u00a0 From such steel are heroines born.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have no idea how other authors begin a new project.\u00a0 But with Bound by Your Touch rushing toward the shelves (the first review is already in!) and Written on Your Skin off to print, it\u2019s time to start working on the next book.\u00a0 For me, that usually begins with a backstory that pops into … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[27,63,28],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}