Mary Ellen Johnson

While I've always loved medieval England and wrote a six-book Knights of England series about the fourteenth century, I always knew I needed to honor my blue collar, union roots. Forty minutes from me is the town of Cripple Creek and a bit beyond, Victor. Sleepy towns with a history few talked about. Still, I'd heard the stories: bullet holes in the façade of a Western Federation of Miners union hall; underground tunnels crisscrossing Victor's  streets. Abandoned head frames perched like lonely sentinels atop various hills. Local museums detailing a time when the Cripple Creek District was home to hardscrabble miners who became overnight millionaires and others who worked ore thousands of feet below  for $3 a day. 

There's a story here, I kept thinking. Until I finally yanked myself out of the Middle Ages and decided, It's time.

While I've lived in Colorado most of my life, I was more interested in researching castles and cathedrals and knights who were harassing France during the beginnings of the Hundred Years' War. I knew next to nothing about my home state. I didn't realize that, while contemporary Colorado is very much a tourist destination and let's throw in a bit of ranching and farming and the goings' on in Denver, Colorado was once a mining mecca--and home to some of the bloodiest labor battles of the century.   

Nor did I realize The United States has the most violent labor history of all the industrialized nations. Most people don't know that. Many may not care. But I do. In my opinion, it's past time for the 1903-1904 Colorado Labor Wars, which ranged from Cripple Creek to Telluride and beyond, to take its place among the strikes and battles, defeats and wins, that helped shape America.

Recently, a reader commented, "Your time travel is the perfect way to teach history." I hope so. THE GOLDEN PROMISE OF CRIPPLE is the third novel in my Travels Across Time series. Fingers crossed that it succeeds as both an engaging love story and an impassioned reminder of the sacrifices our ancestors   endured in order for you and me to enjoy a better life. 

When not writing, I enjoy traveling and   visiting my children and grandchildren accompanied by my faithful German Shepherd, Karma, whose special talents are begging for treats and shedding.