Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
What Books is Rick McBee working on now?
I have had several close contacts ask me when the next book is coming out now that they have read “Rough Enough.”
When I’m not up to my ears in skiing, diving, orienteering and trying to keep up on the Civil War scene, I’m working on three other books at the moment. I’ve listed these below and as soon as I figure out how to open up labels on this site and make it a web page (I don’t suppose any of you are ever challenged by computer work? Hmm.), I’ll have a tag for each so you can follow along with chapter and verse. Back to the books. Three of them separated in genre and interest:
1. “Following the Blue Bucket” will be the next section of Richard Clow’s Life taking him from the gold mining fields of Deadwood, SD. across Wyoming by wagon with his wife and young daughter, Cora into Idaho where they settle outside Montpelier, ID. and set up a sheep ranch, the CBR ranch. When the ranch goes bust they move on to Granite, Oregon and mine gold again and make enough to then move on to the Willamette Valley where they farm successfully until about 1905 when the move to Mapleton, OR and run the Mapleton Hotel and mail boat on the Siuslaw River near Florence, OR. Due out late in 2014. It may have to be closer to historical fiction than straight history because of the scarcity of information in some places coupled with his run-ins with several historical characters that are rumored in the family and probable but so far undocumented.
2. “Sendero Rojo: The Path of Blood” due out late 2013 or early 2014 is an historical fiction on the South American Drug Wars based on some fifty references which I collected in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela while working in those countries for 17 years. It follows a young woman and her fiance as they are separated by a kidnapping high in the Andes. Maria struggles to survive on the streets and in the slums of Lima Peru while Huascar fights for life as a slave in a drug manufacturing camp deep in a hidden valley of the upper Amazon river. Escaping, Huascar succeeds in crossing the Andes to rescue Maria from poverty in Lima and bring her back to their home area of Huaraz in the mountains.
3. “E-Shell: Seashells of the Caribbean” due out mid 2013 is an interactive computer guide to identifying over 200 seashells of the Caribbean from the coasts of Florida to the shores of Venezuela. Based on over 13 years of collecting and identifying shells from the Caribbean, this book is unique in having lots of smart items to jump from seashell keys to pages with their photos and descriptions. The macro-photography brings the seashells up right in front of your eye with arrows to key identification points, whether it is a giant conch from Panama or a minute purple janthina shell from the shores of Curacao.
I hope you’ll enjoy following these books as I move forward in my writing.
New Review for “Rough Enough” comes out on “Salient Points!”
Photos of John Sherwin Clow, wife and son: Older Brother to Richard Clow
Right hand photo is John Sherwin Clow, 1836 – 1909 and left hand photo is his wife, Celinda Warren Burnap Clow holding their son, Fredrick Redman Clow. This is the son who was born in 1863 just before John enlisted in the Union Army (1864) to fight with Sherman’s troops in the March to the Sea.
Opening a “GoodReads” Ad for “Rough Enough”
Today was another first for the old man! I actually created and opened up an ad on “GoodReads” for my Civil and Indian War Book, “Rough Enough.” One of the things that really amazed me was how specific some of the targeting can get for the audience of readers. Not only can you pick up the genres that are most closely related to your book, History, nonfiction, Biography, War, etc…, but you can also pick authors who have written books in the similar area to your so that you get to the people who already have their heads where your book is! Wow! I just went down through my bibliography and typed in names of those Civil War, Frontier and Mining authors whose works had helped me write my own book. Lo and behold… their titles popped up and a quick click added them to the list. Now I’m going to do what my PR man, Jeff said to do with my Amazon site. That is: check the rank of my book this evening and then every day for the duration of the ad and see if there is any jump in the sales on Amazon. This of course is only one indicator, but along with the data from “GoodReads”, I should at least have some idea of whether the book is even being noticed. The computer world never ceases to amaze me!
Personalities related to Richard Clow – Lucia Shepardson, Author
Lucia Shepardson was one of Richard Clow’s nieces. She is shown in a photo with the aging Richard Clow about 1920 when they travelled together through the Black Hills.
Lucia was an amateur entomologist and in 1914 wrote a brief book (see photo) called “The Butterfly Trees.” The books was revised and republished in 1939 in Monterey, California through Herald Printers and Publishers. She documents a different Monarch Butterfly migration than that described in Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Flight Behavior.”
Lucia’s migration was believed to begin in British Columbia and migrate down the Pacific coast. The migration is documented as passing through a gap in the Siskiyou mountains in late September, taking two the three days to pass that point. Then they continue on down the California coast reaching Pacific Grove and Monterey Bay in mid-October. Here they overwinter, literally coating the trees in some places.
Lucia points out that the butterflies can miss a year, either not arriving, or abandoning the coast due to human disruptions. This means that none of their offspring has been to the Monterey Peninsula, yet following the break of a year, they still return to that same section of the coast. She concludes that this phenomenon is still a mystery to man, and shows another of the wonders of nature and instinct.
Personalities related to Richard Clow: Sir George J. Clow, Capt. R.N., C.B. (1853 – 192?)
Captain George J. Clow, first cousin of Richard Headley Clow, was both a full Captain in the British Royal Navy, as well as being the Paymaster-in-Chief to the Royal Navy. He first joined the Royal Navy in 1870 and rose through the ranks as had his father, David F. Clow II. He was awarded the honor of being knighted as a Companion of the Bath by the king for his exceptional and outstanding service to the Crown during WW1. The Knights of the Order of the Bath was instituted by Henry the IV. It was allowed to lapse until 1725 when King George the I revived it. According to the Book of Statutes the original number in the Order was limited to the reigning sovereign plus 37 Knights Companions. The size of the Order was greatly increased in 1815 and again in 1847 when it was actually opened to civilians.
George J. Clow’s extraordinary career of being assigned to over 44 different Royal Navy Ships is cataloged in the Naval Historical Collectors and Research Association which describes a large paperweight engraved with all of Sir George’s postings and includes his investure into the Order of the Bath at Buckingham Palace on 12 July, 1919. His final military promotion to Paymaster- Rear-Admiral came in 1923 at the age of 70 years, four years after he had been retired from active service and awarded a pension.
Personalities from “Rough Enough” : David Ferinbaugh Clow (1779 – 1861)
David Ferinbaugh Clow was a paymaster or purser for the Royal Navy. He was the father of John Stevenet Clow, the father of Richard Headley Clow, the center of the book “Rough Enough,” a Civil and Indian War non-fiction book.
David F. Clow entered the British Navy when he was ten years old as a “ship’s boy.” He worked his way up through the ranks to the Regular Navy Officer post of Purser and spent his entire life in the Royal Navy.
David F. Clow had a long and illustrious life with the British Royal Navy in that he was at the battle of Trafalgar, fought off the S.W. coast of Spain on October 5, 1805. This was the battle in which Admiral Horatio Nelson lost his life. David Clow was also at the battle of Copenhagen, the main harbor and capitol of Denmark which was bombarded by the British Navy from September 2 – 5 of 1807. During this battle he was aboard the ship “Collossus”.
During his time in service, David F. Clow also served aboard the ships “Venus”, Swiftshure”, “Tyne”, Perseus” and finally aboard the “Impregnable” while he was stationed in the Mediterranean.
He married Ann Moore (1777 – 1855) and they lived in Haverfordwest, in Pembrokshire, Wales. Ann and David had a total of seven offspring. He died of dropsy.
After his death the family home went to his son, David Ferinbaugh Clow II, who was also a Naval Officer.
Personalities from “Rough Enough” #2 – Mary Bingham Clow
Mary Bingham Clow -1870 Wedding Picture:
Mary Bingham daughter of Lucius and Rebecca Bingham was born in 1853, just a few months after her father had dies in late 1852. The family home was in the Little Sioux, Iowa area and Rebecca Bingham fell in love with the middle aged fur trader and frontier sutler of Fort Union and later Fort Buford, Charles Larpenteur. Rebecca married Larpenteur in 1855 and he went back to Fort Union on the boarder between what is now Montana and North Dakota to work, leaving the family in his residence of Fontainbleau near Little Sioux. Rebecca grew up in that area and when she was about 17 in early 1870, Charles Larpenteur, who was now living in the large Sutler’s post at Fort Buford, decided to bring the family to Fort Buford to live. The fort had grown and it was safer to bring women into the area, so Mary, her mother, step sister Elizabeth, and her step brother, young Louis, all took the steamboat up the Missouri to the fort. Fort Buford was on the banks of the Missouri very near its confluence with the Yellowstone River coming out of Southern Montana. Just across the river was a big Sioux camp of nearly a thousand Indians, many of whom traded hides and skins at the fort.
Working at the Sutler’s post was the young ex-soldier, Richard Clow, now acting as the clerk for Charles Larpenteur. Within less than six months, Mary and Richard Clow had courted and were married. Perhaps this was at the same time that Mary’s step sister Elizabeth married another ex-soldier, Alf Knott. The picture on this page is a blow-up of the face of Mary, showing how much detail can be retained by old photographs. Truly a beautiful young woman.
By 1871 Charles Larpenteur was losing his trading post due to the political battles for that plum position. In the spring of 1871, Mary and Richard Clow accompanied Charles Larpenteur and wife on the steamboat Andrew Ackley downriver to Little Sioux Iowa. Mary was newly pregnant and the journey to Iowa was the easy part of the next nine months as the family bought land, lived with relatives, built a home and plowed up fields for late garden planting. By winter they were snug in new homes and ready to overwinter when tragedy struck the Clow/Larpenteur clan.
Young Louis Larpenteur died suddenly, Richard Clow was taken ill and recovered and then the new baby, Bertha, was born in mid winter. At this point again things seemed to ease up on the family until baby Bertie was taken ill and died suddenly, March 4, 1872. A month later Mary Bingham Clow also died, April 6, 1872. Both are buried on a hillside with white tombstones, outside of Little Sioux, Iowa. In November of 1872, Mary’s stepfather, Charles Larpenteur also died, changing the paths of life for both Richard Clow and his mother-in-law, Rebecca Bingham Larpenteur.
You can follow this story more fully in the full book, “Rough Enough: Including Richard Clow’s Letters and Diary from the Civil and Indian Wars, 1865 – 1875. http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K8HIXI
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