The Question: A Guest Post by M. C. V. Egan

"Research is formalized curiosity.  It is poking and prying with a purpose."
~Nora Zeale Hurston

My guest today, M. C. V.  Egan, is the author of the book The Bridge of Deaths, which is a blend of fact and fiction, based on a real mystery.  Published in 2011, the book centers around a 1939 plane crash which took the lives of five people, including the author's grandfather, told from the perspective of a modern day couple in London researching their past lives.

Originally from Mexico City, M. C. V.  Egan is the chosen pen name for Maria Catalina Egan.  She's fluent in Spanish, French, Swedish, and English, and has also lived in various parts of the U.S., France, and Sweden.  The author's initials form the Roman numeral 1105, but her friends call her Catalina.  She said she finds inspiration for her writing (and probably other creative pursuits as well)  everywhere.  Very recently, Catalina was inspired to write this post by Kathy Leonard Czepiel's guest post, The Perspiration of Writing.

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The Question: A Guest Post by  M. C. V.  Egan

I recently attended an event for the South Florida Writer’s Network. All attendees were writers with a few spouses in supportive tow.  I was surprised in such company to encounter yet again ‘the’ question I have heard from almost everyone familiar with The Bridge of Deaths.

"How did you find the patience, persistence or determination to research for almost two decades?”

This time the question came from a man in his forties who explained that he began to research something as complicated to put together as the story of the 1939 plane crash of the G-AESY. I listened to his story and the description of incomplete files and contradictory evidence sounded very familiar.

He smiled and said, “I devoted about four years to the story and then realized that it would take at least ten more to put it all together and just walked away.  How did you manage to stick it out?”

My mouth was full of food so my husband answered, “She did try to walk away, but the story sort of followed her.”

The finished product has now become such an inherent part of my life that at some level I forget how hard I fought and tried to escape the story.  I stored safely away somewhere in my mind the curious manner in which the story always found its way back to the top of my desk.

I have come up with a clever answer or two as to how the story was so important even though I was never as obsessed as the Catalina in the book.

The truth is that the story crept itself back into my life in different ways. With perfect timing, always when I had a sort of soft spot ready to react and reopen the quest.  Some moments were movie-like as if planned by a greater force, others more mundane, but impacted me just as much.

One such moment was on one of my parent’s visits from Mexico: house guests watching a documentary on PBS on the origins of WWII or The Munich Pact.

I entered their room to kiss them goodnight, smiling, absolutely absorbed in breast feeding my one and only baby.  I was done with corpses and intrigues, I just wanted to learn how to sing lullabies, indulge in all the other sweet uplifting things that accompany a much desired and wanted baby.

Had I entered that room a minute earlier or a minute later the story would have stayed locked in the back of a closet--I entered that room at just the right moment.

I looked at the TV screen and there for the very first time I saw the Lockheed Electra G-AESY from British Airways LTD.  Whole, flying right behind Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and there was no doubt but that I needed to dust off my research and plunge into it again.

On another occasion a good friend from Denmark was moving; to her surprise she discovered copies of Danish Newspapers from 1939 that she had neglected to send me years earlier.  Again, the moment I saw the large over stuffed manila envelope in my mailbox I almost heard the propellers of the Lockheed Electra heading my way.

In retrospect, eighteen years does not feel like an enormous amount of time to spend on something that you develop strong feelings for.  I think that strong forces nudge all of us from time to time; it is simply a matter of being receptive and responsive when we feel the nudge.

I finally finished chewing the enormous appetizer I had stuffed in my mouth and looked at the young writer and said, “It is a pity you gave up, especially today with so much information available online; perhaps you should give your story a second chance again."  He smiled, shook his head no, and moved on to mingle.

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Catalina, thank you very much for your wonderful guest post.  18 years of work on a book shows tremendous tenacity on your part!  My stepmother-in-law, Patricia Ortlieb, devoted about ten years to research and write her book on the life of Eliza Tibets, Creating an Orange Utopia, after she discovered that she was the great-great grandaughter of this pioneer.  I'm certain that the time and dedication you put into the research and writing of your book were very worthwhile, and I look forward to reading The Bridge of Deaths when my reviewing schedule becomes lighter.  Thank you for being my guest, Catalina!

Reader comments welcomed. 

Saturday Snapshot: Patricia and Meryl Streep

I would be remiss if I didn't follow up my previous post about the book Creating an Orange Utopia: Eliza Lovell Tibbets and the Birth of California's Citrus Industry by Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy, published in September 2011.  Patricia, my step mother-in-law, went to Washington, D.C. late last year for the de Pizan Honors event at the National Women's History Museum, and met actress Meryl Streep.  After talking to her, Patricia (resplendent in her orange-colored scarf), presented the actress with a copy of her book.  My imagination went into overdrive as soon as I saw this photo.  I could easily imagine Creating an Orange Utopia as a movie,  in which Meryl Streep would play the woman who first introduced the navel orange tree to Riverside,  spawning Southern California's lucrative citrus industry, Eliza Lovell Tibbets.  Perhaps Meryl Streep--or some other gutsy woman--could also help direct the film.  Eliza Tibbets was also an active abolitionist, spiritualist, and suffragist. We need to hear more stories about women pioneers who made important contributions!  This would be an opportunity for film makers to depict the story of a daring visionary who changed the course of Southern California's history, transforming it into a very wealthy place.  It seems ripe with possibilities to me.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce from  At Home With Books. This is the first time I'm posting a photo for this meme.

Really Random Tuesday #36: A Book Winner and a Pretty Dwarf

Please congratulate Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea, the randomly chosen winner of Creating an Orange Utopia by Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy. Thanks to all who entered the giveaway, and special thanks to everyone who helped publicize this giveaway. If you didn't win this book, which tells the story of Eliza Lovell Tibbets, please take a look at the others I have listed on the right side of my blog, and stay tuned for more giveaways to be featured in the near future.




In honor of Eliza Tibbets, and in celebration of Patricia's birthday, I recently planted a dwarf navel orange tree on our property. This is our first navel orange tree, and I've named her Eliza in honor of this pioneer, who changed the course of history in Southern California. With any luck, Eliza will bear fruit within a few years.

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In the book department, I've been busy reading lately, instead of posting on my blog. (Some of you book bloggers are incredible; you read an enormous amount of books and manage to post quite frequently!) I've just finished two terrific books, A Small Fortune by Audrey Braun, and Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed. I'll be posting an interview with the author (yes, she is one person!) as well as a special giveaway for both books this Friday, September 30. Currently, I'm savoring a little gem of a book, Don'ts for Wives by Blanche Ebbutt, published in 1913, which I learned about on Petty's blog, Pen and Paper. My nightly reading has been a soothing antidote to the stress of my days. The bookmark featured in the photo is a handmade creation from BookQuoter. :)

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Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends--announcements, musings, quotes, photos--any blogging and book-related things you can think of. If you're inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button and use it on your own blog. For other recent Really Random Tuesday posts, please visit Naida's blog, the bookworm, and Avis' blog, she reads and reads. Please leave a link in the comments if you’re participating and I'll add it to this post.

As always, thanks for reading!

Creating an Orange Utopia: Review and Giveaway

If you savor the sweetness of California navel oranges (look Ma, no seeds!), you have Eliza Lovell Tibbets to thank.

Eliza who?

A casual conversation with her granddaughter, Eleanor, led Patricia Ortlieb (my lovely stepmother-in-law) on a quest that would change her life in a profound way, and which should also change the presentation of California history. While working on a fourth-grade project, Eleanor asked Patricia about Eliza Lovell Tibbets' role in CA history, and Patricia started researching the life of her great-great grandmother with a new zeal and purpose. Eleanor's inquiry led to this highly-readable, informative book, and with the help of writer Peter Economy, Patricia became the author of Creating an Orange Utopia: Eliza Lovell Tibbets and the Birth of California's Citrus Industry, published in September of 2011.

Well-written and thoroughly researched (Patricia visited many of the places where Eliza had lived, and uncovered numerous official records and documents, as well as personal correspondence), this is a wonderful book for students and others interested in learning about the beginnings of the citrus industry in Riverside, CA, and about a great woman who was an ardent American Spiritualist and abolitionist. Creating an Orange Utopia pays tribute to a very important person in California history, especially with regard to Riverside and surrounding areas, Eliza Tibbets (1825 - 1898).

In 1873, Eliza Tibbets brought the first seedless navel orange trees, originally from Bahia, Brazil to Riverside, CA, and fostered the beginning of California's citrus industry. Given two young saplings from a friend at the United States Department of Agriculture, Eliza cared for the trees, watering them with leftover dishwater, as irrigation was not yet available. From this very humble, uncertain beginning, the trees flourished, the citrus industry grew tremendously, and soon Eliza became known as "the mother" of this industry.

"Once the navel orange was introduced to Riverside, the acreage devoted to the fruit expanded rapidly. In 1880, Tom Cover alone reported having budded seven hundred trees to the navel orange. Between 1880 and 1893, California's acreage devoted to navel orange production exploded from three thousand to more than forty thousand acres. "
~Creating an Orange Utopia, Patricia Ortlieb and Peter Economy

Patricia took on the task of researching Eliza's life in depth--I appreciate all the years of hard work and research that went into Creating and Orange Utopia--and the result is a book that's educational and a pleasure to read. What makes the book especially involving and intelligent are the bits of personal correspondence woven seamlessly into the book. It's difficult to ascertain events from the past, but through the use of letters and records the authors do a terrific job, and I was able to get a good sense of this pioneer. (I'd love to see a movie made about her life, using this book as a basis.) The book also includes some black and white photos of Eliza and family members.

It's time that Eliza Tibbets is recognized for her great contribution to CA history (women are so often overlooked or ignored altogether in history; we are not seen as contributing in any real sense; we are not explorers nor inventors nor conquerors nor kings). But, in the case of Eliza Tibbets, due to her desire to find a marketable crop for her family and Riverside, due to her vision and diligence, and due also to her "feminine" ability to nurture living things--in this case little tree saplings--she altered the course of history in a positive and lucrative manner. Navel oranges brought great wealth to Riverside, and the citrus industry expanded into new towns such as Redlands, Tustin, Corona, and Pomona, dramatically changing the landscape and the course of CA history. Creating an Orange Utopia is the first book I know of about the life of Eliza Tibbets, and I'm thrilled to offer a copy of this book as a giveaway at the conclusion of this post.

In addition to writing this book, Patricia has also highlighted the contribution of Eliza Tibbets in other ways.

Patricia is a talented artist. Here, she's pictured with the giant orange she painted to commemorate her great-great grandmother, called Eliza's Journey. This brilliantly-colored orange was part of a larger exhibition in 2006 of 32 oranges painted by various artists, and is on permanent display outside of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum in Southern CA.

Patricia helped bring an 11-foot bronze statue of Eliza Tibbets, Sower's Dream by artist Guy Angelo Wilson, to downtown Riverside, near to the elegant and historic Mission Inn in August 2011, the first public sculpture honoring a woman in Riverside.

In celebration of Eliza Tibbets and the publication of Creating an Orange Utopia, I'm having a giveaway for a copy of this book to a reader (U.S./Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, September 26. One winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Tuesday, September 27. Good luck, and thanks for reading!