Baby Doe Tabor interviews Author Rebecca Rosenberg + Giveaway

Baby Doe Interviews Rebecca

Baby Doe Tabor interviews author Rebecca Rosenberg prior to the Gold Digger launch.


BABY DOE TABOR: What made you want to write a novel about me, Elizabeth McCourt Doe Tabor, when people have already written an opera, a movie, a screenplay, a one-woman show, a dozen books and countless articles? How is Gold Digger, the Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor, any different? Am I really so fascinating?

REBECCA: Don’t get a bee in your bonnet, Baby Doe. One question at a time. No. 1, I’ve seen the Ballad of Baby Doe opera and read twenty books and I just don’t think they understood you. That leads to No. 2, how is my Gold Digger novel different? It tells your story, Baby Doe, what you went through, that nobody saw, because they judged you unfairly. And No. 3, yes, you are fascinating and bull-headed and impetuous and generous and conniving. I tell it all, Baby Doe, so brace yourself.

BABY DOE: What type of research did you do for writing Gold Digger? I want to make sure you did your homework!

REBECCA: I grew up in Colorado, camped in the Rockies, ate peanuts in the honkey-tonk bars listening to piano your husband Harvey would have played. I panned for gold, rode donkeys and narrow-gauge trains, watched a play in the Central City Opera House, saw the face painted on the Teller House floor. I drank sarsaparilla in the Silver Dollar Saloon. I imagined how you came west at twenty and ended up pregnant and abandoned and running a gold mine alone. I explored your Matchless Mine and understood how it was your only hope. In the Tabor Opera House, where you watched Tabor and his wife, I felt your jealousy and passion.

BABY DOE: What was your favorite scene to write?

REBECCA: I think the most fun scene to write was when Oscar Wilde comes to perform at the Tabor Grand Opera House. Oscar Wild is such a hoot! So wise and witty! Some people say it is their favorite scene!

BABY DOE: What was the most difficult scene to write?

REBECCA: The scene where Billy Bush attacks you, was the most difficult scene to write. I tried to show Billy’s passion for you which grows to obsession. How Billy was competitive with Tabor, and you were the prize. How you needed Billy and relied on him, and how hard it was for you to report his attack to Tabor because of all Billy has done for you.

BABY DOE: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

REBECCA: I know you won’t believe this, but I was inspired to start writing when I heard the story of Baby Doe when I was about ten years old. I wanted to do you justice, show your spirit and heart, tell your story. I started writing it fifteen years ago, on and off, then spent last year really diving in. At one point, Gold Digger was 140,000 words and I cut it down to 85,000 which makes a fast read.

BABY DOE: What about my life inspired you?

REBECCA: It was your “Impossible Dream” that inspired me. Your family lost everything in the Oshkosh fires, and the one thing you could do to help them was to marry and go west for his gold mine. But know one expected YOU to work it, especially after he abandons you! In your life, you showed resilience to the “trials and tribulations” we all have felt in our lives. Abandonment. Death of a close friend. Divorce. Shunned by friends. Falling in love with the wrong person. A child that is difficult to get along with, like your daughter, Lillie. She never understood you, and it hurt. Isolation. Poverty. You faced all these things with an indomitable spirit that inspires me.

BABY DOE: Who was your favorite character in the book?

REBECCA: You mean, besides you, Baby Doe? I loved Chin Ling Sou, the Chinese miner supervisor in Central City. He was six feet tall with blue eyes! Chin understood that a beautiful woman like you would be in trouble in the rough mining towns and Hop Alley, the Chinatown of Denver with opium dens and whore houses. He protects you in many life-threatening situations, just because you were vulnerable. Chin Ling Sou is so famous, he has a stained-glass window in the Denver capitol. I loved how Chin transforms himself to a mystical beast to rescue you from harm.
Chin Ling Sou is an ancestor of my friend, James Chin, and when I found that out, I added him to Gold Digger!

BABY DOE: Well, you’ve certainly told them a bit about me. Now it is your turn. What are three things people may not know about you?

REBECCA:

1. I write as soon as I wake up. Sometimes 4:00 a.m. The house is quiet, and I can embody my character, and really feel what she is feeling, and see what she is seeing.
2. I play Mahjong most Friday afternoons with my Mahjong Majesties. My goal is to win one game and have fun!
3. I have a lavender farm which burned down in the California fires. The house, the barn, the fields, everything burned. But now, we are rising from the ashes, our house half finished. We are even planting the fields in May!

BABY DOE: What appeals to you most about historical fiction?

REBECCA: There are so many interesting women of the past who lived lives of courage and humor and tenacity, I find it hard to chose which one I want to write about next! They keep popping up saying, Me! Me! Me! I have three new women up for consideration—I have to really love their story, because I will spend tow to three years with them!

BABY DOE: You said you empathize with tough things that happened to me. What hard things have you gotten through in life? How do you get through them?

REBECCA: Just like our readers, I imagine. Divorce, loneliness, children moving away, losing a treasured friend. Most things you can learn from: like treating loved ones with all the love you can, so they know how much they mean to you. If I can do that, I am happy.

BABY DOE: What do you do when you aren't writing?

REBECCA: My husband and I love to travel. This week I am in Sedona, Arizona, visiting with our sister and brother in law. I’ll try to send a picture from here every day, so you can see how amazing it is! where I’ll be sharing pictures.

BABY DOE: What are you writing next?

REBECCA: Well, I have to finish your saga, which I’m calling Silver Dollar. It is what happens to Baby Doe after Horace Tabor dies, when she takes her daughters up to Leadville, Colorado to work the Matchless Mine! What happens to Billy Bush? What about Baby Doe’s brother, Peter? Who is the mysterious man who looks like Horace Tabor? The Silver Dollar story is fascinating! I hope it will come out next year.

I just finished the second draft of Champagne Widows, which is a series about the five widows in Champagne, France that made champagne a world-wide drink-of-choice! The first book is an amazing story about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot and her struggles with Napoleon Bonaparte! I LOVE this story!

BABY DOE: I’ve enjoyed our little talk. I don’t get to talk to women like this much. How do we stay in touch with you?

REBECCA: Follow me on social media.


BABY DOE: Where can we buy Gold Digger, the Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor? I might want to give them as gifts!

REBECCA:

Ebook ISBN 978-1-7329699-0-2

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-578-42779-9




Gold Digger by Rebecca Rosenberg

Publication Date: May 28, 2019
Lion Heart Publishing
eBook & Paperback; 312 Pages

Genre: Fiction/Romance/Historical/American


One look at Baby Doe and you know she was meant to be a legend! She was just twenty years old when she came to Colorado to work a gold mine with her new husband. Little did she expect that she'd be abandoned and pregnant and left to manage the gold mine alone. But that didn't stop her!

She moved to Leadville and fell in love with a married prospector, twice her age. Horace Tabor struck the biggest silver vein in history, divorced his wife and married Baby Doe. Though his new wife was known for her beauty, her fashion, and even her philanthropy, she was never welcomed in polite society.

Discover how the Tabors navigated the worlds of wealth, power, politics, and scandal in the wild days of western mining.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble


Praise for Gold Digger

“Rosenberg’s rollicking Western adventure strikes gold with a gutsy, good-hearted spitfire of a heroine and action aplenty.” —THELMA ADAMS, bestselling author of Bittersweet Brooklyn and The Last Woman Standing

"Gold Digger tells the true story of Lizzie 'Baby Doe' Tabor, a beautiful young woman who in 1878 marries the son of a wealthy miner in order to save her family from penury. Shrewd and stubborn, Lizzie fights back-biting Victorian society, wins and loses vast fortunes, and bests conniving politicians in her larger-than-life story. A twisting tale worthy of Mark Twain, with a big-hearted heroine at the center." —MARTHA CONWAY, author of The Underground River

About the Author

A California native, Rebecca Rosenberg lives on a lavender farm with her family in Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon, where Jack London wrote from his Beauty Ranch. Rebecca is a long-time student of Jack London’s works and an avid fan of his daring wife, Charmian London. The Secret Life of Mrs. London is her debut novel.

Rebecca and her husband, Gary, own the largest lavender product company in America, selling to 4000 resorts, spas and gift stores. The Rosenbergs believe in giving back to the Sonoma Community, supporting many causes through financial donations and board positions, including Worth Our Weight, an educational culinary program for at-risk children, YWCA shelter for abused women, Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center to provide performances for children, Sonoma Food Bank, Sonoma Boys and Girls Club, and the Valley of the Moon Children’s Home.

For more information, please visit Rebecca’s website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook and Goodreads. Visit the Facebook page for The Secret Life of Mrs. London.

Blog Tour Schedule

Wednesday, May 15
Review at Pursuing Stacie

Thursday, May 16
Review at Passages to the Past

Friday, May 17
Review at View from the Birdhouse

Monday, May 20
Interview at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, May 21
Excerpt at Donna's Book Blog

Friday, May 24
Feature at Just One More Chapter

Monday, May 27
Review at Orange County Readers

Tuesday, May 28
Excerpt at Kimber Li
Review at Diana_bibliophile

Wednesday, May 29
Review at 100 Pages a Day
Review at Oh, the Books She Will Read

Thursday, May 30
Review at A Bookish Affair
Excerpt at The Book Junkie Reads

Friday, May 31
Interview at Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots

Monday, June 3
Review at A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, June 4
Excerpt at Maiden of the Pages

Wednesday, June 5
Review at A Book Geek

Thursday, June 6
Review at Comet Readings

Friday, June 7
Review at History From a Woman's Perspective

Saturday, June 8
Interview at Comet Readings

Monday, June 10
Review & Guest Post at Clarissa Reads it All

Tuesday, June 11
Excerpt at Old Timey Books

Wednesday, June 12
Interview at T's Stuff
Review at Proverbial Reads

Thursday, June 13
Review at Cheryl's Book Nook

Saturday, June 15
Review at Suzy Approved Book Reviews

Monday, June 17
Author Spotlight at RW Bookclub

Tuesday, June 18
Review at Books In Their Natural Habitat

Thursday, June 20
Review at A Holland Reads

Monday, June 24
Review at RW Bookclub
Review at CelticLady's Reviews

Thursday, June 27
Review at Mama's Reading Corner

Friday, June 28
Review at Coffee and Ink
Review at Cover To Cover Cafe

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour, we will be giving away a copy of Gold Digger, a gold facial mask & soap set, and recipe brochure to five winners. Three winners will receive an ebook of Gold Digger.

To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

Giveaway Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on June 28th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspicion of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– The winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

Gold Digger


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