Even if safety bicycles were available for purchase in the United States by 1890, I needed one about five years earlier. In addition, even though trains could bring freight to Tucson by the mid-1880s,² it seemed unlikely that farmers and ranchers would spend their money on bicycles. Therefore, I came up with a blacksmith who constructed one. I used the premise that if an inventor could make a safety bicycle in England in 1885, a tinkerer in Arizona Territory could make one, too. So, is it possible for Miss Becky to own a bicycle in the mid-1880s? Yes. Is it plausible? Maybe not. Nevertheless, I thought the discrepancy in the years was small enough to be forgivable and that the bicycle added something fresh to a Western.

During the editing process, I became aware of another transgression. There was a question as to whether the spelling is “bola” tie or “bolo” tie. I grew up in Arizona and always spelled the tie with an “a” at the end. After all, Arizona’s official neckwear is the “bola tie.”³ All well and good, but while I was double-checking the spelling, I discovered that the sheriff’s signature tie didn’t originate until the 1930s⁴—whoops!

Fortunately, when I was recounting a scene to my husband, he pointed out that there were no bales of hay in the 1880s of the style I’d described. I couldn’t believe it. I watched Westerns on television to give me ideas and many times had seen bales of hay stacked in a barn. When I Googled the history of balers, I found conflicting information, but it didn’t look to me like the type of bales I wanted in the story were possible until the 1930s!⁵ In this case, since my mistake was caught early on, I was able to remove the bales from the chapter and substitute wagons as a blockade.

Here are some other items I researched during the writing process: (1) The horse I called “Anxious Alice” would have been “Nervous Nellie,” except that the latter name first appeared in 1920,⁶ (2) American Veterinary Review, the journal that supposedly featured Miss Becky, was the name of a real journal that was established in 1877,⁷ and (3) Woodbury’s Business College, John’s next adventure, was a real school in California, established in 1884.⁸

I tried to do a quick Google search on words I suspected were too modern, women’s clothing and accessories, types of earrings available in the 1880s, and many other items, to make sure they were appropriate for the era before I put them in print, but I’m sure I missed some. It will be up to the reader to let me know if I confused facts with fiction.