Hilary Moon Murphy

Pretty Peggy

January 6, 2001

The January Web Rat Name Your Own Dare! (700 Words a Day on Fire of Genius) Pre-Dare Dare Total Today 14,498 2840 152 Other Dare Participants: Anne | Jennifer | Jim | Karina | Marti | Rob | Sam | Trey

It’s time to get off the topic of boobs and get back to my novel and the politics of 1836…

I haven’t talked much about my reading in this journal. Still, I’m certain that some of you have noticed that all of my reading lately has been research-related. And that I have been taking forever with each book.

All the reading that I have done in The Petticoat Affair has convinced me that I need to include Margaret Eaton, the greatest scandal of her day, as a minor character in my novel. Margaret’s reputation was ruined by rumor and innuendo, but her greatest crime was that she was flirtatious, beautiful, and politically active in an era when women’s concerns were supposed to center on hearth and home. When society women decided to shun Margaret, who was married to Andrew Jackson’s powerful Secretary of War, it caused political repercussions that led to the eventual disbanding of Jackson’s entire Cabinet.

Here are some of the reasons I want to include Mrs. Eaton:

• Her story provides a cautionary example of what happened to women who dared to flout society’s norms. This will show the reader just how much my protagonist Sarah is risking with her aspirations as an inventor and engineer.

• Both Margaret and Mr. Eaton were somewhat speculative in their investments. I can bring them in easily as financial backers of the villainous invention that is the primary engine of my plot in Fire of Genius.

• Margaret was close friends with President Jackson, who was her most loyal defender. If I have the Eaton’s become involved in the invention, I can draw Jackson in too. And Jackson is such a fun character himself.

• Margaret was close friends with Amos Kendall, the Postmaster General, and may have been involved in the cover-up of the Post Office Corruption Scandals! This would provide me with a vehicle to bring in more of the local politics of the day. Heh, heh, heh…

• However, my real reason for wanting to write about her is that it’s just plain fun to write about fallen women.

My only problem with all of this is that Margaret Eaton and her husband left the country one week after my story begins. So I need to find a way to bring her on stage with my story quickly, do what I need to get done with her, and pull her off just as quickly.

Or I could just ignore my research for once and pretend that she left Washington later. The research junkie in me balks at the possibility, but the storyteller takes precedence.

Obviously, today I wound up doing far more thinking and plotting than I did writing. I need nagging, yes I do.

Hmm