Art Imitates Life?

Let's just call River and Ranch contemporary fiction, or maybe a new Western, or maybe even a sweet romance. Whatever I call it, it is based on several realities. One reality in particular just keeps on giving. The geology of the Lemhi Pass area, contains rare earth minerals. Some would call them deposits, ores, or formations. Regardless of what to call them, rare earths really do exist and they really do have a crucial place in the real world. The iphone or Samsung Galaxy you could conceivably be reading this on right now, in fact, contains rare earth metals refined from ores that were likely mined in China. Over the next few years that could change as the mining company holding the claims on Lemhi Pass could conceivably begin activity on their claims.

What makes this unique is that much of what is on those claims are tailings piles that have already been mined from existing works. New mining is not required, rather new mining could actually be described as transporting old tailings. This is a unique circumstance, maybe even historical. I find it fascinating and well worth following.

The major challenge for US-based rare earth miners is the complete lack of US-based processing ability and facilities. Not only does China have a stranglehold on production of the raw materials, China contains virtually all of the knowledge the world has on processing and refining the raw ores into concentrated metals ready for industrial use.

The real life story of rare earth metals is fascinating, not only for the geology of it, but for the issues surrounding rare earths. How to revive a refining industry that has been dormant for decades, how to raise cash for building new facilities, even new research that is suggesting new ways to process not only rare earths from its host materials, but rare earths from each other. There are seventeen rare earth minerals and they mostly occur together. Industry needs them apart. Yet one more critical step in the workflow that only China seems to understand.

Will American ingenuity and brain power comes to the rescue? This is not a heading from a book. It is a headline that one could see in a newspaper. One more case of truth equaling the strangeness typically found in fiction!

Geology, Guns, and Fly fishing - oh my!

In River and Ranch, Cale and Lane are both accomplished geologists as well as artists with a Barrett 50. They are both part of DOESI, a small piece of Special Operations Forces. Initially, their program was global oversight of rare earth development. After 9/11 their mission changed a bit. As terrorists like Boko Haram popped up, it changed some more, but at the heart of their mission was global oversight of rare earths, mostly in Africa. In real life (aka non-fiction; the stuff you read in the newspapers) the US is on the edge of a crisis with rare earth metals. These are real as I found when I began researching. Turns out that the military and high tech electronics are big consumers of the seventeen rare earth minerals. Idaho and Montana share Lemhi Pass, the state boundary is along the crest of the ridge. This Lemhi Pass area, it turns out, really does have some rare earth history. In fact Lemhi Pass is currently being actively explored for rare earth ores and whether or not the ore body is economically viable. I can't remember what thread led me to discover this bit of reality. But in one of those instances where truth is stranger than fiction, what's really there on the ground along the Idaho Montana border is the real life basis for what unfolds geologically in River and Ranch. The ore body even has a name - "the Last Chance" vein.

Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and many other writers in the thriller genre always equip their heroes with Glocks. Which must be the industry standard for guns used in SOF. Not really sure if there is a standard. But when I started writing I did know that I wanted Cale and Lane hunting Zho Ming with American made weapons. Nothing "made in China" would do for hunting the group of Zho Ming's baddies. One of my favorite characters in fiction is Dirk Pitt, from the wonderful pen of Clive Cussler. Dirk always has a trusty Colt M1911 semi-auto pistol. I wanted Cale and Lane to use that as well, but it is an old weapon, no longer in use. In yet one more happy coincidence, I stumbled my way across an article discussing how US SpecOps had just made a decision to again start using Colt as their weapon of choice. Real life SpecOps guys are using Colt M45s. If its good enough for real life shooters, it's good enough for my guys! The Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles that Cale and Lane are so attached to are another American made success story. One need go no further than wikipedia. Yes, a sniper rifle has its own wiki entry. I started there and worked my way backwards into figuring out how to include Ronnie Barrett and his company and its products in River and Ranch. Love the story of his self made success. Love how his American made products are part of our American military.

Fly fishing. Or flyfishing. Lots of variants on that phrase. Even Strunk can't make it clear. There really is a smallmouth bass fishery in the Main Salmon. Westslope cutthroat exist in the Middle Fork and up the side streams of the Main. I happened across Andy Wayment somewhere in my Salmon river fishery research. He really does recommend the fly. So I figured including this real life character in River and Ranch would keep things interesting. Turns out Andy Wayment has written a book. On flyfishing no less. And in one more alignment, in real life he lives in Idaho Falls. Who knows? - maybe just down the street from where Dana has her house? Maybe his appearance in my book will help him sell his books? I guess we'll find out!