Science Fiction Books

Worldbuilding from the Rifters universe…

Earl Blacke in The Rifters has a fascinating real-world inspiration: the legendary outlaw Black Bart, born Charles Boles. Black Bart wasn’t your typical bandit. He lived a life full of twists: a gold miner, a soldier twice promoted in the field during the Civil War, sometimes a farmer, husband, and father. Later, he mingled with San Francisco’s high society, posing as a wealthy gentleman. According to the people who considered him a friend, he was charming, personable, and well mannered.

A posh life needed money. When funds ran low, he turned to the open spaces of California and to the Wells Fargo stage coaches. His methods were original:

• He wore a flour sack with holes cut for eyes.
• Carried an unloaded shotgun.
• Robbed only the mail and Wells Fargo shipments.
• Left passengers unharmed and untouched.
• Occasionally left poems at the scene.

A dropped handkerchief during one heist finally led to his capture, and he served time in San Quentin. He confessed to only that one robbery despite suspicions of at least 28. When released in 1888, he vanished, leaving the world to speculate about the “gentleman bandit’s” fate.

I read multiple biographies about Charles Boles and thought long and hard about what kind of man he might have been. I tried to get into his head and imagine his psychology. Here’s what I came up with:

1. The war really messed him up.
2. He likely took his failures to find gold as failures of character.
3. Whatever Wells Fargo did, it surely made him angry.
4. He was an adventurer at heart.
5. The death of his son shortly after he returned from the war may have been the last straw

I don’t think he was cold-hearted. I think at that point in his life, he was just incapable of giving more of his heart and needed to cut ties with those he knew, including his wife and children. He was probably in survival mode. His real life disappearance was a mystery I couldn’t resist.

The name I use in the series comes from his real life middle name and his outlaw name. I loved the idea of taking someone so complex and sending him through a rift into another time. In Settler, Earl Blacke arrives forty years younger with a chance to atone. However, the rift has other plans for Earl.