Research, experience flavor author Pat Pfeiffer’s work

Tall tales of a pioneer love, passion and other sordid affairs are all included in Pat Pfeiffer’s historical novels.

She writes of a history all but lost in modern day television and the reality-show shuffle, left only to the occasional reruns of “Little House on the Prairie” or shows on the lesser-known channels.

Pfeiffer, who will be 80 in October, has been living in Otis Orchards for 57 years. Married for 60 years, she has seven children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. She started writing about 18 years ago. “Before that,” she said, “I was a homemaker and devoted mother who did her duty.”

Her narrative, “Roughin’ it in Montana,” is the story of a real man’s struggles in primitive northwest Montana. His name was Harry Conant and Pfeiffer spent hours interviewing him. It starts like this: “Call me a liar if you’d like, but you’d be wrong. Read my story with one eye cocked and learn how it felt to be a real pioneer in Montana in the early 1900s. That’s when I determined to go. Montana. I went there all right, never knowing I would be at war with her. I thought it would be a love affair.”

“Above All Women – The Story of the Virgin Mary” took eight years and a tremendous amount of research to complete. She took out a loan to publish it. It cost her $16,000 to publish 2,500 books. The theme is of survival, and Pfeiffer has donated copies to Anna Ogden Hall Shelter for Women and Children.

“The Sheriff’s Wife” is a story about Electa Plummer, the wife of the well-documented Henry Plummer, sheriff of Bannack during the peak of the Montana gold rush.

“Bury Him Deeper” is a suspense story that first came to Pfeiffer in a childhood memory growing up in Minnesota. “When I was a kid,” she said, “I remember some adults talking about a murder in Minnesota County. I kept that in my mind all these years.” The photo on the front cover of the book is of the home she grew up in, and the story is set in the era of her youth.

“Hannah’s Story” is a story of loneliness, love and trust in old Montana, and “Keeping her Head” may or may not be about her ancestors during the French Revolution.

Her stories are rich with history, obtained through research as well as experience, and her characters have depth. “A writer needs to know a character inside and out to make them real to the reader,” she said.

Though she hasn’t made money on her work, she enjoys the process and the idea of recording history. “If we didn’t have authors, what would we have?” She asked, “Certainly no history, no culture and no future.”

She is well into her eighth book about a brothel in Montana and is also working on a story about the French fur traders titled “End of the Paddle.”

She has attended many Christian writers conferences, teaches classes and is a member of Spokane Novelists. The group meets at the Argonne Library the first and third Saturdays at noon. They critique and encourage one another, and anyone is welcome.

Pfeiffer seems very young for her age. Perhaps that is because her imagination is wide open and nothing seems impossible.

“Books open up the world,” she said.