LADIES OF THE GOLDFIELD STOCK EXCHANGE BEHIND THE SCENES Isn't it amazing how often one thing often seems to lead to something totally unexpected? So it was with Ladies—in spades. The novel is set in a place called Goldfield, Nevada in 1906, then the site of the richest gold strike in the world. (Incidentally, it is still the seat of Esmerelda County). But I had never heard of Goldfield, Nevada until it jumped off the pages of an otherwise very staid biography of a distinguished lawyer. It all started when I was planning to write a novel loosely based on my great grandfather and his law partner. Recalling a biography the latter's son had written of his father, I thought it might contain interesting bits of information. And so it did. But not the kind I'd expected. The first pages started out as most biographies do. But not more than two chapters in, I realized the author had veered completely from his subject to his own years as a young mining engineer in some place called Goldfield in Nevada in 1906. I sat up, intrigued. But the best was yet to come—because suddenly he started talking about a group of crazy women who had come up with the equally lunatic idea of starting a mining stock exchange. Maybe it was the writer's tone that challenged me. To him, the mere idea of women thinking they knew anything about money was hilarious. And then for this group who ranged from miners' wives to "ladies of the night" to actually challenge the established stock exchange was—beyond the pail! I couldn't resist. I did my research. I visited the real Goldfield and picked up more lore. And my three main characters took shape. Meg Kendall, an aspiring doctor; Tess Wallace, a retired whore; and Verna Bates, an aging newspaper woman—a marvelous trio who challenges the assumptions of the male-dominated world around them. Enter the Ladies of the Goldfield Stock Exchange.