Hour Glass

January 1, 2018
This touching historical novel from Rene (I Once Knew Vincent) imagines a tender moment in the rough-and-tumble life of the legendary Calamity Jane. In the late summer of 1876, 12-year-old Jimmy Glass must take his ailing Pa and six-year-old sister from their mining claim into nearby Deadwood, S.D. Hank Glass, who has smallpox, is led to the pest tent with the rest of the quarantined victims, while Jimmy and his sister are taken in by brothel owner Miss Dora DuFran at the behest of none other than Calamity Jane. In a rare vocal moment, Flower Glass, normally a quiet child who is averse to touch, introduces herself as “Ower,” which immediately becomes “Hour.” Hour’s sweet and shy nature endears her to the working girls at Diddlin’ Dora’s. In their brief acquaintance, Jimmy and Jane each manage to save the other’s life, and the two children find a place in Jane’s heart, despite her gruff exterior. Rene’s tale features all the action and excitement of a classic western, and its humor and pathos add depth.

December 15, 2017
The infamous frontier woman Calamity Jane stumbles into the role of surrogate mother for two orphaned youngsters.There's a smallpox epidemic around Deadwood, South Dakota. From a canvas-sided cabin "in the gulch near the creek," 12-year-old Jimmy Glass loads his pox-stricken father into a ramshackle wagon and pulls him into town, bringing his little sister, Flower, along. There, the youngsters meet Calamity Jane, who has them carry their father to the "pest tent." Jane then installs the children in her own room at Dora DuFran's bar, restaurant, and house of ill repute. As much as this is historical fiction (several characters are real persons reimagined) and a coming-of-age story, it's primarily an attempt to humanize the outsize legend of Calamity Jane, a woman who's pugnacious, vulgar, and a touch feminist. That summer, the year of Jane's lover Wild Bill Hickok's death, Jane can be found at "at the pest tent, passed out drunk by the outhouse, or drinking at Dora's saloon." Jimmy sees the real Jane and knows she shares his worry over the fragile Flower, his half Lakota sister, whom he calls "mine to care for, mine to watch over." Flower seems to have autism: "She talks to me, but normally doesn't with other people," Jimmy tells Jane. "She don't much like lookin' at people, either." Amid the Deadwood dangers, Jimmy, already capable, grows in emotional maturity as well, finding love among Diddlin' Dora's ladies in the wise soul of teenage Missy, who always smelled of cinnamon. Set against the background of rough-and-tumble Deadwood, probing the legend of Calamity Jane to discover the true heroic frontier woman, Rene's (I Once Knew Vincent, 2014) focused narrative never strays from its themes.Compassionate and insightful, authentic and poignant.

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