Some 50 people showed up at the Barnes & Noble in SouthPark on Jan. 27 to meet Charlotte  author Tricia Martineau Wagner and purchase signed copies of her latest book, Black Cowboys of the Old West. The next day we spoke – writer to writer – about what drives her to write historical nonfiction for a crossover audience that encompasses both adults and children as young as fifth-graders.  Black Cowboys is her fourth book. Previous ones have been It Happened on the Oregon Trail, It Happened on the Underground Railroad and African-American Women of the Old West.

“It’s my passion in life,” the former elementary school teacher said. “I think it is very important to recognize and honor people for their accomplishments and achievements. Our founding history is often about white European male land owners who had a sense of entitlement. We’re still working for our rights, and I am just one voice for equality. If I can get in the mind of just one kid and raise a spark so they get excited and read more, I am happy.”

Wagner said the transition from school teacher to full-time writer was easy – but becoming a published one was not. It took her two years to write her first book about the Oregon Trail.  She then submitted it to 40 publishers before Globe Pequot Press picked it up in 2005.

Wagner hasn’t really left teaching. She makes presentations in schools across the U.S. dressed as a character from one of her books, telling stories and bringing authentic artifacts with her. She also talks about what it’s like to be a writer and what it takes to become an author.

“When I talk about the Underground Railroad, you can hear a pin drop,” she told me. “Children of both races are shocked and want to know – what was this abomination called slavery?”

Her research is more than just reading old books and newspapers. It also includes collecting oral histories handed down through generations.  In researching Charley Willis, a black singing cowboy, she found one of his direct descendants, Franklin Willis, “who was a wealth of information.” They became friends, and he made her an honorary member of the family, which includes some 500 relatives.  He was recently interviewed on NPR.

Wagner’s presentations at schools have dwindled in the last few years as deep cuts in school budgets has left few funds to pay for speakers.  But she has found another venue for her creativity and passion – writing historical fiction.  She expects it will take about two years to complete her first novel.

www.authortalk.org