PHOTO: J.V.L. Bell, author and historian, uncovers the spirited lives of women in Colorado’s past with meticulous research and literary charm.
Historical Mystery Author And Researcher Of Forgotten Pioneer Women
J.V.L. Bell explores Colorado’s gold rush through cosy mysteries and award-winning nonfiction, uncovering the untold stories of pioneer women with warmth, humour, and meticulous historical research.
J.V.L. Bell writes with a storyteller’s instinct and a historian’s reverence. Rooted in the vivid terrain of Colorado’s gold rush era, her narratives breathe life into forgotten voices—especially those of women whose lives shimmer beneath the surface of recorded history. Whether she’s crafting a light-hearted mystery or delving into the rigours of pioneer life, Bell captures the complexities and courage of the 19th-century American West with a sharp eye and a compassionate heart.
Her fiction—beginning with The Lucky Hat Mine—invites readers into a world both humorous and haunting, where steam rises from hidden geysers and fainting goats steal the scene. The Millie and Dom mysteries offer more than cosy murders; they are loving tributes to overlooked stories, stitched together with precise historical detail and warm wit.
Bell’s evolution into nonfiction was neither expected nor accidental. When she discovered Elizabeth Byers’ unpublished manuscript in the Denver Public Library, it sparked a deeper calling—a desire to restore women like Byers to the historical record. That spark became Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era, a labour of painstaking research and resilient curiosity that earned wide acclaim and lit the path for further exploration.
Through each page she writes, Bell champions truth in storytelling—whether that truth lies in a tin cup of gold dust or in the quiet endurance of a pioneer woman. Hers is a voice that reminds us that history is never only about what happened, but also about who had the courage to live it.
What initially drew you to writing historical mysteries set during the Colorado gold rush?
I’m a Colorado native and love Colorado’s vibrant history, especially quirky, fun historical facts and stories. I wrote my mystery books trying to share some of that fun history with cozy mystery lovers.
How did your background in mechanical engineering influence your approach to historical research and writing?
I love researching Colorado history, and I think my engineering background helped develop my ethics of being a stickler to try and find accurate facts. Even in my fiction, I try and be as accurate as possible with historic facts, clothing, geography, and other details. I love to incorporate historic stories and lore, but even there, I will research each story, trying to find the best reference that I think is the most accurate.
What was the most surprising piece of historical information you uncovered while researching The Lucky Hat Mine?
I have visited Idaho Springs many times and enjoyed their vapor caves, but I never realized there was a geyser there in the 1800s. I love the story about how George Jackson, the man who first discovered gold in Idaho Springs, saw smoke and thought it was a Native American encampment. He climbed up a ridge and looked down and saw the smoke was actually steam from a geyser. He went down and camped nearby and a blizzard forced him to camp for a few days, so he built a big fire to stay warm. As the snow melted under his fire, he did some prospecting with his tin cup and discovered several gold nuggets. That was the first gold discovery in Idaho Springs.
How did discovering Elizabeth Byers’ manuscript shift your writing focus, and what was it like writing for a younger audience?
I never intended to write non-fiction, especially not young-adult non-fiction, but when I discovered and read Elizabeth Byers’ manuscript about her life as a Colorado pioneer, I was both awed and annoyed. Here was a woman who had lived an amazing life and was one of Denver’s earliest philanthropists. She had helped her husband start the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s first newspaper, and she established the Working Boy’s Home. Despite all of her accomplishments, there wasn’t a single book written about her. I took time away from my fiction to write a short Now You Know Bio about her for Filter Press, but I kept wondering how many other Colorado pioneer women’s stories had been forgotten, or their accomplishments attributed to their husbands. That led to my second non-fiction book, Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era.
What challenges did you face while researching the lives of real women for Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era?
The challenges my co-author and I faced while researching the women featured in Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era were significant. Almost half of the women featured in the book were illiterate and left no written records of their lives. My co-author and I researched genealogical records, newspapers, personal correspondences, master and PhD Theses, census records, and local archives throughout the state, searching for tidbits on each woman. We traveled to museums and historical sites and then in the middle of writing the book, COVID hit and libraries, museums, and everything else closed down. As we struggled to continue our research and writing, research librarians answered our email and museums, historical sites, and historical societies opened their doors for private research. We even had a historical society lend us several boxes of information from their archives.
Trying to determine fact from fiction was the most difficult part of the research, and in several cases we shared different stories about the same event, since newspapers and/or memories were not consistent.
Your books include a mix of fact and fiction—how do you balance historical accuracy with storytelling?
Incorporating historical legend, lore, and facts into my fiction is truly one of my favorite parts of my writing. When I was writing The Lucky Hat Mine, I never intended to have an African American character, but in my research, I found the story of Mary Randolph and her stagecoach ride across the plains. I loved her story and adding a fictional Mary in my story created new conflicts and added depth to the book. The history in the books take the reader into a different time and place, and for the most part, I feel it enhances the story. But sometimes balancing that history can be difficult. In Denver City Justice, set in 1864, I felt I had to include the Sand Creek Massacre, and to do that the history drove part of the story. That book was the most difficult to write and I learned it is great when history enhances a story, but it should never drive the plot.
What role does humour play in your writing, particularly in the Millie and Dom mysteries?
I wanted my fiction to be light and make a reader laugh. I made Millie a strong woman but used women’s etiquette from the 1800s and her desire to be a lady as a way to lighten her character. I also wanted her to have a side kick, but a cat or dog felt too normal. Buttercup the fainting goat was such a fun character to write, but I wasn’t sure if she was too over the top. Early on, I had this amazing beta reader, a mountain man from Montana who I have never met but am indebted to for so many accurate mountain-man details (like guns don’t just go bang.) When he critiqued my manuscript and first encountered Buttercup, he wrote that a fainting goat was a totally stupid idea, but by the end of the manuscript, he admitted that Buttercup was his favorite character. So many of my readers have told me they love Buttercup and are amazed that fainting goats are real.
What advice would you give to other authors who want to write compelling historical fiction based on lesser-known figures or events?
It is tough to advise new writers. When I give talks, I often say that engineering is an easy way to make a living, but writing is much more fun (but tough to live on.) My biggest advice is write what you love to read, to have good beta readers to help you improve your manuscript, and to research your facts. It may be fiction, but if your historical facts aren’t accurate, your readers will let you know. I was born and raised in Colorado and grew up climbing in the Rocky Mountains. I have encountered mountain goats often, especially on Mount Evans, so I didn’t think twice about including them in my fiction. One of my readers politely pointed out that mountain goats were introduced into Colorado in 1948. Millie wouldn’t have seen them or enjoyed mountain goat steaks. Another reader (a curator from a Wyoming museum) wrote to tell me that six-shooters were so heavy they would have ripped though Millie’s apron. I did some digging and found women often lined a pocket with leather in order to carry a weapon. My experience is that readers love historic facts and stories, but they expect an author to do accurate research.
