Mother of Truman

So, mostly this book is about Truman Everts III, the first is a real person who was lost in the wilds of Yellowstone for 37 days during the first exploratory mission to the area. The second is made up by me, but he did exist, and Truman I did father a son at the age of 75 with his teenage wife. In my story, I try to make parallels to the historical figure -- that whole idea of the past repeating itself if forgotten. My character, the grandson of Truman Everts, doesn't know that story until he read the manuscripts on the dusty old shelf. At that point in his life, early twenties, he has already lost his father, mother, and guardian tragically in separate accidents. I try to use a little dramatic irony, in that the audience knows what's happening to Truman, while he himself is figuring it out, although, I have to admit, I think that part is thinly veiled. To the point -- I need a part that explains how his Father, Truman II, and his mother met and marry. I need it to parallel Truman I's own life, so he's 75, and she's a teenager.

I realized that his mother's role is low in the story, which wasn't surprising, but her depth of character and story is severely lacking, so I'm creating a section to tell her backstory.
Here are my notes:
Friday, Jan. 26, 2007 12:15 PST
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2007/01/26/ghost_brides/

Killing and selling women as "ghost brides"

Farmer Yang Dongyan bought a woman for $1,600 with the intention of selling her as a live bride. But then he discovered that the woman could command $2,077 as a "ghost bride" to be buried alongside a deceased man and provide companionship in the afterlife. So he "killed the woman in a ditch, bagged her body, and sold her" to an undertaker. Wiser to the superior moneymaking possibilities of selling dead woman rather than live women, Dongyan then killed a prostitute he had "used before" and sold her for a lesser $1,000 (because she was less attractive than the first victim, he told a local paper). It's no surprise that Dongyan had every intention of continuing his disturbing scheme: "If I had not been caught this early, I would've done it again."

For story:

• Tru hears from his mother -- father saved her life and she fell in love
• Kurtz tells Tru
• TruII told Kurtz over a bottle of whiskey one cold winter night during a blizzard, cow got out and TruII went to receive it from Kurtz's.
• Set it in Helena at the Last Chance Stampede and Fair.
• TruII buys her in the ditch behind the fairgrounds before her neck is cut by Dongyan, but it's agree that he must marry her, because of Dongyan's values.
• Use Dongyan's story, as back-story, and Tru's mother is sold to his father, instead of for another family's ghost bride.
• Dongyan tell TruII this over a beer at the gardens at the final night of the rodeo
• Dongyan insists on being at the wedding
• Wedding is Monday morning, early, at the court house in Helena.

So that's what I'm working on right now. I've got to whittle that into a story and tie it into the main story. So, here I go!