Jody Pritzl’s work at Molly Brown House sparked curiosity

Jody Pritzl is the author of five books. An 80’s transplant from Wisconsin, she exited a 30-year corporate gig in Denver to become a writer. Pritzl earned a communications degree from Metropolitan State University and a master’s degree from Regis University. She volunteers at the Molly Brown House Museum and is a member of the Colorado Authors League. Learn more about Pritzl at her YouTube channel. 

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate? 

Jody Pritzl: In 2018, I started volunteering at the Molly Brown House Museum and became a docent. When I guided visitors into J.J. Brown’s study, I kept wondering: Who was Molly Brown’s husband? I asked Andrea Malcomb, Museum Director, “What do we know about him?” She said, “Not much.” 

I then ventured to the Browns’ archives at History Colorado. My quest was to find the money — how much gold was dug out of the Little Jonny Mine in Leadville, Colorado, and, if the Browns were actual millionaires. After digging through 14 boxes of letters, documents and stuff, I kept going. 

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I contacted schools where the children were educated, churches, flew to Pennsylvania (J.J.’s hometown), and drove up to the Norlen Library in Boulder. Then I read thousands of newspaper clippings online stored by Colorado Historic Newspapers. The messy family story became so much more than the money questions — which I do answer in “Gold-Fated Family.”  There were amazing experiences and disappointments but wealth did the Browns’ marriage no favors nor helped their children Lawrence and Helen find their way. 

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it? 

Pritzl: Chapter 9 is the midpoint  through “Gold-Fated Family” after a gold vein 1,500 feet long, 250 feet wide and 30 feet thick is discovered in Leadville. The Browns have relocated to Denver but J.J. is fixated on another big strike until the realization hits that he needs to be a father and influence his son. I think readers, either as a parent or child, can see themselves in this excerpt. 

SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? 

Pritzl: I could not have written the book if my father hadn’t passed away the year before. My loss made me see the Brown family in a more empathetic light. I understood that parents try to do their best, children disappoint, but at the end you show up for family. Well, most of the time.

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter? 

Pritzl: I embraced dialogue to create a better reader experience. There is an author’s note at the beginning of “Gold-Fated Family” that states the conversations came directly from interviews or letters. I live by a mantra: “If I can’t prove it, I won’t write it.” There are 821 end notes in the book so that anyone can retrieve information that they might be curious about. 

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book? 

“Gold-Fated Family”

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Pritzl: After reading 15,000 documents, saving over 4,000 to a terabyte drive, a challenge was, “What do I leave out?” When I was enamored by a juicy tidbit or fact, I had to continuously ask myself, “Does this advance the story and is it relevant?”

SunLit: What’s the most important thing — a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book? 

Pritzl: Know what’s important and when to give up. Kenny Rogers says it better in the song “The Gambler.” “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em/ Know when to fold ‘em/ Know when to walk away, and know when to run.”

SunLit: Why did the Browns’ marriage disintegrate?

Pritzl: This is a top-five question asked by guests touring the Molly Brown House Museum. I think the couple was initially deeply in love. But money enabled them to pursue individual interests. They were very different personalities — he more introverted and she the life of the party. 

Ultimately they grew apart and were incompatible. The children tattled on the activities of their mother to their father, and father to mother, which didn’t help. I don’t think Margaret-Molly and J.J. spoke for at least 10 years before he died in 1922. 

SunLit: Tell us about your next project. Last fall, I returned to my Christmas history passion to publish, “The December Dilemma-U.S. Christmas Stamps 1962-1972.” Who knew that postage history could have intrigue and that it wasn’t until 1962 when the United States issued a Christmas stamp? 

The setting is Washington, D.C. where a group called the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee met and made history-making decisions. I pull back the curtain on how the subjects were chosen and show the designs that didn’t make the cut and how the final image evolved. Each year there were fewer than 10 people with opinions making art decisions for something as benign as a postage stamp that became historic.  

 A few more quick questions

SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book — writing or editing? 

Pritzl: Editing is like cleaning my house — a dreaded task that I put off. Truthfully, research is my favorite way to spend 10 hours a day.

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing — at any age — that you remember being proud of?

Pritzl: I was in the sixth grade and I published a reading tutuoring handbook. I wanted to be a sports writer and then in high school I was editor-in-chief of the senior yearbook. Creating something with a cover and pages just lights a fire in me. If I wasn’t writing books, I’d be an independent investigative reporter.

SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing? 

Pritzl: David McCullough, Erik Larson, and Charles Dickens. I’d ask McCullough how he chose his subjects, Larson for tips on how he made non-fiction feel like fiction, and Dickens for his autograph.  

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing? 

Pritzl: Elizabeth Gilbert said, “Done is better than good.” There are a whole lot of manuscripts sitting in desk drawers that never see the light of day.

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you? 

Pritzl: That I love a well-written true story.  

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?

Pritzl: Silence unless I’m writing a specific scene. In “Gold-Fated Family,” there is a train trip so I played “City of New Orleans” incessantly, both versions by Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie’s for inspiration. 

SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment? 

Pritzl: Thirty percent of my brain capacity is taken up with song lyrics from the 1970s. If I hadn’t memorized all those classics I’d have more space to remember facts when I’m writing.  

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer? 

Pritzl: I had a corporate gig for 30 years to buy myself this time to write six books in six years.  

SunLit: Greatest writing fear? 

Pritzl: That I’ll be wrong about a fact.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction? 

Pritzl: I had a Brown family member contact me after reading “Gold-Fated Family.” He said, “You nailed it, and your book explains the arc of my life.”

On my YouTube channel, there is a “Gold-Fated Family” video filmed at the Molly Brown House Museum and another on location in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I also posted a four-part series from a presentation filmed at History Colorado when I showed documents and shared how they became stories in the book.