volume four of my round barn saga
will be in print this spring it’s the
last of the trilogy so we can all soon
relax but here’s a question for you
I am including a lively letter from my
dad to his kids circa 1950 a trip he
takes around the state delivering corn
he eats lunch at the farmhouse of a
salesman says the house is dirty the
wife blowsy and the seven or eight
children beautiful he gives the town
the family the last name is unusual
on a hunch I look up that name that
small wisconsin town I find the area
dense with folk of that designation
someone will surely spot my story
now what do you advise do I fake a
name or do I print as is do I let them
know ahead of time (I’d sure sell
books to that clan) and say my own
house is dirty and that with only four
kids I was blowsy and still am? ah
the problems of creative nonfiction
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2015.
