WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

“What are you writing?”

“A story.”

“What’s it about?”

“People.”

“Okay. What are they doing?”

“Living their lives.”

.

Over the years, many of my conversations began this way. Friends and family wanted to know more about my writing, but this was all I would say. The truth is, they were honest answers. I never really knew what else to say without giving too much away, or sharing something I wasn’t ready to share. The only thing I knew was that I really was writing about people living their lives.

With my upcoming novel, I didn’t know how to answer that question other than to say that I was writing about a family. As time went on and work on the book progressed, I was able to describe it as a story about a little girl, and eventually, a little girl struggling to adjust to her father’s return from WWII as her mother is whisked away to the hospital.

I never shared much about the story before it was done, mostly because I was nervous, scared that people would judge me and my writing. People have read my short stories, but I didn’t share a word of my novel until it was completely finished. It is not a story about someone that I know, but I always worried people would start to wonder anyway, to pick apart bits of my life and try to find some semblance of reality in my work.

To be honest, the few people in my personal life who are familiar with this story did just that. They insisted on looking for familiar personality traits and quirks that may have found their way into my writing. I suppose that somewhere along the way, some truths must have slipped in, however unintentional they may have been. But something else happened when people spotted those similarities. Instead of judging me, they were happy to spot the fragments of real life that I didn’t even realize were there.

I’m grateful to everyone who encouraged me and waited patiently for their chance to read my writing. In the upcoming days, both friends and strangers will both have the opportunity to see just what I meant when I said I was writing about people living their lives. Although Somewhere Picking Dandelions isn’t a true story, it still means something special to me. The journey of Aurie Hargrove has become a part of my own, and I’m ready to share it with others now. I hope they too find something within the story to call their own.