Month: July 2019

Empathy, Not Autobiography

As a fiction writer whose work is not autobiographical, I sometimes get annoyed when people assume it is. I’ve struggled to explain that when authors insert bits of themselves and those they know in their characters, it’s called empathy, not autobiography. So thank you, Colson Whitehead, for this cogent description: “A piece of art really works when you see yourself in the main characters and you see a glimpse of yourself in the villains” (“Author Colson Whitehead Reminds Us to See Ourselves” by Mitchell S. Jackson, Time, July 8, 2019). Read more of my thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.

Versatile, talented, and wise author Colson Whitehead

Learn History Through Fiction: Kansas “Frontier Guard” Protects President Lincoln

Kansas became the 34th state in January 1861. The Civil War began three months later. When rumors circulated that President Lincoln was about to be kidnaped or assassinated, Kansas senator James H. Lane recruited 120 Kansas men dubbed the “Frontier Guard.” For nearly three weeks they were billeted in the White House to protect the President. Kansans were staunch Union supporters. Of 30,000 Kansans of military age, 20,000 enlisted in the Union Army. After the war, Kansas returned to agriculture. Topeka, where the cattle ranches of the Southwest meet the Corn Belt, prospered as a typical Midwestern city. Read more Topeka and Kansas history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Two of three eligible Kansans enlisted in the Union Army
Railroads helped Topeka prosper as a Midwestern agricultural city
Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press) by Ann S. Epstein