I don’t thoroughly subscribe to the “write what you know” dictum. I mean, come on, does that mean I have to kill someone to write about murder?
Of course, my fiction is not “pure” fiction. There is always a “life-lived” in there. So… What about Huck Finn Is Dead?
That eastward journey the protagonist (Carney James) takes, from Seattle to the plains, is a constant in my life. Summer trips to the Texas panhandle, where my father was born. Montana and Colorado during road-building season. Road trips to Nebraska with my first ex. Ditto on the road-building season.
Oh, and one time long ago, as a youth, my girlfriend and I hitched from eastern Washington to New York and Boston. And back. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll tell you more about that journey. And what it means to Huck Finn Is Dead.