I Asked Her If I

God Gived You The Seed. But The Watering And Caring Of That Seed Is Up To You.

Sometimes It Seemed Like The Truth Was A Bandy-legged Soul Who Dashed From One Side Of The World To The Other And I Could Never Find Him.

The Act Of Choosing What To Place In Your Piece When You're A Historian Or A Non-fiction Writer Already Renders It Into Fiction For Someone Else. In Some Ways Fiction Comes A Lot Closer To Reality. When You Start Talking About Something As Brutal As Slavery And Life In The American West, It's Really Important To Take A Non- Judgmental Stance. We Romanticize A Great Deal About Life In The American West, But I Thank God I Wasn't Living During That Time. No Matter What Color You Were, It Was Rough, Crude, Tough Living.

...since I Was A Little Boy, She Had Always Wanted Me To Go. She Was Always Sending Me Off On A Bus Someplace, To Elementary School, To Camp, To Relatives In Kentucky, To College. She Pushed Me Away From Her Just As She'd Pushed My Elder Siblings Away When We Lived In New York, Literally Shoving Them Out The Front Door When They Left For College.

First Person Narrative Is A Very Effective Tool But You Have To Know As A Writer How To Make It Work.