My dear friend, Carol Gardner used to say of her brother, Ernest Hemingway, that he was a terrible liar. I used to answer back that he was a great story teller. Deadlock. Both true. I definitely have some loose ends or flexible boundaries in my stories. I mean, doesn't 'millions' sound a lot more impressive than " a thousand'? I sometimes call my writing 'autobiographical fiction' or 'faction'.
I wrote a true story years ago that Readers Digest was going to publish. I had stuck pretty close to my memory. There was no need to embellish. But imagine my sweat when a whole team of investigators showed up in Temple, NH, pop. 650 to check each and every word I said about each and every event in the story. I passed muster, but it had me worried.
When I wrote my little book, How to Know Now , my mother was wondering by what authority I could speak of such things. I had no advanced degree in my subject. I kind of hinted that as I was the author of my own thoughts and the author of the little book, why then, I was THE authority.
I am just going on a bit on this topic because I am going to be telling stories. Some are from the distant past. My point of view may have evolved. Telling and re-telling also changes things a bit.
Just a little caveat here.
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