The Word is Out
So much more than skeletons
Posted in Blog by People's Press on August 3, 2011
Like Sandy Munro, author of Finding Uri, what you find might say a lot about your past, and your future.
By Alison Berkley
It’s always interesting to interview authors and learn where their inspiration comes from. What more are books than interesting stories to tell? During a recent interview with Sandy Munro, author of Finding Uri, I not only discovered what inspired his novel, but what I learned from him also inspired me.
“I’ve sent a whole shitload of people rummaging through the attic looking for old letters and things,” the Aspen-based author says. “The thing that seems to happen is they realize they too have letters in the attic.”
Munro’s book was inspired by 190 letters he discovered between his mother and his father, whom he barely knew before he was killed fighting in World War II. From a writer’s standpoint, it’s a virtual goldmine of material. For Munro, it was getting to know his father, a man whose footsteps he followed in a military career that turned out to be eerily similar. But the letters revealed even more: “I was also getting to know my mother as a 23-year-old who was madly in love.” (The letters included some sentiments that would make any son blush.)
I don’t know many people who are lucky enough to have an attic anymore, but we all have our boxes packed away in storage closets or in the garage or the basement. They’re the boxes that are the hardest to get to, buried by time and the acquisition of stuff that doesn’t really mean much, but sits there like a pile of dirt burying the treasures that are not hard to find as long as you’re willing to dig.
“That’s what people seem to connect with the most after reading my book, this whole idea of why let these things sit in the attic? Why not take a look at it?” said Munro.
So I did. I went out to the storage closet and had to remove several plastic storage containers and empty suitcases and the random items that had been tossed aside.
I dragged out the box of family memorabilia I’d salvaged from my parents’ move when they retired. Even though I’ve looked through it many times before, I always discover something new. Not because I haven’t looked at it before, but because each time I look at it, I have a different perspective. What struck me this time was my parents’ wedding invitation, as I too am soon to be a bride.
Tell us: What’s hidden in your closet (other than the skeletons)? Post your photos and have a chance to win an autographed copy of Finding Uri.
Comments
Be the first to leave a comment.
Search News
Most Read Articles
- The Prints of Tom Benton
Posted by People's Press on August 8, 2011
- Antler Dust - Four Years Later
Posted by Mark Stevens on June 1, 2011
- Falling for fall
Posted by People's Press on October 12, 2011
- Dorfman: Mark Shaw is making the most of a ‘miracle’
Posted by People's Press on August 23, 2011
- “Flat-Out Terrific”
Posted by Mark Stevens on June 15, 2011
- The All New Woody Creek People’s Press Blogosphere
Posted by Sandy Munro on May 27, 2011
- The Aspen Wallposters
Posted by DJ Watkins on May 27, 2011
- Summer Reads in Aspen Sojourner
Posted by People's Press on May 27, 2011
- Where reality and fantasy converge: Snowmastodon! Snow Day Adventure
Posted by People's Press on June 29, 2011
- The People Have Written
Posted by People's Press on May 29, 2011
- Finding Uri - PR and review
Posted by Sandy Munro on June 30, 2011
- Prehistoric Pals in Aspen Peak Magazine
Posted by People's Press on June 2, 2011
- Plum TV Features Snowmastodon! Snow Day Adventure
Posted by People's Press on June 29, 2011
- Fracking
Posted by Mark Stevens on May 28, 2011
- Finding Uri Launch at Two Old Hippies
Posted by People's Press on June 14, 2011
design by Graham Spencer, built by notebleu© People's Press, 2013