Five Things I Got Wrong in My First Novel, According to My Dad
The author reflects on their experiences growing up around boys in a group home, influenced by their father's work with troubled youth. They share how their novel was inspired by these memories, blending fact and fiction. The author learns from their dad that some details they thought were invented were actually based on real events.
- ▪The author's father worked with teenage boys in a group home for forty years.
- ▪The author wrote a story about a boy in a group home, inspired by their childhood experiences.
- ▪Their father pointed out that certain fictional elements were based on real boys he had known.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
My dad worked with kids for forty years, teenage boys mostly, who’d been in trouble and were committed through the state to live somewhere else a while in hopes of getting themselves together. They’d grown up without parents, surrounded by poverty and violence. They’d sold drugs. They’d stolen cars and robbed people. Some had done worse. Other boys hadn’t really done much at all, but they didn’t have a home. They needed somewhere to go. I grew up listening to their stories. Then, for a long time, I forgot them. * Diapers, Not Clothes About seven years ago, for reasons I don’t exactly recall, though it might have had a lot to do with having my own son, I wrote a story set in a boys’ home.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Literary Hub.
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