Notes on Writing the Family Tree

I'll be honest, I never expected it to take ten years to complete The Family Tree.  But I'm glad that it did.  As I look back on the story and my personal growth, this story is better because of the time it took to write it.

I began the story with the idea of a son and his father running.  The plot called for a conflict between Michael and his son which would be solved when Michael's father died.  The more I tried working with this, I didn't think this really fit with who I wanted Michael Kingsbury to be.  Without giving away a key part of the story, I had also planned that the conflict between Andrew and his father to be a significant part of the story.

The order in which I would tell the story was really the most difficult part.  Interestingly, the first chapter reflects my struggle.   Originally, the story began with the delivery of the package containing the letter.  I didn't really think that order worked, so I moved the chapters around until I found what I hope was the right way to tell the story.

Many of the names of the characters are names of people in my family's history.  My grandfathers were named Harold and Robert.  I have a great uncle named Lawrence.   The look of Rose came from an old photograph of an ancestor my grandmother had in her house.  My maternal great-grandparents lived in Humboldt and I believe operated an ice truck.  There are other references to people and places in my past and things that I have come to know over my life.

One of the funny things as I read through the novel one final time before publishing was how much technology had changed.  Originally Cindy had arrived with a cell phone and a PDA.  By the time the novel was published, they were one in the same.  When Michael was in Phoenix, he had gone back to his room, plugged a laptop into the modem and used Yahoo to search for the Humboldt Recorder.  Of course, in the final version, he does it all from his phone.