Review: How to Cope

Come on, you’d grab it too, right?

Like a curious toddler, I grabbed a small hardback from the “new books” shelf at the library on a brisk walk to the “holds” area, my original destination. I liked its small size (7” x 5”), and cover—light green with a centered image of Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck. Its full title is How to Cope: An Ancient Guide to Enduring Hardship, Boethius: Selections from The Consulation of Philosophy (Princeton University Press, 2025, selected, translated and introduced by Philip Freeman).

Leading with How to Cope was a wise choice for a modern translation title given how much we love self-help these days, and everything written about it refers to it as an “accessible” translation of Boethius original text in latin written in 523 CE. The quotes below come from this volume with one exception.

As he writes, the previously successful-in-life Boethius, who I refer to as “the narrator” below, is in prison on trumped up treason charges and faces torture and certain death. The text was whisked away from his cell after his execution, and has been translated into many languages and studied for centuries. I am not a scholar of classics and maybe if I were I would have encountered a previous translation of this text by now, but this “accessible” version delights me: It doesn’t take long to read, is a testament to enduring truths expressed 1500 years ago, and the heroic protagonist is portrayed as a strong and wise (although ancient) woman. The latin text accompanies the English on the opposite page which makes it easy to check if you agree with the translation or not. Book 1 is called “A Visitor in Prison”.

“While I was silently thinking these things to myself and writing down my tearful lament with the help of my pen, there seemed to stand above my head a woman, awe-inspiring in her appearance. Her eyes burned with fire and penetrated far beyond what is common for mortals. She had a vivid color and inexhaustable strength, yet she seemed so ancient I could scarcely believe she belonged to our age. ”

— Boethius, p. 7

Our heroine, Philosophy, proceeds to listen, comfort and advise the narrator. But she is salty:

“‘Do you understand what I am saying to you?’ She asked. ‘Have my words made their way into your head?’ Or are you like a donkey hearing the lyre? Why are you crying? Why are your cheeks covered with tears? As Homer says, ‘Speak up, don’t hide what’s on your mind.’ If you want a doctor to treat you, you must first uncover the wound.’”

— Boethius, p. 17

The narrator goes on to complain for many pages, and Philosophy hears the narrator’s complaints. She then states her assessment:

“‘If I have properly understood the causes and nature of your sickness, you are wasting away from a desire and longing for your previously happy condition. The changes caused by Fortune are the source of your deeply troubled mind—or at least that’s how it seems to you. But I understand the many tricks of that monster Fortune and the charming friendliness she shows to those she wishes to deceive, at least until she abandons them unexpectedly and leaves them confused and in unbearable pain. If you will just remember her nature, her ways, and her true worth, you will recognize that in her you never possessed nor lost anything that was beautiful. ‘
”

— Boethius, p. 45

In Book 2: “Fortune is Never Constant',” Philosophy illuminates the fact that although good luck comes, and it also goes, it generally comes back again. This might not be comforting to a man who facing torture and execution, but it is useful to those of us who are not. At least not in the near future. We hope.

I think my favorite part about Book 2 is when Philosophy helps the narrator get out of his own misery to consider his luck up until now:

“‘In the meantime, will you please stop thinking of yourself as a miserable wretch! Have you forgotten how much happiness and the sorts of kindness you’ve enjoyed in your life? ...Who didn’t call you the happiest of men because of the splendor of your in-laws, the modesty of your wife, and the blessings of your sons after you?’
”

— Boethius, p. 57

Philosophy reminds the narrator for as many pages as he complained about his wonderful family, friends, and success and it’s so easy to hear coming from this no-nonsense apparition. The quote above just scratches the surface of her lecture, and I hope it inspires my reader to find a copy of the book and read it for him or herself.

In Book 3: True Happiness, the narrator is able to accept and appreciate the wisdom Philosophy offers:

“After a little while I spoke: ‘You are truly the greatest consolation of weary spirits. You have brought warmth back to my heart by the power of your arguments...Even now I feel I am a match for the blows of Fortune that may yet come....’
Then she replied, ‘I thought so. While you were silent and attentive, grabbing hold of my every word, I was waiting for this change of heart—or to be more precise, this change I have brought about. ‘”

— Boethius, p. 99

In Book 4: How Can Evil Go Unpunished?, the narrator acknowledges that he feels better, but is troubled by this remaining question:

“‘Here, however, is the greatest cause of my grief: Although the ruler of the universe is good, how can evil still exist and go unpunished?’
”

— Boethius, p. 181

Philosophy then provides a thorough, well-argued response to this question. Because it goes on for pages, I will summarize it here. Good people possess power and bad people do not. Since the effort of human will, as Philosophy argues in Book 3, is true happiness, and that true happiness is goodness itself, and that good people and bad people are both seeking happiness, and bad people do not obtain it in the end because they do not achieve goodness. Give this argument some time to sink in because it is mind bending (at least for me), and much better explained in the text.

The reviews I found of How to Cope are universally complimentary. The “selections” leave out poetry in the original text—most likely for the purposes of accessibility. I particularly like what Kirkus Reviews says about that:

“Readers wishing for greater consolation will miss the powerful poems of the original—where the changing of the seasons, the workings of the heavens, and the stories of mythic heroes all give voice to the harmony of creation itself.
”

— Kirkus Reviews, "How to Cope", see link above

SLA Buff: Vivian Gibson

The Saint Louis Author (SLA) Buff blog highlights the unique and surprising authors who live and write in Mound City.

The best selling 2020 book by Vivian Gibson, The Last Children of Mill Creek.

It’s a busy week for Vivian Gibson, author of 2020’s best selling The Last Children of Mill Creek, now in it’s fifth edition. She wrote it as a reflection on growing up in the Mill Creek neighborhood—now gone—in the City of St. Louis for her children, nieces and nephews. This weekend, the exhibit it inspired, Mill Creek: Black Metropolis, opens at the Missouri History Museum. Gibson is in high demand by news outlets from KMOX to NPR. I was lucky to get a few minutes with her early this week.

Gibson didn’t think of herself as a writer until she had time to write, which was after her retirement. “I’m a late bloomer,” she said. “I was just cleaning out the spare room, going through papers. It was haphazard like that. My parents died years before my children were born, so I wanted to get something about them down on paper.”

She joined a writing group at St. Louis Oasis, the Lifelong Learning organization for older adults. “I figured I’d head over to Kinko’s and make copies for my family when I was done. But everyone in the group insisted I had a book.”

That book has flourished beyond anyone’s expectations. Since the demolition of the Mill Creek neighborhood in 1959 and 1960 in the name of urban renewal, Gibson’s story of growing up there, what her family was like, who her friends were represents a kind of living archeology. The land upon which 5,000 buildings—residences, schools, churches, and commercial establishments— used to stand is now occupied by part of the St. Louis University campus and Interstate 64. The community of 20,000 people relocated by the urban renewal project lost each other at the time, but have begun rediscovering each other due, in large part, to Gibson’s book. This story resonates not only with people with connections to the original neighborhood, but with communities across the country who have experienced similar upheaval.

Blogger with author, Vivian Gibson, at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference in September 2024.

“I was always scribbling,” Gibson said. “Always imagining, always full of memories. I am reflective, I listen to people. As a child I was always shooed away from adult conversations. I loved history because in my mind it was stories. While fellow students agonized over memorizing dates, I memorized and loved the stories. I speak in stories—that is how I communicate.”

As a college-aged person, Gibson found herself in New York City and in talking about herself to people she saw as “sophisticated New Yorkers”, she noticed that what she had to say interested them. She enrolled in night school at the Fashion Institute of Design and worked during the day in the reception area of McKinsey & Company. “It was a perfect job for me, at the time. I was in an opulent reception area, where I could read and study,” she said. When she had graduated from the Design Institute, she had advanced at McKinsey to the point where she was offered a management role. She chose that rather than the sewing rooms she would otherwise have worked in as a design school graduate. She stayed in New York for ten years and said, “To this day, it was one of the most enjoyable times of my young life.”

Gibson returned to St. Louis after a two-year period in Liberia, West Africa where her husband worked in banking. “Five days after the coup in 1980, we had 20 minutes to leave the country,” she said. She has been in St. Louis ever since.

As a writer, Gibson is interested in race relations in St. Louis. “There is a lot of material if you look at it from a historical perspective. Most of what I know I have learned as an adult when I started researching for the book. I wanted to reinforce the memories I was writing down for my kids with facts from the time-- what was going on politically, bussing, and desegregation. We were the first ones bused because the schools that were supposed to absorb the kids who had attended the three Mill Creek schools were immediately overwhelmed. I went down rabbit holes of history and policy and reasoning that made the book writing more interesting.”

In addition to many interviews and awards in the years since the book came out, exciting things have happened in 2025. A documentary, “Remembering Mill Creek: When We Were There,” resulted from a collaboration with filmmaker Khalid Abdulqaadir, who had emailed Gibson to complement her about her book and to tell her that he had roots in the Mill Creek neighborhood. It was part of the 2025 St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Gibson in front of The Ross Family gallery in the Seeking St. Louis exhibit which was on view at the Museum from 2000 to 2025.

Mill Creek: Black Metropolis is an expansion of “The Ross Family” gallery which was part of the Seeking St. Louis exhibit mounted at the Museum in 2000 and taken down just this year. “For the Ross Family gallery, my siblings and I went to the museum for several weekends just talking about those days with museum staff recording us.” The gallery included quilts, family pictures, and walls painted yellow. An interactive option in the room was to pick up a phone and listen to the real voices of her family telling the stories. “That was very popular,” she said. Gibson requested the room be given to the Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis and is hopeful they will soon stand it up there.

Gibson is on the advisory board for Mill Creek: Black Metropolis, and points out that the curator, Gwen Moore, is also from Mill Creek. “I helped her identify people who could donate artifacts.” The best part of it, for Gibson, is that it keeps the memories alive that she originally wanted to preserve. “I can’t believe so many people have been so interested. I just had a good story—no experience, no other reason for it to take off. Two weeks ago, there was a full page dedicated to it in the New York Times!”

Gibson is gratified that so many types of readers are using her book: Marquette University in Milwaukee for an Urban Planning graduate program, seventh graders at John Burroughs School, and senior citizens who remember the times and places she writes about.

Five years after its first publication Gibson continues to actively participate in activities prompted by The Last Children of Mill Creek, but she is also working on her next memoir.

“The Last Children of Mill Creek ends when I am 27 years old.  I have lived fifty more years of an incredible life.”  She lives alone and can write in the middle of the night without bothering anybody. “I find I am most creative writing in my bed, longhand on a yellow pad.” Gibson admits she had taken on more than she could really handle for a time, but said, “This year I learned how to say no, to give myself some space. It has made a big difference.”

Be sure to see the exhibition Mill Creek: Black Metropolis when it opens November 15—this weekend. It will be there until July of 2026.

SLA Buff Blog: Minsoo Kang

The Saint Louis Author (SLA) Buff blog highlights the unique and surprising authors who live and write in Mound City.

Sky baby.

The green and yellow foliage of the mountain shimmered brightly under the afternoon sun, giving the place the appearance of a marvelous jewel that was also a colossal living being--Minsoo Kang, The Melancholy of Untold History (William Morrow,2024)

This past August, Minsoo Kang’s debut novel The Melancholy of Untold History won the 2024 Mythopoeic Award for literature and literary studies, given annually by the Mythopoeic Society for outstanding works in the field of fantasy. The award goes to the publication that best exemplifies the spirit of the Inklings; a University of Oxford literary group known for reading and discussing the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Minsoo began building the foundation for his future award winning novel as a 12-year-old arriving with his diplomatic family in Wellington, New Zealand without a good command of English. He proceeded to spend the summer reading--dictionary in hand-- the biggest book he could find: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien at 1000 pages. “It was really hard, but I got through it and by the end of the summer, I knew English.”

Minsoo Kang

I first encountered Minsoo at his talk at the Schlafly Branch of St. Louis Public Library marking the July 2025 release of the paperback edition of his novel. An aspiring novelist myself, and of a certain age, I was curious about what he would say about being a debut novelist in his 50s. His credentials--UCLA doctorate in European History at UCLA in 2004, numerous publications in his field as well as stories, and decades of tenure in the History Department of the University of Missouri in St. Louis were intimidating. His charm and conversational style of speaking quickly disarmed the audience.

“I have always written stories,” Minsoo said to the group of about thirty people at the talk, as genial as if we had all been long time friends. “But I learned you can’t write fiction and be a historian at the same time. There just isn’t enough time.”

“The way we defeat AI in fiction writing is to write really weird books. I like to read books that are totally unexpected. Even if it isn’t well-written, I would much rather read something imperfect written in a whole new way than a masterpiece written with the same old plot.”

The Melancholy of Untold History: A Novel by Minsoo Kang

Melancholy combines elements of fictional history, myth, and a modern academic’s experiences within an imagined setting. Delightful details trip from one story to the next, from one millennium to another,in the form of colors and landscape—a mountain group called the Four Verdant Mothers is always on the horizon, and the reader is reminded of the mountains’ colors throughout—Red God, Blue God, yellow raincoat, green traffic light. A Sky Baby rides a dragon, and a purple fart cloud keeps the reader guessing.

To write, Minsoo needs complete quiet and solitude to concentrate. He wrote Melancholy in four months after thinking about it for years. He wrote a draft of his next novel in four weeks. He tries not to leave his home and depends on his cat to hit him on the back of the head to stop working. “I get annoyed when I have to stop to get food,” he said.

I asked Minsoo how he felt when he got the academic job offer from UMSL. “It was a massive relief. Academics is very competitive, and getting a tenure track job was, even then, extremely competitive. Even more so, now. I had always lived in large cities, and was coming from LA, so as a smaller city, St. Louis was not what I was used to. When I came for my interview, the department advised me to rent a car at the airport to get a sense of the city. I was excited when I hit Delmar—it seemed like a familiar, university street with bookshops, bars and restaurants. The shock came when I got to the north end of the street after a few blocks. In LA, a street like that goes for miles.”

“It wasn’t the kind of prestigious appointment that some of my friends from UCLA had gotten: Princeton, Notre Dame.” Minsoo said. “I didn’t plan to stay for 20 years, but the more I learned about the challenges of trying to stay ahead at places like that, the stress my friends were under, I realized the advantages of where I had landed. I went back to LA several times after starting my teaching job at UMSL, and on one trip, I realized I had spent more time in traffic than hanging out with my friends.”

“Given the way I grew up, I got used to the idea that I would never belong anywhere. But, as an outsider, I get to see what other people don’t. I’m constantly reminding my Korean friends that they have no idea what it’s like to live in a country this big.” Many of Minsoo’s students come from rural Missouri, and he is grateful to have learned Louis is itself a big deal. They come from communities where one or two families own most of the town, including the police and local politics. “There is nothing like that in Korea; everything there is very connected.”

At the beginning of the interview, Minsoo and I determined that St. Louis is the place he has lived the longest in his nomadic life, so his status as an outsider may be in jeopardy. His next novel takes place on a college campus, with a few scenes in St. Louis. We will have to wait and see.

You can purchase a paperback version of The Melancholy of Untold History at Left Bank Books and anywhere fiction is sold.

SLA Buff: Ciera Horton McElroy

The Saint Louis Author (SLA) Buff blog highlights the unique and surprising authors who live and write in Mound City.

Ciera Horton McElroy’s first novel, Atomic Family, published by Blair in 2023, came out in paperback on October 9. She wrote it during her MFA Program at the University of Central Florida, but experienced being a debut author in St. Louis after moving here in 2021. 

The story takes place during Halloween season in a small, South Carolina town in 1961. It delves into how a family handles the business of nuclear testing adjacent to the risk of nuclear conflict and the impact of the fallout. It also juxtaposes early 1960s family values with the blooming nuclear resistance movement.

“I felt warmly welcomed as a new author in St. Louis,” Ciera said. “It has a thriving subculture with a vibrant, deep bookstore community. I launched my book at Left Bank Books, and am also a huge fan of Main Street Books in St. Charles. In this community you have sellers promoting authors and providing them with the opportunity to meet readers and that helps you to promote your book.”

In addition to bookstores, the St. Louis Public Library is a huge system which leads to library sales that are very important. On top of that, you have so many interesting and literary cafes and coffee shops. St. Louis offers local authors a lot.”

Ciera moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota earlier this year, but will be back in town to speak and sign the new paperbacks at the Novel Neighbor on Thursday, October 16, doors open at 6:30. She will appear with another St. Louis author, Shana Youngdahl, featured earlier this year in the SLA Buff Blog.

SLA Buff: Matt Sorrell

The Saint Louis Author (SLA) Buff blog highlights the unique and surprising authors who live and write in Mound City.

Reedy Press released St. Louis freelance writer Matt Sorrell’s book Matt’s St. Louis Food Story on September 1. He’s been writing about food in town since the early 2000s, and his work has been  featured locally and nationally. His last book is a collaboration with Chef Clara Moore—Shop Like a Chef: As food Loves Guide to St.Louis Neighborhoods.  I wanted to learn why Matt writes about food and why—I did! 

Matt will be signing copies at Barnes & Noble, West County Mall, Des Peres this Saturday, September 13 from 12 to 3 p.m

What is the purpose of this book?

Eating is a fun way to explore, and it is low risk. You try it, you don’t like it, you move on. You like it, you come back. As much as possible, I wanted to get people out of their comfort zone to try different, new food. We’re very provincial. We all have a few blocks radius we tend to frequent, and anything outside of that seems too far away. I’m trying to change that with Matt’s St. Louis Food Story.

Why write about food? What led you to that?

In the early 2000s, I was looking for freelance opportunities. When Sauce Magazine appeared in 2001, I sent an email, ended up getting assignments, and started learning a lot about the local food scene and restaurants.     

I have always been fascinated with commercial kitchens in restaurants. I’m not a cook but I love the hustle and bustle. Over the years I interviewed a bunch of different bartenders and realized that what they do is culinary, and I might be able to do it. When you make a drink, the risk is low; we’re only talking about a few ounces. So if you screw it up, it’s not like ruining a good and very expensive piece of meat. So, I started bartending. Writing for Sauce led to writing for Feast and St Louis Magazine, among other publications.

Why write a book?

Twelve years ago, a chef friend named Clara Moore had been working on a book about grocery stores, and food shopping. She asked me to help. When the book was coming up on its 10th anniversary, I contacted several local publishers to see if they’d be interested in doing a Volume 2.  None of them were interested at the time. But one publisher, Josh Stevens from Reedy Press, reached out to me later with an idea for a food guidebook, which eventually became St. Louis Food Story.

I wanted to represent and contribute to the good reputation of the St. Louis Food Industry. I'm part of it, I have high regard for it, and I respect the people who work in it. Everyone--owners, cooks, dishwashers--it's a hard gig. I wanted to make sure they got light shined on them.

Tell me about the cover

The cover was created by a local artist named Dan Zettwoch. He did a fantastic job! He’s very much in-demand, and we were lucky to get him to create this cover for the book.

How did you choose the restaurants featured in the book? Were you worried any of them would go out of business before you published the book?

Many of them are places I've worked and am a fan of. In addition, I wanted people to know about places they might not have tried--historical, brand new, ethnically non-American. I focused on really cool cuisines and neighborhoods--Cherokee, Grand. I wanted to create a path for people to get out of their comfort zones.

As far as staying in business, I wasn't too worried. As I was writing, I kept talking to the editors and kept my ear to the ground. Places do go out of business all the time. I am happy to say that didn't happen! We were considering other ideas in case we lost one. It is a crapshoot business, I don't see how people do it.

The author, Matt Sorrell

What will you do next?

I work at Bistro La Florisan in Clayton and will continue to do that. I have a couple of book ideas that I am running by Reedy Press-- books on food and drink in the St. Louis area, also on near East side, and a little further west. I'm as bad as the next guy as far as getting out of my comfort zone, and I’d really like to explore these areas more.

I would love to write a follow-up to Food Story  in a couple of years. If I had included every place that deserved to be in the book, it would have been very long. As small as this metro is, we have a lot of really great restaurants and shops. I don't think a lot of people understand that. You don't have to go to Chicago to eat well

Matt will be signing copies of Matt's St. Louis Food Story as follows:

Barnes & Noble, West County Mall, Des Peres, Saturday, September 13, 12 to 3 p.m.

Main Street Books St. Charles, Saturday, September 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

The Ultimate St. Louis Breakfast, (making drinks and selling books), Cedars Banquet Hall, 939 Lebanon Drive, St. Louis, Saturday, September 27, 9 to 11 a.m.

The Royale, 3132 S. Kingshighway Blvd., St. Louis, Friday, October 10, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

The Novel Neighbor, 7905 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, Saturday, October 11, 4 to 5 p.m.

Vom Fass, 7314 Manchester Rd., Maplewood, Sunday, October 19, 3 to 5 p.m.

And other events in the works all around town.

SLA Buff: Shana Youngdahl

The Saint Louis Author (SLA) Buff blog highlights the unique and surprising work of authors who live and write in Mound City.

St. Louisan Shana Youngdahl's 2025 second novel, A Catalog of Burnt Objects, appeared in bookstores this past Spring and earlier this week made the St. Louis Magazine A-List Editors’ Choice Award for new fiction. This thoughtful and bracing YA family saga juxtaposes the challenges of family for young people and the 2018 wildfire disaster that faced and still faces the town of Paradise, California. I spoke with Shana about what brought her to town and how she finds it as a place to live and work.

Shana Youngdahl, YA author and 2025 St. Louis Magazine A-List Editors’ Choice Award winner

I consider you to be a St. Louis writer, but I'm guessing you spend most of your time in St. Charles. Do you consider yourself a St. Louis writer?

My realtor told me that everyone calls the entire metro "St. Louis," maybe she was wrong? I know there are differences, but I don't feel a particular affinity for being from St. Charles. So I will say yes, I do. I have moved enough that being "from," any one place is rather complicated for me. My hometown is still the most formative place I have lived, and I still have very strong ties to Maine where I spent a decade. But to get back to the point I wouldn't have even applied to my job if it weren't in the Saint Louis metro so I hope the St. Louis writers will claim me.

What brought you to St. Louis and how do you find the area as a place to work, write, live?

I moved to St. Louis from Maine with my family in 2021 to take a job in the MFA program at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. A bookseller friend of mine in Maine suggested I look up Main Street Books in Historic St. Charles when I got here, which I did. He knows the owner, Emily Hall Schroen, and when I went into the store for the first time and introduced myself as the new writing professor, she said, "Kenny told me to watch out for you." This greeting immediately put me at ease and made me feel welcome. A writing colleague also sent introductory emails on my behalf to introduce me to the writing community at large. It's been an easy community to come into. The people are very friendly.  I am thankful for all of the writing networks here.

I love the sense of place created in A Catalog of Burnt Objects in the opening paragraphs. As the reader finds out, the fictional town of Sierra is central to the novel, a main character--what techniques do you use to write to about place to bring the reader there?

If you look at Sierra on a map, you'll see it's shaped like an obtuse scaling triangle. You won't see all the backyard bee keepers, grow operations and do it yourself houses. Flatten our town out like that, and it will look ordered, contained. But Siera is part of a wild, that rolls down off the mountains, that reaches between the houses, cabins, trailers, a wild that creeps out in the shape of foxes, deer and mountain lions. Wild is still there prowling.  (Shana Youngdahl, A Catalog of Burnt Objects, Dial Books, 2025)

Two things make that happen. First, it's based on my home town, the place I have lived longer than anywhere else. It contains the landscape of my dreams, of my childhood. I still did a ton of research--names of the plants, details related to the fire, what type of trees exploded. What birds live there? What are the flowers, and when do they bloom? Then, thinking about the town as a character, in what ways, even though Sierra is based on Paradise, it is not really Paradise. It's a fictional town, so I could make changes to the fictional town so the story worked better. I looked at how Sierra the character was impacted by the story and what it's narrative arc should consist of.

I love Caprice's app project and the references to writing computer code with the words "If" and "Then" in the narrative and how she uses it as a technique to manage the trauma of the fire itself. How do you stay current on what young adults do--like coding-- to create a narrative that will engage them?

Good question. On one hand, until moving to St. Louis, I was spending most of my time teaching 18 year olds. On the other, my oldest kid turned 13 when I moved here. I have teenagers around me all the time and I have for a years. Also I don't think it matters that much if the reader is into coding, as long as I have effectively sold that this character is into it. I got a Masters in Educational Technology and have been involved with teaching girls how to code and as a parent advisor. That work ended up being part of my research for Caprice's app. I hope that reader's believe she's into it. She's such a planner, and for someone who plans things it's especially hard to face the uncertainty caused by the wildfire.

Novelists have to create disasters--it's required for people to want to read it. I read that you chose to rename Paradise to Sierra to provide yourself with some emotional space from the very real Paradise tragedy and to avoid making the story a historical reference to it. What other strategies do you use to write fiction when the disaster was real and affected you deeply?

There are a couple of layers to this. As a novelist, you are making a decision that you're writing fiction. The minute you decide to write fiction, you have decided that the story you need to tell will be told more authentically through emotional rather than literal truth. When operating from the emotional truth, the core is the emotional experience. From that you can derive infinite plot lines, images, stories, arcs. It just becomes a matter of how you're going to take that emotional story and craft it into the world. How one does that isn't easy. I struggled with the project because it was so personal, also since I wasn't physically in Paradise, I really wanted to get it right. Many friends who I loved were there, and it mattered to me that I honored them. That helped hold me to a standard.

One small is example is daffodils, they have become a symbol of Paradise and their return is mentioned in the book. Daffodils live deep enough under the ground to survive the fire and return the following Spring. This is symbolic of how in spite of the tragedy, they were waiting underground and would bloom again. I wanted to address the important challenge that, as people, we need to be thinking as scientists are about reforesting, and looking to find acorns from already dryer regions, genetic predispositions of certain plants to survive dryer, hotter temperatures. I hope that the story will introduce ideas about how to address the problems we're facing with climate change. 

I’m a fan of your substack “Their Will Be Typos.” Great title! Where did it come from?

I’m sure the title makes some people laugh and others want to claw their eyes out. It started because I was afraid to write a newsletter in part because I knew it would have typos! This was me battling the perfectionism monster again, and I realized that I should probably face it the same way I faced making spelling errors on the board in my classroom, and that is I made it a game. I learned that when I admitted to my students that I was a very talented poor speller, but that I had learned to use dictionaries and spell check, that students related to me more, so I told them if they caught a spelling error they would win a prize. So, with my newsletter the first person to catch a typo also gets a prize. The prize varies each month, sometimes it is a postcard, sometimes a book. Maybe I'll give out flower seeds or something in the spring. It really depends.

As I was starting the project I realized that the title would also give me a theme for the newsletter--that is in order to live a creative life you have to embrace the process and the mess of it. That isn't easy. So, the title was a way for me to go out on a limb and have a theme. Since my newsletter started out as a project that I did alongside my students in one of my Lindenwood classes, it made sense that this would be the focus. [Blogger note: subscribe to There Will be Typos substack and newsletter.]

In your substack you mention a London Fog coffee drink. Where do you go in St. Louis/St. Charles to write and drink fancy coffee? 

We have some wonderful cafes! I love Pipers Tea & Coffee, Upshot, Kaldi's, and Picassos. Protagonist Cafe is great, but I don't get out there too often and I'm excited to try Antagonist Cafe soon. 

How does teaching writing impact your own writing?

If I'm teaching writing, I have to be actively writing or else I'm not a good teacher. I have to be a regular practitioner so I can be accountable. Writing is being in conversation with yourself. Teaching writing helps people to be in conversation with themselves. 

SLA Buff: Chris Naffziger

The Saint Louis Author (SLA) Buff blog highlights the unique and surprising work of authors who live and write in Mound City.

Gathering at Leviathan Bookstore for Chris Naffziger’s July 10 reading. The store has sold out of Adam Lemp and the Western Brewery twice since the reading. Photo: James Crossley

Local historian Chris Naffziger published his debut book, Adam Lemp and the Western Brewery, earlier this month. It focuses on the fascinating and unexplored history of a successful nineteenth century St. Louis family and its brewery. Naffziger will speak at the Central Library in downtown St. Louis on Thursday, July 24 at 6:30 as part of St. Louis Public Library's Summer History Series.

Chris Naffziger, Local Historian.

Photo: Virginia Harold

Naffziger holds degrees in art history and museum studies and has been passionate about architectural and cultural history his entire career. He has worked in a wide variety of museums, from house museums to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. On returning to St. Louis in the mid-aughts, he brought his focus to the Gateway City and launched his award-winning history blog, St. Louis Patina. The idea for the book started then, and Naffziger developed a particular interest and expertise in the nineteenth Century German-American brewing industry as well as the unique qualities of  St. Louis architecture. He has been a contributing culture and architecture author to St. Louis Magazine for many years;  his contributions number in the hundreds.  I spoke to Naffziger last week about the book and his plans.

What inspires you about St. Louis history?: People are really interested, yet not a lot of people are doing serious research and writing about it. There is an enormous wealth of subject matter and people respond very positively when someone commits, dives deep, and describes it in an engaging way. 

Why Lemp?: It came from my interest in the physical remains of the brewery itself. St. Louis is famous for more than 40 breweries, but most of the buildings are gone.  95% of the Lemp building is still standing. It makes it natural to wonder why is it there? Who built it? The cave, which was originally used for cooling the beer, is fascinating and with the permission of the owner, I've been down in it twice. The family itself is very interesting and well documented. The Lemp Mansion--restaurant, inn, and event space--remains an active business in the city. It's all relevant today. 

What's Next?: The book publication launches a new website--The Lemp Story.  I'll be sharing new research that didn't get into the book, additional photographs, maps and color illustrations.  My next book project will focus on Adam Lemp, Senior who took over the brewery in 1862.  

At last check, all 18 copies of the book in the collections of the St. Louis Public and County libraries are in use. Also available at Leviathan Bookstore. Get yours today!

Tools for Inspiration: Lion + Owl founder, Jeff Bender

When you’ve been working on a novel for years, it’s hard to stay motivated. This is the case for me, and I made a decision to attend “The Writers Toolbox: A Full Day Conference for Authors and Self-Publishers” late last month at The Heights in Richmond Heights, Missouri for inspiration. I knew almost nothing about the co-sponsors—The Missouri Writers Guild and The St. Louis Publisher’s Association, and it cost me $75—not being a member of either organization—but it was money and time well-spent.

The title of the first panel, “Telling My Story Can Hurt: Transforming Your Personal Experience into a Relatable Story” did not sound super fun to me, but I was blown away by the three panelists and the insights they shared. The first one was Jeff Bender.

That's me on the left, Jeff, and a sign promoting the products of Lion + Owl. 

Jeff Bender is the Founder of Lion + Owl, an ALLkids+ Apparel Company whose mission is to break gender barriers in children’s apparel. He has written two books, Apparel Has No Gender and Oh, I Just Didn’t Know, which support his mission. Unlike most authors, promoting his books is not his top priority, and in fact, to protect his transgender teenager he’s working on staying out the mainstream limelight. He described being yelled at by a Missouri legislator for his beliefs, and about how important the remaining group of parents of transgender children in the state is to him and his family. He said that nine families of this tightknit community have moved out of the state this year. When I asked him why he stays, he said, “That’s what they want, for people like us to leave so they can do what they want and forget about us. I’m not okay with that.”

Jeff Bender describing Lion + Owl books and apparel to a conference attendee.

Please follow this blog for more authoring inspiration from the conference!