Kathleen Fair

As a child, I loved reading historical fiction. Writers pulled me into the past through the lives of people who lived then, and the stories made me want to learn more. When I taught, I tried to put a human face into my lessons—after all, history is a story, his story, her story, our story. One of my dreams was to teach local history through the people, including the homes they built and/or lived in. I planned to end the unit with a party and have each student come in costume as a figure in local history—a person they had researched for themselves. It never happened, but I envisioned them looking at events in American and even world history through the eyes of a real person who lived in their community. No longer standing in front of a classroom, I still have the desire to share stories of the past with people, and there are stories everywhere. A family legend said my grandfather met my grandmother while she was demonstrating sheet music at the local Five and Dime. Great story. Then my aunt, before she died, told me she and my uncle made the story up. If the tale isn’t true, how did the two from different towns meet? In my books, I might take a real historical figure such as Adele of Blois or some event or place, such as in Hell Hath No Fury, and create a narrative for others to enjoy. Currently, I am working on another book set in the early twentieth century in Western Pennsylvania—the working title is Whiskey Run. Some of the events in the book will have been inspired by actual happenings, but most are a product of my imagination. And for a change of pace, I am working on a YA fantasy, and perhaps the story of three witches, the Weird Sisters, Wanda, Winifred, and Zelda, as they recount the almost true story of their lives.