For the current volume, I’m focusing on stories of Grandma’s early childhood, from 1924-1935. One reader I shared a few first drafts with was critical of the stories for being too rose-tinted. This was the Great Depression, after all, and geographically speaking, right on the edge of the Dust Bowl. Life was hard and no child could be so flawless. Clearly, you’re writing through the lens of an adoring granddaughter rather than an objective historian.
The thing is, I learned how horrible those times were in books, not from Grandma’s stories. Her accounts focused the on the ways family, humor, and cleverness helped overcome problems. That’s what I want my children to learn from these stories. Accurate or not, I believe they are true.