Hibbard Casselberry Jr. planned to write the first book about our father, but I had most all the details at my fingertips, and had written a video script called, “Tall Tales of Old Times: Memories of Hibbard Casselberry.”
“Lilian, you’ve got all the information. Writing this a book on your father should be easy, and history never goes out of date, like other books do.” Those words came from Dan Poynter.. While he inspired me to write what would become “King of Casselberry,” there were drawbacks:
I thought all I had to do was flush out some details from the video script, and it would be finished. The first daring friend who tried to help me was Jack Payton. An accomplished editor, Jack said the book should be nonfiction. I assumed that historical nonfiction was dryer than asphalt in the summer.
Then I got into every box, filing cabinet, press clipping, and book I could. I interviewed people who knew Hibbard. Once I hit information overload, I sorted everything by year, source, and business. Only two things were undeniable: I was historically wrong, and truth is stranger than fiction.
Style was still a problem until I heard about creative nonfiction. The most notable example was Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, a factual yet teeth-clenching story of a mass murderer.
After a while, I’d tapped everyone I could for information, scrap books, articles, memories, and first-hand accounts. When I sat in front of a computer, however, I thought about travel. After going to China, Ireland, California, and North Carolina, I could no longer blame my lack of writing on a sloth-like lifestyle. Tinges of guilt turned to concrete when a few of the people who had contributed to the book died – and I’d produced nothing.
Most people don’t become good writers simply by writing, but writing a lot and doing it well. That meant I needed education. Dan Poynter suggested I talk to ghostwriter, David Kohn, who agreed to coach me through it. Meanwhile, someone found out about my story on the internet and sent me more information that countered a key fact. So much for having all the information. Nevertheless, I “finished the book” on August 28, 2006, thirty-seven years to the day after Dad died.
In 2007, I met Philippa Burgess of Creative Convergence at the San Francisco Writers’ Conference. Her expertise is in literary management, content development, and marketing across Hollywood. Hibbard promoted Casselberry through films in the Fifties and Sixties (see http://kingofcasselberry.com/id31.html ) so it made sense to me.
Dan always told me that you write the first chapter last. Each time I felt I’d “finished the book” Philippa would either say, “We’re so close,” or send it to an associate whose review sent me back to the computer. They were always right.
So I’ve “finished the book” – again – and a blog, website, and movie outline. Is this the end? No, but hopefully it will be the end of the beginning.
If you haven’t seen www.kingofcasselberry.com please check it out.
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