Ask the Author: David Kruh
Answered Questions (7)
David Kruh
Without sounding ungrateful to the companies who, over the decades, employed me to write, the best thing about being a writer is not having someone telling me WHAT to write and HOW to write and WHEN to write. When we are writing we are our own boss. No micromanager standing over our shoulder editing our words even as we are typing them. (Yes, this is me not being ungrateful ;)
David Kruh
Many years ago, while researching the events in Boston on VJ Day (August 15, 1945) I ran across the story of a baby boy who was abandoned on the Boston Common. I later wrote a column for the Boston Globe on the child, who was named "Baby Victory" by the press of the day. (The original posting by the Globe has been removed, here is the article on my website: http://www.bambinomusical.com/Columns...)
The abandoned baby was adopted, grew up, married and had two girls, one of whom contacted me after the article was posted by the Globe. We hit it off, and are working on a book about the unanswered question of who was the woman who abandoned her baby? And why did she commit this act on that day, of all days?
There are many other sidebars to this mystery. Such as the shame women were made to feel if they had a baby out of wedlock (of course, we don't even know if that is the case with this woman.) This was an era in which women lacked control over their own lives. Is this what motivated this woman to leave her baby in the arms of a stranger?
Also, the role the Cathloic Church had in Boston when a baby was abandoned. They were automatically Baptized and given names by the Church. This speaks to the strong influence of the Catholic Church in the Hub, something else worth exploring.
There are many other parts to this story we hope to explore. I'm particularly interested in the use of DNA to try and find relatives (heretofore unknown) who might be able to help. A memory.... a long-ago family story... the answer could be out there, waiting....
The abandoned baby was adopted, grew up, married and had two girls, one of whom contacted me after the article was posted by the Globe. We hit it off, and are working on a book about the unanswered question of who was the woman who abandoned her baby? And why did she commit this act on that day, of all days?
There are many other sidebars to this mystery. Such as the shame women were made to feel if they had a baby out of wedlock (of course, we don't even know if that is the case with this woman.) This was an era in which women lacked control over their own lives. Is this what motivated this woman to leave her baby in the arms of a stranger?
Also, the role the Cathloic Church had in Boston when a baby was abandoned. They were automatically Baptized and given names by the Church. This speaks to the strong influence of the Catholic Church in the Hub, something else worth exploring.
There are many other parts to this story we hope to explore. I'm particularly interested in the use of DNA to try and find relatives (heretofore unknown) who might be able to help. A memory.... a long-ago family story... the answer could be out there, waiting....
David Kruh
Many years ago, while researching the events in Boston on VJ Day (August 15, 1945) I ran across the story of a baby boy who was abandoned on the Boston Common. I later wrote a column for the Boston Globe on the child, who was named "Baby Victory" by the press of the day. (The original posting by the Globe has been removed, here is the article on my website: http://www.bambinomusical.com/Columns...)
The abandoned baby was adopted, grew up, married and had two girls, one of whom contacted me after the article was posted by the Globe. We hit it off, and are working on a book about the unanswered question of who was the woman who abandoned her baby? And why did she commit this act on that day, of all days?
There are many other sidebars to this mystery. Such as the shame women were made to feel if they had a baby out of wedlock (of course, we don't even know if that is the case with this woman.) This was an era in which women lacked control over their own lives. Is this what motivated this woman to leave her baby in the arms of a stranger?
Also, the role the Cathloic Church had in Boston when a baby was abandoned. They were automatically Baptized and given names by the Church. This speaks to the strong influence of the Catholic Church in the Hub, something else worth exploring.
There are many other parts to this story we hope to explore. I'm particularly interested in the use of DNA to try and find relatives (heretofore unknown) who might be able to help. A memory.... a long-ago family story... the answer could be out there, waiting....
The abandoned baby was adopted, grew up, married and had two girls, one of whom contacted me after the article was posted by the Globe. We hit it off, and are working on a book about the unanswered question of who was the woman who abandoned her baby? And why did she commit this act on that day, of all days?
There are many other sidebars to this mystery. Such as the shame women were made to feel if they had a baby out of wedlock (of course, we don't even know if that is the case with this woman.) This was an era in which women lacked control over their own lives. Is this what motivated this woman to leave her baby in the arms of a stranger?
Also, the role the Cathloic Church had in Boston when a baby was abandoned. They were automatically Baptized and given names by the Church. This speaks to the strong influence of the Catholic Church in the Hub, something else worth exploring.
There are many other parts to this story we hope to explore. I'm particularly interested in the use of DNA to try and find relatives (heretofore unknown) who might be able to help. A memory.... a long-ago family story... the answer could be out there, waiting....
David Kruh
It started with homework assignments in elementary school. A report on my favorite dinosaur. Who is your favorite baseball player (Tom Seaver, since you asked)? Even back then I remember enjoying the process of researching and writing. The idea that I could write a whole book... well, that came much later when I arrived here in Boston in 1981 looking for a place my uncle (a sailor in World War Two) told me about. It was called Scollay Square and it was Boston's entertainment district, filled with theaters, burlesque houses, nightclubs and other honky-tonk staples. But by 1981 it was gone, replaced by urban redevelopment. So I went looking for a book on the place but there was none. So... in my free time I started collecting stories from natives who used to go there. (People LOVED talking about their times in the Square.) Went to the Boston Public Library for articles and books which might mention the place and, when I had enough information, wrote the book. Eventually I wrote two of them on Scollay Square (www.joeandnemo.com) and, with some degree of confidence that I could successfully string words together, wrote articles, columns and more books.
David Kruh
Write.
Yea, I know, duh, of course. What I mean is to set yourself down and just... write. In a notebook, on an iPad, on sticky-notes. Whatever. Get into the habit of writing every day. Carve out the time for yourself and your idea every day. An hour... a half hour... a few hours... just get into that habit.
Yea, I know, duh, of course. What I mean is to set yourself down and just... write. In a notebook, on an iPad, on sticky-notes. Whatever. Get into the habit of writing every day. Carve out the time for yourself and your idea every day. An hour... a half hour... a few hours... just get into that habit.
David Kruh
Walk away. Do something... anything having nothing to do with the story. Cut the grass... dust the house... walk the dog... allow yourself time for an idea to come. Most important: know this happens to most writers. It's one of the things which binds us. Before you know it you'll be screaming "that's it!" and off you go...
David Kruh
“David, how did you come up with the idea for INSEPARABLE?”
Like millions of people I’ve seen the terrific Clint Eastwood movie about the 1962 escape from Alcatraz by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers. Like millions more I have been to Alcatraz - as a tourist of course. (quick aside here - kudos to the National Park Service for creating a truly immersive experience. It's a great half day trip if you're in the San Francisco area.) Part of the tour takes you into the same exercise yard where they actually filmed some of the scenes from the Clint Eastwood movie. It was there one of the guides told us how, on certain nights, the sounds of music and laughter - and women - could be heard by frustrated inmates in their cells. And as I stood in that exercise yard looking at the Golden Gate bridge off in the distance and San Francisco just a mile south the idea popped into my head. What if the men had survived?
Then... another thought popped into my mind as my wife and daughter (who had recently become a teenager) joined me on those steps. Now, anyone who has a teen knows how they strain at their leash and will take almost any opportunity to assert their independence (as I did and my daughter certainly was doing.) The two experiences... Alcatraz and raising a teenager... came together in my mind to create this idea of having a teenager (straining at his leash) help the Anglin brothers to freedom.
Like millions of people I’ve seen the terrific Clint Eastwood movie about the 1962 escape from Alcatraz by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers. Like millions more I have been to Alcatraz - as a tourist of course. (quick aside here - kudos to the National Park Service for creating a truly immersive experience. It's a great half day trip if you're in the San Francisco area.) Part of the tour takes you into the same exercise yard where they actually filmed some of the scenes from the Clint Eastwood movie. It was there one of the guides told us how, on certain nights, the sounds of music and laughter - and women - could be heard by frustrated inmates in their cells. And as I stood in that exercise yard looking at the Golden Gate bridge off in the distance and San Francisco just a mile south the idea popped into my head. What if the men had survived?
Then... another thought popped into my mind as my wife and daughter (who had recently become a teenager) joined me on those steps. Now, anyone who has a teen knows how they strain at their leash and will take almost any opportunity to assert their independence (as I did and my daughter certainly was doing.) The two experiences... Alcatraz and raising a teenager... came together in my mind to create this idea of having a teenager (straining at his leash) help the Anglin brothers to freedom.
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