Ask the Author: Heidi Hackford
Answered Questions (4)
Heidi Hackford
I started working at Monticello around the time that DNA evidence showed that Thomas Jefferson was likely the father of his slave Sallie Hemings' children. Even without the DNA tests, the historical evidence is fairly compelling, so I was shocked that this created so much controversy in Charlottesville and among historians. I even heard that a couple of the docents quit over the issue. It got me thinking about how strongly our own identities can be tied up with people and events in the past.
Heidi Hackford
I started reading a lot when I was around 8 years-old, because I grew up in Buffalo, New York, and it was cold and snowy outside during the long winters. I started writing around the same time. Taking a journey into another writer's imagination in a work of fiction, or into a world I don't know much about in non-fiction, sparks my own imagination.
Heidi Hackford
I'm working on an upmarket novel called Folly Park that was inspired by working at Monticello and current events in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here's my tagline: The discovery that a Confederate general’s wife gave birth to a biracial baby convulses his hometown 150 years later, and his descendant must decide how far she’s willing to go to save his house—now a tourist attraction—in the shadow of her brother’s race-driven campaign for mayor.
Heidi Hackford
For short-term blockage, I go on a walk. That seems to jostle the brain cells. For longer-term blockage, I continue to read voraciously, go on many walks, and try to observe what is going on around me and what sparks my interest. Then I ask myself questions about what, exactly, I find interesting and why and follow where it leads.
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