Life Imitating Art
We’ve all heard about truth being stranger than fiction, but this concept took a strange twist for me a few weeks ago. Please bear with me on the details.
I was at a fundraiser for my pal Tom Campbell, shooting photographs of the guests out of appreciation. A woman came up to me and introduced herself. Heather Hummel is the daughter of a woman I had interviewed several years earlier; Heather had ghostwritten most of her mother’s book and had gotten it published. She told me she thought we might get together to talk about writing and publishing. Sure, I said.
Also at the event was one of the top political fundraisers in the country. We got to chatting and the connection was marvelous. Afterwards we enjoyed a sparkling three-hour dinner talking about politics and childhoods and writing. I told her of a novel I had started about a man who had moved across the country to take a teaching job, only to have the job offer pulled upon his arrival. Another character in the novel told him, Well, it seems you didn’t make the move for the job. Soon he met an extraordinary woman, and... That’s where I was in my writing.
Anyway, this consultant thought I would be great for her wealthy and powerful clients, which was very exciting. Until over the next three days she failed to respond to emails and phone messages. The about-face was so stunning, it almost didn’t hurt.
Then Heather emailed me and we got together for coffee the next morning. The synergy was beyond extraordinary approaching miraculous. We came up with a plan for eliciting and publishing – and producing as video interviews – the life stories of interesting people. Four days later the web site was up, the business cards were being printed, and our first two prospects had said yes.
The fact is that there are a great many people out there who have led fascinating lives, and what they’ve learned would benefit those who are following. Sometimes just those within their own circle, sometimes the general public.
Things sure get interesting when life imitates art. Especially when I produced the art.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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