Fact or Fiction with Shelley Blanton-Stroud 

What might you do with the bits and pieces and stories of your family? Our January meeting will explore this theme with Shelley Blanton-Stroud, author of "Copy Boy."

"It took me quite a while to figure out what my book, Copy Boy, would be, my trouble mostly arising from the gap between fact and truth. Facts are verifiable things. Truth is the meaning an individual makes of the facts we choose to consider.

I decided to turn to traditional historical references— books and newspapers about the Dust Bowl/Great Depression period in California— for a more-complete context on my family’s life. But there was often so much missing in these sources—the feel of the time.

I turned to more subjective, artistic, personal work from the period—the photographs and biography of WPA photographer Dorothea Lange, the essays of the iconic columnist Herb Caen, the biographies of folk-roots musician Woody Guthrie and SF Chronicle editor in chief, Paul C. Smith. There was a lot in these sources to use.

I decided. I was going to write a historical novel." 

About Shelley

Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She teaches college writing in Northern California and consults with writers in the energy industry.

She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference.

Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons.

Meeting Agenda and Logistics

• 12:45 pm Zoom Room opens for informal conversation with members and guests
• 1:00 pm Meeting beings — Welcome from the President
• 1:05 pm Member reading
• 1:10 pm Featured Presentation — Shelley Blanton-Stroud
• 2:15 pm Member Announcements
• 2:30 pm Meeting Closes

The meeting will be recorded and made available to registrants.

All CWC members and non-members are welcome to attend.