Stepping into a character, and drawing out their intrinsic nature to develop a story, can be either exhilarating or grueling, but never boring.

My early days of writing were spent journaling and working through my life's many stories. Sometimes a memoir reflects that.

I love Lillian Hellman's use of the word, pentimento, in her book of the same name. Pentimento is when an artist uses an previously painted canvas for a new work, but one can see a hint of what was in the finished work.

Lillian likens it to how, as we look back over our lives, our memories of our memories of our memories are different that the reality, but that we can see the hint of what once was. She wrote from that perspective.

I don't remember much of my younger life except in swaths of emotion, bits and pieces of conversations or events. Everything I've written is from my 74 years of lived experience, filtered along the way through the wisdom of those much smarter than I.

Lovely piece, Harry!