Vermont-based author Howard Frank Mosher will be at Queen Anne Books at 3 p.m. this Sunday, April 11 to talk about his latest novel Walking to Gatlinburg. Mosher, who has written ten novels and a travel memoir, will be presenting an informative slide show called “Transforming History into Fiction: the Story of a Born Liar.”
Where do the boundaries lie between history and fiction? How far can a novelist go in appropriating and “transforming” history into fiction? Using his personal slides, and stories from his travels to the old Erie Canal, Pennsylvanian Amish country, the battlefield at Gettysburg, historical sectors of Richmond, and the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains, Mosher will discuss his use of historical events and characters in his just-released Civil War novel, Walking to Gatlinburg. As part of his research for the novel, Mosher read more than 100 Civil War histories and novels – his favorites are Cold Mountain and The Killer Angels – and retraced the entire trek of the novel’s hero, Morgan Kinneson, from northern Vermont to the Smokies.
For more information, check out the Queen Anne Books website (where they’ve also reviewed Mosher’s latest book).