The Library of Virginia in Richmond celebrates two-hundred years of service this year. The on-line access to databases and eBooks offered by the library has been invaluable to my research. Newspaper articles provide facts and opinions from multiple points of view, the foundation of my narrative nonfiction.
If newspaper articles do the heavy lifting for my research about the discovery of the earthquake fault under the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, the heart of this story comes from talking to the people who were there: interviewing people by phone or in person who knew the participants or saw the geology. I’ve had opportunities to speak to professional geologists who visited the North Anna. I’ve spoken friends of Dr. Funkhouser and to Mr. Moss’s daughter.
But arguably the most insightful interview I’ve ever conducted came about because two wonderful people shared stories about Doc Funkhouser with their daughter. They told her about the brilliant and colorful geology professor they knew in the early 1970s.
A few months ago, I received a message from a young woman who told me her parents knew both Dr. Funkhouser and the man convicted of murdering him. I immediately scheduled a lunch meeting with the young woman and her parents. The meeting was a windfall for my research. Both parents were well informed on the issues surrounding nuclear energy and had fabulously detailed memories of Doc and his murderer. Here’s the kicker. These wonderful people might never have seen my blog posts about North Anna or Dr. Funkhouser without their daughter. And their daughter wouldn’t have realized the significance of what she’d stumbled upon had they not told her stories of their youth.
Tell your stories! Share your history! Facts and opinion only go far in bringing the past to life. We need to hear it from the people who were there!
BACCA Literary 