[stylist] the stories behind the question

[Applebutter Hill]

In your neices case, you didn't plan it as a well-intentioned hokes; you
just went with it in the moment, and in that moment you couldn't be sure
that you weren't the only one who sent her sauce. Thanks for sharing your
struggle with this. I think it would make a great story.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
via stylist
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2014 8:49 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: [stylist] the stories behind the question

Howdy, folks. Thanks to you who read and responded to my philosophical
question yesterday. I expected more responses saying either it was right, or
wrong, so I'm glad I asked.



Much of my fiction, as I expect is true for a lot of writers, comes from the
seeds of everyday life. So back in May of 2010, my mother-in-law was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 4 to 6 months to live. The news
devastated us all, and this wonderfully alive woman slumped into a deep
despondency. I bought her things, tried to make her laugh, but her spark was
gone. So, I had an idea. She loved Tom jones (the singer) and I thought a
personal note from him would put the sunshine back into her. Searching
online, I sent letters to his representatives in LA, Las Vegas, New York and
England. I was able to find an address for his son, who is his manager, so I
wrote to him as well. A month went by, then two, and there was no news from
old Tom. And that's when I had the idea of writing the letter myself,
pretending to be Tom. I have a friend who lives near Las Vegas, and I knew
he'd mail it for me. But, in the end, I didn't do it. I just knew I'd be the
schmuck of the family if the truth ever came out. I imagined how happy the
family would be, and afterwards they'd frame the letter and comment on it to
friends, and all the while I'd feel like a total dog turd. My mother-in-law
passed away on October 9, 2010, never hearing from Tom Jones.



Fast forward to this summer. In July, my niece from Ohio, who is autistic,
came to stay with us for 10 days. We had a great visit. One day I made
buffalo chicken wraps, and I found out how much she loved Sweet Baby Ray's
Buffalo Chicken sauce. Over the next week, she polished off over a bottle
and a half of the stuff. My wife, noticing how much she loved it, encouraged
her to write a letter to the company, which she did. She went home, two
weeks went by, and I was thinking about her, so I went on amazon and bought
her a package of 4 bottles. Maybe a week later I get a phone call from my
niece.



"Hey Uncle Chris," she said with great excitement. "Guess what? Sweet Baby
Ray's sent me four bottles of buffalo chicken sauce! Isn't that the coolest
thing?"



It was only then that the lightbulb went off in my head. In truth, I had
completely forgotten about the letter she wrote. So I was left in a
quandary. Should I tell her I bought the sauce, and rain on her day? Or
should I just let it slide, an untruth by omission, so to speak, and let her
think something totally cool happened to her. I only had a second, so I
picked.

"Hey, that's great," I told her. "They must be a really great company."



This incident made me think back to the Tom Jones near incident, and that
got me thinking about how I might turn this into a story. I'm leaving on
vacation in about an hour, so perhaps I'll work on it then.



Peace,



Chris



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