Ethical Story-Telling

One of the toughest obstacles I faced writing River of January, was assuming I knew the family story best.  These people were real and left a rich paper trail of their dramatic lives.  I was lucky enough have recorded interviews, stories graciously shared by family members, and volumes of letters, mementos, and photographs. The internet, too, has been helpful.

Still, I struggled with the presumptuous notion of interpreting Helen and Chum’s lives through my understanding.  After agonizing for a good year over the arrogance of committing their lives to paper, I experienced a moment of clarity.

These two deserve to be remembered.  If that task was placed in my novice hands, so be it.

I have since spent the last three years learning how to write, because this story must be told, their adventures pieced together into a more coherent picture.

I hope to share more regarding the events that led to this book in future blogs.

River of January, how it happened when I wasn’t looking

I never saw this book coming.  I certainly didn’t go looking for such an ordeal, either.  But life assigned custody of the tale into my inexperienced hands and there began my challenge.  I’ve never written before.

This story concerns the lives of two ambitious individuals, born in the early years of the 20th Century, Mont Chumbley and his love Helen Thompson Chumbley.  This first volume examines their lives from childhood to excellence in the fields of aviation and show business, and how both attained success.

However, River is a true story and not all was elegance and achievement.  Both hailed from difficult families and beginnings.  Though Helen and Chum enjoyed adulation separately, together the issues of family, especially Helen’s mother, threatened their bond.

How the story came to me, in all it’s unlikely circumstances is covered in the pages of the book.  However, I do plan to explain the background details and examples from the narrative in later blogs.