Valerie Trueblood

Valerie Trueblood's 2013 book is Search Party: Stories of Rescue.

From her Q & A with Caroline Leavitt:

Why does the very idea of a search lead to so much story?

We need so many things! A lot of life is spent in finding them. While we may not go out with a lantern like Diogenes, we do spend a lot of time searching, from babyhood on: for food, safety, a friend, work, knowledge, a place to live, a mate--and finally searching our own memories for what remains of these things when we're old. I admit this came to me just now in thinking about your question. I didn't think in these sweeping terms when I was writing the stories. A story can't be summoned that way. Mine seem to have to be found under a rock.

I also want to ask you about the title, which I think is perfect--Search Party, seems so ominous, but then there is the subhead, stories of rescue, which almost makes us breathe a sigh of relief.

You're a writer, and you're the reader we all want: someone who feels the ominousness, someone who sighs with relief--and just at the title, at that. I wish everyone read in this spirit, with this openness to what might be coming.

I do believe in rescue. The situation gets pretty desperate and now and then--perhaps rarely, but often enough that we remember the times it happened or the stories we heard of it--someone says or does something that helps, even saves. How or why this happens at times, and at others does not, is...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue