Can you go home again?

I’m going back to my hometown Saturday, April 13, to talk about the origins of my new mystery, Show Me the Murder, and visit from 2-4 p.m. with old and new friends at the Hastings, 1800 North Baltimore, 2-4 p.m.

More to the point: Can a writer ever really leave home?

Wherever I go, I carry my past with me. An unreliable memory may alter and even delete parts of it, but the essence of life experiences remains. No period affects us as much as our early years when we see things for the first time. That’s one reason the protagonist in my mystery series comes back to her hometown after living most of her adult life in Vienna.

Laycock and Vandiver County don’t appear on any Missouri map, but many people who live in Kirksville will find the setting, and the people, familiar.

—Carolyn Mulford