Author’s Note

When I was Auggie’s age, I started going to farm auctions with my folks. I grew up in Missouri (again, just like Auggie), in a town that was a pretty even mix of city life and rural surroundings. My childhood house, located in the third biggest city in the state, was also just a stone’s throw from a field marked off with barbed wire! We never really had to go far to find auctions on old farmland.

I mostly spent those auctions under enormous shade trees with piles of books. Every once in a while, I’d take a break from reading to crowd-watch. The grown-ups who came to those auctions ran the gamut. They were antique dealers looking for pieces to sell, or they were collectors looking to add items to their displays, or they were rugged men in overalls who wanted cheap supplies for their own farms. Looking back now, it seems as though those dealers and collectors became the basis for T. Walker, and those crafty old farming guys who’d spent their lives in Missouri were the basis for Gus.

Many of the treasures at farm auctions were handmade, using reinvented materials. Some had been created out of necessity: Hand-forged tools made from pieces of old machinery. Quilts with intricate patterns, sewn from old scraps of clothing. Primitive-looking furniture made from old wooden crates. Other items were used as decoration, such as small wooden dresser knickknacks made from cigar boxes, or framed needlework on old burlap feed sacks.

The beginning of Auggie’s story came to me years after my first farm auction. Actually, I didn’t get the idea for a story as much as I got an idea for characters, and the book spiraled out after that.

The first person I saw was Gus. I saw him as clearly as I’ve seen any real person I’ve ever met in life. It was as if I were looking through Auggie’s eyes, straight at her grampa. I knew I had to write about the kind of people who created those unique, handmade items I’d been finding at auction. But I wanted my characters to make bigger items, wilder items. Full-blown sculptures.

My favorite part of Auggie’s story is the way she stumbles upon her talent, in the same way my family once stumbled upon items for sale at auction. I think that’s so true in life. Everybody in this world has a shine, just like Auggie. But Auggie’s original goal was to spruce up her house. She never would have guessed, in the beginning, that it would lead to her becoming a folk artist. You never know when your shine will appear . . . and sometimes, it takes a creative eye to recognize it.