Finished

Fourteen years ago I sat down to interview my dad about his involvement in the Omaha DePorres Club. That interview led to an article in the Creighton University alumni magazine, then to more interviews with other DePorres Club members, followed by hours and hours of poring through the boxes of archived DePorres Club materials that my dad had stored in his attic for over fifty years. At some point around 2005 (it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when, but I do remember thinking, “What have I done?) I realized that I was going to have to write a book. So for the next eight years I researched, organized, interviewed, wrote and rewrote, read and reread until I had a finished manuscript. I sent it to publishers with no luck, so I decided to self-publish – a decision I am glad I made. I own every aspect of the book; cover to cover. No one to blame but me.

I can’t wait for people to read it and learn the story of the Omaha DePorres Club. It’s bitter and sad, raw and edgy, funny and joyous; full of courage, innocence, determination, tenacity, and faith. It has characters that are fully human; flawed, doubting, brave – with senses of humor.

It is a story I am honored to have been able to tell.

Thanks to Dave Crawford of the Creighton University Archives for his blog post  about the book yesterday. He is one of the wonderful people I met during the process of writing this book.