Hello from Maryland This is part one about the process of creating the story, “Heartwood.” You can read part 1 here, and continue on through the four parts by following the links at the bottom of each post. Part two next week will be about the process of drafting, workshopping and revising the story over about 18 months.
The spark and research
Back in 2016, I was devastated by the story of a maple sugaring family whose woods were cleared for a methane pipeline by an illegal framing of eminent domain.1 I’d been researching the effects of methane fracking on the residents of northeastern Pennsylvania, which innocently sits atop the Marcellus shale formation. I was inspired to add this latest outrage to my novel as yet another illustration of heavy industry ravaging the lives of people who’ve lived close to the land for generations.
But the maple tree massacre2 never made it into the novel. My MFA mentors were constantly after me to go deeper, rather than wider. As it was, to complete my thesis, I had to cut three of the four POV characters I’d been writing. When I decided to rework some of that material into short stories, I remembered this tragedy. Or, rather, it remembered me.
In January, 2023, I starting googling and found the story again, along with updates and even a surprisingly hopeful ending. On a Facebook page3, I read a long post by Megan Holleran dated July 3, 2020 that her family finally had their land rights returned, following years of court filings, a Go-Fund-Me campaign for the legal fees, and their agreement to sign a non-disclosure. Similar pipeline conflicts in the area were covered in articles like this one.4 Further reporting disclosed that the pipeline company didn’t even have all the necessary permits before cutting the trees down.5 The protests dated all the way back to 2012.6
Most of the outrageous details in my story came from real events, like U.S. Marshals arriving on the Holleran’s property with AR-15 assault weapons and bullet-proof vests. Protesters came from all over in support and they really did paint American flags on the trees. Some even kneeled in silence as the maples fell.7
The Hollerans’ story may have taken a hopeful turn, but it’s not clear if anyone will be held financially responsible for the region’s extensive environmental damage.8 Worse, extraction has resumed. In December, 2022 local station WNBF ran a story, “Pa. Quietly Approves Resumption of Fracking in Dimock,” about a company preparing to start drilling, even after it had just pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor violation of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law.9 Because, money.
Let’s leave this heartbreaking story on a happier note, which is that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation coordinates a program called the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership that worked with the Hollerans to replant 200 trees.10 Sure, they won’t be ready to tap for syrup until they are 40 or 50 years old. But ~ the TREES WON!
Out of the mouths of babes
In February, 2023, I went to maple sugaring day at Oregon Ridge State Park, an annual family event that, in all the years I’ve lived in Baltimore, I’d never attended. We’d had our usual depressingly mild winter with no snow at all—except on the very day of the maple sugaring. Following the park ranger through the cold, bare woods in the company of kids and parents and falling snow was magical. I learned the history of syrup-making in North America, which settlers learned from Native Americans. Of course they did.
Maple sap is 98% water, so it takes 40 gallons to make one gallon of syrup. I learned from the rangers that you can even make syrup from other trees. I tasted bittersweet Black Walnut syrup, which is the brown-black of molasses and just as thick. (Delicious!) It’s uncommon because it takes one hundred gallons of walnut sap to make one gallon of syrup. This detail sadly did not survive past my first story draft, one of many darlings sacrificed. I’ll cover the writing, workshop and revision process in next week’s post.
“Maples are all talkative and eager, like Golden Retrievers. Black Walnuts are stately and aloof, like the queen in a fairy tale.”
As the park ranger led us around to visit trees tapped with tin spiles and hung with tin buckets, I overheard a child say to her mother, “Look how the trees hold up the sky.” Later, I wrote this achingly poetic phrase in my notebook. It was too good not to use in the story.
Response and future plans
Publishing “Heartwood” in four parts on Substack has been an interesting experiment. Full transparency, engagement from readers waned with each new installment. This may be a natural process of readers sorting themselves based on their personal taste. Or maybe everyone is busy and distracted <raises hand>. At least two Substack readers reported crying, so <brushes hands together> my work here is done.11
The full story is only 6,500 words (20 pages), so ideally read in one go, or maybe two parts instead of four. I will consider this as I publish the next stories. I lost a few free subs after publishing part 1 of the story, something that has only happened once before: when I posted another piece of fiction, Katabasis.12 Because the majority of my readers subscribed for essays rather than fiction,
advised me to create a separate section for stories. This seems to have stanched the exodus.In my experience so far, readership here for fiction is smaller than for non-fiction, journalism, memoir, writing about writing, how-to, and other genres. My own Substack reading habits are about 80% non-fiction, 20% fiction. I may still submit this story to lit journals and magazines, since that is where fiction-readers gather. I had hoped to avoid those gatekeepers, but we shall see. I welcome any suggestions of where to submit. I do subscribe to
, so will look there as well.Thanks for reading! If you’re writing fiction here, how has your experience been? I also love to talk process, so feel free to share any experiences of writing stories based on real events. Or any other inspirations!
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I learned from this case that eminent domain takings, often controversial, are only justified if the public good being served applies to that same local community. In this case, the public good was defined very generally as Americans, whose need for methane gas far outweighs their need for maple syrup. In reality, methane goes where the money is, which is why the new frontier is CNG terminals to ship it overseas. So much for “energy independence.”
This video shows the men cutting the trees down on March 1, 2016
Stop the Con Pipeline Facebook page has posts dating back to 2016, when the Holleran family lost the court case.
“Pipelines: The new battleground over fracking,” NPR’s State Impact series for PA, April 2, 2015.
“A company cut trees for a pipeline that hasn’t been approved. The landowners just filed for compensation,” NPR State Impact series, PA, July 12, 2018.
“Energy giant drops proposed Constitution Pipeline,” from The Daily Star, Feb. 21, 2020. The photo of protestors outside a Delaware County Board of Supervisors meeting dates from 2012.
“Maple syrup trees cut to make way for the Constitution Pipeline,” March 2, 2016 and “U.S. Marshals Enforce Eminent Domain for Constitution Pipeline,” March 4, 2016
July 2020 New York Times article about fracking failing and executives draining the coffers on the way out, leaving no money to clean up the messes they’ve made.
“PA 'Quietly' Approves Resumption of Fracking in Dimock,” article here
“New Trees Are Sweet Healing for North Harford Maple Farm,” October 9, 2020
No English word exists for this simple gesture of wiping or dusting hands together. I actually searched online and found others puzzling over it, too. Who knew?
Yours was the first fiction I’ve read on Substack. I loved it. And shed a few tears. Eminent domain has been so abused in this country, it is infuriating. I am originally from PA and witnessed it twice, but in a different context (new highways). My biggest problem is I subscribe to quite a few, shall we call them, current event newsletters, so I don’t have time to find new fiction writers. Yours was re-stacked and I’m so happy I stumbled on it. I’m hoping to go back and read older posts.
Bummer about fewer comments. I'm guilty. Loved the story and shared it on FB so that maybe it would impact another reader.
As a side, the story I have been revising for the past couple of weeks begins and ends with two different maple sugar seasons. In between is the story of a mountain losing one-third of its mass because of open pit mining. I follow the path of panning for gold to the superfund impact of cyanide use to gather infinitesimal gold flakes accumulated at the bottom of a heap pile. Seems are brains are working similarly.