S1E126 - Ep 126 - Thomas Maltman on Making Stories Real

What do you do when you have no ashes the night before Ash Wednesday? You burn something, of course. And then twenty years later, you write a novel about it.

That's exactly what happened to novelist Thomas Maltman, who teaches at Normandale Community College, is married to a Lutheran pastor, and has four novels under his belt, including Ashes to Ashes (currently in Minnesota Book Award contention).

The real-life Ash Wednesday mishap became the premise for his latest book: What if the ashes wouldn't wash away? What if this happened in a small town? How...