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We’ve all got family histories, some more intriguing than others. But turning our ancestors’ tales from simple word-of-mouth recollections into a novel that’s descriptive, detailed, and filled with tension is daunting. Especially when your long lost relatives are no longer alive and there is little factual information upon which to draw. On the other hand, sometimes the writer prefers to remain faithful to the actual story rather than embellishing it to follow a dramatic arc. Author Kyra Robinov describes the challenge of both recreating the survival story of her grandmother Luba in her fictional Red Winter and finding the drama in her father’s story, which spanned the 20th century and the globe, in her non-fiction memoir/biography, HiStory.