To Klan or not to Klan

Finding a topic that readers will want but doesn’t ick me out

I am an historical fiction writer. When I discover some tidbit of history that interests me, I do a deep dive to educate myself. If I find it interesting, I want to weave it into a fictional novel. My fascination with Iowa bootlegging brought me my third book, Moonshine by Moonlight, set in Carroll County, Iowa’s most proliferate bootlegging county in the 1920s.

So far, the book has been a hit. Not the New York Times best-seller list hit, but a hit for a small, independent author such as myself. People are fascinated by illegal whiskey and the ways the bootleggers made it, hid it, sold it, and got it out of state.

My publisher recommended I find another topic just as interesting. He’s right, of course. But it’s not that easy. I also need to find the topic engaging because I’m stuck with it for the couple of years it takes me to write the book. Once I publish it, I take it on the road, giving programs to potential readers in libraries across Iowa.

Recently, I was in such a library. I present Iowa history programs using the research for each book. To fill out each program and not give away everything in the novel, I add more research, which took me on an unusual path for my “Iowa’s Prohibition and Bootlegging Legacy” program.

In the section where I talk about those Iowans who were part of the Dry movement, I introduce Myrtle Cook from Benton County. Myrtle wasn’t anything notable in Iowa’s history, but she was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. While explaining her role in Prohibition, I take a side road into Iowa’s Klan activities during the 20s.

I always notice my audience sitting a little taller with eyes and ears focused directly on me. I am well aware that the KKK is a topic that interests (and repels) my audience.

Inevitably, one or more patrons will come up to me after the program to share their Klan story: the Klan application in an ancestor’s personal papers, Klan robes found in the attic or basement of their recently purchased historical house, a relative who had climbed high in the ranks.  

After the program at one particular library, a patron came up to me. She did not have a personal story. She approached me to encourage me to publish a book about the Iowa Klan. “You could tell people’s personal stories,” she offered.

My immediate reaction was “no.” I said I didn’t write about such reprehensible things.

The topic is now haunting me. Do I want another book that sells well? Of course I do. Do I think this would sell? Yes, it probably would. Can I stand to wallow in the history? I don’t know.

I don’t even know if I could come up with a storyline.

And then there’s the issue of giving the Klan attention. Would a book on such a topic give undue notoriety to them? Should I?

I’d love to know the opinions of others. Would you buy a book about the Iowa Klan? Or would the topic be too repulsive to you?