A Rood Awakening

When you’re questioned by the Reader’s Watchdog

I was still vibrating from telling one of the most intimate stories of my life when Lee Rood approached me on the Hoyt Sherman stage and asked a question I was not prepared to answer.

“So what’s next?”

If you do not know Lee, she is a fellow storyteller and a longtime investigative columnist for the Des Moines Register. When I joined the CNA newsroom in 2012, I didn’t know the difference between AP and APA style, so I studied her work. It helped me climb the ranks. I eventually became a managing editor of multiple Shaw Media publications and even won a few Iowa Newspaper Association awards along the way.

Lee is someone I respect so much that I fear her a little. So when she asked, “What’s next?” it did not feel like casual curiosity. It felt like a challenge delivered with the urgency of someone who smells smoke. I was still coming down from the rush of having my insides cut open and spilled out on stage, and she wanted to know what comes after that.

The truth is that I didn’t know. I had ideas, scraps, beginnings, and memories, but nothing with a clear shape. For the entire hour and twenty minute drive home, her question replayed. It kept tugging at me in the days that followed. Not in a nagging way, but in a way that nudged me toward the bigger arc and the longer story.

A few weeks later, when I headed to the Okoboji Writers Retreat, I expected I would run into her there, and I carried her question with me like an unopened letter. I was sitting on an idea and hoped I would have the chance to run it by her. Hear her thoughts. Breathe lake air. Sit in rooms with other writers. Maybe let inspiration sidle up to me while I skipped rocks from the dock. But, she wasn’t there. I quickly learned she was called to duty. I was going to have to find inspo elsewhere.

But inspiration, at least for me, does not like crowds. It doesn’t like scheduled epiphanies or workshop arranged in time blocks. What I did love were the private conversations, the side moments with all the other writers who felt like their own version of Lee. I really was among the greats, and I left Okoboji feeling inspired and validated.

A few days before the retreat, while driving home, I suddenly remembered Augustine’s Confessions, a book I had not thought about since college. Then I remembered Vita Brevis, the fictional response from the woman he left behind. And something clicked.

That is it, I thought. A memoir about adoption. I am an adoptee and a birthmother. A call and a response. Two voices speaking across time. A story shaped by grief and transformation, not healing but understanding. A shift into someone else’s shoes. Becoming my mother and realizing I did not need to meet her to answer my most pressing questions. By becoming her, I already understood.

Two narratives in conversation. Two lives in dialogue. Two truths that echo, contradict, and reveal each other.

I arrived in Okoboji with only that realization. Two stories sharing one spine. My spine, yes, but also the spine of the book.

So while I have been quiet on Substack, I have been productive. I do not feel the need to rush anything, although I might.

I have many stories, but this idea feels like it could be my magnum opus if I give it the time it deserves.

I met up with Lee for coffee at The Slow Down Coffee Co. Friday, and let her know her question pushed me inward. The retreat clarified the direction.

“Maybe you’ll have a draft to take to Okoboji,” she said.

And now, staring out the front window of this cafe, I realized what Lee had awakened.

Not a plan.
Not a product.
But a beginning.

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Hello! I’m Sarah Scull — a former journalist and columnist, honored with multiple Iowa Newspaper Association awards. Today I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative and a featured speaker with the Iowa Storytellers Project. Beyond the page and the stage, I’m a band mom, quilter, historic preservationist, and arts advocate working to keep creativity and community thriving in Southwest Iowa.

Where to find me: The Iowa Writers Collaborative Weekly Roundup Flipside, where stories go to breathe. That’s where you’ll find the heart and soul behind the headlines and Iowa life.

Paid subscribers to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative — or to any of its writers — are invited to hang out in our virtual office lounge at noon CST on the last Friday of each month, hosted by our friend Robert Leonard, anthropologist with bylines in the NY Times, TIME, the Des Moines Register, the Iowa Capital Dispatch, and so many more. [Find the link here.]

If you want to keep up with me, subscribe to Piecemaker, here. It’s free. And something that’s not free, but super close to my heart: these kids.

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You’re invited: Join us for the IWC Holiday Party!

Join the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative for a festive holiday soirée 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, December 17 2025, held at The Harkin Institute, 2800 University Ave., Des Moines, IA 50311.

Mix, mingle, and celebrate with IWC writers — plus enjoy an intimate live performance by The Weary Ramblers.

Attendance is free for any paid subscriber to the Iowa Writers Collaborative or any of its members, while non-members may attend for $35. Please RSVP by Friday, December 5. If you have questions, please feel free to message me!