Author Tom Piazza (pee-AHT-zah) had two really good ideas for novels, but even after months of work neither of them panned out. So he gave himself a change of location. He rented a garage and just sat down to write. He wanted to see what would happen. He found himself writing stories about a suburban community in New York State, a bit like the one where he grew up. The stories all seemed to be told by one voice --- someone who was not Tom Piazza. The stories grew into a novel "My Cold War". It's the story of a hot-shot history professor with writers block. He's trying to write a new book about the Cold War. Instead he daydreams and frets about his own youth growing up just after the Cuban Missile crisis. Tom Piazza told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr, it took him a while to find out just who was telling the story.