Shoofly Pie & Chop Shop (87 page)

As a writer of fiction, my job is to tell lies—but to use enough truth to make the story sound as though it just might happen. All of the characters in
Chop Shop
are fictional, though most of the settings are very real. There is a Pittsburgh, a Tarentum, and an Allegheny River. PharmaGen does not exist; the Fox Chapel Yacht Club does. The coal-mining town of Mencken does not exist; the Duquesne Incline does. In this kind of blending of fact and fiction, there’s a chance that some very real person or group might inadvertently fall under the shadow of its fictional counterpart. This is potentially the case with two very fine organizations, and I wish to clarify any misconceptions here.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office—The Allegheny County Coroner’s Office appears in my story. In the real world, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office is one of the top forensic pathology facilities in the United States. The professionalism and skill of their staff are known and respected nationwide, and I wish to thank them for their forbearance and good humor toward my fictional tale. You can learn more about the real Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office by visiting their informative Web site at
www.alleghenycounty.us/
me.

The Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE)—My story involves a fictional organ procurement organization based in Pittsburgh. In fact, there is an organ procurement organization based in Pittsburgh—the Center for Organ Recovery and Education. Since its inception twenty-five years ago, CORE has helped to provide more than 300,000 organs, tissues, and corneas for transplantation. They have saved innumerable lives and done immeasurable good, and I in no way wish to cast doubt or generate fear about legitimate organ donation. I have requested a little red heart to be placed on my driver’s license, and I encourage my readers to do the same. You can learn more about organ donation and procurement by visiting CORE’s Web site at
www.core.org
. Be sure to visit the link titled “Donation & Transplantation: Myths About Donation.”