Getting the details right required a bit of research. I've never gone ice fishing. I bought 16 books on ice fishing, read them completely, then talked to some ice fishermen. Now people who have read the story are calling me up asking when I'm going ice fishing again. When I say I've never done it, they don't believe me.
Most aspiring writers take that as an excuse for writing autobiography.
I see writing as an excuse to become a student of the world. Elements from life around him show up here and there. Maggie the dog turns up in a couple scenes. But Parvin denies that the characters he creates are veiled versions of himself. I basically write the kind of stories I like to read.