Magical Memoir Moments
Pilgrim's Progress: Walking Backward from England to Childhood, Part III
Blessed by several experiences of pilgrimage this summer, I’m now in the final stage of the journey: the return, where the main focus is on reflection. Because I am also finishing the first draft of my memoir about a Mennonite childhood, the return takes me back not only in space but in time also. Like the characters…
Mark Nepo's Thoughts on Memoir and Voice: Seven Thousand Ways to Listen
Oprah Winfrey has said that Mark Nepo’s writing takes her breath away. His The Book of Awakening has sold steadily since its publication in 2000 and then climbed up the bestseller lists in 2011 after Oprah picked it as one of her “favorite things.” Now Mark is ready to launch a new book called Seven…
The Yearning: How a Pilgrim Journey is Like a Memoir, Part II
Yearning. Everything starts with yearning. But that doesn’t mean the nature of the yearning is clear to the yearner. Sometimes we go on pilgrimage to find out what we yearn for. Sometimes a book, especially a memoir, grabs us by the hand and takes us on the same journey. In my case, I went on…
How Writing a Memoir Is Like a Pilgrimage: Part I, Overview
Even though the time clock is ticking on my memoir deadlines, I took time out this summer to travel. In July my husband and I traveled to Turkey and Greece, an amazing experience for both of us which I described in a previous post. After returning from that trip and hosting our whole family for…
A Memoir Overview: Guest Blog post at Jane Friedman's blog
Depending on whom you ask—or what lens you apply—memoir is either a boomlet that burst or a timeless form just now coming into its own. The first lens, the literary lens, gets a fair amount of press attention. The second lens, a more hidden one, may need a little more magnification. While I believe memoir is…
Gutsy: An Indie Publishing Success Story Interview
Gutsy author Sonia Marsh has an incredible story. It’s the story of a mom (and a dad) who fled the rat race and saved their family by moving to Belize for a year. How do I know about Sonia? I first wrote about her, one of my Santa Barbara Writers Conference friends, when she started her…
Adventures with eReaders: The Kindle Part 3
Here’s what Amazon calls “Shirley’s 2nd Kindle.” They gave me this one because I called their customer service department when my first one, an earlier model, died. Pretty impressive, eh? How many other companies offer you a newer model of a product valued at $149 for free without kicking and screaming? A more cynical person…
Thriving in Leadership: One of the Best Ways Ever to Write a Book
Since leadership is not the subject of this blog, I haven’t told you yet about a great leadership book writing project I’ve been part of. Now, however, the book is being published, so I want to focus on a part of the experience that is relevant to this blog — the writing process. Like all…
350 Posts! Can You Believe It?
The end of July and the first half of August are always celebration times in our family. We celebrate three birthdays and a wedding anniversary in the span of eighteen days. Four years ago, my son Anthony delighted me with the birthday gift of setting up a WordPress blog for me. The blog today has…
The Memoir Shadow: Greeting the Child Self
I’ve been visiting my family — my mother and three sisters and one brother — all of whom live close to our childhood home of 304 E. Newport Road, Lititz, PA. This morning I took a walk along the linear park that runs through the meadow and along the creek of the land that was…