Magical Memoir Moments
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…
Paying Life Forward: Memoir and Mentorship
When I was twelve years old, my family moved from a farm we rented in Manheim, Penna., to the “home place,” the farm my parents bought from my grandparents. That move, I now recognize, changed my life. I went from being a moderately engaged student trying to fit in with a social crowd to being…
After the Children Drive Away: Memoir in the Form of a Poem
This week I offer you two pictures and one poem. When the Children Leave Home The children are no longer children. They live far away. When they leave, so soon, again, I do the vacuuming. I pick up the white fluffy polar bear, take the Pat the Bunny book downstairs where it will wait…
Simplicity: A Very Short Mennonite Memoir
“The more we have, the less we own.” Meister Eckhart I grew up in a simpler age, the 1950’s. We lived on a 100-acre dairy farm. We were Mennonite. I should know all about simplicity, right? Of course, it’s not that simple. Recently someone asked for advice on how to simplify his life. In turn,…