Magical Memoir Moments
An Inspiring Gift Leads Me to Ask for Your Memoir Help
Today’s New Beginning just happened to me. And I did nothing to ask for it. It was like grace. Unmerited and free. Did you know that when you pre-order a book on Amazon you can share the news on Facebook and Twitter? Today one of my Facebook friends, Renee Nofzinger Quistorf, did that. Then she…
Tobacco: An Unlikely Mennonite Crop and a Source of a Memoir Excerpt
“Stop,” I cried. “I need to take a picture of that.” My dear husband turned the car around and allowed me to jump out long enough to take the photo above. It brought back some vivid memories. One of the earliest stories I wrote when I started my memoir concerned my early career as a…
Mennonite Dancing! It Ain't Pretty, But that's Okay
Mennonite prohibitions included dancing, television, and movies. When my gym teacher taught a class unit on dancing, I had to turn in a note sent by my mother excusing me for religious reasons. Those classes spent with one other lonely Mennonite classmate on the wooden bleachers were some of the longest fifty minutes in high…
A Lancaster County Wedding: Celebration of Faith, Family, Friendship, and Farming
Our niece Valerie, the youngest of my mother’s grandchildren, married her sweetheart Nate yesterday. The whole family labored for months to restore an old mill to a usable space, mow the grass, pump out the overflow from the creek, pick the flowers for centerpieces, put up and take down chairs, tent, and then get dressed…
Why a Night at Forgotten Seasons is the First Prize of the 100 Day Challenge: An Interview With Kathy Wenger
Forgotten Seasons, a bed & breakfast near Lititz, Pennsylvania, holds a special place in my heart. When I thought about a prize for the 100 Day Challenge, a night at Forgotten Seasons seemed like a natural. All across America, family farms are disappearing. They are either turned into residential and commercial development or into…
Hershey Chocolate: A Life-long Combination
Now that you know that the last two numbers have been written with Hershey chocolate syrup, and now that you know frugality is a life-long habit of mine, you are probably wondering how I put that syrup to good use. Shirley Hershey was my name for 21 years, and it’s still part of my identity….
Saying Good-bye to My Memoir: The Final Proofreading
This will be short, folks! I have a very important job to do today. This is the deadline for returning my manuscript to the Herald Press editor so that he can implement the print schedule. So many stages in the production of a book! And it’s scary to find corrections even at the end when…
Meadow Tea: A Memoir Story You Can Really Drink In
One of my favorite summer time chores was gathering mint for Mother. My brother and I would take a bucket and two sharp knives and walk into the meadow, following the creek, past the weeping willow trees, to the bank where the mint grew in profusion. When we heard the Tetley Tea commercial on the…
Summer Sunday Sabbath: A Different Lancaster County Memoir
I loved the screen Sabbath I took two weeks ago. I made an exception for Father’s Day, but now I am back for another try. If you are joining me, let me know, either as your New Beginning or below in the comments section. My new beginning today will be biking somewhere I haven’t been…
A Perfect Summer Afternoon: Friendship, Beauty, Food, Books, and Other Fun
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” ― Henry James I met Tina in the fall of 1966. We were college roommates in Northlawn residence hall at Eastern Mennonite College. Now we both live less than a mile from the place we met. That…