Magical Memoir Moments
Charming Letters to Authors: Ready, Set, Go!
The author Carolyn See spoke at the first Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference I attended and said something I’ve never forgotten: Write a charming note to someone in the literary world five days a week, to someone who makes your hands sweat. Do it for the rest of your life. I thought that was a great…
Shirley Hershey's Twitter Account: What Kind Shall it Be?
My younger self, Shirley Ann Hershey, the main character of Blush, now has her own Twitter account. This account does not replace my @Shirleyhs account, active since 2009. The idea, to give the persona of my memoir her own voice, was the brain child of Evan McCarthy, who works at Herald Press, but is on…
How Silly to Envy John Green: A Confession of an Elderly Newbie
First, I need to register a complaint. I refer to myself as an “elderly newbie,” since it has taken me 65 years to write my first book. I’m used to bowing graciously to the vastly superior writing and technical knowledge of my juniors. But, this guy John Green takes me down a notch more. He’s…
Searching for the Fit Self: A Physical and Spiritual Check In
Time for a check up on my bigger goals. Let’s re-examine the goals on June 4: Personally, I want to feel rested, trim, fit, and ready for a marathon fall. I also want to experience gelassenheit. Whoa, you say. What’s that? Gelassenheit means yieldedness or submission to God and to community. It was a favorite…
A Story for Father's Day: What I Learned About Love from Daddy
My father was a farmer. He was just 23 years old when I was born. Three years later, my brother Henry entered our world. We were sharecroppers living on an 80-acre dairy farm near Manheim, Pennsylvania. My memories of this farm are almost entirely happy ones. Almost. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 15, “Dueling…
Frugality: Lessons Remembered from My Mennonite Upbringing
Can you guess why I took this picture? No, I didn’t go on a butter binge. Nor am I experimenting with French cooking. These are wrappers saved over the last year. Every time I look at a butter wrapper, I smile, remembering a statement one of Stuart’s Old Order Mennonite aunts made years ago when…
On the Way to the Finish Line: Stopping to Hug an Author
Since I’ve never published a book before, I find every phase of the process fascinating. The first thing I’ve learned that it’s harder work than I ever could have imagined. And it takes a whole village to produce one book. I turned my last draft in on April 1. Since then, I’ve worked with two…
The Plain Girl Within: One of Many Surprises in Writing My Memoir
At first I thought that my memoir would be about difference — how I felt like an outsider much of the time in my growing up years. When I started going to school, I became aware that I was “plain.” Sometimes I felt inferior to the majority of the students who were “fancy.” I…
Returning Thanks: An Annoying Duty to a Child, A Profound Memory for the Adult
My father’s father, David Paul Hershey, figures large in my memory of growing up. That’s primarily because the relationship between him and my father was complicated. Daddy bought the family farm (called The Home Place in my memoir Blush). Enough said. For now. But despite the differences of opinion between the two patriarchs who ruled…
The Author Responds to Critique: Thrill of the Chaste Part III
I’ve admired Valerie Weaver-Zercher’s insights and frisky, learned (not a combo you meet every day) writing style ever since I first read her work in magazines. Over the years, I found her reviews in Christian Century, her articles about practical spirituality in Sojourners (you can purchase at Amazon through the link) and her op-eds in…