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…
Jean Raffa on Dream Interpretation and Memoir Writing
Author Jean Raffa has been sharing her knowledge of dreams in a series begun with this post and continuing with last week’s post about the Big dreams of childhood. Here are two more concluding questions from me and Jean’s answers. Q: If we don’t have dream interpretation training like you do, do we need an analyst…
Understanding a Childhood Dream: With Help from Jean Raffa
When I saw the picture that author Jean Raffa sent me to represent the landscape of western North Carolina, her summer home, I smiled. The picture shows a root cellar, a place that must be important to Jean as she looked for landscape to represent who she is. Synchronistically, cellars are also important to me….
Dreams and Memoir: A Way to Discover Inner Truths About the Past
I’ve been carrying on a conversation with author Jean Raffa ever since she posted this essay about the active imagination and her creative process, excerpted below: Here’s how it works for me. I find a quiet, comfortable, private, and distraction-free place to sit, usually in front of my computer so I can record what is…
Cheryl Strayed's Wild Reviewed by Her Mentor Paulette Bates Alden
Have you ever been named in the acknowledgment section of a book? If so, you know how thrilled and tender you can feel. How about being named in the hottest memoir of the season? That’s what happened to my guest today, Paulette Bates Alden, who was lucky enough to have Cheryl Strayed as a student…
Using Twitter Strategically: It's All About Making Meaningful Connections
Two weeks ago I wrote about balancing two kinds of writing — memoir and social media (Facebook and Twitter). Kathleen Pooler wrote a comment on that post, which prompted my invitation to her to share what she has learned about Twitter. I tend to use Facebook more than Twitter, but I see the advantages of Twitter when…
Daisy Hickman: Interviewer and Reviewer (of Jonathan Franzen's The Discomfort Zone)
There’s an art to interviews. First of all, it helps to be a great observer and listener and to know something about the person and subject under inspection. Most of all, it helps to care. Daisy Hickman fits that bill perfectly. Last week she placed her questions and my answers on her great blog Sunny…
Charles R. Hale: New York Storyteller Who Knows How to Polish and Publish Memorable Stories
Meet the most famous Charlie online. If you have never met him before, you’re in for a treat. If you know him well, go ahead and click one more time. He’s the archetypal kid brother, using what he’s got to surprise his older brother. I have watched this video at least five times. I’m in…