I came across a title of an article today, “The Big Reason Why Agents and Editors Stop Reading,” by Paula Munier, literary agent and content strategist. Ordinarily I would have skipped reading this because my memoir and I are just not agent and/or editor ready. I can’t even say if I will even try to secure an agent but at [...]
I patted the top of the 8 ½ X 11 box with affection to acknowledge its contents. The box was deep enough to cradle 220 pages of my memoir manuscript. But this wasn’t just a manuscript containing double-spaced typed lines. This was my story – edited, rewritten, honed to the best of my ability, ready for . . . another [...]
Oh, that word, "platform." When I hear or read it I inhale with tension and exhale in surrender. What's a memoir writer to do when she can't keep up with platform content and all its connection points? I'm beginning to find myself being distracted, if not, preoccupied to the point of losing sight on the writing itself. I listened to a [...]
In remembrance of that night beginning November 9, 1938, the Night of Broken Glass. Sometimes, I like to see my world as being either black or white, segregated into neat piles. My tidy thinking and tendency to categorize allow me to understand, to make sense of things. But segregation is unrealistic because of the gray. There is the gray of [...]
Well explained by Debra Monroe
Unlike seasons in Chicago, San Francisco’s went unrecognized. The change of seasons was subtle for me with only the calendar months marking their transitions. January in San Francisco can be a beautiful weather month for someone from Chicago. It’s chilly but nothing a few layers of clothing or a jacket can’t remedy. Locals would say, “Oh, the rains this time [...]
THE BIRCH TREES I’ll always remember the birches for as long as I live. It’s the silver bark of the birch, the lenticels, and the height they grow to whilst remaining slim . . . but they always remind me of home. James Roy Blair "My tree attraction wasn’t for just any tree. I noticed this one’s ashen white [...]
This day, 28 years ago, was one of the worst days of my then 25 year-old self. I wrote about it in my memoir-in-progress, Under the Birch Tree. The bus ride home from work at lunchtime north on Lake Shore drive was like something out of a Stephen King novel. I was having an out-of-body experience on that ominous gray [...]
As a writer of memoir, sometimes my mind hurts when recalling not only a particular memory, but also the details within that scene. The hurt part comes when noises within the silence of my thought-invoking process are heard. Sometimes the noise is distracting and not very helpful. Other times it allows me the opportunity to exercise my imagination and create [...]
I particularly like #6 in the total article at "Nieman Storyboard" as it is my fishing rod - to reel me back in to where I started.