Memoir
. . . an excerpt. . . My middle-aged hands fingered the black and white photos interspersed with yellowing color Polaroids. As I searched for the one of my mother, burrowing deeper inside the box through layers of years, the wavy skin and popping veins from the top of my hands caught my attention. I always thought I had my [...]
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"There are two basic approaches to creative nonfiction," according to Lee Gutkind, author of You Can't Make this Stuff Up, - memoir/personal essay and immersion nonfiction. I get how immersion is creative nonfiction but the memoir/personal essay part still remains unclear as to how that genre could be under the creative nonfiction umbrella. Gutkind writes that creative nonfiction, referred to [...]
. . . exerpt from Under the Birch Tree We took photographs in front of the picture window at our brick house on Carlisle Street because it was the perfect suburban backdrop. Two-story homes sat like gems on their velvet lawns set with oak and maple trees and manicured hedges. I remember my picture was taken there on my first [...]
Now before you start scanning this post looking for juicy, eye-catching tidbits suggesting anything sexual, let me tell you this question has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with luck. Or is it really luck? In a previous post I talked about being asked what it is I "do." And, in turn, I ask others what it [...]
I've been writing now for over ten years. When I started, I didn't have much to say, but I had much to say. What I mean is, I had many thoughts I wanted to express but I couldn't seem to get it all down. I knew in the end, there was a story, a lesson, perhaps. And my challenge was [...]
The folded blueprints I plucked from my grey bucket came from the building department at the village. They felt like a treasure in my hands; I wanted to delve into them with abandon. I separated the inky paper folds, spreading the map flat on the floor. I squatted to read the details of the reverse print. The building commissioner had [...]
At first, I didn't know what a bucket list was until I saw the movie, "The Bucket List." What a great idea! Now all my "to-do's" have a name - they are now called my "bucket list." But something wasn't right. A bucket list appeared to be for those who have an impending sense of end of life. They want [...]
I make no excuses. I don't even justify why anymore. I look back on my years, (I really think "my years" started after college) and realize when I was asked, "So, what do you do?" I never had an answer. I responded, "I work at an ad agency," or "I work for a bank." or "I write." I never quite [...]
I've read them all - on plot, beginnings, middles and ends, writing life stories, memoir, personal essays and whatever falls in between. Writers of these books have been prolific with general guidance and "how to" described in no uncertain abstract terms. Finally, I succumbed to just one more read on the memoir subject. "Writing & Selling Memoir" by Paula Balzer [...]