…your only hope is to latch on to a memory… The Misty Blur By Ellen Berman   What is it about age that brings on a sense of desperation, that suddenly time is rushing by so fast that you just can’t grasp the moment before it swooshes ahead to the next and the next, like relentless river rapids that you are totally unprepared for, and you struggle to keep your head above the swells, while all around you is the uncontrollable tumult of time, of too many moments in too short an interval of space surging forth, pressing forward so fast that you can barely catch your breath, and every mor ..read more

What true stories—the funny, the weird, the strange, has your loved one told over the years? What awards have they won?   Alive Hospice volunteer David Lasseter has been saying, “Tell me your story…” to hospice patients since 2011. He records life story memoir, and we began doing that in the same year!  In addition to interviewing, and recording, my business Perfect Memoirs adds ghostwriting, editing, and producing books for families and individuals. Sometimes these are for people who know they have a terminal illness, for others it is fulfillment of a life-long dream, for so ..read more

Truth in Memoir is important to the reader because trusting the author allows the story to become credible, the reader empathic. Many don’t realize how a memoir author agonizes over “What is Truth?” It always comes up at my workshops – how does one “remember” and tell the truth, perfectly? We don’t. Even when an event is happening, our minds are perceiving it differently from another person in the room, and our memory will save what it will. That does NOT efface the truth of your memory.  Tell it like you remember it and you will be sharing truth as you know it, truth in memoir. How to D ..read more

Save Stuff or Save the Story? Sentimental stuff can unlock memory, becoming helpful prompts for writing memoir and family story. Looking at photos, digging through boxes can be worthwhile, touching the points of pleasure and pain in our past, unveiling wisdom. But sometimes, the weight of sentimental objects becomes oppressive. I have helped people declutter sentimental stuff with story by creating a book about the family heirlooms, with photographs and stories. Could this free a person from the responsibility of storing the keepsakes, yet keep the memories? I turned to an expert in declutter ..read more

MEMOIR WRITERS: I convinced people to hook up to electricity – they didn’t think they needed it. God whispered, “You’re going to marry that girl.” I answered, “She’s not my type.” Our office was the first to use email for a government experiment, before the Internet… As these Tennesseans wrote their life stories they experienced 4 holistic health benefits: identity integrity, connectedness, empowerment, and the big one: Finding the Meaning of Life. Beginning in the 1960s, psychologist have studied the benefits of life story review. Whether you tell, record, or write your memories, such activit ..read more

When I viewed this 9th-century book at Trinity College, Dublin, its book design principles jumped out as fresh and relevant... Does Irish heritage account for my red nose, my sensitivity to alcohol, my enjoyment of literature, the acquaintance deep in my bones with hunger, beautiful horses, mournful tales, and bluegrass rhythms? Inspired by the genealogists, amateur and professional, who keep crossing my path, I have begun to take more of an interest in our family tree lines of O’Neill, Butler and Lowe. When we were in Dublin, Ireland, instead of poking around in the National Archives, I hea ..read more

Knowing oneself, using that self-knowledge to set a creative and productive routine, will mean you write more and more quickly complete your book. In Part 1 you’ll find some quick questions that will help you survey yourself and set up your own routine. But in Part 2, let’s look at exceptions, and how routines have theirs. Break routine and experience some unexpected results! I like to take a week off and go somewhere different, with my focus and goals on writing. Guilty pleasure: I like to go alone. I asked Sandy Coomer, director of the new Rockvale Writer’s Colony in College Grove, Tennesse ..read more

PART 1  Establish your Setting with a Writing Routine A few incidents this week led me to realize the need for review of how to write more and complete your book, chapter by chapter, your story, or even your poem. Write more words; write more frequently; reach your goals! How is the “setting” for your writing both creative and productive? We write a lot around our house. Last night my husband, Evert, was in the throes of inspiration, hammering away letter by letter on the keyboard, writing an article for the Dutch publication, Platenblaad(Vinyl). I halted his index finger in midair by ask ..read more

Laurie Lewis & Del McCoury Co-hosts for IBMA Awards 2012 Memoir is even sweeter when shared with family. Bluegrass musicians and fans are so devoted to the music, the artists, and jamming, that the Bluegrass World is like one big family, and they’re always discussing bluegrass family history! It was at small festivals I first noticed I could not only leave my chair, but all my things, go off to hear a jam or inspect the records at the collectors’ tents, and come back and find all intact. That’s when I first noticed the family atmosphere that prevails. With the World of Bluegrass coming ..read more

America’s Worst Train Wreck – 100th Anniversary July 9, 2018 A MEANS FOR EXPLORING THE PAST IN MICROCOSM Enjoying memoir and personal history means looking out for some books that combine the two. The Day the Whistles Cried: The Great Cornfield Meet at Dutchman’s Curve is the true story of America’s worst trainwreck, an ambitious 200 page work of creative nonfiction. Even the title reflects the six years of research that Thorpe invested. “A cornfield meet is railroad slang for train wreck! This mother of all train wrecks took place in the cornfields along White’s Creek, and may have been ..read more