First Edition Memoirs

I love working with primary sources, holding history in my hands. Here’s a letter written to a client’s father by the father’s younger brother when both had left Kentucky, barely out of high school, to serve in World War II. Tragically, the brother, Paul, was killed in action only weeks after writing this letter, when …

Proudly presenting my latest client with his completed memoir! I loved working with this kind gentleman, who told great stories of his family life and of his career helping hundreds of families as a dedicated and caring child psychiatrist. He was delighted with the book and also with its presentation case, in which I included …

Impressions of family fishing trips, related to me by a client who grew up in South Africa. I love hearing and preserving happy memories like this! The photo is of the Mooi River, KwaZulu-Natal Province, on the exact stretch of the river where the family always fished. “My father rented seven miles of the river, …

We spend so much time trying to achieve and attain things. Hey, I’m a perfectionist, I do it too! But the more memoirs I write, the more I see people downplaying the importance of their lives because they haven’t made a lot of money, haven’t had a stellar career, haven’t become famous. “I’ve never done …

Here are the finished book and decorative case of my latest storytelling client. The book cover is shown here (with author name blurred for privacy); as usual, my printer, North Carolina’s Lulu Press, did a terrific job. As for the case, since the client’s grandparents had a coin box he used to love to explore …

So touched by this quiet, loving memory from my latest storytelling client: “I remember I used to sit on my Mamaw’s lap and she would scrape a peeled apple gently with the flat of a knife to make sort of an apple butter and then feed it to me. I must have been very young; …

Interviews don’t follow a linear narrative. So this is how I start turning interview transcripts into a finished book: by printing them, cutting the printouts into hundreds of little statements and stories, then taping them into vertical strips, organized depending on the storyteller’s history and also just by how it feels right to me. I …

The more life stories I hear and write about, the more I realize how much of our happiness really does depend on being grateful for what we have instead of focusing on what we don’t or can’t have. I’m feeling grateful today for my clients, who’ve taught me that as well as relating stories of …

This week I got to sit in a big, comfy chair, pet a cute little dog who had settled herself on my lap, and hear funny, sweet stories from my new client about his happy childhood years and loving family. I do believe I have the best job on Earth!  

I was just reading this lovely book about ways to honor and remember those we have lost, and to my delight, one chapter recommended hiring a personal historian to help surviving family members preserve stories and memories about their loved one. I’m delighted to see that personal history work is getting so much attention these …