Meet the Author is a wonderful radio show dedicated to highlighting new books by authors in Connecticut and New York. My interview will be live at wxci.org this Thursday 5/20 at 9:30 am and again on Sunday 5/23 at 9:30 am.
Hope you enjoy it, and follow the show for other great books.
When you spend four years writing the story that you always knew you had to write, the last thing on your mind is awards. Yes, you want to know that others believe your book is good, that it is authentic and touches people, but it’s not top of mind. Writing something as personal as a memoir is like undressing in public. Why do we do it? Only another memoirist might understand that to write something so revealing there must be an underlying passion for truth. The whole story often has craggy edges that serve to unmask character and answer a basic question–who am I in my own life story.
After saying all that, it is so very gratifying to have just been awarded a finalist award in the memoir category from the National Indie Excellence Awards. I am in the company of some fabulous books and thrilled to be recognized. Thanks NIEA!
Women’s Memoirs has been kind enough to invite me to guest blog and be interviewed as part of their blog this Friday. You can listen in to the program at 3:00 pm EST (12 noon PST) by calling in at Phone Number: 712-432-0600 (access code: 998458#). Submit your questions ahead of time on the blog site as comments on my guest blog. A recording of the show will be posted on the website next Monday (2/22).
They have a great website, by the way, for anyone who is interested in memoirs by women or in writing their own. Check out Women’s Memoirs, write me some good questions in the comments section of my guest blog to make it a great show!
Women’s Memoirs Interview:
Date/Time: Friday, February 19, 2010, 3:00 PM EST (12:00 noon Pacific)
Phone Number: 712-432-0600 (access code: 998458#)
I scheduled a flight this year on the 58th anniversary of the plane crash that took my sister’s life, changed the lives of everyone in my family, and was the very reason I was born. Usually, my sister Linda would have sent me a warning email or called me to tell me not to plan a flight on this day. But, she’s gone now, so no warnings came when I planned this trip to LA for a book signing.
It was the last actual booksigning scheduled for the launch of Replacement Child, and I made it into a mini vacation for me and my husband to explore California together a bit. The northeast has been pretty brutal this year and I looked forward to thawing my bones a little as a bonus. Another bonus was that I got to see some old friends who are out there.
That part was truly special, to catch up with old friends and to remember myself as I was when we were all just teenagers. It is amazing what we didn’t know then–about ourselves, and about the individual challenges we all faced within our families. Talking to my two childhood friends I realized that although Replacement Child may be anchored in a unique tragic event, the family issues within its pages are universal. We all have internal barriers to our happiness and success that we had to surmount, either from our parents or siblings–or just circumstance. Parents were different with their different children, and each had their own experience–some better than others. Sometimes we barely recognize the description of a parent told from the point of view of our brother or sister. For many of us, it’s taken the better part of our lives to understand the reasons we may have sabotaged relationships, or chosen the exact wrong person to marry, or failed to take the risks needed for our success. But, what I discovered from my own writing is that it’s never too late to claim your life and to live out your dreams, whether they are lofty ones or just the hope that we can be quietly happy with someone who we love, and who loves us.
Oh yea, the rest of the trip was fabulous! California is a beautiful wonderland. Maybe that’s my next dream, to live in those gorgeous hills near the ocean where you can almost feel your spirit lifting out of your body and screaming in delight.
The last edits and revisions on Replacement Child – A Memoir are finally completed. It’s been a more emotional ride than I’ve ever had editing –even the many revisions and re-writes on this manuscript. Re-visiting all the stories from my childhood, that all included my sister Linda, was more wrenching now than it was when I first wrote them because of Linda’s sudden death this July. I found myself again engrossed in our story and my memories, and sometimes ignoring my mission to correct commas and spelling errors for the galley.With my sister’s passing the texture of my memories has changed. While I was proofreading it, I had to stop and put it down often to collect myself. There were moments when I actually reached for the phone to call my sister to check out some fact that’s still bugging me.I am so grateful that I gave my sister the manuscript to read earlier this year. Now I can at least be sure that she approved of it. She knew she was helping me along the way, for the last four years, filling in the gaps of my memory and telling me new information that, as the little sister, I never knew. But, she never asked to read it until I offered. The day before she died, she chose the cover for the book.I wish she were here right now.