Women's Memoirs

Memoir Moment #1: Listen to your Inner Voice

matilda — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:13:13 +0000

Last week I started a series of brief interviews with memoir authors that I’m calling Memoir Moments. Over the coming year, I’ll pose questions to these amazing women. For now, I’m asking them to share their insights on effective ways to start a memoir. Here’s Your Memoir Moment #1 with Linda Joy Myers, author of Don’t [...]

Ask a Memoir Author - Panelists Respond at 2008 East of Eden Writers Conference

matilda — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:17:34 +0000

Want to hear advice about writing your memoir from successful memoir authors? This fall’s East of Eden Writers Conference, held in Salinas, CA, John Steinbeck’s home, was a big success. I was fortunate to serve as the moderator for the Night Owl Memoir Panel. You got that right. We started at 9PM after two long days [...]

Teleseminar on Collective Memoirs

matilda — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:03:22 +0000

As you know, Kendra Bonnett and I wrote the award-winning collective memoir, Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story. Many people don’t know about collective memoirs or how the techniques and tools of this genre can also enrich the individual memoir. To explore the collective memoir topic, Linda Joy Myers, Founder of National [...]

East of Eden Writers Conference: Report #1

matilda — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:46:48 +0000

Kendra and I just returned from the 2008 East of Eden Writers Conference. As you might guess, the conference is held in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, California, known as the “salad bowl of America.” Driving there, we passed the spring-like pale green, red-tipped, and dark kelly green tops of the numerous lettuce varieties [...]

Questions for a memoir author?

matilda — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:10:50 +0000

I need your help. On September 6, I’m moderating a panel of women memoir authors at the East of Eden Writers Conference in Salinas, CA. Each woman has published at least one memoir and two have two published memoirs. We already have a few questions to pose to the panelists. I’ve listed them below. If [...]

Market your Work with MultiMedia

kendra — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:00:50 +0000

As Matilda explains in her ebook Top 10 Reasons to Write Your Memoir, (see column to the right) writers are motivated by many things in their lives. Capturing the distant details of our lives is important to many of us. Some others want to set the record straight by telling our side of a story or event. For many of us, however, it's about healing or finding direction in our lives. I think these last two describe Elizabeth Gilbert's popular memoir, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.

New Class to Write…Publish…Sell

kendra — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:02:51 +0000

[ October 2, 2008; 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. ] Story Circle Network, a wonderful resource for women writers, is based in Texas. But don't let the location concern you. Story Circle Network offers many services and support online. And now they are branching out into online classes. And Matilda Butler and I are part of the faculty. Please check us out: Start Small Finish Big.

Northern California Women’s Memoir Writing Workshop

Matilda Butler — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:21:41 +0000

[ September 27, 2008; 10:00 am to 4:30 pm. ] Workshop is held in a beautiful setting to call forth your inner muse. During the workshop, you'll define the theme, message, scope, focus, and style of your memoir through a combination of instruction, discussion and writing exercises.

The Tao of memoir writing: Part 6 of 6

matilda — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:20:35 +0000

When our children were small, we took them on short walks in nearby wooded areas. As they got older, we showed them the pleasures of hiking the trails of Yosemite National Park and other places of beauty. No matter where we went or how easy or how hard the path, they loved to dash ahead to seek new adventures. Parental pace was much too slow for them. They ran ahead and then came back quickly. They wore themselves out by covering each distance twice. But that was part of their enthusiasm.

Writers: Please Bookmark this Site

kendra — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:30:19 +0000

I want to share a real find. Martha Engber's thoughtful and informative blog Growing Great Writers From the Ground Up. Martha knows her craft; she's worn just about every cap a writer can. She's a published author, journalist, playwright and now blogger. Her blog has useful material for both fiction and nonfiction writers.