Free Memoir Form: My Dossier
Here’s a free memoir form—a Dossier á la James Bond. I’ve been a 007 fan for a long time, starting with Ian Fleming's books and Sean Connery's movies, though I'm not crazy about Daniel Craig's 007...
View ArticleHe Was A Statistic. He Was Also A Person.
Check out Di's blog memoir: He is a statistic. He is also a man. She writes about her grandfather, one of the 850 WWII vets who die every day: "He was special in the sense that every kind and...
View ArticleWhen A Place Still Exists
An important building in the Jewett family's Civil War experience still stands. It is a church. Thanks to Vic and Dollie Masters, parents of Civil War historian Vicki Profitt, for providing the...
View ArticleFiction-Writing Techniques Improve Memoirs
Improve your memoirs–fast–using fiction-writing techniques. My friend, Debra Chaves Norwood, wanted me to share my suggestions about her memoir. So here is my "before" and "after" about "Under the...
View ArticleMilitary Records
In honor of Veterans Day, Ancestry.com offered free access to military records. This weekend, my mother's cousin, Bill Teaford, found my maternal grandfather's World War I draft record. I am hungry...
View ArticleA Fun Ancestor Activity: “My Grand Book”
Colder weather means more inside fun. My Grand Book is a craft project which creates a book about a child's immediate ancestors, up to great-grandparents. Paste in a photo. Fill in a few basics (name,...
View ArticleMore About Mary Jewett Telford
Thanks to David L. Welch for comparing a photo on Cowan's Auctions to Mary Jewett Telford. Is it Mary? He sees some resemblance. The wide-set eyes say yes. But the frizzy hair says no. Evan Marshall...
View ArticleHospital No. 8
While blogger David Welch researched the famous Civil War nurse, Nellie M. Chase, he discovered a photo of my 2nd great-aunt, Mary Jewett Telford, who served as a nurse at Hospital No. 8 in Nashville,...
View ArticleStill Point of the Turning World
Yesterday, on Fresh Air I heard Emily Rapp talking about her new memoir. The Still Point of the Turning World is about caring for her son, Ronan, who was born with Tay-Sachs. She said the worst day for...
View ArticleMy Viking Mama
My mtDNA says I'm a Viking. My female line is Haplogroup I, found in Iron-Age Danish graveyards and medieval Viking burial grounds in Denmark and Scandinavia. I blogged about genealogical DNA tests,...
View ArticleLucinda’s Ginger Cookies
A "recipe memoir." Lucinda Mock's Ginger Cookie Recipe Tags: recipe memoirs, Thanksgiving recipes
View ArticlePresent-Past-Present
Present-Past-Present—this is a memoir format that starts in the present, goes back to the past, and returns to the present (also known as frame device). Here’s an example. When Lea Died by Martha...
View ArticleWriting With Your Clothes On
Aspiring memoirists may say, "I want the courage to be naked to the world." I think they mean they want to write a memoir with emotional staying power. That's a lot easier to achieve when you write...
View ArticleMemoir Format: Quick Capture
This July marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. One Memorial Day a few years back, I blogged about Wallace E. Jewett, my first cousin four generations removed, who died at the...
View ArticleFamily of Memoirists
I come from a family of memoirists. My grandmother and great-grandmother wrote memoirs. Helen Isabell (Gott) Jewett (1897-1988), my grandmother, graduated in 1919 from Kansas State Agricultural College...
View ArticleRemembrance On Veterans Day
"At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him." The poem was read here: Place: Beth Israel Cemetery, 232 Fuller Street, Everett, Massachusetts Date: November 6, 2013...
View ArticleThe List As Memoir
Martin Cruz Smith wrote in The Wall Street Journal about his five favorite books by Russian humorists (Five Best, November 8, 2013). Mikhail Zoshchenko's Scenes From the Boathouse, he said, "is so...
View ArticleMemoirs About Relationships
What makes a memoir unique? Not information. Not personal confession. Not fibbing. A memoir about a relationship has to be unique. The reasons are simple and fundamental. Every person is unique. Every...
View ArticleMemory Trigger: Watch The Right Movie
Rita's mother was a hidden child during the Holocaust. She never talked about it. Then she fell and broke her heel. She went to Rita's house to recuperate. To relax in the evenings, Rita and her...
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