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Do you find yourself wandering along with your memoir writing and not achieving your memoir-writing goals?  Do you have a sense that you might have accomplished a bit more writing than you have?

At regular intervals, it is traditional to review how the past went for you and to recommit to goals for yourself for the coming months. (A goal is a wish with action steps and a timeline.) These goals need to be written and reviewed periodically.

Studies have shown that people who set goals in writing have a better outcome vis-à-vis accomplishing what they set out to do. Here’s a report on one such study. (The famous Harvard goal-setting study so many of us have heard of apparently never happened, but the concept of goal setting is clearly important and is explored in the linked article.)

22 Memoir-Writing Goals especially for you!

(more…)

Note from the editor: This post is a memoir-writing course. I suggest that you glance through the whole of it, and pick those best memoir-writing tips that you most need to read at this time. Later, bit by bit, you will read the rest.

Click on the links that interest you and study the posts where you land. The links in even just a few of the tips below will uncover articles that pertain to the topic(s).

Following these best memoir-writing tips, your knowledge of memoir writing will grow more certain, and you will write with more confidence. One day, sooner than you think possible, your memoir will be published and in hand.

–––

It’s later than you think. Don’t put off writing your memoir any longer.

Our 21 in-depth, best memoir-writing tips below will help you to start memoir writing today. 

You’ll find these guides will see you through the process of how to write a memoir—an interesting and meaningful memoir—more easily and quickly than you may now think possible.

One day soon, you will have written your book.

The Memoir Network’s 21 Top Best Memoir-Writing Tips to get you to memoir success.

1. What is a memoir? Hint: it’s not an autobiography!

Is the difference important to the memoir writer? Somewhat! Knowing what you are writing will orient you from the start! It can be discouraging to realize that you have been headed in the wrong direction when you could have saved yourself time and energy by understanding the difference between memoir and autobiography as you launched yourself. While it’s not huge, it can be significant.

An autobiography is about a whole life: from birth to the present. A memoir is a part of your life that is characterized by a theme. It might be about the first years of your marriage during which you realized what an immature and selfish person you were and earned to be a giving souse. This may interest many people as it is a struggle many are waging.

The fact is that, while it is totally possible to write a memoir that will interest the public and draw an audience to you, the same is not true of an autobiography. If you are famous: possibly. If you are not, it is not likely that people will be interested in what grade school you went to and how much your grandmother loved you.

(This statement about autobiography is not applicable if you are writing for a family audience. Your children and grandchildren will definitely be interested in an autobiography.)

(more…)

To ensure that your memoir is a tight one, it will probably be necessary to cut some of your text.

Having finished my childhood memoir, French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood, of course, I have been thinking of all the things that I did not put into the memoir. Some of these omissions, I would say, were interesting and might have contributed to my story’s theme and plot line. However, the memoir had reached 350 pages, and I knew it was imperative to limit any further lengthening of the story.

Many writers have said—and I paraphrase—”a work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.”

Keeping this observation in mind, I understood, as every writer must, that I needed to choose the point of abandonment carefully. Cut back too early, and you don’t make your point—establish the importance of your theme—in your memoir. Abandon too late, and you risk having too much in your memoir and turning your reader off.

Cut memoir text

(more…)

This post is about going deeper in a memoir, deeper even than you thought you could go when you started. This may be hard, but take a look at the contracts with life we make and the terrible disappointment that inevitably comes from making them. All of us at some time or other have made such a contract with life—in fact, we make them over and over again until we finally grow up and become present to the unfolding reality. (more…)

DL: “I Come Into the World” is an excerpt from my memoir French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. The use of Canadien, the French version of Canadian, in this text as everywhere in the memoir is to distinguish an English-speaking Canadian from a French-speaking one without resorting to the term French Canadian. [When was the last time you read something like “Margaret Atwood, the English Canadian writer…?” Probably never. She’s always the “Canadian writer.” Marie-Claire Blais, who died earlier this year, was referred to in the  New York Times as “…the French-Canadian writer.” What’s going on here?]

___

Excerpt from my memoir French Boy

On the cold afternoon of the Saturday that was January 18, 1947, because snow had begun to fall heavily, my mother told my father he had better put the tire chains on the car. They would be driving to the hospital soon as their second baby would be born that day, she was sure.

Thick snow was accumulating on the city streets as my father drove the red Buick a mile and a half towards city center to the Canadien hospital on Sabattus Street. Even in so short a trip, perhaps he looked at my mother with some apprehension. Surely she would be all right! He would have held her arm as she shuffled her way through the accumulating snow to the entrance of the hospital. The unaccustomed weight of her pregnancy would have altered her center of balance and would have made traversing slippery ground problematic. Soon, my mother having been admitted and brought to the pregnancy ward where she was to wait for her contractions to progress, there was nothing for my father to do but to follow the strong admonitions given to fathers at the time to return home and leave his wife to the attention of the nurses and the doctor. There was no need, the staff assured my young father, for him to stay. He would not be permitted, anyway, into the birthing room. Dr. François Méthot would be in soon—if he was not already in the hospital. A gruff man with a pencil mustache, Dr. Méthot had seen my mother during her pregnancy and now he would help deliver her baby.

The tire chains clanking their sonorous rhythm as they gripped the slippery streets, my father returned to his parents’ house, and there he awaited news of my birth. By late afternoon, nothing had happened. Both my grandmother and my grandfather would have been home as the mill was closed on a Saturday afternoon. Perhaps my father and my grandfather were chatting in the double living rooms, or listening to the radio, or reading the Evening Journal—and again, perhaps they were occupied with the French-language Le Messager? The two men, being bilingual, might have read either or both publications. My grandmother, who did not speak or read English, was an autodidact who had taught herself to read only in French.

My family waits

As evening approached, perhaps my mémère was preparing supper in the kitchen galley, a little room with cupboards, counters, drawers, and a sink, but without a stove and a refrigerator, both of which were in the adjoining room where the family ate. That room was not quite a dedicated dining room nor was it at all what one might call a kitchen.

My father sat in the living room, my mother told me years later as I wrote in her memoir, waiting for a call from the hospital. In those years after the war, there had been a big push to take birthing out of the home and into the professional arena—the hospital. My mémère Ledoux had had her five children at home, and my mémère Verreault had also birthed ten of her twelve children in her own bed. (Both of her children born at Sainte-Marie General Hospital—René and Paul—had come into the world there, according to my mother, because my grandmother Verreault, having a bit of spare money at the time, had sought a break from the demands of her large family.)

Products of the middle of the twentieth century, my parents submitted to this professionalization of birthing. By the time I came along, children were often born under some drug, certainly under anesthesia. I was the second of my mother’s children to be born without her experiencing childbirth consciously. Decades later, when my own children were born at home without drugs, my mother shared that, while she had had the experience of being pregnant, she had never known birthing. It was something that happened while she was unconscious.

News of my birth is at hand

At seven o’clock that evening, I came bawling into the world, and sometime later, a call went out to my father. I can imagine the phone ringing—it must have been on a doily set on a small telephone table. (Yes, telephones were honored with their own little settings.) The phone stand was placed perhaps in the living room, but I seem to remember—obviously from when I was older—that it was in the large hallway whose steps led up to my parents’ quarters. My grandparents would have refrained from answering and would have looked at my father.

“Albert,” my grandmother might have said pointing to the phone, curious about what must be a call to announce the new baby.

My father would have gotten up and walked to the phone. Would Lucille have had the girl she wanted? They had a name for a girl—Claire—but they had not agreed on one for a boy—they had wavered between “Raymond” (her) and “Gérald” (him).

I imagine my father uttering short phrases on the phone and smiling. Perhaps he turned to his parents and said, “Un garçon!” Soon, he came with his father to the hospital to see his new son. My grandmother did not go. My brother Billy who was most likely in his crib by that time of day certainly needed an adult around, but across Warren Avenue, there were many adolescent Verreault aunts and uncles who could have stayed with him while my grandmother went. My mother remarked, years later, how strange that neither her mother nor her mother-in-law had come that evening.

…

Choosing a Name

As was customary, my mother was hospitalized for the better part of a week. During this time, she roomed with a woman whose husband was a union organizer for mill workers. His name was “Denis.” Since my parents had not agreed on a boy’s name, it occurred to my mother that “Denis” might be a good compromise. One evening, when my father came after his workday at Bath Iron Works some thirty miles away, she ran the name “Denis” by him, and he concurred that “Denis” was a good name. “Denis” I was to be called, but my father did get his “Gérald” as my middle name. (Nineteen months earlier, my mother had gotten her “Raymond” as Billy’s)

[End note: As a life-long, liberal Democrat, I have always appreciated that I was named after a union organizer and couldn’t resist including this factoid in my memoir French Boy!]

___

Please review my memoir French Boy on Amazon. Your 4- & 5-star reviews help to get the book ranked by/on Amazon.

 

 

You’ve written your memoir, or are perhaps still writing. The art and craft of writing a memoir are foremost in the creation stage but there will come another stage afterwards that is to commit to market a memoir you have written.

I will share a process of reaching as large an audience as possible for the book you have worked so hard on. It’s not too early to be thinking of marketing.

I will mentor you on this very subject by sharing my process for my most recent memoir French Boy /A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. Since this is an independently published book, it is my responsibility to identify and then reach out to my potential audience. This is the audience that in some way can be said to have been waiting for my memoir—or your memoir.

Where is my audience—and yours, of course—to be found? What do they read, where do they post, where do they congregate?

(more…)

Why Creating Vivid Characters is Essential

The people in your story are your characters. It is your task as memoir writer to bring vivid characters to the attention of your readers. You must use descriptive writing to present believable characters. Without other people, our lives and memoirs risk becoming dull. Although ideas are pivotal for many individuals, relationships are even more commanding. We are intrigued with who other people are and how they function. “Who’s that? What are they doing? Where did they come from?” These are the questions we want answered. To write a strong story, capitalize on this interest.
(more…)

The old adage “Show, don’t tell your characters!” is as true as ever. It is one technique that will always improve your writing. I admit that there is some great writing that makes a precedent for “tell,” but as a rule, “show” is more effective.

1. Your computer and its keyboards are your movie camera. Show Don’t Tell Your Characters.

In a film, a director ( that’s you!) doesn’t have an actor go on screen to tell the audience that someone is angry. Instead, he shows the character in a scene where anger is in action. (more…)

Denis Ledoux: Can you tell our readers what your book, Making Peace with the Pieces of My Life, is about and why you were compelled to write your book? What was driving you to spend the time, energy, and money to get this book out into the world?

Dana: I wanted to reach the divorced or those parenting a child with a heroin addiction. Adoptees doing DNA and searching for their birth family. My story became a story I had to tell so they knew they were not alone and hopefully find peace at the end of their journey.

Denis: Can you tell us how long it took from the time you conceived Making Peace with the Pieces of My Life to the time you had it published? How many years did you spend in active writing? Were there long breaks in between active writing periods? If so, what happened to get you writing again?

Dana: I have been a lifelong – crisis journaler, meaning I wrote during a crisis. When COVID hit, I was isolated and bored. I started typing my journals into the computer. Around 20 years ago, I became a Certified Life Writing Instructor with Denis Ledoux through the Soliel Lifewriting Network. I felt a little guilty teaching and not having my own memoir. Writing a book was on my bucket list. I began to see a story forming from my journal entries. It took me two years to complete the book.

Denis: You must have had periods of time in which you were discouraged or at least less enthusiastic. Can you tell us about how you kept yourself going? What worked for you?

Dana: I signed up for a writing course from Richard Crum, a previous National Geographic editor. Weekly, I had to prepare something to read through with him. He helped me learn to write better and tie my stories together. Investing money in your writing project motivates you to complete it quicker. I began rewriting my journal entries, which started the process of writing my book.

Denis: Tell us what the theme of Making Peace with the Pieces of My Life was. How did you come upon this theme? Do you feel you were successful in getting your theme across to the reader?

Dana: As I wrote my collection of stories, the repetitive theme was dealing with a crisis. I was a divorcee. We also had a son who had a heroin addiction. For sixty years, I longed to find my Birth Mother.

Writing caused me to look back at my life. I saw where I tried to solve all the problems myself. I should have turned my problems over to God. The doors opened, and my story touched many lives. It has allowed me to speak about Making Peace with the Pieces of My Life at women’s groups.

Dana Tramba interview

Denis: Is there anything in particular you would say was the most difficult thing to succeed at in this book? Was it scheduling, research, plotting, point of view, believing in yourself, or what else?

Dana: The tricky part is thinking I am not a good enough writer and nobody will want to read my book. I also worried people would think I made some dumb decisions. Living through the painful memories again while writing was the most challenging part.

Writing helped me reunite with my younger self through many seasons of my life. I relived and wrote all my feelings down on paper. In the end, it was good therapy for me. Then, I decided which stories and emotions to keep in my manuscript.

Denis: Was there a success trait you have discerned for the process of writing? That is, are there best practices you would recommend to readers that would facilitate completing her/his memoir? EG. working on schedule, quitting not being an option, external physical or emotional support from someone, etc.

Dana: Twenty years ago, I remember Denis saying to write 16 ½ minutes a day. You start writing, and time lengthens. I write, write, write, and then I have to let it sit for a few days before I pick up my manuscript and reread it. Writing is a part of my soul, and I write daily. Remember, 16 ½ minutes = 2 hours a week = 6 weeks a year of writing.

Denis: How have you dealt with self-doubt?

Dana: As I wrote my stories, I was encouraged when Richard Crum would say, “This is a good story. You should make this into a novel and a movie.” He helped me pause and look at myself, and his encouragement made me feel I could do this. I am not quite at the novel or movie stage. That doesn’t sound very easy. Completing my memoir helped me overcome any self-doubt.

Denis: What makes for a successful memoir? Do you feel your memoir was a success?

Dana: People started coming to me, saying, “I laughed and cried. It felt like I was sitting at the kitchen table with you, having a conversation. Others would whisper to me, “I have been there too.” Referring to a child with addiction. I was surprised when men started commenting on my book. When I touched the lives of the readers, it was a success. Plus, it was a therapeutic journey for me.

Denis: How do you recommend people deal with sensitive material that relatives might take offense at?

Dana: I had everyone I talked about in my book read that part of the manuscript, or I changed their names if I could not make contact. My sister was offended by the way I spoke about our mother. But we were treated differently, and it was my story. Because she was so upset, I adjusted my story slightly so it did not sound harsh and added more kind, accurate comments about her. But, writing the truth was therapeutic for me. It felt good on draft one to get all the negative feelings out of my system.

Denis: Did you envision yourself as a writer before you began Making Peace with the Pieces of My Life? What is your identity as a writer now?

Dana: I have facilitated memoir classes for over 20 years, encouraging others to Save Your Life One Story at a Time. I want them to leave a legacy for their family. Now, I get to tell people I am an author and show them my book. I even sell them out of the trunk of my car. After writing my book, I need to change the strategy of the classes I teach. There are so many facts and stories that can be on the dull side. I want to encourage them to put their feelings into their story.

Denis: Will you write another memoir? Why or why not?

Dana: I plan to use stories from my memory list that I did not publish in this book and turn them into devotions. The book will be titled Simple Grace. At the end of each devotion, I have a Simple Grace activity. Example. If you hug someone today, be the last to let go.

Denis: How have people reacted to Making Peace with the Pieces of My Life? What sort of feedback have you received?

Dana: I have received positive feedback. My first lecture and book signing was for 80 ladies at our retirement facility. Daily, I get comments from people on parts of my book and how they enjoy and relate to my story. I was amazed at the men that read and liked my book. I have sold around 250 copies.

Denis: Was selling copies important to you? If so, what sort of outreach have you done to pursue sales: did you speak to groups, do guest blogging, do interviews, etc.

Dana: Selling was not important to me. I felt it was a ministry to write my book. I had a book signing in my hometown of Lewis, Kansas, and at privately owned books stores in Oklahoma. I have spoken at luncheons and sell my books after my talk. I have some in the trunk of my car I sell all the time. I also have a website, Dandystories.com, which I promoted on Facebook. A lesson I have learned is do NOT give your books away. I have done that to a few people and discovered they do not read it if they do not invest money in the book. I was disappointed I did not get instant feedback when I gifted books.

Denis: What are your future writing plans?

Dana: I am writing a devotional book titled Simple Grace. Devotions on Aging Gracefully. (I have a granddaughter, Gracelyn, to whom I will dedicate it.)

For more interviews by Memoir Network writers, click here.

For YouTube videos on better memoir writing, click here.

We all arrive at adulthood with some difficult painful memories. In this post, I offer you procedures for dealing with and healing those memories.

First of all, writing about painful memories should not be an occasion to re-traumatize yourself. Stop for the moment if you feel overcome, but if you feel ready to write about a painful time, begin by writing all the details of the memory. Details need not be significant. If there was a cup of coffee on the table, mention it. You will find that little details help bring your memory back.

Yes, difficult, painful memories are disturbing.

(more…)

The category best seller status on Amazon is fleeting but there was at least one moment in the past weekend when French Boy was #1 in “New England Memoirs.” That feels good—in fact, very good!

French Boy best seller screen shot

I want to thank everyone who has bought a copy. To others, I ask you to please help to keep at #1 there by getting your copy of French Boy and don’t forget to write a eulogious review!

For more information, check out our French Boy pages on our website.

French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood

Praise for French Boy

Best,

Denis

set-goals-brainstorming-2398562_1920

22 Memoir-Writing Goals to Jumpstart your Memoir Writing

By on July 1, 2022

Do you find yourself wandering along with your memoir writing and not achieving your memoir-writing goals?  Do you have a sense that you might have accomplished a bit more writing than you have?

At regular intervals, it is traditional to review how the past went for you and to recommit to goals for yourself for the coming months. (A goal is a wish with action steps and a timeline.) These goals need to be written and reviewed periodically.

Studies have shown that people who set goals in writing have a better outcome vis-à-vis accomplishing what they set out to do. Here’s a report on one such study. (The famous Harvard goal-setting study so many of us have heard of apparently never happened, but the concept of goal setting is clearly important and is explored in the linked article.)

22 Memoir-Writing Goals especially for you!

[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

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best memoir-writing tips

How to write a memoir: our 21 Best Memoir-Writing Tips to get you writing your memoir—quickly and well—and getting it into the hands of your public.

By on June 23, 2020

Note from the editor: This post is a memoir-writing course. I suggest that you glance through the whole of it, and pick those best memoir-writing tips that you most need to read at this time. Later, bit by bit, you will read the rest.

Click on the links that interest you and study the posts where you land. The links in even just a few of the tips below will uncover articles that pertain to the topic(s).

Following these best memoir-writing tips, your knowledge of memoir writing will grow more certain, and you will write with more confidence. One day, sooner than you think possible, your memoir will be published and in hand.

–––

It’s later than you think. Don’t put off writing your memoir any longer.

Our 21 in-depth, best memoir-writing tips below will help you to start memoir writing today. 

You’ll find these guides will see you through the process of how to write a memoir—an interesting and meaningful memoir—more easily and quickly than you may now think possible.

One day soon, you will have written your book.

The Memoir Network’s 21 Top Best Memoir-Writing Tips to get you to memoir success.

1. What is a memoir? Hint: it’s not an autobiography!

Is the difference important to the memoir writer? Somewhat! Knowing what you are writing will orient you from the start! It can be discouraging to realize that you have been headed in the wrong direction when you could have saved yourself time and energy by understanding the difference between memoir and autobiography as you launched yourself. While it’s not huge, it can be significant.

An autobiography is about a whole life: from birth to the present. A memoir is a part of your life that is characterized by a theme. It might be about the first years of your marriage during which you realized what an immature and selfish person you were and earned to be a giving souse. This may interest many people as it is a struggle many are waging.

The fact is that, while it is totally possible to write a memoir that will interest the public and draw an audience to you, the same is not true of an autobiography. If you are famous: possibly. If you are not, it is not likely that people will be interested in what grade school you went to and how much your grandmother loved you.

(This statement about autobiography is not applicable if you are writing for a family audience. Your children and grandchildren will definitely be interested in an autobiography.)

[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

Already a Member?

Sign In

Not a Member Yet?

Find out More
cut extra text

How to Cut Memoir Text

By on November 30, 2023

To ensure that your memoir is a tight one, it will probably be necessary to cut some of your text.

Having finished my childhood memoir, French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood, of course, I have been thinking of all the things that I did not put into the memoir. Some of these omissions, I would say, were interesting and might have contributed to my story’s theme and plot line. However, the memoir had reached 350 pages, and I knew it was imperative to limit any further lengthening of the story.

Many writers have said—and I paraphrase—”a work of art is never finished. It is merely abandoned.”

Keeping this observation in mind, I understood, as every writer must, that I needed to choose the point of abandonment carefully. Cut back too early, and you don’t make your point—establish the importance of your theme—in your memoir. Abandon too late, and you risk having too much in your memoir and turning your reader off.

Cut memoir text

[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

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going deeper in a memoir

Going Deeper in a Memoir: Look at “Life’s Failed Contracts”

By on November 28, 2023

This post is about going deeper in a memoir, deeper even than you thought you could go when you started. This may be hard, but take a look at the contracts with life we make and the terrible disappointment that inevitably comes from making them. All of us at some time or other have made such a contract with life—in fact, we make them over and over again until we finally grow up and become present to the unfolding reality. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

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How to Develop a Memoir

Excerpt from My Memoir French Boy: I come into the world.

By on November 21, 2023

DL: “I Come Into the World” is an excerpt from my memoir French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. The use of Canadien, the French version of Canadian, in this text as everywhere in the memoir is to distinguish an English-speaking Canadian from a French-speaking one without resorting to the term French Canadian. [When was […]

market your memoir

This is how to market a memoir!

By on November 16, 2023

You’ve written your memoir, or are perhaps still writing. The art and craft of writing a memoir are foremost in the creation stage but there will come another stage afterwards that is to commit to market a memoir you have written.

I will share a process of reaching as large an audience as possible for the book you have worked so hard on. It’s not too early to be thinking of marketing.

I will mentor you on this very subject by sharing my process for my most recent memoir French Boy /A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. Since this is an independently published book, it is my responsibility to identify and then reach out to my potential audience. This is the audience that in some way can be said to have been waiting for my memoir—or your memoir.

Where is my audience—and yours, of course—to be found? What do they read, where do they post, where do they congregate?

[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

Already a Member?

Sign In

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Find out More
vivid characters

Vivid Characters Are Essential in a Memoir

By on November 16, 2023

Why Creating Vivid Characters is Essential

The people in your story are your characters. It is your task as memoir writer to bring vivid characters to the attention of your readers. You must use descriptive writing to present believable characters. Without other people, our lives and memoirs risk becoming dull. Although ideas are pivotal for many individuals, relationships are even more commanding. We are intrigued with who other people are and how they function. “Who’s that? What are they doing? Where did they come from?” These are the questions we want answered. To write a strong story, capitalize on this interest.
[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

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Show, don't tell about your characters

Show Don’t Tell Your Characters, or Don’t Describe Your Characters–Show Them!

By on November 14, 2023

The old adage “Show, don’t tell your characters!” is as true as ever. It is one technique that will always improve your writing. I admit that there is some great writing that makes a precedent for “tell,” but as a rule, “show” is more effective.

1. Your computer and its keyboards are your movie camera. Show Don’t Tell Your Characters.

In a film, a director ( that’s you!) doesn’t have an actor go on screen to tell the audience that someone is angry. Instead, he shows the character in a scene where anger is in action. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

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difficult painful memories

Difficult, Painful Memories Can Make a Memoir More Psychologically Astute.

By on November 2, 2023

We all arrive at adulthood with some difficult painful memories. In this post, I offer you procedures for dealing with and healing those memories.

First of all, writing about painful memories should not be an occasion to re-traumatize yourself. Stop for the moment if you feel overcome, but if you feel ready to write about a painful time, begin by writing all the details of the memory. Details need not be significant. If there was a cup of coffee on the table, mention it. You will find that little details help bring your memory back.

Yes, difficult, painful memories are disturbing.

[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]

We'd love to have you access this content. It's in our members-only area, but you're in luck: becoming a member is easy and it's free.

Already a Member?

Sign In

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Find out More
French Boy best seller screen shot

French Boy Hits #1 in Best Seller ‘New England Memoirs’ List

By on October 23, 2023

The category best seller status on Amazon is fleeting but there was at least one moment in the past weekend when French Boy was #1 in “New England Memoirs.” That feels good—in fact, very good! I want to thank everyone who has bought a copy. To others, I ask you to please help to keep […]