Telling the Children About Cancer
In this post, Martha writes about telling the children about cancer and her thoughts on being a mother.
[This is an excerpt from My Eye Fell Into the Soup, an account about cancer. The book is written in journal form—alternating between my entries and Martha’s. For more in the My Eye Fell Into the Soup series, Click Here]
November 12, 2006, Sunday
Martha wrote:
My days since Thursday have been about sleeping and talking and crying. Just four days ago, everything I thought about my life was different. How life seems changed even though it is not actually different in its essence from what it was on Wednesday. I had cancer then, too, but I did not know it consciously. I have always prided myself on being intuitive and having my intuition inform me. But, that somehow did not work in this case. Now Denis and I are conscious. And that changes everything. [Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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A Memoir is a Marathon. Can you do it?
You can write a memoir! When you are facing a challenging undertaking, it is wise to seek help. If you were attempting to run a marathon, you would study up on the endeavor and be sure you are doing things right. Perhaps you would join a running club or a website that offers you a […]
Wanting to run away from Cancer
For other posts in the My Eye Fell Into the Soup series, Click Here. Wanting to Run Away From Cancer November 10, 2006 Denis: So very hard. Terror. Wanting to run away—but there’s no “where” to run to. Some of the office work must continue. It seems like such an irrelevant thing to do, but […]
A Co-Writer Can Make a Business Memoir Happen
In a previous article, I highlighted four business memoirs that I helped bring to life. Each book was a significant one not only because of its subject matter but also because of its length. Each business memoir ranged from 300 to 400 pages, making them into hefty accounts of lives well lived. How do you […]
Business Memoir: What’s Special About Writing One?
Over the years, I have had the pleasure to collaborate on a number of memoirs which highlight the lives of men and women who have attained a significant result in their work life. Why would somebody want to write a business memoir? People write business memoirs for some of the same reasons people write any […]
Turning a Journal into a Memoir
Steps for turning a journal into a memoir
I have been slowly revising my latest book My Eye Fell Into the Soup. This book is the first of a two-book set depicting the two years that Martha and I lived with her cancer illness. I have described some of the writing process elsewhere.
There was a time when writing / organizing / revising this so-personal manuscript was difficult, very difficult, but that is no longer the case. When I was first working on My Eye Fell Into the Soup, I would take it up for a few days and then put it down for weeks.
Revision is not as emotionally draining as creation
Now 8 years after Martha’s death, I am doing in-depth revision and it has proven to be very technical. The 
feeling part is long past. There’s something about checking the clarity of antecedents to pronouns, about making sure that characters that are so familiar to me are sufficiently explained, about going to an internet dictionary to ascertain that my word choice is indeed the best choice that takes feeling out of the process.
Turning journals into memoirs: are revisions permitted?
[Free Membership required to read more. See below. ]
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Breast Cancer Diary—How “My Eye Fell Into the Soup” was Launched
Martha’s breast cancer diary was published as My Eye Fell Into the Soup and is a cancer journal/memoir of Martha Blowen’s experience with cancer.
A Cancer Diagnosis
Martha Blowen, my partner in life and in work, died on August 18, 2008, from metastasized breast cancer. The following is from collated excerpts of journals we both kept at the time. (Before she passed away, she gave me permission to share her entries.) The memoir is called My Eye Fell Into the Soup, after […]
Will We Find Cancer There, Too?
DL: Martha Blowen, my partner in life and in work, died on August 18, 2008, from metastasized breast cancer. The following is from collated excerpts of journals we both kept at the time. (Before she passed away, she gave me permission to share her entries.) The memoir is called My Eye Fell Into the Soup, […]