Writing the right memoir
not writing the right memoir can constrict your writing. The person who has put down one memoir a number of weeks, or months or even years ago, may not be able to pick it up again because the energy that had initially informed it is gone. The memoir has become the wrong memoir to be […]
Creative Memories and the Memoir Network
“My photos tell only a part of my family story. How can I include more of it in my albums?” scrapbook consultants asked when I presented writing workshops at two national Creative Memories™(CM) conventions in 1996 and 1997.
My Family Feels the Depression
Excerpted from Business Boy to Business Man, by Robert Verreault (with Denis Ledoux). On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. Of course, I didn’t know that, as I was only six. Soon though, my parents, although they didn’t have stocks to crash, were beginning to feel the effect. By 1930, everyone was slipping into […]
How to Read the Memoir Writer’s Blog
How to Read the Memoir Writer’s Blog To Your Benefit Every day or so, I create a new memoir writer’s blog post. I write about a variety of topics to motivate and educate the writer.
The Life of a Fille du Roi After She Settles into New France
This is the story of the life of a fille du roi, of one of my first female ancestors in Canada. For more stories about Marthe Quittel, click on the tag words Marthe Quittel and Franco-American women. French sail ships generally used the north channel of the Saint Lawrence there where the Ile d’Orléans splits […]
A Fille du Roi Marries
This story is taken from Here to Stay, a history of my 17th century ancestors. A fille du roi was a ward of the state sent to New France to marry. September 22 fell on a Tuesday, a good as any day for a wedding.
A “Fille du Roi” Enters into a Marriage Contract
It is unlikely that either Barthélémy Verreault or Marthe Quittel, my maternal ancestors, came to their marriage with an expectation of romance. Marriage was a state of life, a way of surviving, of producing children who could take care of you in your old age. So much the better if the proposed partner was attractive […]
Waxler’s Memoir Revolution Helps Writers Understand a Cultural and Literary Revolution
Jerry Waxler is clearly a man who knows his way around memoir writing. Those of us who have been following his blog, post after post, at Memory Writers Network and have immensely enjoyed his thoughtful commentary on memoir writing, his in-depth profiles of leading memoirist and memoir professionals, and his penetrating reviews of hot-off the […]
Filles du Roi/Daughters of the King Meet their Prospective Husbands
The “daughters of the king” were introduced to prospective husbands at the Ursuline convent in the Upper Town of Québec