Had a great time reviewing my books (so far) and putting them in chronological order. I have 15 now. I was still saying “a dozen or so” when asked. In case you did not know, this is a blog memoir (book 16) about my books. Memoirs tend to center around one subject. Like Mary Karr “Lit” was about her drinking days when she also taught “lit” which is what we call literature in the teaching biz and she was trying to write a book. That was her first memoir called “The Liars Club” about her seriously dysfunctional family…which me and my mom adored! Still my favorite memoir and I’ve read a lot of them.
The reason I didn’t write about my dysfunctional family is because they are precious to me and I know it (the book I’ll never write) would cause an earthquake. Many writers have tackled this topic of what you should and should not write about in a memoir. Mary Karr decided to bare it all. She was worried about her mom being upset, but as it happened, her mom didn’t mind being captured in a mostly unflattering light by her daughter. In fact many of the memoirs I’ve read follow that pattern.
I’ve thought about it a lot. Besides my family, I would give my life with no hesitation for my kids and their kids, writing is the next biggest thing for me. Everyone in my family reads and/or knows about my 15 books and my blog. They support me even if Mom skips the sexy parts. I skip those too. I much prefer a closed door but my first contract explicitly stated that a “consummation scene” needed to be included. So I researched it. Then I wrote it. I skip everyone’s sex scenes, except sometimes Mary Balogh (my favorite Regency writer) because I forget that I don’t like reading about sex in books.There was a time when it was fine. I’m embarrassed about that part of my writing self.
Now I think about going back and deleting those scenes. But that would take a lot of work! I am not moving so fast these days. I like to take my time and spend my time on things I like to do. Revising has never been my favorite writing activity. That is the key to enjoying a writing career. Do it because you love it. Especially if you make less than a million dollars a book. You’ll notice I am not revising this blog book. I might someday. And put it in the right order. Blogging a book is like reading backward. We shall see if I feel like it.
Here’s my publishing timeline:
2007 Your Words, Your Story (writing memoir)
2010 Paradise Fields (poetry)
2011 Sister Issues
2012 Paris Notebook/Sarah’s Survival Guide
2013 Blue Heaven
2014 Gypsy, Sweet Melissa, Luke’s #1 Rule
2015 Love and Death in Blue Lake
2016 Blue Lake Christmas Mystery
2018 Lily White in Detroit
2020 Jane in St Pete
2023 Body on the Bayou
2024 Christmas Courtship
So in Chapter Four I thought I was not publishing while teaching, except a second edition of “Your Words, Your Story” that had a beginning of e-publishing. For that revision I interviewed some e-pubbed authors and also checked out Kindle. I began publishing my own work on Kindle. I also pubbed with a few other small presses. For the last ten years, say 2015, I only published with The Wild Rose Press. I love them and I love my editors. Also I moved. Twice. And retired from teaching maybe six months later (as soon as I could collect a pension!)
We had lived on Spagnuolo in Macomb Township since we were married. We bought that house together and it was by far the longest I ever lived anywhere. I loved that house. It was still not my ranch (this time a tri-level) but my boys were growing, long past baby years. They both helped Al and my Dad and our friend Big Joe, who helped with the roof, add on a lovely family room. So that’s where we watched television and Al turned the former family room into a man cave complete with pool table. The boys loved playing pool. Yes, Al’s man cave was also a party room, which got a lot of use. The kids graduated from high school from that house. They basically moved out after college. I claimed Tim’s room to write in. For a while we kept both their beds in Mike’s room. And for a while, they sometimes crashed at our place. Tim liked the garage (it was big) to work on cars.
What I remember most is they came home every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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