Living on Boats: A Potent Symbol of Freedom

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Author Interview: Kathleen Pooler

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Today I’m privileged to have Kathleen Pooler stop by to answer some questions about her newly published memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead. In any memoir, the author today tells the story of the author back then, and sorting through the jumble of memories and pain to find a meaningful story thread can be a daunting task. Kathy has done a terrific job of finding that thread and turning it into a story that should touch nearly everyone’s life. If you haven’t personally experienced the sort of trauma she did, odds are strong that you know others who have. Let’s hear some back story for this book that lets the wise Kathleen of today put her former confusion into perspective. Leave a comment below to enter a drawing to receive a free eBook version of Ever Faithful to His Lead. SL: Why did you write Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse? KP: I started out writing a different story about a cancer diagnosis and watching a beloved son spiral downward into substance abus...
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Hang onto Inspiration

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Last night during the preview session for the NAMW Make Your Stories Sparkle teleseminar previewing my upcoming teleclass by the same name, I mentioned the value of building a collection of inspiring passages from books you read. My focus last night was on collecting a wide selection of descriptions that grab my eye and attention, but I also collect other types of examples. I began this collection several months ago for the purpose of comparing and studying how various authors I admire use various descriptive techniques. It has since grown to include other types of amazing writing. I have found that perusing my collection is sort of like reading the Bible or other inspirational material, and it has been a great help in furthering my understanding of effective description and my skill in writing it. Reading a concentrated collection of pure excellence primes my creativity pump. It pushes me out of my perception ruts and nudges me to expand my awareness boundaries and see things from an...
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Interview with Sue Mitchell, “The Memoir Muse”

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Today I am pleased to host an interview with creativity coach Sue Mitchell, “The Memoir Muse,” about the challenges new lifestory and memoir writers face and some tips on avoiding them. SL: You explain on your website that your passion is to help people overcome obstacles and reluctance to begin or continue writing their memoirs or life stories. What are the most common obstacles people bring to you? SM: Most clients come needing some form of outside approval. They want to know if their writing is any good. They wonder if they’re going about this in the “right” way. They worry about offending others by sharing their view of what happened. I help them understand the messy nature of the writing process, teach them to set their own criteria for success, and help them give themselves permission to tell their stories. It’s also typical for beginning memoir writers to find that writing a memoir competes with other priorities in their lives, time slips away, and they don’t get to their ...
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