This site has finally been updated with a little bit of polish and some excerpts. These are not the opening chapters but a few vignettes as the main part of the memoir is chronological vignettes that span 33 years of our very normal family life - in spite of being raised by saints.
I do hope to work on this memoir again soon, as I'd really like to have it done. But I often notice that other activities and writing projects make me feel I am supposed to complete them to be able to make this memoir better than its current state. My emotions and life activities also need to be in a calmer place for me to give the project the attention it deserves.
There's enough information on this website to read the excerpts, and if you do, I'd love to know what you think.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Wow, life.
I've recently been doing all kinds of upgrades and maintenance regarding my writer career and presence on the web. So it's amusing to see this one site, and this story which initiated my entrance into the websphere, is the one most neglected. This amuses me because once I had "finished" the memoir of my parents and started putting it "out there" was when I began traveling a whole new life/career path.
Often, this past year, I've had reason to pause and notice that I'm on a path where the destination I've reached "now" is what was needed for inclusion in this memoir. I can't really explain it other than to say it's sort of a 4th dimension wheel of reconnection with my ancestors, and also defining my individual path that is my present. The 4th dimension as defined by Einstein is - time.
So while I will not apologize for being remiss on putting my memoir forth as is, I'll instead share some of the really cool stuff that's transpired.
Author Marketing 101 is dear to my heart. I love writers, story tellers, authors, artists. I hate seeing them flounder in the mystery of marketing and not put their best foot forward.This project is my cooperative effort with my marketing partner, Morgan, to be of service to all of the above.
On my main blog, there's been a lot of activity and one of my posts has been chosen by an online magazine for a repost. This is a big deal to me. There's been a lot of synchronicities regarding the events in my life and they are happening on important dates, or in tandem with other interesting stuff. There's a very nice and comforting feeling that my parents are still participants in my life, on a close and personal esoteric level, instead of a long distance phone call.
It's significant to me that the day before my birthday, this year, it will be seven years since my mom transitioned through the death process, and Dad joined her three months later. It was to be his first visit to Mom's grave sight, but Dad drove past the cemetery and instead was in an accident where everyone should have survived.
No worries, I will get this memoir ready for prime time. I really want to see it in high school and college family study courses. The parental relationship is not all about wounds and wolves. The majority are about light and love, that include lessons to learn. It's really empowering to learn something then put it in practice.
That's what parents are to facilitate. The next generation is always the new hope, and deserve the best tools we can provide from our stories of what was before in relation to what is promoted today.
Often, this past year, I've had reason to pause and notice that I'm on a path where the destination I've reached "now" is what was needed for inclusion in this memoir. I can't really explain it other than to say it's sort of a 4th dimension wheel of reconnection with my ancestors, and also defining my individual path that is my present. The 4th dimension as defined by Einstein is - time.
So while I will not apologize for being remiss on putting my memoir forth as is, I'll instead share some of the really cool stuff that's transpired.
Author Marketing 101 is dear to my heart. I love writers, story tellers, authors, artists. I hate seeing them flounder in the mystery of marketing and not put their best foot forward.This project is my cooperative effort with my marketing partner, Morgan, to be of service to all of the above.
On my main blog, there's been a lot of activity and one of my posts has been chosen by an online magazine for a repost. This is a big deal to me. There's been a lot of synchronicities regarding the events in my life and they are happening on important dates, or in tandem with other interesting stuff. There's a very nice and comforting feeling that my parents are still participants in my life, on a close and personal esoteric level, instead of a long distance phone call.
It's significant to me that the day before my birthday, this year, it will be seven years since my mom transitioned through the death process, and Dad joined her three months later. It was to be his first visit to Mom's grave sight, but Dad drove past the cemetery and instead was in an accident where everyone should have survived.
No worries, I will get this memoir ready for prime time. I really want to see it in high school and college family study courses. The parental relationship is not all about wounds and wolves. The majority are about light and love, that include lessons to learn. It's really empowering to learn something then put it in practice.
That's what parents are to facilitate. The next generation is always the new hope, and deserve the best tools we can provide from our stories of what was before in relation to what is promoted today.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Life Happens
Excerpts are not posted yet because what is polished and readable are the middle pages of the memoir and not the opening chapters. I've found my intent to put a goal or deadline on this book has been the best way to assure life will create a pause for me to learn something more. But it is 2012 now and many behind the scenes aspects to complete and produce this book are falling into place. I have begun the transfer of my website domain as of today.
There has been a flurry of activity in my persona as an aspiring novelist and extensive forward progress in my marketing partnership with C. Morgan Kennedy. Since September, when I last felt in control of my process with this memoir, interruptions and learning experiences have come from my personal life as a mother, wife, sister, friend, committee member, homeowner, and occasional caretaker for others pets.
So I will give no dates or time lines but I will accept the lesson that it is bad marketing to promise something and not deliver as stated. Instead, I hope the final progress will begin soon. Six years ago when I began this project, I saw a potential full color magazine format for this story. Innovations to the reading and publishing experience have transformed during these same years. I'm excited that when I explain in text the operation of a phone with a rotary dial, there can also be a picture of how verbal connection was made in the recent past. The message will remain, it was the connection that mattered, only the tools have changed.
There has been a flurry of activity in my persona as an aspiring novelist and extensive forward progress in my marketing partnership with C. Morgan Kennedy. Since September, when I last felt in control of my process with this memoir, interruptions and learning experiences have come from my personal life as a mother, wife, sister, friend, committee member, homeowner, and occasional caretaker for others pets.
So I will give no dates or time lines but I will accept the lesson that it is bad marketing to promise something and not deliver as stated. Instead, I hope the final progress will begin soon. Six years ago when I began this project, I saw a potential full color magazine format for this story. Innovations to the reading and publishing experience have transformed during these same years. I'm excited that when I explain in text the operation of a phone with a rotary dial, there can also be a picture of how verbal connection was made in the recent past. The message will remain, it was the connection that mattered, only the tools have changed.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Title Change
Writing memoir is a personal process. It requires soul searching, brutal honesty, and occasionally opening a vein to bleed angst and emotions all over the keyboard. Then, in quieter times, the opportunity to consider how all those words can be reformed to be of value to a reader. It's nice to be in the stage where I have the content on the page and now am finessing word choices, vignette themes, and overall topics.
The title: "The Will to Love" was important to have because I was motivated to show the power of choosing the "Will Love" concept but now it doesn't define the scope of the story. A subtitle shouldn't be necessary so I'm toying with new titles.... I plan to get some excerpts posted this month. Then there's all the behind the scenes business stuff to attend to about...
A Memoir of My Sittin' Mommy and the Man Who Loved Her
The title: "The Will to Love" was important to have because I was motivated to show the power of choosing the "Will Love" concept but now it doesn't define the scope of the story. A subtitle shouldn't be necessary so I'm toying with new titles.... I plan to get some excerpts posted this month. Then there's all the behind the scenes business stuff to attend to about...
A Memoir of My Sittin' Mommy and the Man Who Loved Her
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The Writer Cave
Marie Osmond's Might as Well Laugh About It Now was very entertaining, well written, and delightfully personable. I read it straight through and was finally ready to begin the daunting task of editing my memoir.
My sister offered me the use of her downtown condo because her family was elsewhere. I spread the whole book out on her table, sorted the chapters into stacks, read and reread the edits and comments all over the pages. I began working with the center section, the bulk of the text, where the stories are presented in chronological vignettes. By the second night I had half of them polished, and was content to return to my normal routine.
While this is a labor of love, I'm really looking forward to the day when I can laugh about it being done!
My sister offered me the use of her downtown condo because her family was elsewhere. I spread the whole book out on her table, sorted the chapters into stacks, read and reread the edits and comments all over the pages. I began working with the center section, the bulk of the text, where the stories are presented in chronological vignettes. By the second night I had half of them polished, and was content to return to my normal routine.
While this is a labor of love, I'm really looking forward to the day when I can laugh about it being done!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Farrah Fawcett
I really liked My Journey with Farrah by Alana Stewart. I admit, I didn't know anything about Alana Stewart prior to reading this book. Her journal entries feel real and are often a bit chatty and scattered for the subject matter, which gives them an honest flavor. Now Alana is president of The Farrah Fawcett Cancer Foundation and has a new mission regarding alternative cancer therapies, and a fight in process with the FDA and reformed health care. It is notable in the second half of the book that Farrah would improve in Germany and deteriorate when back home in LA.
I'm very glad this book was not an angst ridden tome of medicinal procedures as the angelic Farrah deteriorated on every page. Instead, the book is A Story of Life, Love, and Friendship between two women as one was fighting for her life, and the other learning to live her life. Reading between the lines of Alana's journal entries, there's a deeper picture of a wonderful thirty year relationship that bore the test of - until death do us part - and beyond.
I'm very glad this book was not an angst ridden tome of medicinal procedures as the angelic Farrah deteriorated on every page. Instead, the book is A Story of Life, Love, and Friendship between two women as one was fighting for her life, and the other learning to live her life. Reading between the lines of Alana's journal entries, there's a deeper picture of a wonderful thirty year relationship that bore the test of - until death do us part - and beyond.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Mary Tyler Moore
I'm reading up "Growing Up Again - Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes" by Ms. Moore. I'm expecting this will be a good example for me as I begin working on the suggested edits on my own memoir.
I've researched a lot of memoirs and have enjoyed a few but could not state an similarity to style or story, until I found this one at the library. Growing Up A-Gain is exactly what it is like to write a memoir.
I've researched a lot of memoirs and have enjoyed a few but could not state an similarity to style or story, until I found this one at the library. Growing Up A-Gain is exactly what it is like to write a memoir.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Under Construction
I'm migrating information from my previous website into this to work with blogspot and try out new gadgets.
I'll still be blogging at Terri Patrick's Blog
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
not tech saavy
That's an appropriate title for my first Google blog, because I left the tech world in April of 2006, after almost 15 years of being on the leading edge...
I've already got a blog at -
http://terripatrick.wordpress.com/
I've also got a website, dedicated to the memoir I wrote when I left "tech world" at -
http://www.theresepatrick.com/
I'm not sure I'll ever Twitter but I intend to publish through the "e" world.
Will I blog through Google too? Who knows, the future is yet to be written and I'm the author of my own.
I've already got a blog at -
http://terripatrick.wordpress.com/
I've also got a website, dedicated to the memoir I wrote when I left "tech world" at -
http://www.theresepatrick.com/
I'm not sure I'll ever Twitter but I intend to publish through the "e" world.
Will I blog through Google too? Who knows, the future is yet to be written and I'm the author of my own.
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