I just returned from a dynamite conference for female memoir writers hosted by the highly esteemed Story Circle Network in Austin, Texas. I have been a member of SCN for about a year and have been impressed by the excellent online resources the organization provides to life story writers of all kinds. It offers online writing classes, online writing groups, editing services, book reviews, and much more, besides providing a variety of publications that teach and motivate.  I’ve occasionally asked myself, “Where do these women find the time to do all they do for this organization?” Most of it comes free with an amazingly reasonable annual membership fee. The women who run this organization are experienced writers who generously share their time to encourage the development of other writers. Susan Wittig Albert, SCN’s founder, is the author of more than 30 books! (Susan is pictured left in top photo, along with Peggy Moody, another SCN board member.)

While I had become an “Internet groupie” of SCN, I didn’t have a full sense of the organization’s strengths and wide reach until I attended its national conference last week. Frankly, I probably wouldn’t have gone had I not been invited to present a workshop. Conferences are expensive when you factor in air travel and hotel fees. I thought SCN did a fine job keeping the conference costs affordable, however. So I went…and had a great time, not only presenting a workshop, but also mingling and learning from others.

A few things stood out. The conference attracts and addresses the needs of women of all ages and backgrounds–and writing abilities. Close to 200 women attended, and what a friendly, welcoming bunch it was! What an atmosphere of sharing and learning together. I loved the whole experience. I attended as many classes as I could, taught by inspiring, well-prepared teachers who got us thinking, digging deep into our psyches, and writing. I returned home full of ideas I plan to use in my California classes and in my own writing. (Bottom photo: That’s me selling books in the conference vendors’ area.)

So, if you’re a gal who’s looking for more ideas and inspiration to keep you writing your story, check out the SCN website. An annual membership only costs $35–a real deal, considering what you get for it. You’ll be joining a group of more than 600 women from all over the world, all writing their life stories.

Beginning Wednesday, February 10, PBS will broadcast Faces of America, an inspiring new genealogy series hosted by Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who last year produced the much admired documentary African American Lives. In this new series, Gates shows how the latest tools of genealogy and genetics helped trace the ancestors of 12 famous Americans, including actress Meryl Streep, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, political commentator Stephen Colbert, chef Mario Batali, director Mike Nichols, ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi, and many more. If you’d like to know more about this not-to-be-missed program, click here to see the promo trailer. Check your local listing for the broadcast time in your area. I can’t wait!

I attended a most interesting conference this week, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. I enrolled in John Colletta’s course, “Producing a Quality Family History.” It was relaxing to be a student rather than a presenter for a change, and I so enjoyed learning from such a charming, capable teacher. I read Colletta’s laudable Only a Few Bones several years ago and admired his creative approach to family history. Several of my students have taken his classes in the past and raved about him, so when I saw that he was speaking in Salt Lake, I jumped at the chance to take his course.   

Like me, Colletta stresses the story aspects of family history, and his lectures focused on ways to turn biographical facts into a readable and compelling narrative. In one interesting exercise, he demonstrated how he took a brief newspaper wedding announcement and used census records, real estate records, local history resources, contemporary drawings, and a variety of maps to turn dry facts into a story that put real people into an authentic setting and historical context we could visualize. He even calculated the weather conditions on the marriage date! It was a clever teaching tool.

In another class, Colletta discussed the importance of finding a theme in the events of our ancestors’ lives and shaping our narrative around this theme. We discussed typical story themes—ambition, hardship, nonconformity, migration, sacrifice—and examined potential themes in the lives of Colletta’s ancestors.

 It’s important that our stories have a theme, whether we’re writing a family history or our own life story. Many personal historians merely narrate a succession of events—this happened, then this happened—without considering whether there’s a theme that ties them together. All stories have a theme and, likely, several sub-themes.  Look at the events in your life or your ancestors’ lives and try to identify trends that you can develop into a theme that shapes your narrative. If you’ve put together a life chronology, as I’ve suggested in previous posts, it’s fairly easy to scan through the events of your subject’s life to look for potential themes.

Then, of course, you have to plan how your theme will drive  and shape your story–a topic I’ll discuss in a future post.

 In the meantime, I will focus my next few postings on other valuable ideas I learned from the SLIG conference.

–Memoir Mentor

I’ve been presenting seminars recently for a variety of groups ,so I haven’t had time for blogging. I spoke to an enthusiastic group of genealogists in the Southern California Genealogy Society in October about writing family histories.

At the end of the month my husband and I flew to Pennsylvania and attended the annual conference of the Association of Personal Historians, a fine organization of about 600 talented and generous folks who are in the business of creating written, audio, and video personal histories for their clients.

This year’s conference was held in Valley Forge, and it was the perfect time of year to be in that part of the country. We met at the Radisson Hotel, which is right across the street from the Valley Forge historic site, and a couple of miles down the road from the King of Prussia Mall, purportedly the largest mall on the East Coast. Talk about a great location!

My husband and I presented a five-hour seminar at the conference on the subject of truth in memoir writing. We discussed how to use fiction techniques to make memoirs interesting…and still tell the truth. My husband drew from his career as a lawyer when he discussed legal issues—copyright, libel, trademark, etc.—that relate to the work of personal historians. Later in the conference I taught another class and presented ways personal historians can make the people in their stories seem more alive and real.

I learned a great deal from the other classes I attended and particularly enjoyed the “show and tell” evening where APH members shared the books and videos they created for their clients. As always, I was impressed with the professional caliber of their work. I have recommended the services of some of these individuals to people who want to turn their personal history project over to someone else, someone they can trust will get the job done to their satisfaction. If you’d like to learn more about this fine organization, visit the APH website at www.personalhistorians.org.

After the conference we spent a few days in the area discovering what fall looks like in all its glory. Being from Southern California, I find it hard at home to tell the difference between seasons. We visited Valley Forge, which was inspiring and beautiful, important to me because several of my ancestors spent that long terrible winter with Washington’s troops in 1781, when the war appeared to be tilting toward a British victory.

We also spent a few days in Philadelphia, visiting historic sites like Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, which we had seen on a prior vacation. We then drove to New York’s Hudson River Valley for the last two days of our trip. It’s an area we’ve always wanted to visit, and the fall foliage provided a spectacular drive.

The highlight of our time along the Hudson was our visit to Franklin Roosevelt’s home and presidential library and a tour of the campus of the Culinary Institute of America.  If I could go back in time and have a “do-over,” I’d enroll in that cooking school. What a beautiful campus it was, perched on a knoll with a view of the Hudson River. Our tour took is by kitchens where students—dressed in chef’s hats and coats—were learning how to make bread and pastries.  There was a lecture about French wine going on in another room. We were there in time for a late breakfast and we had a hard time choosing from the delectable array of pastries displayed in glass cases in the Apple Pie Bakery Café. We decided, when you can’t decide, buy several.  A good idea, as it turned out.

Each year the Association of Personal Historians stages a conference for people in the business of creating personal histories in various kinds of media for individuals, families, companies, pets, and more. I’m always amazed at the number of talented people who are involved in this business and who come to the conference from all over the world…to teach and learn from each other. The conference is also open to folks who are not in the business but just want to learn from experts how to put together a personal or family history.

This year’s conference–Revolutionary Perspectives–will be held October 21-25 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, near the Valley Forge National Park about a half-hour drive from Philadelphia. I am  looking forward to attending because I know I’ll come away from it brimming with new ideas and clarity about the work I do in this field. This year’s conference has classes on interviewing techniques, creating audio and video biographies, digital publishing, starting and succeeding in a personal history business, social networking, and a whole lot more.

I am teaching a five-hour pre-conference workshop titled “How to Write a Page-Turner Memoir and Still Tell the Truth,” and a presentation about developing the people in your personal history.

I’m looking forward to hearing the keynote speakers. Maureen Taylor will share her knowledge about the interesection of history, genealogy, and photography. She has been featured on PBS Ancestors, MSNBC, Martha Stewart Living, and many other media outlets. Charles Hardy, president of the Oral History Association, will be sharing information about the uses of new technology and the impact of memory studies upon our understanding of autobiographical recollections.  Lily Koppel, author of The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal, and writer for the New York Times, will discuss her discovery of the diary that was fished out of an apartment dumpster and her subsequent meeting with its 90-year-old owner. All good stuff!

Each time I go to one of these conferences, I’m always impressed with the expertise of the speakers and the kind, generous way people in this business want to help each other. It’s fun and inspiring to rub shoulders with them for a few days. I plan to spend some time in the area after the conference visiting Valley Forge and Philadelphia, where my Parrott ancestors spent time in the 18th century.

If you’d like to know more, go the the website for the Association of Personal Historians and click on “Conference.”  While you’re there, poke around the website for awhile and see what the organization has to offer. You may be interested in joining. I’m a member, and I consider it money well spent.