Thanks Anita J. Knowles for tagging me on this Blog Tour. And ultimately thanks to Elizabeth Marro for starting the whole dreadful thing. :)

I owe more thanks to Judy Reeve’s for inviting me into her Wednesday read and critique group with Anita and Elizabeth and many other talented writers, where I wrote the first draft of my manuscript during the last two years.  I left that group and since January, 2014, have worked with Brooke Warner and Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of the National Association of Memoir Writers in a bi-weekly on-line class for writers.

Now, to the task at hand: blogging, which is an endeavor I find extremely hard to participate in. I don’t want to fill up the space with crap. I want to contribute something meaningful, but that idea is fraught with all kinds of problems including whether or not I am worthy, etc., etc., etc.,

But here we go. Let’s give it a try. I need to jump in - after all my style is always to jump into the deep end. 

The four questions:

1) What am I working on?

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

3) Why do I write what I do?

4) How does your writing process work?

I’m working on my memoir. My story is a coming-of-age adventure story set in the 1970s. I grew up in a broken home moving back and forth between my mother in Canada and my father in California until Dad purchased a 45-foot custom built sail boat with dreams of taking my sisters and me on a voyage of education and discovery around the world.  

I have worked up my elevator pitch, as they say. Here it goes:

First Attempt:

“What if a 19 year old girl lost her father before she was able to forgive him for the abuses and thank him for the adventures and opportunities?”

Or my Second Attempt:

“An Incredible Thing Happened is an inspirational story for all people who have had to struggle through extraordinary circumstances, and a guidebook that teaches if you fight on, even the worst beginning can have a happy ending.”

Maybe if you leave a comment on this blog, you’ll tell me which one you like the best. I try not to focus too much on the end game. I am just trying to get the whole story on paper. Today I am writing a scene in Tahiti in July, 1975, when my little sister, Karen, got hit by a car.

The most interesting thing about writing memoir is discovering how memory changes. I have worked hard on healing the wounds of those early years and I believe now I am in a place to write from a more compassionate and unbiased position. It’s taken 35 years, but who’s counting? My mother and two sisters and I have discussed many scenes in my book and most of the time we have similar recollections. But during the most tragic times of our lives, like the car accident where Karen almost died, our memories vary. I hope to explore this subject in future blogs because yes, I’m going to blog again! J I have to keep trying to connect with potential readers. 

I hope my memoir is unusual enough to interest readers. My story is heavily plot based and moves quickly.  But there are uncomfortable scenes as well, like the abuse my sisters and I endured at the hands of our father, or the scenes of our family in turmoil.

I always knew I would write this story one day. My wonderful husband, David, is forever encouraging and pushing me to finish, giving me the space and support I need. Our children, Dylan 19, and Marina 17, support me unconditionally and happily don’t need a doting mother any longer.  

I need to be in a relaxed and comfortable environment without a lot of activity to write. My process is evolving. The story and scenes come to me sometimes while I’m doing the dishes or washing the laundry or even sleeping and then I run to the computer and write them down. Mostly I need quiet and harmony and wide open spaces in my day to write. 

So thank you for reading. If you’ve made it this far congratulation on reading the first official blog about my book, An Incredible Thing Happened. I will toss the baton to the beautiful and engaging Elle Brooks , an amazingly talented writer who was a 2013 Pen USA Emerging Voices Fellow who resides in Omaha, Nebraska. She is “currently working on a memoir-in-progress titled, In the Land of Liars, Cheats & Thieves: A Love Story, which chronicles her turbulent journey through sexual exploitation and what happens when a random call to a local radio station DJ challenges everything she thought she knew about men, as an Atlantic City prostitute.” (www.ellebrooks.com)