[FRIAM] New Mexico Legacy

[Steven A Smith]

I am in the midst of copy-editing my partner's  (Mary) own memoir of
about 300 pages, she has been a spotty journal keeper throughout her
adult life, but the sections where she IS able to include quotes from
"that moment" are acutely real.   She is also a poet, so various poems
written at those moments or inspired by the events add another dimension.  

My own grandfather was a chronic journaler, starting at age 18 with a
small pocket-journal he scribbled observations in from Europe at the end
of WWI.   It is shockingly real to see the pencil marks this man made a
good 60 years before I ever saw them.   I was told I reminded people a
lot of him, though all I knew of him in person was a "grumpy old man"
that I only saw every few years.  I think he was 60 when I was born.  He
was not particularly introspective, but a lifetime of observations about
the world around him painted a picture as much of the artist as the
subjects.

As part of this exercise, we have read a lot of memoirs and memoiresque
essays, mostly by poets and other writers who are reflecting on their
own writing process.   I have been very impressed with these
self-expose's.  Stephen King's "On Writing" and several of Mary Karr's
memoiresque collections come to mind.

- Steve

On 4/25/19 2:33 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> It doesn't have to be a big piece of national history if it is well
> told, which is of course an art. I think Robert McKee's book "Story"
> contains a lot of good ideas.
>
> It also depends if you have good material, for example personal
> journals or diaries. Personal journals are priceless. The part on page
> 6/7 where a journal entry is a quoted feels real and authentic, a bit
> as if you experience "Wild Cat Creek" yourself. 
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Pamela McCorduck <pamela at well.com>
> Date: 4/26/19 01:16 (GMT+01:00)
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> <friam at redfish.com>
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] New Mexico Legacy
>
> Your kids, and especially your grandchildren, will so appreciate this
> kind of memoir. Often, local historical societies welcome a copy too,
> because the memoir is fine-grained enough to appeal to somebody doing
> local history, even if it isn’t a big piece of national history.
>
>
>
>
>> On Apr 25, 2019, at 12:20 PM, Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net
>> <mailto:jofr at cas-group.net>> wrote:
>>
>> Today the book from Frank arrived, after I ordered it at Amazon
>> recently, and I have read it in the evening. When I read the name
>> "Kayser" of the grandparents I thought they must have a German
>> background, since "Kaiser" is the German word for emperor. (One of my
>> German colleagues is named Kaiser too). And a few pages later I read
>> that they are indeed descendants of German immigrants. Fascinating.
>> It was also interesting to read about the USS Baltimore. I like the
>> idea of writing down the story of the own family to preserve it for
>> future generations. The digital world is so short-lived and temporary.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jochen
>>
>>
>>
>>
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