Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memoir. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Women Friendships - a Guest Post by Barbara Barth

Welcome author, Barbara Barth, with a heartwarming post about the power of women friendships.

Photo by Court Cook on Unsplash

Find your tribe and love them hard is a favorite saying. My tribe has always been creative women and dog lovers and I’ve been lucky over the years that my tribe has grown in many directions, with friendships staying strong. When my husband was alive, I had my antiquing buddies. We did shows together and set up booths in the same antique shops. We hung out mostly during the day since we had husbands at home at night. Hobby antique dealer and retired Federal employee, I was in heaven doing what I loved with girlfriends.

When that changed for me, I didn’t have any single friends, and since I don’t have children or family in town, the days and months ahead could have been bleak. My married girlfriends rallied around me, made sure I got out during the day, and some spent their evenings with me, as we ate out and went to movies.

One night that might have set the pace for all that followed, I was supposed to go see the new Sex In The City movie with two friends (one married, one living with her man) but I was in a funk curled up on the couch, ready to cancel. Ten minutes before they were picking me up, one called. “Be ready. We’ve got wine.”

I didn’t get a chance to say no, she hung up quickly. I jumped up, brushed my teeth, put on some lip-gloss, and walked out my front door just as they pulled into my driveway. We smuggled small bottles of wine into the theater in our purses, giggling like silly teens. The night became magical because my friends didn’t give me a chance to stay at my own pity party.

It’s been eleven years since I lost my husband and I’ve worked hard to make new friends while keeping the old ones close. To use the term “work” talking about friendships may seem odd, but my life is different than most of the women I know. I have no huge distractions, like grown children or grandkids, my dogs are my family. Many of my old friends are now full of family at home again, babysitting, taking care of aging parents, some doing it all and still working. I’m a free agent, my big worry is finding the proper pet sitter.

My friends are my family and I try to keep up with all of them, phone calls foremost, but dinners out still a favorite way to get together. Most times I’m the one calling to see who is free, because I’m free too much! My writing keeps me busy, and recently I’ve started painting again. As much as I love my creative life, I’m too much of a social being to stay quiet for too long.

My new tribe came as a huge surprise. After my move in 2017 from Metro-Atlanta to my Victorian cottage an hour away, I discovered the Monroe-Walton Center for the Arts in Monroe, Georgia. A fabulous art center that has become a huge part of my life bringing me on the Board of Directors with all my writing events. New friends that feel like we’ve known each other forever.

I’ve been lucky that all my gal pals have been fun, crazy, talented, nurturing, and caring. We encourage each other to become our best selves. I’ve learned to live my life as a single woman and enjoy it fully thanks to the support and friendships of the women I meet along my journey.



About the Author: Barbara Barth

Author, blogger, sometimes antique dealer, dog hoarder, bedazzled by life. Widowed ten years ago, Barth writes about finding a creative path back to happiness. Her recent move to a 1906 historic cottage brought many surprises, including discovering the Monroe–Walton Center for the Arts where she started the monthly Walton Writers group and is on the MWCA Board as Literary Arts Chair. Barth is a contributor to Walton Living Magazine and a former blogger for The Balancing Act, Lifetime Television’s morning show for women. Currently she lives with six dogs, rescue dogs that rescued her.

Visit her website at https://www.barbarabarthwriter.com/, follow her on Twitter @writerwithdogs, and follow her Amazon author page.



Book Summary: The Unfaithful Widow


Picking up where The Unfaithful Widow ended, Ten Years Later continues the author’s journey from widow to a slightly askew woman. A memoir written with warmth and candor on being single again, aging, and finding a creative path surrounded by dogs, friends, laughter, and a bit of craziness. Barbara Barth shares stories on the adventures that followed her first year alone as she moved headfirst into a new life, listening to her heart, sometimes not so wisely, but always full speed ahead. Join her on the ride of her life, from owning an antique shop to moving to a Victorian cottage outside of Atlanta, and all the follies in between. Going into the next decade with six dogs by her side, the author proves you are only as old as you feel, and happiness begins with a grateful heart. A funny and engaging memoir for anyone who wants to be their own superhero facing life’s good and bad moments.




Print Length: 374 pages
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, LLC
ASIN: B07YBNHXZG

The Unfaithful widow Ten Years Later is available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.com


 Be sure to follow Barbara Barth as she continues her book tour:


November 13th @ Words from the Heart
Stop by Linda's blog and you can read a guest post by Barbara Barth about publishing anthologies.

November 14th @ Thoughts in Progress
Visit Mason's blog today and you can read Barbara's guest post about starting a writing group. Don't miss it!

November 15th @ The World of My Imagination
Visit Nicole's blog and read her review of Barbara Barth's book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later.

November 16th @ Lori Duff Writes
Stop by Lori's blog today where you can read her interview with Barbara Barth and read her review of Barbara's book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later.

November 16th @ Jill Sheets Blog
Visit Jill's blog today and you can read Barbara Barth's guest post about self-publishing.

November 17th @ A Storybook World
Be sure to stop by Deirdra's blog today and check out her spotlight of the book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later and enter to win a copy of the book!

November 18th @ Beverley A. Baird's Blog
Be sure you visit Bev's blog and read Barbara Barth's guest post about starting over at 70. You won't want to miss this!

November 19th @ Look to the Western Sky
Be sure to visit Margo's blog and read her interview with author Barbara Barth. Don't miss it!

November 20th @ Anthony Avina's Blog
Make sure you visit Anthony's blog today and read Barbara Barth's guest post about publishing anthologies.

November 21st @ Cassandra's Writing World
Stop by Cassandra's blog today and read her review of The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later. You can also enter to win a copy of the book as well!

November 22nd @ Karen Brown Tyson's Blog
Join us at Karen Brown Tyson's blog where you can read a guest post about self-publishing by author Barbara Barth. Don't miss it!

November 23rd @ Beverley A. Baird's Blog
Visit Bev's blog again and you can read her review of Barbara Barth's book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later.

November 24th @ Choices
Be sure to stop by Madeline's blog and read Barbara Barth's guest post that will be talking about women friendships.

November 25th @ Wild Woman Writer
Visit Anne's blog today and you can read Barbara Barth's blog guest post about starting over at 70.

November 26th @ Life Like A Galaxy Girl
Stop by Alanna's blog today and you can read her review of Barbara Barth's memoir The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later.

November 27th @ Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
Visit Lisa's blog today and you can read her interview with author Barbara Barth and find out more about this incredible author!

November 28th @ Bibliotica
Stop by Melissa's blog and make sure you read Barbara Barth's guest post about grief over the years and finding happiness again.

November 29th @ Stranded in Chaos
Visit Sara's blog and you can read her review of Barbara Barth's book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later.

November 30th @ Anthony Avina's Blog
Visit Anthony's blog again and read his review of Barbara Barth's book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later.

December 1st @ Words from the Heart
Visit Linda's blog and read her review of Barbara Barth's book The Unfaithful Widow Ten Years Later. 

December 2nd @ Women's Writing Circle
Stop by the blog Women's Writing Circle and you can read a guest post by Barbara Barth about adopting dogs while all her friends are having grandkids. Don't miss this one!
Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

3 Things I Did to Write My Memoir, Guest Post by Dorit Sasson

…At age nineteen, Dorit Sasson, a dual American-Israeli citizen, was trying to make the status quo work as a college student―until she realized that if she didn’t distance herself from her neurotic, worrywart of a mother, she would become just like her.



 Welcome Dorit Sasson, author of  Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces, with a guest post on the three important steps she took to become unstuck from uncertainty and find the inspiration to finish her memoir. 

3 Things I Did to Write My Memoir, Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces

The genre of memoir writing is exploding. Writers are jumping at the opportunity to tell their life story and want to cash in on what may be the next blockbuster. However, writing one's life story is not as easy as it looks and writing my memoir on serving in the Israel Defense Forces required getting unstuck from the inner critics and self-doubt.

When starting my memoir, I experienced quite a bit of "highs" and "lows." Often I questioned my motivations and asked myself, "who's going to be so interested in reading my story and why?" The inner critic got in the way so much that I had to take it for a nice long walk. But to reach the finish line, I had to increase my productivity so I could stay “unstuck” and creative.

1. I joined a supportive writing group that specializes in memoir writing. I cannot begin to tell you how important a writing group is for the development of any writer but incredibly important for a writer who's feeling vulnerable and lonely while writing past events that tear him/her up. A good writer's group will support you through the "lows" and applaud you through the "highs." Having a good writer's group provides weekly check-ins and accountability with a writing buddy. Also, a writer's group can also provide direction and guidance as you're discovering the best way to tell your story.

2. I blogged about my memoir. Now I know what you might be thinking. How the heck am I going to blog my memoir when I'm struggling to just write the thing? Just for the record, some memoir writers starting out may not feel comfortable blogging because they aren't ready to share parts of their story with a larger audience, (blogging requires an outer voice) and that's alright.
Contrary to what some memoirists may think, there's no shame in blogging about your memoir let alone writing it. As Brene Brown states, "owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light."

As a blogger, you'll have the chance to develop more self-confidence in reaching out to your target online reader. Plus, blogging is great for building a following for promoting your book.

3. I learned the importance of writing scenes for memoir writing. Essentially, a memoir is a collection of "scenes" that when put together, tell a larger story along with themes. Showing what happens to a character is important for grounding the reader. Scenes in memoir thrive on the dialogue of the inner and outer narrator which helps ground defining moments.
When we read a scene that balances all these elements, we connect to a character’s journey that will ultimately lead to transformation.

With the first draft of my memoir, I couldn't help myself and dove into scene after scene but with the help of a writing coach, it became clearer to me that my inner narrator's thoughts and feelings needed to be expressed in order to balance what was happening to me at the time. It was up to me to decide how vulnerable (or not) I really wanted my character to be.

There are literary agents out there who snub memoir writing and some have even gone so far as to say that memoir is "ME-Moir." Please do NOT buy into this cynical and very ridiculous point of view. People want to read memoir for story's sake. They want to read a story of transformation - the hero's journey. And yes, they want to read your memoir. We need to recognize the value of stories and create a safe, sacred and creative space for those who do want to give voice to their stories. The ripple will cast itself over for future generations to come.

Based on my own writing and learning, a good memoir is about sharing and resonance, as well as showing vulnerability and breaking the barriers. And there's nothing wrong or self-centered about that.

Thank you Dorit for your honest and uplifting guest post and thank you to Crystal J. Casavant-Otto and WOW! Women On Writing for providing this stop on Dorit Sasson's blog tour. For more info and tour dates, click here.
About the Author:
 
Dorit Sasson writes for a wide range of print and online publications, including The Huffington Post and The Writer, and speaks at conferences, libraries, and community centers. She is the author of the a featured chapter in Pebbles in the Pond: Transforming the World One Person at a Time, the latest installment of that best-selling series, and. She is the host of the global radio show "Giving Voice to Your Courageous Story." She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband and two children.




Book Summary:

At age nineteen, Dorit Sasson, a dual American-Israeli citizen, was trying to make the status quo work as a college student―until she realized that if she didn’t distance herself from her neurotic, worrywart of a mother, she would become just like her.

Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces is Sasson’s story of how she dropped out of college and volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces in an effort to change her life―and how, in stepping out of her comfort zone and into a war zone, she discovered courage and faith she didn’t know she was capable of.

Paperback: 337 pages
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: She Writes Press (June 14, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1631520350
ISBN-13: 978-1631520358

Amazon Link: click here

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information about Blog Hostess, Audry Fryer,
please visit www.audryfryer.com

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Mini-Memoirs: How to tell your story in fewer than 1000 words, Guest Post by David Berner

Welcome David Berner, author of There's a Hamster in the Dashboard: A Life in Pets.

Mini-memoirs: 
How to tell your story in fewer than 1000 words.
by David W. Berner
Short is sweet. Concise is nice. Brevity is the soul of wit. There are many reasons to keep your story short, and even if your narrative encompasses years of a life, there are merits to writing the short-form personal essay either as a stand alone entity, or as a piece of the bigger puzzle of a full-blown memoir.
Many years ago, a mentor of mine gave me a great bit of advice. I was overwhelmed with the organizational nightmare of writing a 50,000-word memoir about the time I had spent teaching in a troubled Chicago-area school district. At the time it was the biggest project I had ever attempted.
“Write it piece-by-piece, one moment at a time,” he said.
We remember in moments. So, the idea is to write that way—moment by moment. A memory is a single scene in the larger film of our life, so when writing memoir or a personal essay focus on just that one, singular scene. Approach it with honesty, authenticity, and do not try to say everything you always wanted to say in that short experience. Stay in the moment. For many writers, this might be a 5000-word scene or one of 3000 words. But shaving that story down to 1000 words or fewer will help laser in on the scene’s true meaning and, maybe most importantly, force you to choose the perfect words, construct precise descriptions, and hone in on only what is essential. This doesn’t mean you have to forego the reflective moment in the narrative—that deeper truth—because you are trying to keep the story brief. It simply means the reflection might have to come in one well-crafted sentence instead of four or five paragraphs or an entire page. Think of the reflection as what one writing coach called it—an instant of insight.
This genre is sometimes called “flash memoir” and it is becoming quite popular in literary journals and at online memoir publications. The short form is much more digestible for the reader and editors are embracing it. Brevitymag.com is the king of these publications. It calls itself a “journal of literary nonfiction” and asks for submissions of 750 words or less. That’s really shrinking the narrative. But there also have been entire memoirs written in this form, small memories coming in individual chapters gathered together into a larger manuscript. The author Abigail Thomas has written several memoirs in this form—What Comes Next and How to Like It and Safekeeping, to name two of them. There’s also a wonderful memoir entitled Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston. Each chapter is a tiny, small moment in time. The opening chapter is fewer than 200 words.

Many times the beauty of a story is in its simplicity. When it is told in its purest, rawest form it can resonate more freely. Super-short memoir allows for this and permits the writer and the reader to think only of that particular moment in time, just that one human experience and what it means in the larger story of a life.

 Thank you David Berner for sharing this informative post on the fine art of short and sweet!
Also, thank you to WOW - Women on Writing for providing this stop on David's blog tour!

About the Author: 

David W. Berner is a journalist, broadcaster, teacher, and author of two award-winning books: Accidental Lessons, which earned the Royal Dragonfly Grand Prize for Literature, and Any Road Will Take You There, which was a Grand Prize Finalist for the 2015 Hoffer Award for Books. Berner’s stories have been published in a number of literary magazines and journals, and his broadcast reporting and audio documentaries have aired on the CBS Radio Network and dozens of public radio stations across America. He teaches at Columbia College Chicago.


 Book Summary:

A book of essays by award-winning author and journalist David W. Berner is the next best thing to storytelling around a bonfire. In There’s a Hamster in the Dashboard, Berner shares stories of “a life in pets”—from a collie that herds Berner home when the author goes “streaking” through the neighborhood as a two-year-old, to a father crying in front of his son for the only time in his life while burying the family dog on the Fourth of July. And from the ant farm that seems like a great learning experience (until the ants learn how to escape), to the hamster that sets out on its own road trip (but only gets as far as the dashboard). Along the way, Berner shows that pets not only connect us with the animal world, but also with each other and with ourselves. The result is a collection of essays that is insightful and humorous, entertaining and touching.
  
Buy links:

Print or Ebook: Amazon

Print copy only: Dream of Things

Paperback: 138 Pages
Genre: Memoir, Pets, Essays
Publisher: Dream of Things (April 23, 2015)
ISBN-10: 0990840719

Twitter hashtag: # HamsterDash

_____________________________

For more information about blog blog hostess, Audry Fryer,

please visit www.audryfryer.com
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , ,

Friday, November 7, 2014

Welcome Jerry Waxler with a Guest Post on a "Memoir Revolution"



  


Welcome Jerry Waxler, author of Memoir Revolution! So, what is a memoir revolution and why did Jerry Waxler name his book after it? Read on to find out!


Why did you call it Memoir Revolution?

By Jerry Waxler
jerrywaxler@yahoo.com

When I entered college in 1965, life was going to be simple. I intended to become a doctor and looked forward to a normal future. Within a few weeks of my arrival in Madison, Wisconsin, I saw my first anti-war picket signs. No one knew at that time that this was an early warning that cultural upheaval was brewing on the horizon. By the time I left college, I had been knocked thoroughly off course. It took me years to recover. Ever since then, I have been fascinated by social trends and am always on the lookout for others that might affect us collectively, and shift our thinking in new directions. In the early 2000s, I noticed a subtle trend that I believe has far-reaching ramifications, perhaps as big as the wave in the 60s that almost drowned me.

I observed that many people showing up in writing groups were attempting to explore the stories of their lives. In order to do so, they needed to share their secrets. At the same time, on television and through social media, we were collectively shifting our definition of what ought to remain private versus what would be shared with the world. By exposing more of our private thoughts in public, our stories about ourselves were becoming more intimate and authentic.
At first, I was a curious bystander, watching this trend from a distance. I had always been shy, hated talking about myself, and had no intention of revealing anything more about myself than I absolutely had to.
However, as a therapist and self-help fan, I have always admired methods that could help people grow. And during therapy, I had come to believe that finding one’s own story is a valuable tool for self-development. Perhaps by searching for my own story, I could overcome my shyness and participate in the social free-for-all of the Internet.
To investigate the possibility of joining the wave, I took memoir classes, read books about how to write memoirs, and loaded my bookshelves with stories about other people. By learning to shape my memories, and construct them into the organized container of a story, I was turning unintelligible fragments of my own life into a coherent whole.
During this period of research, I noticed a strange thing. Year after year, the trend kept growing. Increasing numbers of people showed up at classes, more people were blogging about it, and an incredible number of people were attempting to turn life into stories. And even more exciting for me, was the realization that the phenomenon was building on itself. Popular memoirs were giving increasing numbers of us permission to find our own stories. If each successful memoir by an ordinary person gave thousands of other people permission to find their own stories, the trend would go viral.
I first became aware of the contagion of memoirs one Sunday morning when I was giving a talk at a study group in a church. I was explaining that the Memoir Revolution had given people permission to open up. “For example,” I said, “many of us have experiences in childhood that are covered over by secrecy. We have been silenced by shame, or the rules of the family, or fear of looking bad.” A middle-aged woman in the back row raised her hand and said, “You mean it’s alright for me to share what happened to me in my childhood?” I said “yes,” and she began to cry. I could feel her emotional relief, even though she had not said a single word about what she had been hiding.
In another group, this one a writing workshop, a woman said, “You mean if I share something about myself that I’ve never told another person, it will give me permission to open up?” I said “yes,” and she said, “My husband killed himself and I’ve never been able to talk about it.” Every single person in that room turned toward her, eyes filled with compassion.
Such events have always been part of our lives, but without language to communicate them, we remained silent. Now, in memoirs, we are shaping the ups and downs of life into the socially acceptable container of stories.

Stories have been used since the dawn of civilization to help people make sense of their trials and tribulations, but through those millennia, most of our emphasis has been on fiction. In fiction, larger-than-life heroes and villains undergo exaggerated circumstances to reach convenient ends. The Memoir Revolution has allowed us to repurpose this story-form in a way that lets us make sense of the every day life of ordinary people.

When unpleasant things happen in life, we attempt to be brave, and look at the half-full glass. Another tool that is just as important as positive thinking is our ability to band together, to reach to each other for support and compassion. By opening up our secrets, and turning them into interesting stories, we have exponentially increased our opportunities to understand ourselves and support each other.

The Memoir Revolution doesn’t rely on tie-dye clothes, bell bottoms, marijuana. And it doesn’t rely on being young, or rebelling against the status quo. But in its potential to tear down the walls between people, and to provide us with a new way of understanding ourselves and each other, this period has the potential to be every bit as invigorating and stimulating as the earlier one.

To join this revolution, you don’t have to drop out, smoke dope, or march in protests. You just have to start writing anecdotes, and in the company of millions of other aspiring writers, attempt to shape those experiences into a compelling story.


Memoir Revolution is Jerry Waxler’s beautifully written story as he integrates it with his deep and abiding knowledge and passion for story. In the 1960s, Jerry Waxler, along with millions of his peers, attempted to find truth by rebelling against everything. After a lifetime of learning about himself and the world, he now finds himself in the middle of another social revolution. In the twenty-first century, increasing numbers of us are searching for truth by finding our stories. In Memoir Revolution, Waxler shows how memoirs link us to the ancient, pervasive system of thought called The Story. By translating our lives into this form, we reveal the meaning and purpose that eludes us when we view ourselves through the lens of memory. And when we share these stories, we create mutual understanding, as well. By exploring the cultural roots of this literary trend, based on an extensive list of memoirs and other book, Waxler makes the Memoir Revolution seem like an inevitable answer to questions about our psychological, social and spiritual well-being. 

Paperback: 190Pages
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Neuralcoach Press; 1 edition (April 9, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0977189538
Twitter hashtag: #MRevolutionWaxler
Memoir Revolution is available as an e-book and paperback at Amazon.
About the Author: Jerry Waxler teaches memoir writing at Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, PA, online, and around the country. His Memory Writers Network blog offers hundreds of essays, reviews, and interviews about reading and writing memoirs. He is on the board of the Philadelphia Writer's Conference and National Association of Memoir Writers and holds a BA in Physics and an MS in Counseling Psychology.


Blog: http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blog hostess, Audry Fryer, is the author of two novels and a short story available for Kindle and Nook. To learn more, check out her wildly interesting website at:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Friday, April 25, 2014

Welcome Sue Silverman and a Guest Post: "The Daily Mirror: Looking at Celebrities - Seeing Ourselves"

Welcome Sue Silverman, author of the memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew, with a fascinating guest post.












The Daily Mirror: Looking at Celebrities – Seeing Ourselves
Kim Kardashian. Miley Cyrus. Justin Timberlake. How do celebrities achieve pop-culture status? What elevates a celebrity – or faux celebrity – to the Mt. Olympus of fame? We know their love lives, their likes and dislikes, their stays in rehab. They’re in People or on Entertainment Tonight. They are, for better or worse, a part of the zeitgeist.
These people are famous because we make them famous. But why? What do they mean to us?
Before Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Madonna, there was a celebrity who profoundly shaped my life. This is what I explore in my new memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew.
My Personal Father Figure
Pat Boone is (was) a 1960s pop-music idol, who sold millions of albums, often topping Elvis Presley on the Billboard charts, and had his own hit TV show. He was a squeaky-clean, wholesome singer, a family man and a Christian, at a time when rival Elvis was the “bad boy” of pop. Pat Boone’s trademark was his immaculate white-buck shoes; Elvis Presley’s was his sexy blue suedes. You would never see a mug shot of a disheveled Pat Boone being booked on a DUI charge. He was well known for drinking milk!
While I loved Pat Boone’s music, my crush on him went much deeper.
I wanted him to adopt me. Why? My Jewish father misloved me; Pat Boone offered a perfect antidote to my confusing and dangerous father.
Through Pat Boone, in this book, I examine my desire to pass as Christian – not only a reaction to my father – but also as a wish to belong, to fit into the WASPy suburb in which I lived. I wanted to flee my Russian Jewish heritage, and be like all my high-school friends. Pat Boone had four daughters, so, I told myself, surely he wouldn’t even notice if I suddenly appeared in his pew at church! If only he could confer upon me his magical, golden Pat Boone-ness, I’d meld into my surroundings. After all, don’t all teenagers want to resemble their friends?
A Pop-Culture Dream Come True
            In The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew, three separate encounters with Pat Boone frame my quest to belong to the dominant culture.
As I teenager, I first attended his TV show in Manhattan. Years later, now an adult living in Michigan, I attended a concert of his held in a mega-church. I barged backstage afterward to tell him what he meant to me all these years, how he offered me hope. He listened.
Not only that but, a year later, he invited me to attend a Christmas concert of his. Afterward, sitting together in his green room – and referring to how I survived my scary family – he said: “I see you as a flower growing up through concrete.”
            Although he obviously never adopted me, he did see me – if not literally as a daughter – then in a way my own father should have seen me, but hadn’t.
Celebrity as Metaphor
Whatever celebrity is currently #1 in streaming videos, it may be a result of actual talent. But, just as likely, it’s because that person’s image represents something deeper. Celebrities speak to an emptiness, a longing, which isn’t always filled in the “real” world, our real lives.
Since we don’t truly know these people, we make them into anything we want. We project our hopes and desires onto them.
            I’m sure that present-day idols have positive meaning for their fans, too. Who are some of your favorite celebrities? What do they embody? What do they mean to you?

 Follow Sue Silverman as she continues on her blog tour through WOW - women on writing. Thank you Jodi Webb for setting up this tour stop here at All Things Audry! 



Meet Sue William Silverman:
Sue William Silverman’s new memoir is The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew. Her two other memoirs are Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction, which is also a Lifetime TV movie, and Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, which won the Association of Writers and Writing Programs award in creative nonfiction. Her craft book is Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir.  As a professional speaker, Sue has appeared on The View, Anderson Cooper 360, and more.  She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.





The Pat Boone Fan Club: 
My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew


Gentile reader, and you, Jews, come too. Follow Sue William Silverman, a one-woman cultural mash-up, on her exploration of identity among the mishmash of American idols and ideals that confuse most of us—or should. Pat Boone is our first stop. Now a Tea Party darling, Boone once shone as a squeaky-clean pop music icon of normality, an antidote for Silverman’s own confusing and dangerous home, where being a Jew in a Christian school wasn’t easy, and being the daughter of the Anti-Boone was unspeakable. And yet somehow Silverman found her way, a “gefilte fish swimming upstream,” and found her voice, which in this searching, bracing, hilarious, and moving book tries to make sense of that most troubling American condition: belonging, but to what?
Picking apricots on a kibbutz, tramping cross-country in a loathed Volkswagen camper, appearing in a made-for-television version of her own life: Silverman is a bobby-soxer, a baby boomer, a hippy, a lefty, and a rebel with something to say to those of us—most of us—still wondering what to make of ourselves.  

 Amazon link to The Pat Boone Fan Club: http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Boone-Fan-Club-Anglo-Saxon/dp/0803264852/ref=la_B000APU4YM_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383753234&sr=1-4


Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)