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Why Write?

When I was seven or eight years old, visiting my grandparents who lived outside Asheville, North Carolina, I began to scribble what would now loosely pass as a log or journal.  I continued the habit for many years, including (importantly) when a friend and I crisscrossed the USA in the spring of 1974 aboard a Greyhound Bus, courtesy of a traveling voucher known at the time as a "Greyhound bus Ameripass."  I kept journals (on and off) in college where I majored in History and English.  When I sailed overseas to Lebanon in the summer of 1983 as a naval officer on board a small destroyer I scribbled thoughts in spiral notebooks and other bounded pieces of paper.  Many of those adventures will be encapsulated within my third memoir due for publication in mid or late summer 2012. 

In the year 2000 I had the great fortune to meet Robert Wolf, Executive Director of Free River Press in Lansing, Iowa.  A writer and teacher by profession, Robert read some of my samples and was generous enough with his time and energy to help me publish my first, fledgling work, ROGUES ISLAND MEMOIR.  Robert Wolf taught storytelling in homeless shelters and among Iowa farmers and in many other settings.  His superb booklet JUMP START: HOW TO WRITE FROM EVERYDAY LIFE (Oxford Univ Press, 2001) is a fantastic aide for anyone thinking about tackling a memoir project.  Robert was of the firm conviction that we ALL have stories to tell, not just the fallen rock star, jaded movie actress or has-been professional sports player.


The story of America is the story of its people, young and old, black and white, educated and not-so-educated, rich and poor.  In recent decades there has been an explosion of interest not just in genealogy, but in family histories written by ordinary elders who tell the tales of their lives for the benefit of the generations to follow.  In recent years I have conducted Memoir Writing seminars, emphasizing this simple truth: in the words of Pearl Bailey, "You will only find yourself when you face the truth."  Or, as Erica Jong once wrote, "Everyone has talent.  What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads."


By no means am I suggesting that all memoirs need to be brooding, deeply revealing pieces; tell-all tales that finally lets light into the darkest corners.  But if some folks DO have disturbing tales to tell, exercising reasonable constraints, they SHOULD tell those stories. Writing is great therapy, if nothing else.



ZOEY'S TALE is a collection of short fiction stories.  They are autobiographical in style and some content, but again, the tales are construed from many separate experiences and people I have met in my life.  I hope you will take a look.  RH