Category Archives: Memoir

Susan Violante – Writing Your Book with Oral History Techniques

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 On October 5th, 2011 Victor R. Volkman and Donna Winters spoke with writer, broadcaster, and historical fiction writer Susan Violante about incorporating research from oral history into fiction and non-fiction contexts.  In 2010, she published her Young Adult novel Innocent War: Behind and Immigrant’s Past — Book One. She currently works as the Editorial Assistant for Reader Views and First Chapter Plus. During the course of her writing she used tapes her father recorded as well as one-on-one interviews to flesh out the events, characters, and emotions that she hoped to capture in her book.  In this wide-ranging discussion, we covered those issues and much more:

  • Researching for your book
  • Benefits of Interviewing as a research tool when writing any story
  • Different Interviewing tools and techniques.
  • Quick tips to interview like a professional.
  • How to use your story’s research to Market your book.
  • Creating Podcasts using recorded interviews done during story research.
  • Using your contacts generated through story research to promote your book.

Susan Violante

Susan Violante
Born and raised in Venezuela from Italian immigrants, author Susan Violante completed a BA degree in Political and Administrative Cs. and worked as Founding General Director of a Environmental Foundation before moving to the US. Although she built a career as a Business Analyst/Accountant since 1987, she also kept herself active as a Freelance writer. In 2010 Violante finally retired from Accounting and leaped to the publishing industry. She is also finishing her first picture book titled Tuma: The Little Indian Princess while working on Book 2 of her Series. Susan is also the host of I Have Something to Say LIVE, and soon to be Managing Editor of her newest project: I Have Something To Say Press. Her new radio show: Italian Austinite will go on the air through Blogtalk radio at the end of October.

Innocent War

Innocent War
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Dion McInnis – Turning Memories into Memoirs, Autobiographies, Short Stories and Nonfiction

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On July 7th, 2011 Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with writing coach and author Dion McInnis about how anyone can learn to write an engaging memoir.  He teaches Memories to Memoirsworkshops at a variety of outlets, as well as teaching photography.  He fell in love with writing by the time he was 12 and photography at 6.  During the day, he is a university administrator, and every moment of every day he is a writer/photographer/speaker/poet.   We covered a range of topics on memoir including

  • Using writing cues to jog your memory
  • The Horizontal Timelines and how they can co-ordinate the story of your life
  • The importance of preserving your point-of-view while recovering memories
  • Choosing fiction or non-fiction as your final product
  • Using old photos to stimulate memories and discover context
  • Non-verbal methods of bringing yourself back in time
  • And much more!

Dion McInnis

Dion McInnis
Dion McInnis has always loved the stories of his life and the lives of those he encountered.  He believes in the richness, wisdom and humanity of stories.  Over time, he realized that it is harder to rekindle memories and find the ways to turn them into stories, whether for memoirs, autobiographies, short stories and so on.  So, he developed a way to find the memories and turn them into words.  His most recent book is entitled Daddin’: The Verb of Being a Dad.

Daddin': The Verb of Being a Dad

Daddin': The Verb of Being a Dad
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Janet Grace Riehl – Do-it-Yourself Audiobook Production

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On April 15th, 2010 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman interviewed poet, author, and performance artist Janet Grace Riehl about recording, producing, and marketing audiobook versions of eBooks and print publications. Her book Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary, told in story poems, was recently made into an audio book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music. Twice selected as finalist for Poet Laureate of Lake County, California and a member of Authors Guild, her poems, stories and essays are published in national literary magazines and several anthologies.

Janet broke it all down for us on audiobooks into easy-to-understand steps

  1. Creative;
  2. technical (editing, mastering, disc numbering);
  3. legal (licenses and copyrights);
  4. production;
  5. distribution and marketing; and,
  6. Big Celebration.

Resources mentioned on this podcast
Janet Grace Riehl is an award-winning author, artist, performer, community mentor, and creative collaborator. Her poems, stories, and essays have been widely published in national literary magazines such as “Harvard Review” and the anthologies “Stories to Live By: Wisdom to Help You Make the Most of Every Day” and “Hot Flashes 2″.

Her life moves between the big city in St. Louis in the Central West End to the family home place on the bluffs above the Mississippi River in Southwestern Illinois where she collaborates on creative projects with her 90-something father. Feel free to contact her by email at janet.riehl@gmail.com.
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Intensive critique classes online in fiction and memoir

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Claiming and Polishing the Power of Our Stories: Intensive critique classes online in fiction and memoir. (10 weeks)

 This is an advanced writers’ workshop open both to writers who have studied with me, or those who have not but are invited to participate after sending a 3-page sample of your work in fiction or memoir, and a paragraph describing the project you are working on, or aim to develop. The workshop focuses on your work-in-progress and the questions you pose about craft, which will be addressed specifically in relationship to your work. This intensive critique class will respond to each individual’s needs as they continue to develop and revise their work toward the completion of a memoir, novel, collection of short stories, or collection of memoiristic essays. Many of the fiction writers in the class may have an autobiographical connection to their work; this connection may be direct, or may be subtle, internal, roundabout, and not absolutely necessary or identifiable. This course means hard work, following your own strong impulses and directions, and receiving and giving helpful, extensive feedback. Participants in the group who have studied with me previously have shown themselves to be insightful and constructive in their responses, and I aim in my feedback to you to illuminate in large and in detailed ways the deeper subject matter, language and structure of your project. The course will begin in late January or early February, to be determined.

Fee: 325$ payable in full before the start of class. Please aachtenberg@gmail.com or 651-214-9248 before January 2, or after January 18. Remember, if you have not studied with me before, please email, within the body of your email and NOT as an attachment, a paragraph or one page project description, and a 3-page writing sample from your project.

***If you are looking for another kind of online workshop with regular lectures posted each week, I will continue to teach with writers.com — see http://www.writers.com/achtenberg.html#story  for Claiming Our Stories… Parts One and Two.

Patricka Vaughn – How to Write Your Own Story

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On August 6th, 2009 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with writing and publishing guru Patricka Vaughn about how to get started in your memoir/autobiography or biography of a loved one. Patrika Vaughn, world’s leading Author’s Advocate, is the CEO of A Cappela Publishing. She has taught memoir writing from Florida to Finland and is here to tell you how to do it. She addressed many key issues including

  • Why should you write your life story?
  • What do you need before you begin?
  • What are the forms a life story can take?
  • How do you get started?
  • How do you make your story interesting to others?
  • How do you turn your story into a book?
 Patricka Vaughn
Spanning a 25-year career as a writer, editor, publisher, lecturer, author and literary agent, Patrika Vaughn understands the written word and how to market it. She is also armed with an arsenal of tools to propel the works of aspiring writers quickly through today’s prohibitive publishing arena and into the hands of readers. Her 25 years of experience include every aspect of the trade:

  • Professional Writer: Columnist and feature writer. Articles published in more than 100 national journals and magazines. Author of books, audio books and ebooks. (see www.acappela.com)
  • Ghostwriter: Books of both fact and fiction for industrialists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists, world travelers and international executives
  • Editor: Editor for national trade and consumer publications
  • Publisher: President of A Cappela Publishing
  • Literary Agent: Placed writers with Prentice-Hall (Simon & Schuster), McGraw Hill Publications, Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, Cahners Publications, Conover Mast Publications, Advisory Enterprises, Inc., Larkin Publications and others.
  • Public Relations & Marketing Consultant: To business, industry and non-profit corporations; former media coordinator for Habitat for Humanity in San Diego / Tijuana
  • Lecturer, Seminar leader, On-line instructor: Adult education plus university and community college level presentations.
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