Seasons of Our Lives Memoirs

Just about a year ago, I published a blog post called “1945,” a memoir piece starring my childhood alter ego, Nellie Quinn. Then, a little less than a month ago, I announced that it had been published in an anthology of women’s memoirs and was available at Amazon. There are four anthologies available with a variety of women’s stories; each story is followed by a “takeaway,” or a memoir writing lesson based on what the author of that particular piece had done.

Here is the takeaway that Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of the series, wrote about “1945.”

The author has done three quite interesting things with this piece that are worth considering. First, she has the thoughts of an adult . . . “fight their way into the stanchions” . . . but accurately reflects the language and actions of a small child . . . “she climbed down the steps, turning backward so she could hold on to one step while her feet found the one below.” It takes a strong writer not to confuse readers, but Sharon Miller has pulled it off. . . .

Second, did you notice that she wrote the story through the voice of a third-person narrator? That’s how she accomplished the seamless melding of adult understanding with the words of a small child. We think this makes it a charming and effective story. . . .

And third, she has strong character and visual descriptions. Notice what she writes about Friz:

• tall black man
• deeply lined face
• salt and pepper, close-cropped hair, easy smile . . . .

There’s more, but I’ll leave it to you to explore my story as well as others included in the four anthologies. Read on to find out how to get all four anthologies at a special price.

Today, February 1, Seasons of Our Lives, 4 memoir anthologies are in Amazon’s Kindle Store for the launch price of just $ .99 each. Now you can get all four for less than the regular price of 1.

Why do you want them? Seasons of Our Lives (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) include 100 award-winning stories and 100 takeaways or mini-lessons on examining our lives and writing our stories in powerful ways.

Interested? Here are the links:

SEASONS OF OUR LIVES: SPRING           http://amzn.to/1dCV07E
SEASONS OF OUR LIVES: SUMMER         http://amzn.to/1fdnRnQ
SEASONS OF OUR LIVES: AUTUMN          http://amzn.to/1aU3Z4o
SEASONS OF OUR LIVES: WINTER           http://amzn.to/1cdviuw

Additional details are available at the WomensMemoirs blog.