Storyical

Nica Waters is a teacher and sailor, and started writing memoir through a class. She uses writing to work her way through issues that she is dealing with, but she used her memoir writing class to compile stories about her grandmother. Motivated to share these stories with her grandmother while she was still alive, Nica compiled and polished a trove of stories that were like love letters to her grandmother. Nica still writes, mostly about sailing these days and has a blog at https://www.fit2sail.com, and listen to her podcast about sailing, The Boat Galley.

Keith Larson is a freelance cartoonist/illustrator. He started in school, and has been drawing ever since. Inspired by cartoons, he was also encouraged by his teacher to learn to draw. Being a cartoonist means Keith needed to be aware of the issues that readers were dealing with. Being attuned to people’s emotions at a different level of consciousness is important in pointing out humor. Keith was used to cartooning but he used his illustration skills on the book Life in Pacific Grove. His involvement with the project was unplanned, but he illustrated stories with special black and white ink with gradations of grey, and designed a colorful front and back cover. His family has been in Pacific Grove for more than 100 years, so he was happy to be involved for his family. He enjoyed being out and about in Pacific Grove sketching from the physical environment because of the interactions with people who would stop and talk to him. Keith encourages upcoming artists to reach out for work if they are interested in illu

As a writing coach, Patricia Charpentier has experience in helping people write their memoirs. She talks about goal-setting and timelines and historical timelines as a way to getting people to look at the span of their entire life to choose writing about a portion of it. Then she talks about keeping people motivated, and setting goals. The middle of the writing experience is like walking through mud, and then there is the anxiety in finishing. With humor, Patricia shares anecdotes about how she helps her writing clients reach that goal of printing a book, despite 95% of them never having written before. Through the book, family know get to know them in a way that is different to how they know them now, and get to experience a special opportunity of talking about their life.   Patricia is out of Orlando, and her website www.writingyourlife.org. Video courses are available at www.finishmybookin90 days.com And editing can be seen at website www.Editlikeanexpert.com Visit Storyical at http://lifestoryprofessional

Part 3 is about what it was like for Kjathy Watson to be a participant in a Guided Autobiography class. She not only loved the class, and found the experience to be wonderful, but she has signed up for the 2nd and 3rd classes in the series with Heidi Thorsen, the instructor interviewed last week in Episode 21. Kathy became interested in Guided Autobiography because there is no one to tell her side of the family story, and wants her son and grandchildren to know how their family came to be where they are and the broader family history. She was attracted t the structure that the course offered and the deadlines of weekly meetings. Although it was intimidating initially, Kathy found that her writing style of being more analytical changed, and wanted to not just write her life stories but wanted to help the reader experience what happened. Listen to Kathy’s advice for people starting out on their journey to record their life story. Kathy says that sharing is important for others to understand the history of your

Episode 21 explores the hidden magic of storycatching with Guided Autobiographer instructor Heidi Thorsen. What happens when you don’t have a computer, have never written before, and join Heidi’s class on guided autobiography? A lot of joy, reflection and acknowledgment from strangers that will keep you excited to write and share stories for 2 months. And Heidi has advice for those who haven’t started writing yet but find it all a bit daunting – start small. Connect with us at http://lifestoryprofessionals.com Connect with Heidi Thorsen at www.tyememoirs.com

Dr Cheryl Svensson introduces us to Guided Autobiography (GAB) a process of writing your life story that is built on life themes and group interaction. GAB was created by Dr James Birren (now deceased). Its not a how to write class. Nobody gives you critical reviews, or suggestions because your story and your voice is what you need to get out. GAB is a journey which is a surprising one for those who take it. Its more memoir because its snippets of life, and its not Autobiographical because people don’t write about the beginning of their life all the way to where they are now. The stories in GAB almost always surprise the students themselves. As Jim Birren used to say “There has never been another you” so everyone has a story to tell. Despite there being people who came to the class thinking they don’t have a story to tell. Your story is your own unique voice and you use your own unique words. Cheryl says that Personal Historians get the stories from the outside in, but is all about getting the stories from th

Peta Roberts talks about digitizing photos, and tips on how to get the best image possible. The topics covered include 1. Analyzing photos 2. Organizing photos – assembling and a naming convention 3. Scanning – file types and quality and metadata 4. Storing digitized photos and the 3-2-1- rule. Go to http://lifestoryprofessionals.com to download a copy of the National Archives and Records Administration sheet on how to “Analyze a Photograph”.

Today we talk digitizing and organizing images, and why and how to share our special photos. Special guest Cathi Nelson is the founder and CEO of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers which has 1,000 members worldwide to help people with their photo collections. And their home movies. And how to share them for those special anniversaries, wedding, births and any occasions. As a lifelong scrapbooker, Cathi found herself helping friends organize their photo collections who were willing to pay her. We talk about how technology has helped us take more photos, but often contributes to our growing problem of organizing and sharing. Cathi’s first book is available on Amazon entitled “Photo Organizing Made Easy: Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed” and was published December 2017. Come visit us at http://storyical.com to find out more. Find Cathi’s websites here http://cathinelson.com www.appo.org www.saveyourphotos.org

Libby Atwater started out as a journalist, although her childhood was full of memories listening to family stories. She started out as a Personal Historian when asked to record a friend’s life story. Her clients were people who were from all walks of life, and achieved different things through their careers, but all who wanted to tell their stories. For those who did not have a budget to print a book, she recorded audio histories. Libby encourages people to talk about their life stories through questions, photo albums, pivotal points in their life, favorite music, most exciting experience, lessons learned and memory joggers such as their favorite car, their career, favorite pet or sport, children, home and family. Libby uses Print on Demand (POD) to self publish. She recognizing the importance of ensuring a book is readable so Libby hires graphic designers and book layout experts. For writing her own memoirs "What Lies Within", Libby talks about her own challenges, including dealing with her feelings. Visit L

Marcia is in her nineties and honestly dishes on what it was like to tell her life story and have it set out in a book. A big beautiful book. She spent two days with Ellie Kahn Personal Historian, who was featured in Episode 15. Ellie videotaped her, then had the audio transcribed, and then ingeniously put together Marcia’s book about her life in a way that Marcia never thought possible for a stranger to do. Listen to Marcia give advice about what to expect and how the memoir process worked for her. Visit us at storyical.com to learn more about life story.

Ellie Kahn has been an oral historian since 1988. She is from the Los Angeles area and has always been interested in life story. Ellie talks about interviewing people who are towards the end of their life, and the cathartic experience it can be for them to telling their life. Their stories are a gift to family and future generations and listen as Ellie makes it happen for her clients by being there for sole purpose of acknowledging and hearing their stories. Ellie Kahn can be contacted though her website www.livinglegaciesfamilyhistories.com. She also has a Foundation established for the education of students in the gift of family interviewing and these curriculum resources can be found at www.tellmeyourstories.org

Phyllis Edwards retired to Pacific Grove in California and looked forward to writing stories of her life. Little did she know that the free memory writing class she attended at the library would get her writing about her new town in a way she never knew existed. Patricia Hamilton (episode 13) convinced Phyllis to be a contributing writer, and an editor, to the town’s book about itself, “Life in Pacific Grove”. Listen to Phyllis tell us about the free lending libraries she writes about in the book, and her advice for getting started on writing those memoirs. Visit Storyical.com to get the Amazon link to see the town's book. And if you want to start your own free lending library, visit this site to get going - https://littlefreelibrary.org/

Patricia Hamilton is owner and CEO of Park Place Publication, and Keepers of our culture imprint. Patricia started writing about personal history when taking journalism in high school. She gravitated into publishing other people’s memoirs after she finished her initial career. Patricia is a book publisher and Personal Historian and describes her job as going from getting the words from a client to putting it on the internet. Today we talk about two things – the magic of memoir writing, and the second is how Patricia got her town to write a book.  Her latest book is not by a single author but sourced by residents and visitors to Pacific Grove. She never planned the project, it just happened! Whilst she was teaching a free writing class, she mentioned to one of the participants that the stories everyone was writing were so good they should be in a book, but would need illustrating. Fortunately, he was an illustrator, and offered to do the illustrating if Patricia published the book. The book is called “Life in

Sabrena Leroy has faced a lot of adversity in her young life. These adversities included bad parents, violent home life, being a foster kid, plus cerebral palsy and other illnesses. Her twitter name is BlessedPoet and she attributes God as the reason she felt a huge weight lifted off her when she wrote her memoir.  She's had family and friends disappoint her but she stayed strong. She dreams of becoming a motivational speaker one day. Sabrena wants her poetry to help other people, to inspire them. Visit me at Storyical.com Her memoir is entitled “Pieces of My Story – Keep Loving, Keep Forgiving and Keep Pushing” because she figured that those three things were what she did to get through hard times. You can see Sabrena’s book here at Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/143-2594767-3554166?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sabrena+leroy

Visit us at Storyical.com to sign up for weekly news and advice delivered to your email. Or just come on over and say hi. We have treat for today’s episode. It in three parts, with three different people being interviewed. All of them are talking about Songfinch. Stories of us, songs from them. Songfinch is a company that will make you a song to remember your loved ones as their special memories are put to lyrics.  Great for those of us who cannot speak publicly, and would rather deliver our wedding speech, about the great memories we have of the happy couple, in a song. Well, that’s the inspiration for the founding of the company.I spoke to its co-founder Rob Lindquist, about how the process works. Connect to Songfinch on their website I also spoke to one his studio musicians Jef Joslin, who helps us understand how he writes the tune, and the lyrics.  And then I spoke to a customer, Lisa from Tea Time Socials in Chicago. Lisa went through the process of asking for a song to be written for her. In fact she us

Linda Coffin is a Personal Historian who has had a long standing interest in family history and genealogy. She got hooked on family history the first time she explored Gettysburg with her mother. Today she talks about how animating our ancestors lives through stories on what their life and times would have been like is the key to passing on family history to future generations. Linda gives advice on where to research for real data on what was happening where and when our ancestors lived. Connect with Linda at www.historycrafters.com Life Story Professionals welcomes you Copyright 2018 Peta Roberts and Life Story Professionals   l  All Rights Reserved

Anne K hired memoirist Nancy Shohet West to write her mother’s memoir. Anne talks about the process, and what it means to her to understand her mother’s chronology and see the pieces fall into place. The memoirist provided a solid structure to capture her mother’s stories, and kept the project on track. The memoir gave Anne’s mother a better appreciation of her life. Listen to Anne’s three pieces of advice on how to start a memoir. The memoir is “My Life Journey, the Memoir of Phyllis Clark Dearstyne” and is available both at Amazon and through Nancy Shohet West, who can be contacted through her website at http://www.nancyshohetwest.com/memoirs.html

Episode 8 is dual interviews with husband and wife video team Paul English and Alison Crossley. They live in Austinmer near Sydney in Australia. They started out by recording personal life stories and have now branched out into recording business stories as well. Paul films and edits the sound, whilst Alison interviews clients. Paul has a background as a talk show host and got into personal history through recording his mother’s life story. Sadly 4 months later she passed away. Paul walks us through the process of how they meet clients, doing research, building rapport, setting dates, and capturing the ‘gems’ of people’s lives during the filming.  Then they edit, sound design with music, add in photos, cut CDs and post the films online for clients to share and access with passwords. Each client story can take a month of work to complete, from the first meeting to final viewing. Trust is important in helping their clients feel comfortable about telling their stories. In the second part of the episode Alison Cr

Linda Stambaugh engaged Personal Historian Nancy Shohet West to write the memoirs of her father. The project grew to include her mother, and required many more family interviews than planned. What else wasn’t planned was how Linda’s initial expectations were of the book once it was published. It quickly became her father’s bible and the stories in it from his family about him sustained him as his Alzheimer’s disease got worse. Even more surprising was how the initial print run of 85 ballooned into over 200 to date. Linda’s mother was so organized that it made the task of choosing photos for the book seem easy. But they did more than use the photos for the book, many more were included on a CD that was distributed with the book. Listen to Linda talk about the three questions she asked everyone who was interviewed for the book, and the sweet memory her 8-year old grandson contributed. Linda also has some sage advice for getting your project off the ground. The book “Always Room for One More” is available on Ama

Martie McNabb is a Personal Historian/ Visual Storyteller, and she takes us on an interesting journey through the story of “things”. Martie tells us how she moved from teaching in New York City to compiling traditional scrapbooks for busy overwhelmed people. She created an event, called Show and Tales, as a way to get people to open up and share a story about one of their favorite objects in a group setting. Her examples and advice on how to use our personal objects as a prompt for sharing stories can be used by everyone to get that conversation going at home.  Connect with Martie at www.memoriesoutofthebox.com, and  check Martie’s events listing at her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/martie.mcnabb I also review the Storycatcher app available on iTunes (no Android version). It was created by Personal Historian and videographer in Silicon Valley, April Bell, and iphone app coder Urs Brauchli. The app is designed to record your stories, allows for simple editing, and the end result is a movie, with an in