Dear Nonfiction Literary Loves,
Hear ye, Hear ye! Grace Sutherlin has acquired a computer wizard to design her website! I am now sketching the home page and all the other pages to go along with the site. I am also taking photos to utilize on the site as well. This means I must hit the Lilly Pulitzer Spring/Summer 2013 collection soon. Since I am waiting to hear from various publishers, I must say I've devoured quite a few memoir blogs recently. As you well know I sent my memoir manuscript to a well-known publishing giant and was dismayed when she felt my writing content was too similar to a memoir she had already successfully represented. Honestly, I hadn't read the memoir in question, but it seemed a fair response from a publishing bigwig. That is until I read the actual memoir in question. Oh. Dear. Lord. What. In. God's. Creation. Was. She. Reading.!!! The two books couldn't be more different. The writers' lives couldn't be more opposite. I was shocked that the memoir had received such rave reviews. I mean, this writer's memoir revolved around major life transition, but I really didn't understand why she made some of the poor choices she did and I really didn't understand some of her actions. The writer had great prose and was quite talented at description, but hell if I saw how my memoir and this one had any similarities other than great memoir revolves around the transitions in our lives and the transitions others important to us are also undergoing. And Lord Knows There Was A Heck Of A Lot Of Transition In My Memoir Which Didn't Center Around Me.
I read one memoir blog post where the expert claimed that great memoir revolves around being compassionate in your writing to those who shaped your life experiences. Compassion? I'm not about to show compassion for certain folks featured in my writing and life because if I did I would seriously think I need my head examined. For example, I'm not going to show compassion to someone who abused me in any way, harassed me on the job, treated me in a condescending manner, or intentionally hurt my family. Are you kidding me?! I say exactly what I was thinking or actually saying to that person at the time like "I seriously wanted to drop kick his rump out the third floor CEO's office window". That's what I like most about memoir: when the writer lets you in on what she's thinking, feeling, and perceiving. Never let it be said that I write in some kind of wimpy manner; my motto is go big or go home. So I tell it like it is and I don't pull my punches. I've been through enough hell as it is....glaucoma, Meniere's disease, Cogan's syndrome, skin cancer, etc....God forbid someone tell me to lay low, be gentle, walk softly though the night.....I feel like this publishing process is more like a title bout and am left wondering how many rounds will it go, will the book be a ko or a draw, and what or who is my next challenge.
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