K. Lang-Slattery's Blog, page 7
February 29, 2020
A Summer of Memoir Reading
Recently, following the writer’s adage to read the genre you write, I set out to read memoirs in search of stories that would inspire my own writing and push me to expand and excel.
Some time ago, I fell in love with the memoirs of Isabelle Allende. Starting with Paula, a memoir about her youth and her daughter’s illness and death. I continued with The Sum of Our Days and My Invented Country until I have come to feel that Allende is a friend, a sentiment I’m aware she doesn’t share. Getting to know all kinds of people, both famous and not famous, is one of the joys of reading memoirs. Gradually this has become my preferred type of nonfiction.
Over the years, I have read all kinds of memoirs —everything from The Color of Water by James McBride to Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl, from The Choice by Dr. Edith Eva Eger to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, from Hillbilly Eulogy by J. D. Vance to In Sickness & In Health by Karen Propp, from A Pig in Provence by Georgeanne Brennan to The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr. I am not drawn to memoirs of disfunction and addiction, though I have read a few. I prefer a positive memoir with humor, insight into something of interest to me, and a window into a different world or an interesting personality. During the time I have been writing Wherever the Road Leads, An Artist’s Memoir of Travel, Food, and Love with a Car Whisperer, I have made the adage “read what you write” my mantra.
Throughout 2019, including during a summer road trip across the West, I read memoir after memoir. Luckily, I can read while a car passenger and my partner enjoys being at the wheel and doesn’t mind me riding with my nose in a book. My goal during the summer was to find memoirs with parallels to my manuscript (travel, food, relationships), yet different in ways that allow my story to add a new perspective or insight.
A discussion of comparable books is an essential part of any professional proposal sent to publishers or agents. At a recent writers’ workshop, I listened carefully as one of the speakers emphasized the importance of a complete and detailed list of comparable books published in the last few years. This advice brought to mind essays from my school days when we were told to compare and contrast two books or ideas. I would need to find the similarities, but also root out the differences that make my story unique. Experts on crafting a book proposal also warn against listing well-known, bestsellers as “comps.” This effectively eliminated my use of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.
How could I resist mentioning Steinbeck’s tale of travel in a camper around the United States with his dog Charley. Recently, I reread this simple story told by a literary icon and was charmed by it all over again. Back in the late ’60s when I first read Travels with Charley, I was inspired by the idea of a journey of exploration in a fitted-out vehicle camper. More specifically, Tom (my companion for the long-ago travels described in my memoir) and I copied Steinbeck’s use of a plastic garbage bucket as a laundry washing container. 
Memoirs, by definition, are each an intensely personal story. This makes finding comparative titles difficult at best. During my search, I discovered some that were obviously not comparative titles, but which fascinated me, and I read those, too. Stacks of memoirs form unsteady piles on my desk and by my bed. I know there is a spot in the travel memoir genre waiting to be filled by Wherever the Road Leads.
My 2019 memoir reading list:
• The Choice, Embrace the Possible, by Dr. Edith Eva Eger, 2017 (Holocaust and personal growth)
• An Embarrassment of Mangoes, by Ann Vanderhoof, 2004 (travel, sailing, the Caribbean, and food)
• The Truths We Hold, by Kamala Harris, 2019 (personal/political)
. Becoming, by Michelle Obama, 2019 (personal/political)
• The Only Girl in the World, by Maude Julien, 2014, translated from French (dysfunctional family and coming of age)
• In Sickness and In Health, by Karen Propp, 2002 (illness and marriage)
• The Invisible Wall, by Harry Bernstein, 2007 (family, historical, Jewish culture in turn of the century England)
• The Dream, by Harry Bernstein, 2009 (immigrant experience)
• The Blind Masseuse, by Alden Jones, 2013 (travel)
• The Yellow Envelope, by Kim Dinan, 2017 (travel, relationships)
• Travels With Charley in Search of America, by John Steinbeck, 1963 (camper travel in America)
• Nothing to Declare, Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone, by Mary Morris, 1988 (travel, Mexico, friendship)
• The Accidental Asian, Eric Liu, 1998 (immigrant experience)
• Nobody will Tell You This But Me, Bess Kalb, 2020, (family and humor)
• All Over the Place, by Geraldine DeRuiter, 2017 (travel, humor, relationships, family, illness)
• Where the Past Begins, Memory and Imagination, by Amy Tan, 2017 (family and history)
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February 18, 2020
Memoir Writing Update: Wherever the Road Leads
I can’t believe it’s been two years since I posted my last blog! How could it have taken so long to write my memoir?
Originally, I set a goal for myself to finish within a year. For twelve months, I poured over old letters, studied maps, looked up details of time and place on the Internet and wrote the account one chapter at a time. Assuming I can count a manuscript of over 200 pages to be finished, I achieved my goal. I had written a full account of two years of travel and, though it all interested me, I knew it not ready for publication. I was too close to the story to know where to cut and what to keep. Sending the manuscript to Beta readers who promised to give me their unvarnished opinion was my next step.
Our Van on a snowy morning in Yugoslavia, 1972
My selected readers ranged from an old boyfriend from high school to my younger sister’s friend, from the husband of a lady in my book discussion group to a woman I had never met who volunteered after seeing the request on my Facebook page. I signed-up seven readers in all. Each was sent either a PDF file or printed-out hard-copy. I also asked them to answer specific questions customized for the main sections of the story. The three pages of questions included, “If you read only the table of contents and the first page, would you want to buy this book?”; “Does the author reveal sufficient personal details to keep you interested in the relationship aspect of the story?”; and “Do you feel the last two chapters bring the story to a satisfying finish? Why or why not?” I also asked the readers if they liked the working title—Venus and Mars in a Van. Mostly they did not. The title is now Wherever the Road Leads.
A variety of comments came back from my Beta readers. Some liked the travel sections best, while others found the description of life in a van more interesting. Some readers liked the discussions of food and cooking, while others wanted less food and more travel. One reader suggested more material on my motivations. They asked why I would leave a good job and a safe home for this daunting journey. Another wanted me to share more about our romance and what held us together as a couple. Several readers suggested maps and drawings as illustration. With all their comments in mind, I worked to improve some sections and cut others. I was able to reduce the word count, but at 112,700 words, I knew it was still too long.
At this point my fabulous editor, Lorraine Fico-White, who works with me on my writing, suggested I send the manuscript to her son, a young man in his twenties who is also an editor and writer. Nick and I had never met or worked together so his critique would be unsullied by past experience. Also, his reactions would exemplify a younger audience. Nick’s comments gave me confidence. He was sincere and his appreciation and insight helped. Again, I edited the manuscript and was able to further reduce the word count, in spite of an added preface and expanded dialogue. In the fall of 2018, with the manuscript at 108,900 words, Lorraine and I began to work together.
While I waited for Lorraine’s content and line editing suggestions, I roughed in illustrated route maps. I labored using an old Adobe publication program I had learned years before. After only a couple of the maps, I decided to enlist the help of Cole Waidley, the graphic designer who created the book cover and map for my novel, Immigrant Soldier. His knowledge and up-to-date graphic skills soon produced maps that reflected my vision.
After months of the back-and-forth editing process, Lorraine and I felt the manuscript, a leaner 94,000 words, was ready. As one final test, I asked a friend from my high-school days, Georgeanne Brennan, a well-known cookbook and memoir author, if she would be willing to read my manuscript. Georgeanne’s comments led me to write an epilogue, as well as change lingering overused words such as “delicious” and “lovely.”
Finally, after more than two and a half years of work, Wherever the Road Leads was ready. My “baby” has been sent into the world of agents and publishers. I am determined to see it published, whether through a traditional publisher or by publishing it myself as I did Immigrant Soldier. Either way, the story of my honeymoon in a Volkswagen van probably won’t be launched into the public realm for as much as a year. Publication is another slow process.
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October 1, 2017
A Memoir of Love and Travel Van-Life Style
What was the most influential journey of your life? How has travel changed your perspective?
A Memoir of Love and Travel Van-Life Style
The first question is an easy one for me — it was my honeymoon! Granted, my honeymoon was a bit different than most. It lasted for two years in the early 1970s and featured four continents via Volkswagen microbus. For years, I resisted writing about the experience. When we were traveling, I took notes, thinking I would write a travelogue or a food essay for a cooking magazine when we returned home. However, by the time I was back in California, I realized that most of my notes, by then as much as two years old, were already out of date. I set the idea of writing about our trip aside and proceeded with my life as an artist, a mother, a Girl Scout leader, a cooking instructor, and a traveler.
For years, I have been amazed by how interested people are when they first hear of my van-life adventures. To me it all seemed like old stories of long ago. However, recently I began searching for a new writing project that would grip me like Immigrant Soldier did. Encouraged by a friend, I began to consider the idea of writing a memoir of my honeymoon travels. Known as “the long trip” among family and friends, the stories from those two years always seemed to fascinate listeners at dinner parties and gatherings.
For the travel details of the story I have been aided by seventy-three letters (over 700 pages of hand-written journal style writing) which I sent home to our parents for safekeeping. I also have hundreds of photos (yes, slides) taken by my travel partner Tom, as well as drawings and sketches I did along the way. Because the letters were written to be read by our parents, emotional and intimate details were censored out. Thus, for the personal aspects of the experience, I have had to rely on my memory.
As I reread the letters, I recognize many things hidden between the lines. What I did write often reminds me of what I didn’t include. Though the memoir can only be my perspective, I have talked to family members about their memories of the times when they became players in the saga. I have become totally immersed in the project. I feel again the fruitless anger of our first argument at the Guatemala border, the satisfaction of washing Tom’s underwear in a river in Honduras, the terrible heat and disappointment in Panama, the joy of seeing my sister Karen waiting for us on the dock in Barcelona. I am delighted by the memory of the weeks we shared England and Holland with our nine and ten year old niece and nephew. I am amazed all over again at Tom’s ability to fix anything that went wrong with the van and I experience again my love for him as he constantly built and improved our tiny home along the way. I remember the thrill of seeing the bazaars of North Africa, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, women in burkas in Afghanistan, and the sights and smells of India.
Now that I am actually writing the memoir, I must tackle the second question. How did this experience change me? I think about the places we saw, the people we met, and the ways we learned to live together in the small confines of a microbus. How did the experience transform me into the person I am today, forty-five years later. I entered the adventure as a twenty-eight year old, single woman—an art teacher off to see the world with her lover. Two years later, I returned to the U.S as half of a committed, married couple, looking forward to having a family and teaching our future children to love travel as much as we did.
After nine months of dedicated work, I am nearing the final section. I have enjoyed creating chapter titles which I hope will keep my readers interested—An Iberian Winter, For Richer or Poorer, Four Peas in a Pod, and Another World Entirely. Though the working title is “Memoir,” I can’t help but contemplate possible titles for the finished work. Here are my current favorite:
• Wherever the Road Leads, An Artist’s Memoir of Travel, Love and Food with a Car Whisperer.
Would this title make you want to read the memoir if you saw it on a shelf in the bookstore? I’d love to get your comments and input.
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July 11, 2017
The Muralist and LBJ, a Secret Hero.
The Muralist and LBJ, a Secret Hero.
The novel, The Muralist , by B.A. Shapiro, did not disappoint. Real artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Lee Krasner populated the pages and were friends of the fictional main character, Alisée, a mural painter working for the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Set in New York in 1939 and 1940, the book soon revealed that I had not strayed as far from my WWII obsession as I hoped. Alizée is not only French but also Jewish. A US citizen because she was born in the states, after the death of her parents, she was raised by relatives in France. While she works in New York City, painting and experimenting with abstract images, she is also obsessed with trying to get visas for her aunt, uncle, cousins, and brother, who are still in France as that country is overrun by the Nazis.
Very soon, Alisée’s struggle to help her family escape Europe becomes the heart of the novel. Shapiro deals with organizations such as the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private relief organization trying to help refugees, President Roosevelt’s hesitancy to buck isolationism, which was vocally supported by Charles Lindberg and Joseph Kennedy, the US visa quota system of the time, and the anti-Semitism of Breckinridge Long, who was Assistant Secretary of State. The author also manages to create a plausible friendship between Alisée and Eleanor Roosevelt, who unsuccessfully attempts to help secure the needed visas. During an early meeting, the First Lady mentions to Alisee, “a young congressman . . . confided he’s getting visas to Polish Jews and secretly bringing them into the country through the port of Galveston, Texas.” This seemed odd when I first read it. Texas is not a place I associate with rescuing Jews, though I know there are three Holocaust museums in the state (Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston), a fact that perplexed me when I was researching places to market Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy.
A few chapters later, the heroic congressman was again discussed by Eleanor Roosevelt in a fictional conversation with Alisée, and this time his name—Lyndon Johnson —was mentioned. Generally, historical fiction endeavors to make all references to actual people factual or, at the very least, possibly true or likely. My interest sparked, I wanted to find out if there was any truth to Lyndon Johnson’s involvement in helping Jewish refugees. So I headed for Google. Happily, there is quite a bit of material, though the story remains unclear and largely substantiated except by anecdotal and circumstantial evidence.
“Operation Texas” was Johnson’s alleged undercover operation to help European Jews enter the United States through Latin America with false passports and one-way visas. Once in the US, they were initially housed in facilities of the Texas National Youth Administration where Johnson had connections. Finally they would be settled safely in surrounding areas, especially around Houston. The number of refugees helped by “Operation Texas” may be as low as forty-two documented Polish Jews who were able to leave Europe before the war because of visas given by Lyndon Johnson to his friend, Jim Novy, an American Polish business man who visited his homeland in 1938. There are also estimates of four to five hundred additional Jewish refugees who may have entered the country extra-legally with Johnson’s help, after they made it first to Cuba, Mexico, or elsewhere in Latin America. The lack of primary documentation is not surprising for such a clandestine operation. The need for secrecy would naturally have produced no written documents or tangible evidence that might cause the arrest and deportation of the refugees, the arrest of anyone involved, and the destruction of Lyndon Johnson’s political career.
The first known public mentions of Johnson’s involvement helping Jewish refugees came when he was introduced by his friend Novy at the dedication of a new sanctuary at an Austin synagogue. Only thirty days after Kennedy’s assassination, the event was Johnson’s first public appearance as the 36th President. After Novy’s introduction, which referenced Johnson’s aid to Jewish refugees with gratitude, the president’s keynote speech did not acknowledge or deny Novy’s story.
The announcement at the Austin synagogue attracted little attention in 1963,; however, twenty years later, a doctoral dissertation submitted by Louis S. Gomolak to the history department of the University of Texas began to circulate. In the dissertation titled, Prologue: LBJ’s Foreign Affairs Background, 1908 — 1948, Gomolak put forward the theory that, without the knowledge of the US government and with the help of Novy, LBJ managed two large-scale covert rescue missions of European Jews. Gomolak refused to reveal the identity of the survivors he interviewed, which has made substantiation of his theory difficult.
Johnson’s political record shows he was always a friend to Israel and an opponent of anti-Semitism; however, efforts begun in 2008, to have LBJ declared a “Righteous Gentile” did not gain traction. This was partially due to lack of documentation, though additional antidotal evidence from the families of survivors surfaced as the result of the inquiry. In the end, Lyndon Johnson was not awarded “Righteous Gentile” status by Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among Nations Department because most of the Jews he helped had already escaped Europe and he only helped them gain admission to the United States. Also, LBJ did not put his life in danger by his actions—only his career was jeopardized.
Though LBJ did not receive this high honor from Yad Vashem, in 1994, the Holocaust Museum of Houston honored him by establishing the Lyndon Baines Johnson Moral Courage Award. This award is given to persons who show moral courage, individual responsibility, and the willingness to take action against injustice, either by a single act or a lifetime of behavior. Past recipients have included Miep Gies (bookkeeper of the Otto Frank family), Steven Spielberg, Bob Dole, Martin Luther King Jr., Elie Wiesel, and Daniel Pearl.
http://hmh.org/au_award_page25.shtml
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April 26, 2017
A Summer Book for Young Readers
After two years promoting my adult novel, Immigrant Soldier, I decided go back to my roots – children’s literature. As a result of the publication of the novel, I now have my very own publishing company. Why not publish a children’s book?
A Summer Book for Young Readers
After two years promoting my adult novel, Immigrant Soldier, I decided go back to my roots – children’s literature. As a result of the publication of the novel, I now have my very own publishing company. Why not publish a children’s book?
Last February, I pulled out one of my favorite children’s manuscripts – a work where I continue to own the rights. Based on a childhood memory, it tells the story of a little girl with a big idea in early chapter-book format. I checked the manuscript over, made a few changes and improvements, and sent it to my editor, Lorraine Fico-White. She encouraged me to go ahead with the project. “I love Caitlin and can easily see this becoming a series,” she wrote. So preparation work for publishing the manuscript began!
In a children’s book, illustrations are primary. However, I never wanted to do the illustrations myself. I turned to a friend who is a professional artist and asked if he would create the illustrations. Ron is a sculptor first and foremost, but he is also a talented draftsman in both pen and ink and pencil renderings. He agreed to help, and we worked together on ideas for the illustrations. The result is a delightful selection of pencil and ink drawings, including four full-page illustrations, one half-page picture, and more than a dozen small pencil vignettes scattered throughout.
Most delightfully, a charming lizard, developed a personality. He greets the reader at the start of each chapter, giving one more reason to turn the pages.
As the result of teamwork between the editor, the book designer Lori DeWorken, our illustrator Ron Whitacre, and myself, Pacific Bookworks’ second book is ready for publication in time for summer reading by children ages six through nine.
Pacific Bookworks is proud to present Tagalong Caitlin, an early chapter book available on Amazon on May 1, and as a Kindle e-book a few days later.
Caitlin loves summer camp!
She has spent every summer she can remember at camp with her mom, who is a counselor. This summer, Caitlin wants to join the difficult, three-day hike with the older girls. But Caitlin’s mom says she’s not old enough yet. Caitlin is determined to change everyone’s mind and prove she is strong enough for the hike. Will Caitlin be allowed to go on the overnight hike? And if so, will she be able to do the full three days?
“Tagalong Caitlin is about growing up, about setting a goal and working to get there, and about sticking to it when the going gets tough. Young readers will love the outdoor setting and enjoy Caitlin’s ‘can-do’ attitude as she tries to become just like the other campers.”
Marion Coste, award-winning author of seven children’s books.
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March 11, 2017
My Mother's Secret - A Self-Publication Success
I have to admit, Amazon has my number! Whenever I sign in to my account on their website, I get a display of “featured recommendations,” and when I order a book, I am shown selections that “Customers who bought this item also bought.” It was one of these suggestions that lead me to the wonderful little novel, My Mother’s Secret by J. L. Witterick.
My Mother’s Secret – A Self-Publication Success
I have to admit, Amazon has my number! Whenever I sign in to my account on their website, I get a display of “featured recommendations,” and when I order a book, I am shown selections that “customers who bought this item also bought.” It was one of these suggestions that lead me to the wonderful little novel, My Mother’s Secret by J. L. Witterick.
The description on Amazon says, “Inspired by a true story, My Mother’s Secret is a captivating and ultimately uplifting tale intertwining the lives of two Jewish families in hiding from the Nazis, a fleeing German soldier, and the mother and daughter who team up to save them all.” There was no way I could resist this introduction.
Last week, after finishing a group of three dense nonfiction books, I chose this thin book from the huge stack on my bookshelf because I needed a quick read with a compelling plot. Thumbing through the pages, I saw well-spaced lines and short chapters. More importantly, I spied simple but beautiful sentences like this one from the middle of the book: “People are like water in a pond where you cannot see the bottom.”
I read the book in three days, though I could have finished it in a day if I hadn’t forced myself to set it down occasionally and attend to things such as preparing my taxes, working on my current writing project, and attending meetings.
Like Immigrant Soldier, Witterick’s novel is based on a true story. She learned about the bravery of Franciszka Halamajowa and her daughter Helena from a 2009 film documentary, No. 4 Street of Our Lady. The story so inspired the Taiwanese-Canadian, money-and-investment manager turned writer, that she determined to write a novel about Franciszka. When she had a draft, she wisely sought input and advice from a myriad of connections and friends. In her acknowledgments at the end of the book, Witterick says, “Every time I think the story has reached its destination and cannot possibly be improved, fate sends me someone to take it one level higher.” The result is a truly powerful story told with pathos and understanding.
The novel, a story of courage, fear, love, and determination during the dark days of Nazi occupation in Poland, is told in first person by four different characters. Helena, the daughter, begins the tale. Following sections are told by the father of one on the Jewish families saved, the eight-year-old boy of the other hidden Jewish family, and the pacifist German soldier that also finds refuge in Franciszka’s home when he deserts. Finally, the end of the tale returns to Helena as the narrator. Witterick made only minor changes from the true story—notably she added an appealing and believable romance and softened the ending for the German deserter.
The author used her business acumen to aggressively market the book that she self-published with iUniverse in 2012. Unlike most self-published authors, she seems to have had thousands of dollars available to pay for advertising on the radio, on bus shelters, and in newspapers and magazines. Now, I am happy this worked for her, but I admit to the wish that I could front a similar advertising campaign.
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, one of the world’s leading trade imprints picked up My Mother’s Secret almost immediately. They republished it as part of their 2013 list. This is a huge success for a self-published author, one I often dream of, and the book certainly deserves this window to millions of additional readers. The National Jewish Book Awards of 2013 named the book “Outstanding Debut Fiction Finalist.”
My Mother’s Secret is appropriate and readable for anyone over the age of 12 and would make a great curriculum supplement for students. Adult readers will find it an unforgettable book and one they will want to share with friends. I highly recommend it!
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