I posted a story in April about my father witnessing Igor Sikorsky’s first helicopter flight. https://kelleytjansson.com/2013/04/18/non-fiction-writing-getting-the-details-right/ My father was only a kid when he witnessed the historic flight. The problem was that he did not remember the date correctly. Fortunately, history recorded the event and I was able to confirm the date via normal research. … Continue reading
Painting a Pig
All the credit for this post goes to my friend Bobbi! In the watercolor instruction book “How to Make a Painting” by Irving Shapiro (1985), a respected water-colorist of the 1950’s-90’s, the author discusses his editing decisions to enhance the composition of his subject on a page titled “Translating the Poetry of Patterns.” The topic … Continue reading
Southerners vs. Russians: Who can suffer more and write about it?
Engineering majors don’t get a lot of choice in college electives. We take what we’re told and are lucky to graduate in 5-years. On the one occasion that I remember actually having an elective without restrictions, I chose to take a class in World Literature. “We’ve never had an engineering major take an elective in … Continue reading
To Artists – Take Risks and Have Passion – Gnaw a Bone!
I was listening to a podcast about memoirs the other day. Somewhere in the dialogue the guest speaker said “…if you’re not taking a risk, then you’re not writing.” It made me think…do readers know when the writer is holding back? Do we always expect an exceptional story-line and exceptional prose to go with it, … Continue reading
You just have to Laugh About the Pig!
Do you have memoirs on your bookshelves? A friend (thanks Bobbi!) handed me three memoirs from her collection a few weeks ago. Two of them had “national bestseller” scrawled across the top. The other looked like a lesser-known volume, titled Me, Melvin ‘N Andy by Andy Anderson. My friend had picked the book up during … Continue reading
LibriVox: Acoustical Liberation of Books in the Public Domain
I made a wonderful friend while we were both volunteering at the American Red Cross the other week. He shared with me that he also volunteered as a reader for LibriVox. I had never heard of it, so he explained more (thanks Mark!). It turns out that this terrific organization (www.librivox.org) uses volunteers to record … Continue reading
Memoir Research: More Than Just Books, A Visit to a Real B-17 Bomber
A friend suggested (thanks Teri!) that my memoir needed more detail regarding the B-17 plane that my Dad served on in the service during World War II. Since the current revision of my manuscript pretty much already contains everything that I learned in discussions with my Dad to date, I’ve spent more time in the … Continue reading
B-17 Bomber Crew Diary: A World War II Memoir
I recently came across the book B-17 Bomber Crew Diary by Edward J. Giering, Major, U.S. Army Retired, as part of my research on B-17 planes for my own memoir. Sure, I had looked up the B-17 fact sheet, and read the details of the various B-17 plane models in reference books. However, it was … Continue reading
Non Fiction Writing: Getting the Details Right
I’ve spent at least an hour a night with my 87-year father over the last ~6-years collecting his memories for my storybook. Dad grew up in Stratford, CT, and has shared his memory of his hometown during the Great Depression and World War II. Dad’s father, my grandfather, was friends with Igor Sikorsky, the entrepreneur … Continue reading
Memoirs for Readers, Reality Television for Viewers
I sent the manuscript for my book to an editor a couple of weeks ago. It’s possible that I forgot to tell him that I was writing a memoir, but he was clearly turned off by either the genre, my writing, or both. He wrote back that the book lacked “broad general appeal.” I have … Continue reading
kelleytjansson 