I said I would keep you posted on the progress of my family saga / memoir / narrative non-fiction book. The time has come.
No, I don’t have a publisher or an agent. No major developments on that front, though I did send out my first query letters to two agents who invited me to do so. I happened to informally meet them at the Pacific Northwest Writers conference recently. One of them said Life, Revisited was not a great title. I mentioned his comment in the letter I sent him and said I don’t disagree. I am very open to suggestions! What do you like in a title?
No, the key development for me was getting feedback from key people from two of the major tracks of my life—family and work.
I sent the draft manuscript to my oldest brother Ray and his wife Nancy, and Kingsley Smith, my former colleague and partner in news. Ray said I was a good writer (of course he would say that) and Nancy sent this text:
I knew Ray and Nance would go easy on me, but I was a bit nervous to have anyone in my outspoken family read my version of our life. I’m happy to report that we agree on the major turning points in the Barrs Family Saga.
I worked with Kingsley for more than a dozen years at KDFW in Dallas. We went through some shit together, including major news events, personnel issues, and having four owners in five years. We often disagreed but respected each other and made a great team. I was touched when he sent this:
That kind of feedback means a lot to this author and encourages me to keep going. It will be interesting to see responses from people who don’t know and (presumably) love me.
At this point, I’m looking for a traditional publisher. Even if I do get an agent interested, they’d still have to sell it to a publisher, which can be a very slow process. If (or likely when) I get impatient I’ll look into hybrid- or self-publishing.
I’m still going back and forth on what genre I’m writing. For now, it’s a memoir, though as I’ve mentioned before I don’t particularly like calling it that for several reasons. One is it sounds too fancy. Another stems from my first writers’ conference. It doesn’t matter which one. But two people who were both on two separate panels said exactly the same thing both times. I think one was an agent and the other was an editor. I’m paraphrasing here, but they said the memoir market was oversaturated.
Then one said, “We call them MEE-moirs.” They tipped their heads back and forth and said in unison, with plenty of snark, “Because they’re all about me, me, me.”
Ouch. It hit home because I was writing a memoir and it was, in fact, a lot about me. I set that project aside to write fiction, which takes much less soul-searching. If you haven’t already, please check out Parallel Secrets and Parallel Peril!
Ratings, reviews, and of course, purchases are most appreciated!
Whatever the genre, I keep thinking of new things to write about. You’re among the first to read this new draft chapter, which will fit somewhere in the working years:
ADDED CHAPTER
During one of my infrequent attempts at personal reorganization, I found a long-forgotten letter from 1976. It was a two-page Psychological Test Report on me when I was twenty and still using the name Maria Draper. Based on the timing, it was likely part of the Psych class I took the spring of my father’s death.
I never met whoever interpreted my answers to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The report was signed by someone with a Ph.D. behind his name and the title Clinical Psychologist. The true/false survey was filled out on the kind of form that could be read by a computer. I suspect my data was used in some kind of study nobody mentioned.
Or I might just be paranoid. According to the survey my answers indicated that the twenty-year old me was “…very sensitive to interpersonal cues and may be somewhat suspicious of other people and their motives.”
I’ll cop to that, even now. It’s helpful to be aware of what drives other people. Some of them do have negative motives, or have aims that are cross-purpose to yours, professionally as well as personally. That was definitely true in an industry as competitive as television news. In one of his speeches to us local news managers, Fox’s Roger Ailes said something like, “…a little paranoia is a good thing. There are people out to get you, who want you to fail.”
I found that to be true a few times over the years. But much more often I found others’ motivations were aligned with mine. Of course, it was easier to find alignment when I was a boss and got to set direction.
It was interesting to compare the MMPI snapshot of me at twenty with the current me. I will acknowledge certain characteristics haven’t changed that much. At heart, I had “something in common with young people who have chronic problems with authority figures.”
Classic.
I’ve learned to channel—or in some cases stifle—certain instincts, but deep down…
By the way, I couldn’t help noticing the errant apostrophe in the first sentence: “The basic profile for Ms. Draper is similar (but at a very low level) to patient’s who have been in trouble with authority figures.” The second paragraph gave me pause. It said I had some tendency to report myself as a “very virtuous” person who did not “admit to as many human foibles as much as most of us would.”
The snapshot of me decades ago listed other personality traits that pain me to acknowledge probably were and still are true to some degree (“low ego controls” “may have some hostility” “probably capable of being manipulative or exploitive of others”). Ouch.
On the other hand, I’m pleased it found I “have a strong sense of social concern.” The evaluator’s conclusion: “Certainly, she is currently questioning her own values and the values of her family and of society. Very likely, her own values are changing and she is seeking after some consistent way of being in the world.”
That’s fair.
Here in Washington state, we’re entering my prime writing season. It’s chilly and damp and pleasant to hang out at home.
Watching Jon carving a jack o’lantern reminded me of when I was a newbie TV reporter in Redding. Weeks into the job, I did a surely riveting report on the prospect of pumpkin sales for the upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays.
The news director came looking for me after the story aired. She was frowning. “Maria, about your story,” she said in a serious voice. “It’s pronounced PUMP-kin, not punk-in,” then burst out laughing.
That was embarrassing enough that to this day I’m careful about how I say the word.
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Until next time—
Oh, and if you happen to know an agent or publisher who might be interested…