"...everything in life is writable...if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."..... Sylvia Plath

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Making of a memoir (the process)


Author's notes: This is not in story form yet. I've just collected data and research together here. I've loosely pulled together information for 11 chapters so far. I'm posting some of the information to see if readers and writers think a story of this nature would be interesting. I've already started writing this chapter as a story and will post it as soon as it's complete enough for a first draft. I really don't have a title yet for this chapter. Please bear with me. Thanks to all who are taking a peek. I have a specific system I use for writing larger works and a lot of it involves letting the story emerge on its own.

My Mother and Father Meet and Fall in Love
Info to be used in  Roxie Alfred and Me
a work in progress

My mom, the flapper: 1928
      My parents met in Detroit when my dad was booked into the Webster Hotel as a musician with the band. My mother had a small hair salon on the lower level. She had come up from North Carolina with her family (Roxie, Alfred and my aunt, Florence, whom we always called auntie Flo.) at age seventeen. My aunt was three years older.

     When they arrived in Detroit in 1925, they moved into the Webster Hotel where Roxie had gotten a job as housekeeper and Alfred became the engineer. My grand parents had the good sense to send both of their daughters to trade school, my aunt to secretarial school and my mom to beauty school. When my mom finished beauty school, the people who owned the hotel let Alfred build a nice little beauty shop in a spare room on the lower level. Soon, my mom was in business cutting and styling hair and doing manicures.

     Once he discovered the hair salon on the lower level, Daddy would wander down often to have his nails done and talk to the cute owner. I guess the band was staying in the hotel. The way it turned out, they were there long enough for my parents to fall in love. I don’t know if daddy left town and came back or if he just stayed after meeting my mom. Either way, they ended up getting married. That happened in 1928. Two years later, I was born.

     Prior to meeting my father, my mom dated a member of the Purple Gang. Of course, she didn’t know he was a gangster until he started taking her to places where his cohorts hung out and then made the major mistake of giving her an expensive fur coat with a huge diamond ring in the pocket. When Roxie saw that, she and Alfred forbade mom to ever go out with him again. Roxie was smart and knew a man flaunting that kind of money could only be up to no good. Mom broke up with him immediately. She was only nineteen and, besides you didn’t cross Roxie. No way. No how. I remember mom telling me years later how handsome he was and how nice he was to her. But I kept thinking wow, that’s pretty scary, never mind the handsome and nice part.

My mother: 19 years old
     I can’t imagine my mother with a gangster. She wasn’t the type you would think a gangster would be attracted to. She was very naive and sweet….a darling little girl from the south, with the most adorable face and dimples. She was soft spoken and not particularly flirty, nor did she ever wear overtly sexy clothing. It’s still puzzling to me to this day. Maybe I just have  a stereotypical idea of what a gangster would be attracted to. 












if you enjoyed this post, feel free to leave a comment

12 comments:

  1. Maybe your mother's sweetness and innocence was a breath of fresh air in the gangster's heart? That and a pretty face can get you in anywhere :D

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  2. Kristie, I think you hit on the answer.And, I'm afraid you're right ablout a pretty face. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.

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  3. A fine story to read this morning while having my coffee. Your mom was a very pretty lady. I love that era. Thanks Nancy. :o)

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    1. Tom, Thanks so much for stopping by...appreciate the positive comments, especially coming from a writer as good as yourself.

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  4. I love these kinds of stories. The 20s were such a magical era, sometimes I wish I'd been a young woman then instead of now. My only comment is that it feels very summary-ish. It's such an interesting story, I feel that you could apply a little creative license and tell it more like a tale, with some narration or voice in there. As it is, you just say "and then they fell in love." How did they first meet? What did they say to one another? How did the Purple Gangster pick up your mother? I love the suggestion above about suggesting the gangster picked up your mother especially because she was so sweet and naive. THAT is a great story... beauty and the beast!

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    1. This is not in story form yet. I've just collected data and research together here. I've loosely pulled together information for 11 chapters so far. I'm posting some of the information to see if readers and writers think a story of this nature would be interesting. I've already started writing this chapter as a story and will post it as soon as it's complete enough for a first draft. I really don't have a title yet for this chapter. Please bear with me. Thanks to all who are taking a peek. I have a specific system I use for writing larger works and a lot of it involves letting the story emerge on its own.

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    2. KIERSI: I feel that you could apply a little creative license and tell it more like a tale, with some narration or voice in there. As it is, you just say "and then they fell in love." How did they first meet? What did they say to one another? How did the Purple Gangster pick up your mother?

      ME(Nancy): These are really interesting questions. However this happened 80 years ago. All my relatives except my daughters are deceased. I have no idea what the answers are to these questions. (although I did say how they met) I am writing a memoir. Unless I decide to fictionalize the story, there's no way I could answer these questions. I have plenty of dialogue in other chapters.

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  5. Nancy, what an interesting story! I can't wait to read your memoir.

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    1. Barbara, Thanks so much for your input. I think it'll be quite a while before even my first draft is finished, and then there will probably be a couple of rewrites to the entire thing. I'm guessing it'll be around 200-250 pages.

      I had no idea there would be so much research (the '20s lifestyle and crime, world was II, life in and around Detroit:'20s-'60s and Tampa Fla:'40s-'70s etc, etc.) And to make things more difficult, no one in the story is still living except me and my sister, and I have no documentation to speak of, only pictures (thank goodness). I am very deeply immersed in this. My first memoir was so much easier. But, to tell the truth, my writing is much better.


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  6. On the elevator this morning a much older man, using a walker, asked me what I was writing, and I answered, "a memoir, a book about my grandmother". He smiled, a very big 80 plus years smile, and said, "that is wonderful, my favorite kind of book." That made my day, and I agree, my favorite kind of book. I so enjoyed reading this, but in truth, I am really quite a snoop.

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    1. Thank you so much for this comment. It is really inspiring. I've had to be away from my writing this month (October) as it's the busiest month for my bed and breakfast and I had to take advantage of it, despite the long days (6am-9 pm). You've probably heard how small business is suffering. I am now taking a few days off to recuperate and I will be back to this project very soon.

      I am very much encouraged by the gentleman's remark: "He smiled, a very big 80 plus years smile, and said, 'that is wonderful, my favorite kind of book.'"

      And by your's: "That made my day, and I agree, my favorite kind of book. I so enjoyed reading this..."

      I was a little afraid I wouldn't reach any readers with a story about me and my grand-parents.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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