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START HERE Before You Write Your Memoirs

Everyone asks me where to start writing their memoirs.  You can make this as simple as possible, starting with a childhood photo of yourself, whether you have a memory of that time or not. You can simply describe the photo from both the omniscient and personal first-person point of view. In this photo (obviously from…

I Earned The Pedestal

Irish Family Book Cover by Sheridan Hill

For the front cover of The Dolan Family History (at right), we used Philadelphia’s Freedom Hall (where they settled from Ireland); on the back cover (at left) we used a linen background with a photo of their homeplace in Ireland and a moving narrative about the importance of family ties within this large Irish tribe….

Writing About Yourself in Third Person

I’m offering a free “Morning Pages” writing group that meets for less than an hour on Zoom weekly. Use the contact form on my website here if you are interested.   For the last four weeks, our Friday writing theme was a short prompt that came to me on Thursday, and I sent it out…

Announcing “We’ll Think of Something”, Jack Wilson memoir

“Far exceeded my expectations,” is what 92-year-old Jack Wilson said of his memoir produced by  Real Life Stories, LLC several months ago. “I could not be happier. It was wonderful to work with Sheridan Hill.” It was our pleasure and privilege to work with Mr. Wilson and the fabulous folks at ABEC, the company he…

Why It Costs So Much

Finding a photo of a Piper Cub, so I could envision my client’s first plane, was easy. That took about one minute. But tracking down his transcripts from seven different schools beginning in 1939 on Long Island—that took some time. Each school had an online form that had to be found, filled out, printed, put in…

How Did Jamaica, New York Get Its Name?

My current client was born in Jamaica, New York, in the 1930s, when 138 languages were spoken there, according to the comptroller. Since I knew that the Irish and Dutch had settled much of New York, including Long Island, I went searching for how Jamaica, New York got its name. One thing I knew ahead…

“Look to Yourself” – Jack Wilson, ABEC founder

  In 1974, Jack Wilson started a company on a wing and a prayer. In order to breathe life into it, he served as president, salesman, designer, machinist, and financier. For years, he refused to draw a salary. When times got tough, he looked to himself for answers. He had learned early in life that…

Obscure Books: Mark Twain and Medicine, Any Mummery Will Cure

My favorite books are the ones most obscure, which will never make the NY Times top 20 list. To be honest, many, if not most, of the books on the best-seller lists aren’t worth my time. Give me books that were written out of a pure passion for the subject. Such a treasure is Patrick Ober’s…

The Secret Weapon Esther Levow

Download the entire Levow-chapter2 of Esther Levow’s biography we produced.