Latest From the Blog
Archive family photographs on Delkin gold CDs
Every year I research –yet again–the options for archiving family photos and mpg/audio files to see if anything has changed. Two hours on the phone this week verified what I recommended last year, which is Delkin professional-grade gold CDs purchased from B&H photo. Not gold DVDs,and I will explain why. You can store hundreds of…
Read More July 17, 2014
Jewish Genealogy is Complicated
Anyone who has ever attempted to trace Jewish roots will find a complexity that is unnerving. It drives you crazy. Soldiers of various nations swept through towns and villages, destroying records, homes, libraries, and exterminating entire populations of people. The loss of records is one challenge, but worse is the constant changing of language and names…
Read More June 25, 2014Called: How One Couple Served A City
Called: How One Couple Served A City makes its debut in the summer of 2014 on Amazon and other online sources as well as at book-signing events in Memphis, TN. Called is an inspiring account of one woman’s effort–as a young woman, while married, and as a widow–to help the people who came her way. JoeAnn…
Read More April 10, 2014Florida woman recalls Doolittle’s Raid
Business Insider magazine hours ago published a lengthy news story on a client memoir we wrote and published last year. Triggered by the upcoming anniversary of Doolittle’s Raid and other U.S. firebombing attacks upon Japanese civilians, the article focuses on our client, Helga, and includes a link to the memoir (truth be told, it is…
Read More April 9, 2014
Announcing Helene Pittler’s Memoir: My Lives
We are happy to announce another client’s book, Helene Pittler’s memoir, “My Lives: The Defining and Refining of Helene Kalin Pittler.” Helene’s life was honored by her son, who felt that her commitment to self-improvement over the decades could not go unchronicled. To create Helene’s book, we interviewed her for several days and also included…
Read More March 3, 2014How to hire a ghostwriter
One of the most common questions I get involves how to hire a ghost writer (or ghostwriter). Folks assume I am a ghost writer. The first thing I can help you with here is a basic understanding of what each type of writer does. Knowing this, you are armed with vital information. Ghostwriter — by…
Read More February 25, 2014How to hire a ghost writer
One of the most common questions I get involves how to hire a ghost writer (or ghostwriter). Folks assume I am a ghost writer. The first thing I can help you with here is a basic understanding of what each type of writer does. Knowing this, you are armed with vital information. Ghostwriter — by…
Read More February 25, 2014
Personal Historians Unite!
Part of being a personal historian is connecting with others who do the same, and I was happy to make a presentation last week in Washington, D.C. at the annual conference of the Association of Personal Historians. (In truth, it was held at the Bethesda Grand Hyatt, but D.C. is so close, and sounds so…
Read More November 18, 2013
Before it’s too late, hire a biographer
It is the refrain I hear most often when I am explaining my work to someone for the first time: “I wish I had known about you before my father had a stroke…before my mother died…before grandmother broke her hip….” We want to believe we are mortal, and yet everyone’s time comes. Most people have…
Read More November 14, 2013
Writing the Autobiography- Step One: Create an Archive
Technically, I do not write memoirs. A memoir is a first-person account written from the point of view of the memoir subject. I write autobiographies. I create a third-person narrative of a life, based on interviews and research, as in the case of Helga Hofmeier Edmonds, pictured here at the age of nine, wearing a…
Read More October 18, 2013