Why and How I Decided to Write My Book of Memoir Short Stories

One day several years ago, in 1998 to be exact, I was remembering a story my grandmother used to tell me about when she was a child growing up in England. I couldn't quite remember one part that I was wondering about so I started to reach for the phone to call...who could I call? My mother and her sisters and brothers had all passed away by then and they were the only ones that would have known the story and could answer my questions. No other living soul could tell me anything about my grandmother's childhood.

This realization gave me a very strange feeling. I knew I didn't want my children, grandchildren and any future-born relatives to someday wonder about my life and never be able to get the answer. The very moment that thought crossed my mind, I got what I knew was a great idea! ! I decided I would start writing a collection of stories about my childhood adventures and compile them into a book of remembrances of my childhood. This way I could leave a book behind for them--a sort of reference book of my childhood. I already knew what I wanted to call my book: THE GRANDMOTHER STORIES.

Not that I am anyone even remotely famous, and I have done nothing particularly amazing or earth-shattering as of yet, but I did have some childhood adventures, not unlike most children of that era, (the 1940's and 1950's) that may interest someone someday.

I immediately began writing stories and continued writing memories throughout the next two or three years. New ideas came to me all the time. I'd remember things I hadn't thought about for years and years; sometimes they were forgotten remembrances that had not even crossed my mind since the day they happened, but now they were suddenly tumbling out as my fingers flew across the keyboard.

One memory led to another. Seasons, events and holidays led to story ideas. Sounds, smells and sights led to further memories. Then, one day, I was done.It happened as quickly as the writing had started. I suddenly felt I had come to the end of what I wanted to record. I was done with this particular part of my writing life.

I had filled several large loose-leaf notebooks with pages of stories. Fortunately, I had used a computer so I made back-up disks and files and stored them away for safe keeping.

The next step was to start searching for a company where I could self-publish my stories into book form. After searching online for self-publishing companies, I decided on Xlibris Corporation, a company whose website was very professional with easy to follow instructions, reasonable pricing and offerings of a variety of publishing packages. After some correspondence via telephone and email, I carefully copied my stories into a file on the Xlibris site where I was free to edit to my heart's content. Spelling and editing tools were available to use as well as several choices for font types, weights and colors of paper and designs for the book cover.

I spent quite a few weeks editing and re-editing the stories to catch spelling and punctuation errors, but, even with careful editing, the finished proof arrived with even more corrections to make before the book was to be sent to the printer. Even then, a few small things slipped by me and I didn't find them until I was reading the finished book. The thrill of reading my words in book form more than made it easy to forgive myself for the missed errors!

All along I had planned THE GRANDMOTHER STORIES book just to be for my children and grandchildren and a few close friends. I wasn't interested in marketing it to the public at all, so when Xlibris asked if I wanted to have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) assigned for an additional fee, I declined.

For the package I had chosen, I was sent quite a few hardcover and paperback copies of my book. I had fun signing and writing personal messages in each book I handed out. Everyone seemed to love reading my stories and many friends said that after reading the book they felt motivated to start writing their memoirs too.

The book company began sending me monthly accountings of the sales. I was amazed. People I didn't even know were buying copies of THE GRANDMOTHER STORIES! I was actually selling quite a few books online and was starting to receive royalty checks from the Xlibris Corporation. They even assigned my book an ISBN number, at no charge.

December 2008 will be the 10th anniversary of THE GRANDMOTHER STORIES. Now I can be assured that my children, grandchildren and maybe even future generations of relatives, if they wish, can read my stories and know a small bit about my adventures as a little girl growing up in Oregon during the 1940's and '50's.