A warm welcome to the two ladies who have participated in the September Author Interview under the memoir/biography genre. They are Author Debby G. Kaye and Linda Sexton.
I must say that it was pretty difficult to find writers from this genre. As a fan of biography, autobiography, memoir and non-fiction books in general, I think these ladies have some very interesting viewpoints to the questions I had asked them for this interview ! Let’s check out the question #1 and the answers from them.
“As a Memoir author, have you ever felt restricted when you are writing? Have you ever changed some of the details of people, places or incidents in your book before? How does it feel to do so when you feel restricted when you actually wanted to write everything out as it is?”
When I first began writing my memoir, Conflicted Hearts, I was very apprehensive about publishing it. I did feel as though I found myself holding back with certain parts because I couldn’t stop envisioning personal family reading it. I especially felt guilty for exposing my mother’s shortcomings. But I kept writing with the mantra in my head ‘write what you know, edit later,’ to keep the words flowing. I was nervous about the fact that my mother may read my book, but as it turns out, she had no interest.
I wrote the book with the best of my recollection of the events that occurred. I did change the names of people in my life because I felt it was an invasion on their privacy to use their proper names. I don’t believe by altering the names and keeping the story in truth, makes it any less nonfiction.
I wanted to demonstrate what I had put up with my mother’s rule, and as my brother pointed out to me after he read it, he felt that I held back on some details about my mother. He was right. I didn’t write the book to exploit my mother. Unfortunately, because of her actions, I acquired all of my emotional baggage. But as much as I wanted to tell my story, I just didn’t have the heart to slam her by exposing many more unflattering things about her. I promised my brother that in my sequel to Conflicted Hearts, I would go into more detail and go deeper into my mother’s motives for her actions.
International Book Promotion 