FAQ
1. When did the writing process for Life Flashes: A Memoir begin and at what point did you think, “I should publish this?”
Three years after I started writing a diary in 2007, I began believing that the work could become a book. Am not fully sure why this development occurred. I do know that I had become impassioned with writing and completing the work, even though I did not know how or when this would happen. Had I known in 2010 when I decided to eventually publish the book manuscript that the work would not be completed for another eleven years, I probably would not have completed it. This circumstance is a good example of why one is often not advised about when something will happen.
2. What has been the easiest part of the process of writing and publishing a book and what has been the hardest?
There is a flowing of ease and difficulty in writing, editing, and publishing a book. One does not know when flowing or difficulty will occur.
3. Do you have a favorite (or a few favorites) story from Life Flashes?
There is no personal favorite story or chapter in Life Flashes. In every story or chapter that I generally enjoy reading, there are aspects of the story or chapter that are not especially interesting or stimulating. In every story or chapter that may not be overtly exciting to me, there are several places in the story or chapter in which written words become surprisingly curious, entertaining, or saddening. Writing is one of all endeavors that teaches every person that life is neither essentially about what or who one likes nor primarily about who or what one does not like.
4. What advice would you give to someone who wants to write a book about their life?
A. Establishing and re-establishing a cooperative, respectful, and good-humored relationship with God—no matter where the relationship originates or how one experiences God—radically improves writing quality. This is fact, not judgment.
B. Devotion, discipline, and determination are keys to writing a well-written book. Once the purpose of writing becomes proving self-worth, rather than expressing passion for living, which includes acceptance of suffering, writing quality and productivity notably deteriorates. Someone whose name I do not remember once wisely advised, “Do not ever write anything that you would not want to read on the front page of a newspaper.”
C. It is important for writers to be respectful of people about whom they are writing, reading audiences, and self. Not doing so diminishes author credibility, offends writing subjects, and turns away reading audiences. Regularly re-reading written material to clearly discern whether written material is timely, appropriate, and accurate is good and advisable.
5. Of all the places in the world you have yet to visit, what is one place you want to go?
England, Ireland, France and Italy. By birth, I am of Irish, English and French-Canadian descent. For a good while, I have experienced being Italian by adoption.
Truthfully, we are all a little of everything we see in others, no matter where others live or what others are doing.
6. What was the last book you read and what did you think of it?
Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger. These are fast-moving, superbly written historical fiction books about mid-western life. Amid one winter weekend during which I was reading This Tender Land, I read two hundred pages in two days. Hardly able to put the book down, I was mesmerized with divergent and relatable experiences about which Mr. Krueger writes.
7. Reading Life Flashes can teach a lot of readers about life regardless of age and background because you write in such a way that allows the reader to feel as if they are right there with you. What has writing Life Flashes taught you about life?
Writing Life Flashes: A Memoir has assisted me with rediscovering that without continually establishing and re-establishing relationship with God, one cannot truly enjoy life or fully mature. One can experience happiness, which is fleeting. God alone can teach each and all persons how to be content, or to be at peace, amid each and all life circumstances.
8. Is there anything you would like to add or you think would be beneficial for a reader to know?
Am hopeful that Life Flashes: A Memoir is a work that inspires, informs, and entertains readers. I hope it is a work that people will be reading 50 years from now.
