What to Expect - New Blog Schedule

Memoirs Ink has had some changes! And so we are blasting this blog off towards its full potential. Here is what you can expect to see around here when you visit. So make sure you follow so you don't miss any of the upcoming goodies.

Memoir Mondays
Mondays you can expect to read some of the best personal essays or memoir excerpts that can be found on the web. We already have a great line up for the next 5 weeks and will be searching for more.

Wacky Wednesdays
Wednesday are wacky because we can do whatever we want with them, including giveaways, book reviews, photo journals, grammar lessons, grammar jokes, guest posts, you tube videos, and more.

Interview Fridays
Friday we'll post an interview with someone interesting. FYI, all people have interesting stories, but here are few we have lined up: a documentary filmmaker, a female sheepherder, photojournalist, book binder, rocket scientist, and more.

Life Histories and Colorado Peaches

I'm in a very small town in the northwest corner of Colorado right now, conducting a life history interview for an 87-year old man. The interview is interesting so far, as always, and I am enjoying being in the high desert after a long absence from this part of the country. On the 88 mile drive from Grand Junction to Rangely, I saw wild horses, deer, and cattle grazing on the side of a precarious cliff. There is a quietness here that has a buzzing sound to it. I couldn't help stopping at a peach stand and I am now living off of Palisades Peaches (which is apparently the place to get peaches around here.)

It has been some time since I have traveled for work, and I'm surprised how much I am enjoying it. Lately, instead of traveling myself, I have been training others in the art of "Life History Facilitation" and certifying them through Memoirs Ink. The plan is to create my own army, because there is only one me and there is a lot of work to be done in the world. The demand for recorded life histories is growing, and I love training people. What better job could one have than to be paid to listen to interesting stories, learn new things and sometimes travel to interesting places.

Here are just a few of the things I learned about today:

The Road to Berma
The Flying Tigers
Mount Everest
The Forbidden City in Tibet
Gurkas
Riding an Elephant

9 Tips for DIY Family Interviews

Since many of you have been asking, here are some helpful hints about how to interview your family member this holiday season. It is best to do several interviews if possible, but remember that anything that you can get is better than nothing at all.

1. The best advice I have is to wait ten (count 'em) seconds after your subject finishes talking before opening your mouth again. The natural inclination for people is to fill a silence, and if you don't, they will. This is often when I get the best stories.
   

2. Ask open ended questions (not yes or no) and ask difficult or taboo questions
   in a manner that doesn't show your judgment around it. For example, if you are interviewing a Vietnam vet and want to know whether he was drafted or enlisted, try eliciting this information with a question like: "What was going on your life around the time that you went into the army." You'll get much more interesting information this way and won’t make anyone defensive. If they want to talk about politics, just listen intently. Don’t talk about yours or argue or that will be the end of your interview.

3. Ask about the five senses. Was it cold? What colors do you remember? What about the smell? The senses trigger a whole world of stories and feelings.

4. It's always best to ask men what they think/thought about something and ask women what they feel/felt about something. If you ask a man about his feelings, he may shut down, but if you put it in terms of his intellect, and remember rule #1, you will are likely to hear some of the feelings.

5. Do research beforehand. If he was in WWII, learn what you can about the battles or countries he was in so that he doesn't have to give you a history lesson. You don’t want a history lesson, you want a personal history.

6. There are plenty of good lists of questions out there (and I will publish my own, shortly) and I recommend having a list, but don’t get hung up on the list. I rarely ask more than 10% of the questions I had planned. It always goes better if you just go with the flow and let them direct the interview.

7. Begin the interview with the date, name, place and then start by asking easy questions, like: What is your birthday? Where were you born? If you don’t know the person well, you begin by asking about other people first-- their ancestors, family, favorite uncle. This will put them at ease and help them get used to you and trust you. Save the deepest darkest secret questions for later. And I guarantee, if you build trust with them, they will tell you just about anything.

8. Recording. Don’t ever sneak around. Always tell your subject that you will be recording. Trust is key. Put a tape recorder on a table and it will become invisible. (Video cameras are harder to ignore.) I use old-fashioned, regular-sized 60-minute tapes because they are still the most stable form of voice recording. If you use something fancier like a CD recorder or a digital recorder, always have a tape recorder as backup. I can’t tell you how many digital recordings have been lost or messed up but the tapes never fail. I order them online—no one carries them in stores anymore. And the tape recorder I use cost $50. It is great.
   

9. I should note that some people may have an extremely difficult time interviewing their own parents or grandparents. I have discovered that there are several reasons for this:

• Our own baggage/judgment. We can’t hear their story objectively and they know it. It becomes not an interview but an attempt to convince/persuade.
• They think we know all the stories already so they leave out vitally important details.
• They edit too much for their children. Many people are more willing to tell strangers intimate dirt on their life, but they censor it for their own children.

This is why I always suggest using a professional, or if you can’t afford it, trading relatives with a friend.

Good luck and enjoy your family!

A Gift To the Community - December Only

This year, for the month of December only, Memoirs Ink is offering a dramatic discount (70% off) on our life-history interview package as a gift to the community.

Communities and families suffer with the loss of our elder’s stories. This season, consider a family gift that will be cherished by generations to come.

Life History Interview Package includes:

Preliminary background interview with hiring party

Background research

Life history interviews (six sessions -90-120 minutes each)

Digitizing and/or formatting digital interview into chapters

Transcription (takes roughly 4 times the length of interview)

Formatting and editing documents

Packaging/Delivery to parties.

Regular price: $5000. December only: $1500* (Payment plans available.)

Our interviewers are trained professionals that know how to listen, ask the right questions and make your relative feel comfortable. Even the most reluctant interviewees become enthusiastic and invigorated through the story telling process.

Don’t wait till it’s too late. Call today: 1-888-486-3664 or email us with questions info at Memoirsink dot com.

*Must purchase in December, but interviews do not have to start or conclude in December. Memoirs Ink will travel at client’s expense. References available.

To learn more about this and our other services, please visit our website.