|
One Great Life
.My
grandfather has led such a fascinating life.
I would love for him to write a book about his childhood
growing up in Germany, his migration to America, and of course
about his service during the war..
.My Mom is such a terrific story-teller, I.ve encouraged her
to
write down some of the adventures she experienced.
Talk about a terrific keepsake for her grandchildren!.
A collection of
biographical stories and special memories about the life of
a loved one can be a priceless family treasure.
The unfortunate reality is that very few take the time to
create such a record. Handwriting all of those stories is just
too cumbersome a job for most. Even with the best of
intentions often all that is created is a listing of family birthdays, weddings,
and perhaps a few snippets about the success of others in the
family. What you really want is an unabashed account of all of
your Mom or Dad's greatest stories--his or her childhood
escapades, wartime experiences, career triumphs, and special
memories of being a grandparent.
So how do you
get those stories down on paper? The only way
to get those stories is through good old fashioned one-on-one conversation.
I call it, the .One Great Life interview.. I have created many One Great
Life books for many families, and based on the comments from
my clients, I can promise you that your interview time with
your Mom or Dad will be an intimate time of sharing that you
will never forget. I will provide you with everything
you need to make
the interview process very easy. Over ninety topics are
included in my interview book with subjects ranging from childhood, military service, parenthood,
career, and grandparenthood.
. . . not a
traditional biography
The first page of the One
Great Life book provides an introduction similar the one below
to explain to future readers how, why, when, and by whom the
stories were collected:
This
book was created because Mary Franklin.s family wished to have
an account of her life
for others in the family to enjoy, and to celebrate Mary.s
seventy-fifth birthday.
Four recorded interviews were conducted by her daughters,
Carol Franklin McConnell and
Susan Franklin Strouse, in July of 2001. The conversational
tone of the writing has
been maintained as much as possible to reflect the stories as
they were shared by Mary.
Due to the
topical heading format One Great Life Book is quite a bit
less expensive to create than a traditional biography.
The stories are transcribed and then edited from the
recorded interviews in a way that maintains the flavor of
one's speech.
Take a look at an example of this style of story telling. In
this excerpt the interviewer asked her mother a few questions
about the birth of her first child.
 |
My First
Child
I.ll
never forget the night after Erin was born, I didn't
sleep all that night. I kept thinking, .There is a
living human being down the hall. Not in here, but
right down the hall. She is going to call me .Mother.
and she is going to go home with me.. I just
couldn.t get over it! I can clearly remember sitting in
bed thinking about it. Eddie.s mother, Molly, and my
mother were both very young . in their forties when Erin
was born. This was, of course, their first grandchild
so they were a little giddy about the whole thing. I
remember them peeking through the crack in the door.
They were watching the nurse as she cleaned up the baby.
They thought the nurse was being far too rough on her as
they scrubbed her up. I guess you could say that was
their first protective grandmother moment; there were
many more such moments to come!
|
After the
interview, you may use your own computer equipment to create
your own book, or use the services of Custom Ordered Books and
Collectibles and we will create the book for you along with
any extra copies that you wish to have for others in the
family. If you wish, we will even make a CD recording from
your tapes. The cost to have Custom
Ordered Books and Collectibles complete the One Great Life
Book will depend on the amount of material you submit.
Original photos and other material will be returned.
-
E-mail or
telephone us for information on receiving your handbook
downloaded to you free of charge.
-
I'd be
honored to conduct the interview with your family
member! If you are in the Phoenix area please call
for more information: (480) 483-3749
Home | About My Service
|
One Great Life |
In Celebration of You!
|Pricing
|
|
