For the last 15 months I have been writing a book and it is now finished.
For Christmas 2024, our oldest son and his wife gave me a subscription to Storyworth. I would be sent a question every week for a year and my responses would be made into a book at the end of the year. I did receive 52 questions during 2025 but life got in the way at times and I responded to only 29 of them. I was given another three months to edit and get the book ready for publication, which I did [edit and get the book ready for publication] and on March 29 of this year it was, as I said, finished. It has 158 pages, it is called Stories Of My Life, and there are four hardback copies of it in existence besides the pdf file on my computer.
Perhaps my life will now return to more or less what used to pass for normal. Then again, perhaps it will not, which, of course, is an altogether different kettle of fish from it cannot.
I ended my book with words from The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
not because I am pretentious (the jury is still out, I think) but just because I wanted to and I could because it is in the public domain.
Meanwhile, the world has been going on. Assassinations occur with regularity and for many reasons (Charlie Kirk, the Ayatollah Khomeini), leaders are replaced (goodbye Orban, hello Magyar), straits open and close (Hormuz) and some things never change (Vladimir Putin, Britney Spears, Nancy Pelosi).
Perhaps one result of my having finished my book will be that the number of my blogposts per month will return to former levels. I hope so, but I'm not promising anything. After all, as you may have learned recently, I am 85.
Somewhere someone is rolling his or her eyes and thinking, "There's no fool like an old fool".
Our three little babies are now 61, 60, and 58 and our next wedding anniversary will be our 63rd. Time flies when you're having fun, n'est-ce pas? (and sometimes even when you're not).
The correct answer is oui.
Anyhoo, I'm more or less back and I trust that my vast reading audience is more or less happy about it.
I wish you great success with your book and a burgeoning readership.
ReplyDeleteThe book is not for general publication, just for the immediate family, but your good wishes are appreciated nonetheless. Thank you, Janice!
DeleteI am thrilled to read your blog more often again. You have left a written record pf yourself for your progeny. It's a hard thing to do.
ReplyDeleteThe nearer the deadline approached the more I realized how much had been left unsaid. Thank you, emma.
DeleteI would be happy to see more of you here. The book will be a useful record of your life no doubt. More than that I do not know. Rachel
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouraging words, Rachel. They--and you--are much appreciated.
DeleteHope you and your family will enjoy your book.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. They seem excited about it. Thank you, Ellen.
DeleteCongratulations on your book. They take a tremendous amount of work and time.
ReplyDeleteI know you are right from my last fifteen months' experience. Since all we have is time, we might as well work. Thank you, Red.
DeleteI'm so glad you have written your story. Your family will have it for generations to come.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to buy Storyworth for my dad but he said no. He probably knew his mind was not working well but I didnt know yet.
We will be happy to have you around at whatever frequency you blog.
The book turned out to be not "my story" but more like "glimpses of my life" or "snippets from my life" because the questions that arrived each week from Storyworth were so random. If I had had more time (a common complaint) or if I had had my wits about me (ditto), I would have re-arranged the chapters to have a little more continuity. Alas, I did not. My mind is not working like it once did, but I gave it the old college try anyhow. Thank you for your kind words, kylie!
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