- Joined
- Aug 8, 2006
- Messages
- 1,210
- Reaction score
- 319
- Location
- California
- Website
- www.blairkilpatrick.com
So, the good news is my Cajun music memoir has officially been picked up by a publisher.
It does feel really good (it's been in the works for several months) but now I am facing one of the realities: my family. Especially my mom.
My book is about my midlife passion for the Cajun accordion and spends little time on childhood/family issues. But it does touch on some painful things: family losses, some issues in my mother's background.
She knows about the book, of course, and in the last few months I have been offering to let her read it. (I could certainly go more lightly in some of these areas if she had a very strong reaction.) She's insisted it's my book, I don't need her permission, when I've brought this up before.
But now it's feeling much more real to me, and I do want her to read at least the relevant sections in advance. She says she'd like to, but she's starting to make these comments about memoirs being "soul baring" and "autobiographies." Then this big revelation, like I hadn't thought of it before: Now people I've never even met will be able to learn "personal things" about me. (Being moved by music--that's something she considers "personal." Or maybe exhibitionistic.)
This doesn't involve worries about slander, legal issues, anything like that. But it makes me feel uneasy.
My mother is 84, bright and well educated. Very feisty, too. She's visiting for Thanksgiving.
Anyone else have these worries?
Susan
It does feel really good (it's been in the works for several months) but now I am facing one of the realities: my family. Especially my mom.
My book is about my midlife passion for the Cajun accordion and spends little time on childhood/family issues. But it does touch on some painful things: family losses, some issues in my mother's background.
She knows about the book, of course, and in the last few months I have been offering to let her read it. (I could certainly go more lightly in some of these areas if she had a very strong reaction.) She's insisted it's my book, I don't need her permission, when I've brought this up before.
But now it's feeling much more real to me, and I do want her to read at least the relevant sections in advance. She says she'd like to, but she's starting to make these comments about memoirs being "soul baring" and "autobiographies." Then this big revelation, like I hadn't thought of it before: Now people I've never even met will be able to learn "personal things" about me. (Being moved by music--that's something she considers "personal." Or maybe exhibitionistic.)
This doesn't involve worries about slander, legal issues, anything like that. But it makes me feel uneasy.
My mother is 84, bright and well educated. Very feisty, too. She's visiting for Thanksgiving.
Anyone else have these worries?
Susan