New to all this

OK, that said, I am old as dirt and a member of the 8th generation of Americas oldest and largest continuously operating pottery family - we have been called "an American dynasty". I was raised and spent most of the first 18 years of my life at my Grandpa's pottery in Arden, NC, then went off and spent most of my life as a pilot, having been to many, many places around the world as well as living out of the country for a few years.

I started many years ago just writing down what little I knew about my family and it's amazing history. Then I started to write down my life being raised in and around the pottery. Then I started to write down what I know about other family members involved in pottery going back in to the 1700's. And then I decided I didn't have enough info to fill a book so I started to write down other stuff about my life - my time as a Navy pilot, etc. So what I have now is the start of a very strange book which doesn't fit into any of the "normal" guidelines of a book - part autobiography, part ?.

I come here to learn how to put all this together. My first thought was to have one chapter on pottery and one on "other stuff" of my life but that would really be a strange book which is already strange.

I posted a question about using an MS Word book template and the problems I am having with it and asked if there was a suggestion of something else to use.

Tks for listening - stay safe - jb

Tyler, that sounds like a great idea - my family has been written about in many book that have to do with southern folk pottery, the most in depth being "Brothers In Clay: The Story of Georgia Folk Pottery" by Professor John A Burrison. He traces the family back to the 1700 hundreds. The problem is that there is very little known about those early family members and I wouldn't want to just copy what others have written. I have direct knowledge of my, my fathers generation and two of the 5 of my Grandpa's generation and other than what is already written about the other 3 brothers I have no idea how to find out more info on them. As mentioned, others have written about them in the many books about the family.

My thought was to write about my time being raised at my Grandpa's pottery - even was planning on using the title - "Brown's Pottery - From the Inside", but using your approach might be the way to go.

Again, tks - stay safe - jb

Tks for the welcome and all the great suggestions.

I am not doing this to sell the book although there is a market as family pottery is highly collected - one of Grandpa's devil jugs sold for over 50K - and there is so much written about the family in the past ,some errors which I would like to correct. It is mainly for present and future family members that know little of what I was a small part of and to pass on what little I know about the family as so many that have already passed have taken so much, not only about the family but about a whole way of life, to their graves,

But I don't think I have enough to fill a book - although I do have a lot of pictures of the shops, people working and the people. So I started to write down other things about my life which would be of little interest other than family.

I have had an interesting life - have been to so many places around the world, lived out of the country for a few years. But this is of more interest to me than others.

English was certainly not a subject I was interested in in school and reading, except on the internet, is not something I have had much of an interest - I did really enjoy all of James Carvell's books due to my interest in Japan and the people and those books of Tom Clancy. I have, however, enjoyed putting things down on paper. But am I an author? I have a friend that is a retired Professor Emeritus of Art/Ceramics that has written a number of books and he encouraged me to put things down on paper. I sent him two files I had written, one on pottery and one on the Navy. His comment on them was, "I read both completely - something I almost never do." I think he was saying they were interesting.

Again, tks to all. Stay safe - jb

PS: Started reading a Tom Clancy book -- can't remember the exact title, but Kremlin is in it. Liked what I read, and hope to return to it when I have more time for leisure reading.[/QUOTE]

Scribe, the "Hunt For Red October" may be the one you are talking about - was one I enjoyed and made into a pretty good movie, which is unusual as most movies come no where close to the book. And example - James Carvell's, "Shogun", an outstanding book but a just so-so movie. - jb

Tks, EE - will give it a look - sounds like he had the same problem I have, be interesting to see how he put it all together. - jb

Tks for the reply, Frimble. You, and others, have certainly given me some things to think about.

When I started I was just putting things down for myself and as I begin to think about putting it all together for mostly family I realized I didn't have enough to make a book. So I started to add in other stuff.

What I have ended up with is a mix - some autobiography, some info about others, some that have nothing to do about me, pottery, the Navy, flying. As an example, I have one on Geese - how as the young ones learn to fly they are a "gaggle" - all over the place - but they slowly turn into the beautiful "V" we see as they migrate. And one on mountain people of the southern Appalachians - how they went from living in virtually self contained communities to most everyone leaving for the "big cities". Some are several pages which would make a chapter and some are very short. No matter how I think to put it together it is going to be a strange book.

My Dad was career Navy - retired as a Chief Engineman - and I intended to make a career of it as well. After two tours to Vietnam on the USS Yorktown I said if they ever need me to help fight a war I will go but I am not playing the games that were going on there.

From the flying side, it was nothing but a competition between the Air Force Generals in Saigon, the Marine Generals in Da Nang and the Admirals on the aircraft carriers to see who could launch the most sorties. (Sortie - one aircraft launch on one mission) In some cases, they would launch a whole squadron when two aircraft could have done the job.

After those two tours, I spent the rest of my flying life for the airlines and some corporate flying as well - Lived in the middle east for several years and south of London for over one.

And that is that.

Take care - stay safe - jb

mccardey said:

Your website is lovely - what an interesting family. Let me know when the book comes out.

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Tks, - it has some problems and I haven't been back to it in several years.

mccardey said:

ETA: Just reading this thread, I wonder if you could weave the idea of potters and the pottery (and pots) through your own stories and your families stories and all the other disparate stories as a kind of theme that links the whole book? Alternate chapters - that sort of thing...

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Interesting you said "alternate chapters". When I decided I didn't have enough info for a book on the family and pottery I thought about starting with one chapter on the pottery and the next on my time in the Navy - and alternating back and forth. Would make for a very strange book but might be interesting.