The subject matter of Mary Gottschalk's guest post really hits home for me. I turned to memoir based on a traumatic incident in my life after a 30-career in technical writing, and now I've embarked on a novel based in part on factual events. I agree with Mary. I would not have attempted a novel had I not had the memoir writing experience. I hope those of you working on both memoir and fiction will learn as much as I did from Mary's piece. Also, in welcoming Mary to Choices, please join me in congratulating her on just releasing her novel, A Fitting Place, in May of this year and publishing her memoir, Sailing Down the Moonbeam in 2008. Is it a Story or an Idea? By Mary Gottschalk Because the inspiration for my first novel came from an incident in my own life, I'm often asked why I chose to do A Fitting Place as a fiction rather than a memoir. Another frequent question since I have published both a novel and a memoir is which is the better vehicle for a story that has some basis … [Read more...]