Case studies Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Forever Young Autobiographies

Case study: Daughter helps retired Brisbane dad write his autobiography

Retiree editor uses surefire way to record father’s life story

First published June 14, 2018: This article has been updated and improved.

Beginning a life-story project is often about timing.

Certainly this was the case for former editor Jan and her father when they sat down to compile his autobiography in Brisbane, Queensland.

Indeed both were retired and considered the idea unbeknown to each other!

“I had been thinking about some sort of record of his life story for a while but hadn’t got any further than thinking about it,” Jan said.

“Once dad retired it seemed the time was right.

“While he now has spare time he seems to be really enjoying being retired but he enjoyed his life-story project and put a lot of effort into it.”

Jan started the life story with help from the Your Family Stories System and today gives us the lowdown on how the project unfolded plus what she found most rewarding …

Case study: Life coach pens powerful memoir Point Me to the Skies to help others

Jessica Lynn Jacquez on writing and growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area

New writer Jessica Lynn Jacquez’s mem o ir Point Me to the Skies is full of resilience, courage and faith.

The certified life coach was born in Oakland, California, and grew up trying to survive tumult and violence.

Firstly Jacquez says her relationship with her mother was defined by “deep-rooted brokenness and drug and alcohol abuse” but with hints of unconditional love.

Meanwhile her father was destructive and troublesome.

However, Jacquez was forced to escape after developing a relationship with a man who mirrored her turbulent past.

Indeed she made a powerful comeback “proving that anything is possible”.

Jacquez now lives with her husband David on America’s East Coast.

And this week she gives us a behind-the-scenes look at why and how she wrote the powerful life story plus valuable tips for new writers …

Case study: Retired school principal Terry pens memoir inspired by his grandfathers

Victorian retiree shares how he self-published his life story for family and friends

Retired principal Terence Bourke says his memoir Dance in the Rain was inspired by his late grandfathers and how little he knew about them.

“How intriguing it would be to know more about them and my great grandfathers,” he writes in the preface.

As a result, the 75-year-old recently celebrated his book’s launch with friends and family.

“My book consists of recollections of my life over the years,” he said.

Today Terry lives with his wife Sandra and their dogs in a beautiful bayside village on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, Australia.

And in this week’s article he shares his life-writing journey plus tips for others sitting down to write …

Case study: Secrets to writing my 100yo grandmother’s autobiography

Part 3: What every aspiring life-story writer ought to know about telling family stories

“It’s beautiful” my grandmother Bonnie, 99, said through tears as she took the first look at her printed autobiography book.

“We did it together,” she said hugging me.

My family and I were visiting Bonnie earlier this year in a nursing home and were excited to finally give her a reader’s copy of her life story.

She was soon flipping to a photo of her younger self with long plaits to show my daughter, 7, as her doctor and a nurse popped by.

“Isn’t that amazing! I’m so glad you did this,” Bonnie’s long-time doctor said shaking his head incrediously.

It had taken my grandmother and me four years of planning, writing, polishing and publishing to get to this point.

There had been some serious ups and downs along the way but the writing had been worth it.

This is the third and final article about Bonnie’s life-story project (see articles part one and part two here!).

So keep reading to find out how we went from final draft to finished autobiography book in time for her 100th birthday this month during a global pandemic.

Case study: Nurse’s memoir like stepping into Call The Midwife episode

How London’s Swinging Sixties inspired nurse Eira Bish’s IngramSpark publication

For retired nurse Eira Battaglia (nee Bish) writing her memoir The Silver Buckle was a natural extension of reminiscing about her student days.

Her 50 years of nursing started at South London’s St Giles’ Hospital during the momentous Swinging Sixties and included working in England, Canada and Australia.

Eira also trained nurses for 30 years and said today’s students were fascinated by her tales of an earlier era of nursing.

“I consider I have had a rich, wonderful career that my three years as a trainee in the 1960s was able to allow me to do so many things,” she said.

In this week’s case study, Eira shares more about her self-published book, the steps she took to have it published plus tips for new writers looking to do the same…

Life-writing example: When coronavirus serves up a new normal

One family’s take on bunkering down for stay-at-home COVID-19 quarantine

This week I’m sharing a life-writing example of my own.

It’s about our new ‘stay at home’ quarantine life thanks to coronavirus.

We are all living in dark and strange days of social distancing and self isolation.

So this is my take on life for my family and I as we bunker down from coronavirus.

Certainly, I know many of you are motivated at the moment to put pen to paper.

For instance, author and journalist Trent Dalton inspired me to draft this life-writing example through his Tales From the Bunker series.

Likewise I’d love to hear from you about your recent ‘bunker’ writing.

Case study: Nicola Gray’s New Humans of Australia

What every life-history feature article writer ought to know about recording migrant and refugee stories

Unique life stories are all around us and we only have to open our eyes and ears to learn from them.

This has been a goal of Nicola Gray, founder of social media and web platform New Humans of Australia.

Gray has a background as an English language teacher and college manager working with international students and refugees.

In 2016 she was inspired by the popular Humans of New York website to start her own life-story project.

“I wanted to ‘humanise’ refugees and other kinds of migrants by telling their migration stories,” Gray said.

“I wanted Australians to see how much struggle goes into migrating to a new country and how often migrants succeed.”

Gray has compiled two New Humans of Australia books and has a readership of about 120,000 on her Facebook page.

Read on to find out more about New Humans of Australia and how Gray approaches each story…

Case study: Students interview seniors for Our Priceless Past lift-out and expo

Celebrating 21 years of life history and community history

In a recent post I highlighted the enormous power of life-story feature articles.

But Central Queensland’s Gladstone Region has been taking this power to the next level with its popular Our Priceless Past lift-out and gallery exhibition, on show until next month.

The annual community event is celebrating 21 years of students interviewing, writing and publishing the life stories of special seniors.

The stories are printed in a collectors’ section of the daily newspaper The Gladstone Observer – this year with the support of sponsor LiveBetter Community Services – and displayed with storytelling memorabilia at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum.

Gladstone Regional Council cultural projects specialist Di Paddick describes the whole experiences as “a big warm hug” that brings together two very different generations.

She has helped organise the project since 2006 and said community enthusiasm and feedback kept growing year on year.

Forever Young Autobiographies caught up with Di to find out more about Our Priceless Past and hear her tips about starting a similar project with your community or family …

Case study: New memoir by Channel 7 news anchor and blood cancer survivor Mike Higgins

Mike Higgins and his memoir Trouserless Under the News Desk, Boolarong Press. Main photo thanks to the Leukaemia Foundation. Help the #31Aussies like Mike who are diagnosed every day with a blood cancer by making a donation today.

Former newsreader opens up about Trouserless Under the News Desk by Boolarong Press

Australian TV star Mike Higgins has been on the road spreading the word about his new memoir: Tro u serless Under the News Desk.

Forever Young Autobiographies caught up with him to find out more following the book’s released in June by Boolarong Press.

Higgins has been a familiar face on television for over 25 years.

He was the long-time news anchor for Channel 7 in Queensland but also made award-winning documentaries to be awarded a United Nations media peace prize.

But the broadcast journalist became the news a number of times.

Namely when he went on the run from drug traffickers who he feared would kill him and for filming a story at a nudist beach in the raw.

More recently Higgins had another threat to his life.

In 2008 he was diagnosed with a very rare form of blood cancer – Primary Peripheral Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma, Unspecified – and was told he had a 16 per cent chance of survival.

Higgins had four years of chemotherapy, underwent a bone-marrow transplant and nearly died.

His survival stunned doctors who dubbed him the Miracle Man and said not many patients had “done it tougher”.

“I hope the book will be inspirational to people or anyone going through any sort of a challenge, whether it’s cancer or another illness or a psychological challenge,” Higgins said.

Keep reading to find out how he wrote the book, what were the project’s highlights plus Higgins’s tips for starting your own memoir, autobiography, biography or life-story project.

Case study: Zookeeper helps great uncle publish autobiography

Three generations work together + new memoir in making

English zookeeper Sarah Blake helped her great uncle Hedley record his autobiography when she was a teen and was struck by how much joy the process brought him.

While Hedley and his wife Barbara started the project it was Sarah and her mother who helped them finish the book for family and friends.

Years later Sarah has been inspired to write about her own life experiences.

She is in the middle of writing a memoir about the 15 months she travelled around the world using wild animals as her guide.

Today Sarah shares more about Hedley’s autobiography to inform and inspire fellow life-story writers.