Author Archives: first person productions
A word, any word…
By Suzy Beal Something strange has been happening here in my home lately. The communication between my husband and me has been falling apart. At first, I thought it was because we just weren’t paying attention to each other. Then … Continue reading
The Weird Girl
By Patricia LaPointe Up until the age of twelve, I lived in the city. Twelve-year-old city girls still wore ponytails, played indoor and outdoor games, and dressed in pedal pushers and t-shirts. Before I was to enter the seventh grade, … Continue reading
Hush Grandma!
By Roberta (Bobbie) Johnson My grandfather, a prankster, was a kind and loving man, good-natured and playful. In my mother’s memoirs of her childhood, most all her memories are of him. Very little mention is made of Grandma. She was strong, … Continue reading
Book Review: Grammar for a Full Life: How the Ways We Shape a Sentence Can Limit or Enlarge Us
By Sarah White Who would believe that a book about grammar could be fun, delightful, and thought-provoking? Lawrence Weinstein’s Grammar for a Full Life is all that. Weinstein doesn’t just want to us straight about a number of English’s famously … Continue reading
Branching Points – A Fork in the Road
By Barbara McCarthy There have been many forks in the road in my life – college, marriage, divorce, buying a house and condo, retiring, national events, etc. But taking Guided Autobiography in the spring of 2022 is the most significant. … Continue reading
Fandom
By Nancy Levinson “Some years back psychologists, observing the intense emotional attachment that fans develop toward actors and other celebrities, named the phenomena “parasocial relationships, with fans investing time, energy and emotion in stars who are unaware of their existence . . … Continue reading
Peace
By Barbara Vander Werff When my BFF, Sandy, was in hospice, she had a sense of peace. Her disease was devastating and a shock to everyone. After her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, she died four weeks later. For those of … Continue reading
Ethan Goes to College
By Faith Ellestad I had been crying for weeks. How could this have happened? Our beautiful, earnest, sweet natured little boy, our youngest child, was leaving home. He had reluctantly agreed to live at home his first year of college, … Continue reading
Jane Kinney, Campfire Queen
By Sarah White This essay was written in response to a Guided Autobiography prompt, “What are you prepared to give up for a friend?” Given the number of times I headed out camping with Jane into a forecast of rain, … Continue reading
True Stories Well Told 
LifeMapping—Because Everything Happened Somewhere
By Sarah White An email recently popped into my in-box that reminded me of one of the oddest—and most entertaining—freelance writing assignments I’ve ever taken on. That email was about a reminiscence tool that you might consider for yourself or … Continue reading →