Author Archives: first person productions

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About first person productions

My blog "True Stories Well Told" is a place for people who read and write about real life. I’ve been leading life writing groups since 2004. I teach, coach memoir writers 1:1, and help people publish and share their life stories.

Second Chances: Lives Change, One Story at a Time

This Small Business Saturday, support The Birren Center with a purchase from our Birren Center collection! Our latest anthology, Second Chances: Lives Change, One Story at a Time makes an excellent gift for anyone who enjoys true stories, well told. … Continue reading

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That Creepy Turkey

By Marlene Samuels My Aunt Esther was ecstatic about hosting Thanksgiving dinner that year because it would be the first holiday she and Uncle Ziggy would be celebrating in their brand new, first-ever house. It was a huge departure from … Continue reading

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Periods – We’re Not Talking About Punctuation

By Josh Feyen This is part two of a two-part series on a topic we don’t talk about. (Click here to read part one.) Now, I’ll be the first to admit, as a man, I can’t speak from personal experience … Continue reading

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Menarche Goddam

By Sarah White This is part one of a two-part series on a topic we don’t talk about. (Click here to read part two.) The word “menarche” comes from Greek and Latin roots meaning “month” and “beginning.” According to Wikipedia, … Continue reading

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Sometimes and Always

By Carol J. Wechsler Blatter Sometimes I have an empty feeling when I wake up—feeling in no place. I’m taking up space. Always when I walk each morning these feelings fade, seeing everything here in the Sonoran desert enveloped in … Continue reading

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Who Doesn’t Love Halloween?

By Marlene Samuels It’s October once more, and last week, I was visually assaulted by Halloween decorations at my local “big-box-store”. The moment I walked in, memories of my especially unsettling and very awkward first ever American Halloween also assaulted … Continue reading

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I want your true stories, well told.

I have just returned from a week in the West Virginia mountains, making memories with my oldest besties–the family of friends I knew from high school/college in the 1970s. Maybe soon I’ll write some true stories, well told, from our … Continue reading

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The Night Guard

by Donald A. Ranard Clifford, the guard, couldn’t stay awake. Our house in Colombo, Sri Lanka—an old sprawling colonial bungalow surrounded by flowering bushes and frangipani trees—came with round-the-clock guards. Clifford was the night guard. One night, a week after … Continue reading

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Wound Care

By Brenda Miller Note, this post is an example of a hermit crab essay, a format Brenda teaches in which a writer adopts an existing form to contain their writing. These forms can be a number of things including emails, … Continue reading

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Harrycoos

By Sheila Bender “Did you see the Harrycoos out to our left as we passed?” “No,” we told the taxi driver taking us from our ferry landing on the Isle of Skye to Kyle Lochalsh on the mainland in the … Continue reading

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