Judy and the Southern Fried Memoir
May 27th, 2008 bhenricksenHenricksen’s first rule of writing a memoir is that you better have had interesting experiences, and the second is that you better have something interesting to say about them. You ought to be clear in your mind about why total strangers, not just Mom, should read your little book.
Too many people are writing memoirs. There’s memoir glut. If you haven’t invented the doomsday machine or a cure for death, write letters to your friends. Don’t write a memoir.
But there are exceptions. An old friend of mine from New Orleans, Judy Connor, wrote a wonderful memoir called Southern Fried Divorce. I knew Judy when she sported a different last name, and I picked up her book having heard only that people in Louisiana were enjoying it. Five pages in, I realized that I had known the eccentrics and zanies she was offering up. Read the rest of this entry »
