When I was growing up, I always looked forward to family get-togethers. My paternal grandfather and grandmother were born in 1918 and 1919, respectively. They had eight kids, starting in the 1930s all the way to the late 1950s, so I was blessed with plenty of aunts and uncles, and they're all exceptional storytellers.

 

By the time I was ten years old, I knew what it was like for my grandmother when she was growing up during the Great Depression. I felt a real sense of awe when one of my older uncles talked about getting electricity and running water in the family home for the first time. One of my uncles is a car guy, and when he talked about his first car it was as if I was riding shotgun with him in his 1955 Thunderbird, gleaming in the Georgia sun. 

 

I never cropped tobacco, but I could feel the heat of the sun on the back of my neck as my parents talked about it, and I could smell the dirt of the field and feel the tar on my hands. I felt the stress my father and his father-in-law felt when they were farming back in the 1970s, long before government subsidies came along. Their entire lives revolved around the crop in the field, the weather, and the mercy of God. 

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There are so many of their stories I could tell, but what really stayed with me was how these stories made these people and places come alive--even people who had passed on decades before I was born. I understood early on that stories are important, and they have a special kind of power. They connect us to the past, influence how we act in the present, and lead us into the future.

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What drove this home the most were the stories about my paternal grandfather, James. His children still talk about him with a hushed reverence, because his influence and example still shape their lives today, as well as mine. He died in 1963, but their stories make him just as present in my family as ever. 

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As I grew up, I noticed that very few families had this relationship with stories or their own histories. As family members passed away, they simply faded from memory. It made me feel fortunate to have those stories in my own family, but it saddened me to think that not everyone has this experience.  

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Because of these stories, I became an avid reader in my childhood and this led to writing my own little stories here and there. I took creative writing courses in high school, then earned a degree in Creative Writing in college. During college, I learned that the storytellers in my family are part of an ancient tradition that stretches back before the written word. I also learned that this tradition is quickly dying. 

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During my 20s and 30s, I've noticed that the world has drastically changed from when I was a child. It seems that the world is losing so much as members of older generations pass away. 

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Though they are great storytellers, my family aren't writers. They don't have the time to write books, and they don't have the training, since I learned in my college writing courses that being a good storyteller and writing a book are two very different things. 

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Eventually, I decided to offer my services to help people preserve their histories, tell their stories, and share their hard-won wisdom with the world by writing their books for them, to their specifications.

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Many people have amazing stories to tell, but they're faced with the obstacles of limited time and a lack of training and experience when it comes to writing a book. My services remove those obstacles and save these stories from fading away forever. 

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If you're interested in telling your story but you're facing those same obstacles, click the button below to learn more about my service. I'd love to help you keep those stories, those memories, and those people alive for many generations to come.