Today’s Session Cancelled So I Can Play Pretend

Schloss Neuhausen

Dearest Memoirists,

I hope this message finds you all in good spirits. I, for one, am excited about the arrival of Spring! While I’m thinking about Spring, it seems a good time to share this video that our memoirists, Sylvia Clare, and her lovely husband David, put together as a companion to a book Sylvia is writing about her garden and mindfulness and climate. Take a look at her lovely garden here: https://youtu.be/Gooj9W8mv_U?si=2fPhyajCyjZq_Dyc

As you may have noticed, our usual Thursday session this week is canceled, but with good reason—I’m going on an adventure!

Tomorrow, I’ll be venturing off to Schloss Neuhausen (pictured above) for a board game and role-playing event, followed by a week of cat-sitting in a castle manor nestled amidst the serene beauty of the German countryside. The Schloss’s history dates all the way back to the Wendish people in 1147. For someone like me, from the United States, where history and castles are somewhat rare, the idea of spending two weeks in a castle is pretty freaking cool.

In our book club about Irvin Yalom’s Becoming Myself last week, one of the things we discussed was how Yalom often went on extended retreats to remove islands or to Europe to write a book. In the past, I’ve had limited success with setting aside time for writing in the midst of adventuring, but I’m hoping that I can take a page from Yalom’s book and get some writing done. I’m looking forward to an opportunity to disconnect from the noise of the city’s daily life and reconnect with the essence of play and inspiration.

This brings me to the first part of the event: play! This will be my second time at this event. I must admit, the first time I went, the idea of engaging in role-playing and “playing pretend” with strangers felt quite intimidating. However, these folks were incredibly welcoming, and I was so surprised to discover how easily it came to me to slip into characters and just enjoy myself. The weekend was rejuvenating and inspirational. I’ve come to realize, there’s profound wisdom in embracing our inner child and allowing ourselves the freedom to play. It’s in these moments of uninhibited creativity that we often find our most authentic selves.

How do you find inspiration in unexpected places? Do you have a favorite retreat or hobby that sparks your creativity? I invite you to share your stories and insights with the group. After all, inspiration is contagious, and who knows what hidden gems we might uncover in each other’s experiences? Please reply to this email or email me at xtina.howell@memoirmentors.com .

I encourage you to carve out moments of play and reflection in your own lives. Whether it’s a quiet stroll in nature, an afternoon lost in a favorite book, or even a spontaneous adventure to a castle in the countryside, may you find inspiration in the unexpected and joy in the simple act of being.

Until we meet again, wishing you all a week filled with laughter, exploration, and boundless creativity.

Warm regards,

~Christina

In our recent book club discussion, we discussed Irvin Yalom’s Becoming Me. This memoir sparked a range of reactions among our members.

While some found the narrative captivating, others noted a lack of white space and dialogue, which hindered the flow of the reading experience, highlighting the importance of pacing and structure in memoir writing. This website offers some good tips on How and Why to Structure Your Memoir Like a Novel.

The audiobook version also drew attention, with some members expressing dissatisfaction with the narrator’s youthful voice. This discrepancy between the narrator’s tone and the author’s life experience underscored the significance of selecting an appropriate voice for audiobook adaptations. Speaking of, member Jelaine Lombardi recently took auditions for a narrator for her audiobook and so far she’s excited about the progress. We look forward to hearing audiobook version of her memoir, Running Around Naked. (Also, check out Jelaine’s new website we designed together last month: https://jelainelombardi.com/)

We debated the classification of Becoming Me as a memoir. While one reader perceived it as more textbook due to Yalom’s extensive knowledge of psychology, others argued that this depth of understanding enriched the narrative rather than detracted from it. To me, it felt like an autobiography. This sparked conversations about the balance between informative content and engaging storytelling.

At the end of the session, as we often do, we tossed around ideas for what we should read next. Ingrid has been reading Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime and telling me how much she loves it so I threw that out there as an option and the responses were so overwhelming that we didn’t need a vote.

When I announced the choice in our Memoir Mentors Whatsapp chat (reply to this email if you would like me to add you), we got even more enthusiastic responses:

• “I have it on audio and have listened to it several times.”
• “I read that – Trevor Noah is such an inspiring person. And so is his mother!!”
• “I’ve read it already! such a good one!”
• “I love this book so much. I was laughing the entire time. My sister said the audio book is even better because of how he does the voices.”
• “Wow, I read up to page 9 of Born a Crime this morning, and then I had to stop to write 6 pages of my own!”

I’m really looking forward to reading this book! See more below…

This time, we’ll be discussing:
Born a Crime – Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.

What it’s about:

This is a memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

You can find current and past book club questions here: https://memoirmentors.com/book-club-questions/

 Sign up here:

I’d prefer that you sign up through Meetup so I know who to expect and so that you know what the agenda is for the week, but if that’s too problematic, you can go directly to the Zoom link that we use every week:
https://zoom.us/j/4400465879?pwd=R0Y0RUp4YjAvdnJCODV0MkhNMXlmdz09

March 28: Cancelled
April 4: Write then Read:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/297829712/
April 11: Write then Read:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/297829712/
April 18: Write then Read:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/297829694/
April 25: Speaking Your Story:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/297640371/
May 2: Write Then Read:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/297829716/
May 9: Book Club – Born a Crime:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/299951056/
May 16: Write then Read:
https://www.meetup.com/memoir-mentors/events/297829695/