Memoir Guide You can go home again. With this helpful memoir guide, "Rampant With Memory", you can key in the first stroke of your autobiography. While addressing the particular concerns older adults might have in writing this kind of inspirational story , "Rampant with Memory" shows how one's family history is available to each one of us, at any age and juncture in our lives. What does it look like, to write an autobiography ? Well, sharpen your pencil, rev up your engine, settle in your chair and get ready to time-travel. Do you have an interesting and provocative memento gathering dust on your shelf? Take it down, along with all your other precious objects---all those years you've been busy creating keepsakes ---and tell their stories. The poet T.S. Eliot once wrote about measuring his life in coffee spoons. How about you? How have you measured your life? For some people, it's collecting similar keepsakes. For others, it might be journal writing. Writing autobiography is one other way and this guide will peel off the layers of mystery and show you how to fruitfully use this time in your life to set forth your cherished legacy. "Rampant with Memory" teaches you how to be successfully retired---and writing. It gives you permission to "go wild" in terms of freeing these life stories. Speaking personally, my family history has now joined the ranks of self-published North American folklore. And now it's waiting to be nudged aside by yours. Whether your interest is in family history, or a family inspirational story, or creating keepsakes , the art of recording your life is a valued one, an honourable one---one well worth pursuing and preserving.

AN EASY-TO-FOLLOW COURSE IN WRITING YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY How to Create a Tangible Legacy to be Preserved and Honoured, as Simple as Paint-by-Number! CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: SHARPENING THE PENCIL How to begin writing your memoir CHAPTER 2: REMEMBERING THE STORIES How to shake out all those memories CHAPTER 3: RE-LIVING THE STORIES How to deal with your emotions while writing CHAPTER 4: WRITING AS A SENIOR How to honour yourself at this stage in your life CHAPTER 5: HOLDING THE MICROPHONE, SPINNING THE TAPE How to do other kinds of memoir work CHAPTER 6: LIVING AS A COLLECTOR How to use memorabilia to tap the memories CHAPTER 7: GIVING YOURSELF PERMISSION TO GO WILD How to unleash your creativity CHAPTER 8: "OH YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE FRIENDS" How to find a community CHAPTER 9: SLOWING DOWN TO WRITE How to be a successful retiree and writer CHAPTER 10: PLANNING THE PARTY How to launch your memoir CHAPTER 11: WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE WRITTEN How to get inspired! Suggested Reading Writing Exercises Noreen Shanahan

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