Your Relatives Will Love You Forever, Says Memoirist and Family History Writer, Mary Lynn Archibald
Mary Lynn Archibald's new book, Briarhopper: A History, preserves and protects her family's entertaining stories and memories.
(PRWEB) November 17, 2006 -- Mary Lynn Archibald, a freelance copywriter (visit her at: www.winecountrywriter.com), urges anyone who loves his or her family's stories to preserve and protect them before it is too late.
Her new book, Briarhopper: A History, did just that. It's a vastly entertaining memoir of small-town life assembled from notes, fragments, tape recordings and reminiscences while her mother was still alive.
"We had stories like the one about the time my grandmother almost shot my grandfather because he was so covered with soot from his job as coal-stoker on a steam train that she didn't recognize him.
"Or the one about him cutting off her hair while she slept.
"Or the one about the hard years of the Great Depression, when Grandpa fed his wife and daughter down in Florida by fishing, shooting squirrels, and collecting pineapples from the fields.
"Or the one about the time during World War II when Mom was postmistress in our small town of Soquel, California, and played hostess to the FBI, who used her kitchen closet to steam open suspicious German mail.
"When I suggested to my mother shortly after her 81st birthday that I write a book about her life, she was all for it. Mom loved to tell old family stories,and I thought a book would be a great Christmas gift to the family that year.
"That was in 1995. We finished it in 1996, and not a moment too soon, as
Mom had her first stroke of many that year, and I had to go to the rest home where she was recuperating to show her the finished product.
"She was so excited by all the attention her book engendered in the doctors, nurses and aides, that she perked up right away, and recovered fully.
"But we were very lucky. My advice: Don't trust to luck. Get started today, because before you know or want it, that priceless family legacy will be GONE."
Mary Lynn is the author of two memoirs: The first is the aforementioned Briarhopper: A History (a personal odyssey that leads the reader from the Southeast Kentucky coal country, through Florida and Texas and finally to California during the Great Depression and afterward, sharing her life experience throughout WWII).
Available now as an e-book on her website, and as a paperback, at www.booklocker.com/books/2669.html, and all other major online bookstores. Details at: www.winecountrywriter.com.
Her second book, Accidental Cowgirl: Six Cows, No Horse and No Clue, is Mary Lynn's own humorous account of the time she and her partner, Carl, spent trying vainly to cope with the fact that their "restful country retreat" had become a nightmare of work, a sinkhole of exhaustion, and a twelve year labor of love--think, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, The Egg and I, and The Money Pit, all rolled into one messy but vastly entertaining romp through the sparsely-settled Northern California mountain wilderness.
Accidental Cowgirl will be available Spring 2007 in paperback. Details for advance purchase of autographed copies or company discounts at: www.winecountrywriter.com.
Check out Mary Lynn's blog, The Wine Country Word, at: http://mlarchibald.blogspot.com/.
Contact: Mary Lynn Archibald
Wine Country Writer
1083 Vine Street, #185
Healdsburg, CA 95448
Phone/Fax: 707•395•0542
www.winecountrywriter.com
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