Song of the Plains
Ever since she was a child, Linda Joy felt the power of the past. As the third daughter in her family to be abandoned or estranged by a mother, she observed the consequences of that heritage on the women she loved as well as herself. But thanks to the stories told to her by her great-grandmother, Myers received a gift that proved crucial in her life: the idea that everyone is a walking storybook, and that we all have within us the key to a deeper understanding of life–the secret stories that make themselves known even without words.
Song of the Plains is a weaving of family history that starts in the Oklahoma plains and spans over forty years as Myers combs through dusty archives, family stories, and genealogy online. She discovers the secrets that help to explain the fractures in her family, and the ways in which her mother and grandmother found a way not only to survive the great challenges of their eras, but to thrive despite mental illness and abuse. She discovers how decisions made long ago broke her family apart–and she makes it her life’s work to change her family story from one of abuse and loss to one of finding and creating a new story of hope, forgiveness, healing, and love.
… the author intricately layers the detailed narrative [about family]with philosophical and mystical musings as well as poetic passages regarding Myers’ relationship with her Great Plains surroundings: “There was always the wind. It whirled and swirled, kicking up dust and revealing, if we cared to look for it, secrets just under the surface, particles of bone and earth that shimmered from the great inland sea that covered mid-America thousands of years ago.
An often evocative and lyrical reflection on family mysteries.”
We all have stories that change our lives. Sometimes we remain silent, but the silence only gives the story more power. In Song of the Plains, memoir expert Linda Joy Myers goes deeply into her own life story and reveals how she transformed it into a new one that helped her move forward with hope and love… This book is a must read for anyone who wants to explore—and heal—the
past.
Don’t Call Me Mother
“I wanted to tell the secret stories that my great-grandmother Blanche whispered to me on summer nights in a featherbed in Iowa. I was eight and she was eighty . . .”
At the age of four, a little girl stands on a cold, windy railroad platform in Wichita, Kansas, watching a train take her mother away. For the rest of her life, her mother will be an only occasional—and always troubled—visitor who denies her the love she longs for.
Linda Joy Myers’s compassionate, gripping, and soul-searching memoir tells the story of three generations of daughters who, though determined to be different from their absent mothers, ultimately follow in their footsteps, recreating a pattern that they yearn to break. Accompany Linda as she uncovers family secrets, seeks solace in music, and begins her healing journey—ultimately transcending the prison of her childhood and finding forgiveness for her family and herself.
The current edition includes a new afterword in which Myers confronts her family’s legacy and comes full circle with her daughter and grandchildren, seeding a new path for them.
Linda Joy Myers eloquently renders the details of her past in this transformative memoir, allowing all of us to find redemption through her honest courage. For anyone yearning for self-discovery, Don’t Call Me Mother serves as a compelling guide on a journey to wholeness. I loved the book.
With poetically visceral prose, Linda Joy Myers tells of her relentless work to emerge from an abandoned and abused child to a forgiving and loving daughter, mother, and grandmother. This must-read memoir brings her raw dark secrets to life. I couldn’t tear myself away.
The Power of Memoir
Linda Joy’s groundbreaking work for healing long-term emotional problems
The Power of Memoir is a pioneering how-to book that provides a new step-by-step program to use memoir writing as a therapeutic process. By going through these steps you’ll learn how to choose the significant milestones and turning points that make up a coherent story leading to a life-changing epiphany.
- Help uncover the secret stories that are the keys to healing
- Explore the dynamics and roles of dysfunctional families
- Heal old wounds, creating a better present and brighter future
Using many examples from her students and clients, the author shows how creative, well-planned, and carefully researched memoir writing can offer a process for sorting out the truth from lies and family myths.
With a gentle spirit and a clear voice, Linda Joy Myers creates a safe place for writers. With her eight-step program, Myers guides writers through the dark places of the heart, to ultimately arrive at a place of power and grace.
A powerful and unique writing guide—one that will lead any writer straight to the heart of their richest material, help them heal, and then teach them how to shape it into literature. Destined to become a classic!
BOOKS ON MEMOIR WRITING FROM LINDA JOY MYERS
Edited by Linda Joy and Brooke Warner (of She Writes Press), drawing on their years of experience in coaching and teaching authors working to complete their memoirs. The Magic of Memoir is a memoirist’s companion for when the going gets tough and a writer finds their journey fraught with belittling messages, struggling to stay on course with the writing and completion of a book.
Knowing that an author’s inner critic as well as outward naysayers can be a tough hurdle to face, 38 writers share their hard-won wisdom, stories, and writing tips. Included are Myers’s and Warner’s interviews with best-selling and widely renown memoirists Mary Karr, Elizabeth Gilbert, Dr. Azar Nafisi, Dani Shapiro, Margo Jefferson, Raquel Cepeda, Jessica Valenti, Daisy Hernández, Mark Matousek, and Sue William Silverman. This collection has something for anyone who’s on the journey or about to embark on it. If you’re looking for inspiration, The Magic of Memoir will be a valuable companion.
In Breaking Ground on Your Memoir, Linda Joy Myers and Brooke Warner team up to present a ground up guide to the craft and skills that memoirists can draw upon to write a powerful and moving story, as well as inspiration to write, finish, and polish their own story.
Learn to focus and build out the structure of your memoir. The authors delve into the secrets of craft: from great scenes to colorful and memorable descriptions, as well as connecting with your readers so they’ll keep turning the pages, and learn something about their own lives by reading your book.
Full of rich insights and practical advice and strategies, Breaking Ground on Your Memoir offers all the tools writers need to write a powerful, publishable memoir.