The Liberating Effects of Writing a Memoir. Please welcome Karen Walker, author of Following the Whispers!

Please welcome Karen Walker today to talk about the liberating effects of writing a memoir in celebration of her memoir, Following The Whispers, being released as an e-book!

Karen Walker is a writer who has published essays in newspapers and magazines, as well as an anthology series. After a 30+ year career in marketing and public relations, she went back to college to complete a Bachelor's degree and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2005 from the University of New Mexico's University Studies program with a major emphasis in Creative Writing. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, Gary, and their dog, Buddy. When she’s not writing, you can find her doing international folk dancing, singing at retirement communities with her trio, Sugartime, hiking, reading, or hanging out with friends.


Take it away Karen!

I wouldn’t have chosen to write a memoir if I felt I had a choice. Well, we always have choice. But I was compelled to write mine. I unexpectedly lost custody of my then 3 1/2 year-old son in 1978. It catapulted me into a deep depression; I was filled with self-hatred and despair. To save my sanity, I began keeping a journal. As a child, I’d fantasized about being a writer, like Jo in Little Women, but that’s all it was--a fantasy.

Keeping journals helped me process what was happening, sort through the complexity of emotions and feelings, and somehow make sense of my life. A seed was planted that someday I’d write about a nice, middle-class Jewish woman who wasn’t a prostitute or a drug addict but who somehow lost her child.

I had to wait until 1999, when my current wonderful husband offered me the opportunity to write full-time to begin that process. Probably the most difficult part of the writing was pouring through hundreds of journals, highlighting parts I thought were important, then typing them into the computer. There were times when I collapsed, sobbing on the floor, unable to continue as I relived my pain. It proved, however, to be extremely cathartic.

The memoir began as a story about losing custody, but after several drafts, I realized it was more about having grown up in a dysfunctional family, been sexually abused at seven years old, and how those kinds of events shaped the person who ended up divorced and without her child at 28.

Writing memoir is not for the weak. It takes courage to face your past--to look deeply at your life and the choices and decisions you made that may have hurt others and probably hurt you. And it takes even more courage to put those out for the world to see.

But memoir serves an important purpose--it shines a light on a life in a way that helps us look at our own lives and perhaps learn lessons we need to learn. That is why I was compelled to write my story. I knew there were others who suffered the same kind of pain for similar reasons. Mine is a journey towards healing and I am content now--something I didn’t think possible. And I think that writing my memoir played a key part in that happening.


Thank you so much for coming today, Karen. It's been an absolute pleasure!

You can find Following The Whispers here:

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.smashwords.com