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Memoir Armoire

book news and short reviews. all memoir, all the time.
by diane shipley.

Posts tagged travel:

October 29, 2010
        tags: interviews. Disney. travel.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Catherine Ryan Howard

Catherine Ryan Howard is a Twitter success story. Not only did she use social media to promote her first book, Mousetrapped, a memoir about her 18 months working for Disney (which I reviewed here) but it’s how she met her agent. And (surely the most exciting thing) it’s how she met me.

Here Catherine (right) talks about all things memoir, and a couple of novel things…

We’re all about keeping things short and sweet here at Memoir Armoire, so could you describe your book in five words?

How about “Dreams really do come true?” Although if I was allowed six words, I’d add “sorta” on there at the end.

What are some of your favourite memoirs?

I was blown away by The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, but I also loved Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (although I fear that borders on true crime!) and anything that involves Apollo astronauts or NASA, but especially Apollo 11’s Michael Collins’ memoir, Carrying the Fire.

What’s your top tip for aspiring memoir writers?

Make your peace with the fact that not every single little thing that happened can go in. You have to find the story within the events, and use it as a clothesline to hang your chapters off of. Or something…

What are you working on now and/or releasing next?

I’ve just started my second novel. My first hasn’t sold (yet?) and is still doing the rounds, which is distracting somewhat. Not so much the waiting itself, but the obsessive checking of voicemail, e-mail and postbox every 15 minutes that the waiting requires. I’m also toying with the idea of a dieting memoir, but that would require me to actually go on a diet first. So, we’ll see.

Please plug your website(s) and any other non-book projects we should know about:

I sure will, thank you. For occasional caffeinated musings, see my blog at www.catherineryanhoward.com. It’s all pink and stuff. [It also contains some fabulous advice and info on getting your writing noticed. You should visit! — Diane]

September 17, 2010
        tags: to read. new releases. mother-daughter. travel.
I had no idea Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees (which I just loved) had written a memoir with her daughter, but she has. Last week it came out in paperback with a new cover, and according to Sue on her website: Traveling with Pomegranates has often been described by readers as a memoir about change. Certainly, in its pages, Ann and I are each in the throes of tumultuous transitions: Ann is a young woman leaving college with no idea of what to do with her life, while I am turning 50, headed toward older womanhood with no idea of what to do with my life either. Sounds like a lot of mums and daughters will relate.

I had no idea Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees (which I just loved) had written a memoir with her daughter, but she has. Last week it came out in paperback with a new cover, and according to Sue on her website:

Traveling with Pomegranates has often been described by readers as a memoir about change. Certainly, in its pages, Ann and I are each in the throes of tumultuous transitions: Ann is a young woman leaving college with no idea of what to do with her life, while I am turning 50, headed toward older womanhood with no idea of what to do with my life either.

Sounds like a lot of mums and daughters will relate.

July 15, 2010
        tags: Disney. travel. reviews.
Confession: my own, not-yet-finished memoir starts with me on my way to Walt Disney World, wracked with sobs, well on my way to a nervous breakdown. So the subtitle of Mousetrapped, Catherine Ryan Howard’s book about the 18 months she spent working at a Disney hotel, intrigued me. “…What could possibly go wrong in the happiest place on earth?” it asks. And what I loved about this great memoir is that it tells. It’s not all sunshine and Disney ears and firework displays (although there’s plenty of that, too) - we hear the real story of Ryan Howard’s time in Disney World, complete with loneliness, transport problems and financial challenges. It’s funny, educational, inspiring and the chapter about space shuttle launches made me cry. (If you knew how little interest I have in space travel, you’d know what an achievement that was.) I challenge anyone who reads it to not want to hop on the next flight to Florida. Buy it.

Confession: my own, not-yet-finished memoir starts with me on my way to Walt Disney World, wracked with sobs, well on my way to a nervous breakdown. So the subtitle of Mousetrapped, Catherine Ryan Howard’s book about the 18 months she spent working at a Disney hotel, intrigued me. “…What could possibly go wrong in the happiest place on earth?” it asks. And what I loved about this great memoir is that it tells. It’s not all sunshine and Disney ears and firework displays (although there’s plenty of that, too) - we hear the real story of Ryan Howard’s time in Disney World, complete with loneliness, transport problems and financial challenges. It’s funny, educational, inspiring and the chapter about space shuttle launches made me cry. (If you knew how little interest I have in space travel, you’d know what an achievement that was.) I challenge anyone who reads it to not want to hop on the next flight to Florida.

Buy it.

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