It’s been about two months since I decided to sell The Memoir Network, the writing company I founded in 1989. Over the decades, I was totally devoted to creating my company and providing services for coaching, editing, ghostwriting, and generally supporting the writing of memoirs.

A different relationship to time

Now I find myself without the imperative to schedule my week as I had so assiduously done every week of the year for decades. On Sundays, I would outline what I would pay attention to in the next five days. This was a task which I was quite faithful in doing. The following Sunday, I analyzed the previous week and again prepared the next.

Now, without my daily involvement in The Memoir Network, I am finding myself feeling lax. (Is it a coincidence that the word “lax” forms part of “relax?”)

After I had finished my graduate degree, I remember feeling like I didn’t want to pick up any serious activity. This was a time when I didn’t want to do anything that involved effort. I just wanted to rest from the big undertaking that I had just completed. This “checking out” time did not last, fortunately, and I was able to get back to tasks which I felt would promote my future.

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Well, I have again stepped away from an encompassing engagement. It feels good to relax. I don’t have any idea how long it will last. That’s both fine and a bit troubling.

As I begin to think of my future now, I ask myself what I want to have succeeded at in the next five years. What would give me an abiding sense of satisfaction and accomplishment? Well, I believe that, were I to look back on having completed the books that I have begun in the decades when I was working at The Memoir Network, I would feel very satisfied. (I am quite the one to write several things at the same time!)

Projects in the line-up

I have three novellas that are almost ready for the world—well, at least for its natural audience which is considerably smaller than “the world.” I will most likely publish one of them in the fall, another in the spring, and a third the following fall. This potential schedule makes sense to me as it will permit me to handle the launch and outreach for each. Now to get myself in gear!

I also have a memoir of my high-school years. I will not go into particulars, but I can assure you that my high-school years were nothing like yours—whatever yours might have been. It is this difference that I am presenting and developing in my high-school memoir which I call (tentatively) My Nineteenth Century Life. This memoir is in a series with other books that I have written that deal with my Franco-American past and culture. There is an audience for this book.

Additionally, I have worked on a novel which is now at about 175 pages. The novel is set in 1890 and deals with a family immigrating from Québec to Maine. Of course, these characters are Francophone and, as a result, the novel fits into my Franco-American series. It would be the sixth book in that series.

My catalogue

Meanwhile, I intend to continue to support my published books. Specifically, I am looking to have more Amazon reviews for my history of 17^th-century Canada, Here to Stay.

If you have published a book, you know how challenging it is to get people to write even ten words—even from people who have told you they enjoyed the book. They say something like, “Oh, I want to write a really good review. When I have time, I will write one.”

Of course, the upshot is they will never have the time to write the perfect graduate-school-worthy review they promised you. All I needed was a ten-word review, not an analysis worthy of the New York Times.

In conclusion

If you know anyone who might be interested in buying a solid, income-producing writing business, send them my way.

Meanwhile, keep writing regularly. Even a little bit done often enough can add up to a book—the book you so long to produce!

Until next time.

Denis