My Memoir Journey
Kimberley Hirschi
I have been attending the San Diego Memoir Writers Association meetings since its launch event on February 4, 2017. The speaker was Traci Foust, author of Nowhere Near Normal: A Memoir of OCD. I had heard of the event during a class on memoir writing taught by Marni Freedman at the public library. Both the class and SDMWA were a big help to me writing my first book: Hirschi’s Kisses: The Personal History of Dean and Lydia Hirschi and Richard and Ruth Hirschi, published on Amazon.com in December 2019.
The book is a family history of my in-laws: four fascinating individuals. It is a 90 year story that includes escaping religious persecution, immigrating from Switzerland to America, surviving battle during World War II, raising a child with disabilities, and a friendship with Marilyn Monroe. I wrote the book because I wanted to preserve the wonderful stories that had been passed down and share the testimonies of faith and perseverance. I believe the narrative provides a blueprint for how to have a happy life and a successful marriage.
SDMWA can help both writers of professional memoir writers, and also what I would refer to as “amateur memoirists”, or writers who wish to produce a book that is primarily intended for family and not expected to make money. My advice for this second group is consider using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. I was astonished at the low cost of printing the books: my author’s copies only cost me $3.15 This made it possible for me to pass out 60 copies to my friends and relatives. My father-in-law passed away last January, and it was lovely to give away copies of the book at his funeral as a tribute to his remarkable life.
I’ve held a life-long ambition to write my own memoir, and I hoped one of the benefits of writing the first book would be preparation for the second one. I come from a background of severe child abuse. When I was a homeless 15 year old a foster family took me in, and this act of kindness by my foster mother completely transformed my entire existence and taught me about the redemptive power of love. During my darkest times I had thought: “If I make it out of here alive, I’m going to write a book about this.” Four years ago I wrote two pages of my memoir, but then dropped the project. Last month I started writing again and have completed 25 pages. SDMWA has helped to give me inspiration, and I hope I can finally get my memoir written.