Seasons of Our Lives anthology now available in paperback

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One of my essays titled Being From Boston was included in Seasons of Our Lives the Spring Anthology. It was published a few years ago. They have now released the paperback edition.

This was the press release I just received from the editors:

More Than 100 Award-Winning Memoir Stories

Now Available in Paperback

 

Milbridge, ME (May 2018) There’s no such thing as too many good stories. And it seems, there’s no such thing as a single technology for reading these stories. WomensMemoirs.com previously released four volumes of true stories in the Seasons of Our Lives series for the Kindle.  These memoir anthologies won seven book awards, and stayed on the Kindle bestseller list for more than a week. A real success story.

Since that time, these stories have continued to resonate with readers across the US and many countries and are now also used by memoir teachers and coaches. These stories are not only inspirational. They are also exemplars of memoir writing.

We’re all modern women and like digital technology. BUT there is still something special and satisfying about holding a book in your hands, enjoying a story, setting it aside on the coffee table where it lands with a thud rather than a ping, and returning the next day to read more. Due to the large number of requests for print copies, WomensMemoirs.com through Knowledge Access Books has just released the four volumes of the Seasons of Our Lives anthologies in paperback. 

Motivating Lessons. In addition to the more than 100 true stories, the anthologies have lessons that help the reader to reflect on her life and to see how she might write about her own experiences. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of these four volumes of stories, added a lesson, or what they call a "takeaway," at the end of each story. As you read the 100-plus stories, you'll also find an equal number of short lessons, one tied to each vignette, designed to motivate and instruct in the writing of life vignettes. 

The mini-lessons that follow each award-winning story cover many of the topics important in memoir writing such as: 

  • creating a memoir title, 
  • crafting a powerful opening, 
  • linking openings and closings, 
  • choosing point of view, 
  • incorporating sensory details, 
  • adding character descriptions, 
  • showing (not telling) emotions, 
  • using dialogue effectively, 
  • understanding how time and place can be used in tandem or as stand-alone elements, 
  • making word choice a priority, 
  • discerning the different impacts of present versus past tense, 
  • considering vignette topics to write about, 
  • choosing between letting the reader figure out the story behind the story or spelling out all the details, 
  • and much more.

Inspiring Exemplars.Want inspiration for your life as well as your writing? Consider the just-released paperback version of the four volumes of Seasons of Our Lives -- Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. These 100+ award-winning true stories from http://WomensMemoirs.com and http://KnowledgeAccessBooks.com are inspirational. They'll make you laugh. Cry. Feel joy. Experience sorrow. Collectively they form a kaleidoscope of life's multi-faceted seasons. 

WomensMemoirs.com held four contests and received hundreds of remarkable stories. Award-winning authors and memoir coaches Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of these four volumes of life stories, read each submission, ranked them, and then made decisions on the winners. These four volumes contain the award-winning stories. 

Your Way. Here's what special about the concept of "Read a Story, Tell a Story." If you mainly like to read memoir, then you'll savor these stories just for themselves. Through them you can reflect on your own life, think about your past and how you want to shape your future. Or, if you are interested in writing, let these stories inspire you and then study the takeaways that accompany each one so that you'll have new techniques for writing your own life stories. Either way, your way, you have a real treat awaiting you in these four volumes.

Book Specs and Availability

Seasons of Our Lives is a four volume series (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) edited by award-winning authors and memoir coaches Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett; Knowledge Access Books Publisher.

Seasons of Our Lives: Spring   (includes 28 stories and takeaways; 155 pages)

Seasons of Our Lives: Summer  (includes 25 stories and takeaways; 135 pages)

Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn  (includes 26 stories and takeaways; 153 pages)

Seasons of Our Lives: Winter  (includes 33 stories and takeaways; 211 pages)

 

  • Up to 5 Copies - Paperback Introductory Price on Amazon—valid until June 15, 2018: $9.97 each except $10.97 for Winter. On June 16, price increases by $2 per volume. Below are the links:

Seasons of Our Lives: Spring     https://amzn.to/2KklLXN

Seasons of Our Lives: Summer  https://amzn.to/2HWoSXq

Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn    https://amzn.to/2HUEGtH

Seasons of Our Lives: Winter      https://amzn.to/2KlyXLN

 

  • 5 copy and 10 copy bulk orders at special discounted prices available through Etsy.

Seasons of Our Lives: Spring      http://bit.ly/Seasons-Spring

Seasons of Our Lives: Summer   http://bit.ly/Seasons-Summer

Seasons of Our Lives: Autumn     http://bit.ly/Seasons-Autumn

Seasons of Our Lives: Winter    http://bit.ly/Seasons-Winter-Stories

Editors

Matilda Butler is the award-winning co-author of the collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story, Second Edition, Writing Alchemy: How to Write Fast and Deep and other books. A psychologist, online and in-person memoir coach and writing conference speaker, she writes and teaches in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. In 2014, Butler is also offering classes in Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii. 

 

Kendra Bonnett is the award-winning co-author of Rosie’s Daughters and Writing Alchemy and author/ghostwriter of nine books, a marketing executive, and a speaker and memoir coach. She regularly blogs with Matilda Butler at WomensMemoirs.com and writes and teaches from her home in Downeast Maine.

 

We invite you to share news about these four volumes through your blog or in articles about memoir writing. If you need additional information, please contact:

Matilda@WomensMemoirs.com or Kendra@WomensMemoirs.com 

 

What Readers of Seasons of Our Lives Are Saying

It is true that each woman is a story waiting to be told—and in this outstanding collection of memoirs you’ll find many wonderful women’s stories. It is also true that each woman’s story is everywoman’s story, for we share so many of the same experiences. As I read these stories [in Seasons of Our Lives], I am reading bits and pieces from my own life, and I am inspired to write my own with a more passionate and compassionate heart. I hope you are, too. ~Susan Wittig Albert, bestselling author of Writing from Life

 

Seasons of Our Lives, a compilation of memoirists’ vignettes, brings poignant stories of history and nostalgia to the reader, as well as writing observations and lessons for the author in everyone. Seasons of our Lives is sure to be another award-winning work from the dynamic duo of Butler and Bonnett. ~Judy Sheer Watters, author of The Road Home: The Legacy that was, is and is to Come

 

A summer’s bouquet of award–winning stories that engage, inspire, and also teach. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett’s “takeaways” on each piece illuminate the modes of thought and specific techniques that make each story work.  A delight for anyone who enjoys compelling stories as well as a handbook for those who desire to tell or write their own.  I’m proud to be included in Seasons of Our Lives: Summer. ~Judith Newton, Professor Emerita, UC Davis, Women and Gender Studies, award-winning food memoir author, Tasting Home

 

Writing memoir is like walking into an immense clearing and finding a wild stallion waiting there just for you. Climbing up, you wonder if you can take this ride. ...but wait. Help is there to accompany you on your ride. Help in the form of award-winning memoir vignettes to read and takeaway lessons to give you guidance in sharing your life stories. That's what Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett, editors of Seasons of Our Lives have given all of us, readers and writers. I am so proud to be part of this anthology series. ~Kathleen Hewitt, author of The Scent of Her

Following is a list of the stories in each of the four volumes, currently available on Amazon:

 

 

SEASONS OF OUR LIVES: SPRING

 

Introduction by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett

 

I. SPRING MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

Journey to America by Phyllis Mattson

1945 by Sharon Miller

Cut the Cake by Deborah Gilson

Spring's Surprise in July by Cynthia Briggs

Montreal Spring by Janet Caplan

The Spring Snowball Fight by Sabine Naus

Spring Chickens by Shirley Pugh Thomson

The Spring of 1942 by Kristiane McKee Maas

 

II. SPRING STORIES OF COMING OF AGE

Innocence by Nancy Pogue LaTurner

A Special Sibling by Nancy Julien Kopp

Remember by Robin Sherwood Moore

Spring Dances by Kathleen Hewitt

Pink Pearls of Wisdom by Sara Etgen-Baker

 

III. SPRING MEMORIES OF ADULT YEARS

As Time Runs Out by Susan Payne

Being from Boston by Cynthia Close

And a Child was Born by Linda Austin

No Green Thumb Here...Yet! by Lucille Joyner

Haphazard Gardener by Nancy Obermueller

Unexpected Pleasure by Linda Greeley

Letter to Roland by Iris Gersh

Down Home for Decoration Day by Lisa Libowitz

Esther's Easter by Marcy N. Jubach

A Spring Tale by Micki Peluso

Army Green by Robin Dake

 

IV. SPRING MEMORIES OF AGING AND REFLECTING ON THE PASSAGE OF TIME

Who's Looking Anyway? by Trudi Goodman

Spring Sorrow by Mairi Neil

Springtime Herald Mother Memories by Laureen Elaine Andrews

White Carnations and Buried Answers by Patricia Higbie

 

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Cynthia Close

Armed with an MFA from Boston University Cynthia plowed her way through several productive careers in the arts including instructor in drawing and painting, Dean of Admissions at The Art Institute of Boston, founder of ARTWORKS Consulting, and president of Documentary Educational Resources - a nonprofit film distribution company. She now claims to be a writer.

In addition…
To support this claim, she is a contributing editor for Documentary Magazine and writes regularly about art, cinema, and culture for, Artist’s Magazine, Art & Object, Pastel Magazine, Art New England, Vermont Woman, and formerly for Professional Artist Magazine. Her creative non-fiction appeared in the 2014, 2016, and 2017 anthology The Best of the Burlington Writers Workshop. Her essays have been published in various literary journals including 34th Parallel, Across the Margin, Adelaide, Agni, Bacopa Literary Review, The Black and White Anthology, Blood and Bourbon, The Brooklyn Film Arts nonfiction prize finalist, From Whispers to Roars, The Longridge Review, Montana Mouthful, Orson’s Review, The Seasons of Our Lives, Swallow Press, The Twisted Vine, Wagon Bridge Press, and The Woven Tales Press, among others. She has read publicly at many venues including the Cornelia Street Café in NYC. She was the inaugural art editor for the literary and art journal Mud Season Review launched in 2014.