Barbara Stark-Nemon
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: Writing about Family—Notes from a Repeat Offender.
May 17, 2019
11 AM PDT  |  12 PM MDT |   1 PM CDT  |   2 PM EDT

The topic this week is drawing from life—your story—to craft a book of fiction. Many of you talk about this angle of digging into and writing your story, so let’s talk to an author who has done that in two award-winning books.

In Barbara Stark-Nemon’s return to join us at our May NAMW teleseminar, she will update us on her thoughts on writing about family. Currently touring with her second novel, Hard Cider, Barbara will describe how fictional elements woven into compelling family stories, personal experiences, research and travel contributed to the writing of both her novels, and a third novel-in-progress.

Believing that our characters and the experiences we write about reflect the refiner’s fire of the lives we’ve lived and survived–and often even managed to thrive in, Barbara will discuss how that translates to what we share with the world. She will address how important it is for authors to consider these issues in memoir and fiction.

The epigraph of Hard Cider, reads, “I have never written a book that wasn’t born out of a question I needed to answer for myself.” – May Sarton. “People who know my family and read Hard Cider have a hard time making eye contact when they first see me after reading the book.” Barbara Stark-Nemon.

Join in to find out how that’s worked out for this author!

Listeners will learn:

• The complexities of “Write what you know” when it comes to writing about family.
• The advantages and disadvantages of fiction vs. memoir when writing about families
• One author’s process when considering “What goes in, and what stays out” of the family story, and how to address competing needs.
• What the author has learned the second time around with the publication of novel two.
• How to frame your goals as a writer in your story about family.

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of award-winning novels Even in Darkness and Hard Cider, lives, writes, cycles, swims, does fiber arts and gardens in Ann Arbor and Northport, Michigan. She has degrees in English literature, art history and speech-language pathology from the University of Michigan and worked with deaf and language disabled children. Even in Darkness is historical fiction based on a family story in 20th century Germany. Hard Cider, contemporary fiction, is set in northern Michigan.

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author Even in Darkness and Hard Cider
bstarknemon@gmail.com
www.barbarastarknemon.com
Twitter: @bstarknemon
Instagram: bannstark
www.facebook.com/starknemon
Sarton Literary Award
Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal- Even in Darkness
Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book Award Gold medal- Even in Darkness
Foreword Reviews INDIEs finalist- Hard Cider
International Book Award finalist
Winner and Grand Champion—The Chanticleer Award