by LibbyAtwater | Mar 28, 2016 | Blog, Memoirs, The Spirit of Villarosa, What Lies Within
In 2003 I began writing The Spirit of Villarosa as a ghostwriter for another personal historian. The manuscript I created was based on interviews with my current co-author, Marc Ashton, whose story forms the basis of the book, and transcripts his father, Horace Dade Ashton, left behind. After I began writing this father-son story, my employer asked me to add a third narrative about the son’s kidnapping. The assignment to weave three different narratives into a single story became the most challenging I’d encountered in my years as a writer. I did my best, but the completed book did not meet the son’s expectations. (more…)
by LibbyAtwater | Mar 18, 2016 | Blog, The Spirit of Villarosa, What Lies Within
Writing a book is not an easy task. But the more books you write, the less daunting it becomes. I recall being approached to write my first family history and feeling anxious. I’d written numerous profiles, but I’d never written an entire book. I thought about what was involved, convinced myself to write a series of features, and transform them into a book. That’s exactly what I did.
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by LibbyAtwater | Jan 31, 2016 | Blog, Memories, The Spirit of Villarosa
Last weekend nearly 30 inches of snow blanketed the East Coast, including my native New Jersey. I remember times like that when I was a child. I would sit on my bed, my nose pressed against the cold storm window as snow fell silently, covering the gray-brown winter landscape with a coat of white. I’d watch cars slip and slide as they tried to climb the hill on which our house sat. Often the oil trucks that came to fill our furnaces slid off the road while attempting to make their deliveries. (more…)
by LibbyAtwater | Jan 19, 2016 | Blog, The Spirit of Villarosa
In 2003 a colleague asked me to write the story of noted 20th century figure Horace Dade Ashton, a renaissance man, and his son Marc, the victim of a brutal kidnapping. Horace was no longer alive, but he tape recorded many of his amazing exploits before he died, and his sister detailed his celebrity in scrapbooks. Interviews with Marc revealed his close relationship with his father, but these did not tell the whole story.
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