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.
When an independent editor read the manuscript, she said that the book was well written “from a technical aspect” and suggested I stick to technical writing.
I was devastated after having spent the past 17 years writing profiles to great acclaim. About to give up writing, I was rescued by members of my professional trade association, the Association of Personal Historians, www.personalhistorians.org, who had formed a writing group after one member challenged fellow personal historians to tell their stories.
I joined and began writing my tale, determined to prove this editor wrong. Ten years later, after writing 26 chapters and many, many revisions, my memoir of my first 21 years, What Lies Within, debuted. A tale of love, loss, and resilience, my book won a first place Royal Dragonfly Award in 2014 for memoir and tied for first place in other non-fiction.
I proved I could write after all and decided to contact Marc Ashton to see if he’d allow me to publish the book I’d written for him. He was about to send The Spirit of Villarosa to press. We exchanged manuscripts, made revisions, and soon we’ll have a printed book that tells the story satisfactorily for us both.
Bouncing back from that editor’s comments and showing that I could write gave me the confidence to return to the story I felt needed to be told. What Lies Within and The Spirit of Villarosa have very different story lines, yet they each share a common theme—resilience.