Tag: nonfiction

Sneak Peek: Overlay

Today we have a sneak peek from the memoir by Marlayna Glynn Brown: Overlay – A Tale of One Girl’s Life in 1970s Las Vegas.

Fans of The Glass Castle will appreciate this extraordinary tale of the author’s turbulent yet triumphant childhood in 1970s Las Vegas.

Born into an ongoing cycle of familial alcoholism, the author develops a powerful sense of self-preservation contrasted by the people entrusted with her care. She explores the personalities of the bizarre characters who populate her life as she moves from home to parent to friends’ families and ultimately to homelessness as a young teen.

From her remarkable resources emerges an inner strength that will captivate readers, remaining in their consciousness long after the last page has been turned.

Overlay – A Tale of One Girl’s Life in 1970s Las Vegas is available from Amazon.

And now, an excerpt from Overlay…

Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Overlay”

Smashwords Sunday: Nonfiction Entertainment

Mark Coker’s Smashwords is a boon to indie authors and an easy way to secure distribution to Kobo, Nook, Sony and other e-readers Amazon won’t touch. Why leave all that on the table?

Let’s take a look this Sunday at some of the wide array of titles in the nonfiction entertainment category.  From magic tricks to winning at blackjack to hijinks with family and pets, Smashwords has it all! Continue reading “Smashwords Sunday: Nonfiction Entertainment”

Sneak Peek: Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their Mistakes

Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their MistakesToday we have a sneak peek from the memoir by CJ Rock: Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their Mistakes.

Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their Mistakes recounts a horrific journey at the hands of physicians who repeatedly prescribed endless doses of strong narcotics in an attempt to quell agonizing pain. Caught in a tangled web of ineffective treatment plans and procedures for a decade, renowned specialists from Denver, Las Vegas, and Chicago viewed her not as a patient, but as a human guinea pig-nothing more than an experimental subject. Names have been changed; it was not to protect the guilty.

Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their Mistakes is available from Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.

And now, an excerpt from Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their Mistakes…

Continue reading “Sneak Peek: Doctors Don’t Always Bury Their Mistakes”

Memoir of a Memoirist

by Marlayna Glynn Brown
Being a memoirist isn’t easy. Creating art from real life requires story-telling talent, thick-skin, and the ability to hide a character’s identity without straying from truth. Writers like me, who couldn’t produce an entertaining piece of fiction to save their own lives, have no choice but to write what we know.

I’ve been an avid diarist for thirty years. It’s easy and natural for me to record events, thoughts, feelings and interpretations. When I was given writing assignments in high school, college and then grad school, I learned I could only base my work on what had really happened to me, and events I had actually experienced. Jumping from reality to imagination was never easy for me. Any time I tried to veer from reality and create a person or event that didn’t exist or happen, I found myself face to face with my own folly. The recording of actual events and people isn’t always necessarily interesting. A memoirist must be able to weave the threads of reality into a tale that others find entertaining. A memoirist can interlace facts with creative description, and events with ring-side interpretation. Characters and events can be presented, and sometimes shaded as the memoirist sees fit. A writer needn’t necessarily tell the reader anything in particular, and can merely present, or just partially describe without definition. Continue reading “Memoir of a Memoirist”