If Aeckologie and Faerytales are my greatest works--my literary children, Biographie is my pet. Something that will give me great comfort and keep my days full when my children grow too old for me.
I've had this idea for the past year...maybe longer. I want to tell people's stories. Not necessarily celebrities, unless I was going to get the truth from them, but everyday people. Mostly the ones forgotten about in nursing homes. The ones with rich stories about the times I can only read about in books. Or even those unfortunate ones. The ones who time cursed. The ones with death on their heels. Who just want their unborn baby to know how much daddy loved them.
I want to write their story, in their words. Not for me or for personal gain...other than what I would charge to compose such a feat. Not to publish publicly either. But for the loved ones they would leave behind. So their great grandchildren, whom they had not had the pleasure to ever meet, would know of their lineage.
Ideally, I would like to do one or two stories a month. I'd like to meet with you for three days. Interview you based on the pages you select and then take a month or two to write your story. You'd receive your book in the mail, bound like a real book, your name engraved on the cover and your story parading across 50 or so pages. And once you've passed on, the contents of your life will be unpacked by the ones you hold dearest to you and there they will find your story. For them, it will be this little burst of sun in the darkness that will surely be your death. Because isn't that how it goes? In matters of death, the ones who take it the hardest are the living.
The pages I mentioned are selected from about twenty-five I have in mind. Each book will come with a standard three pages and you will pre-select five of your own desire. Pages such as, For my darling...(wife, brother, cousin, son, etc.). Or a page with a written will. Even a page with a family tree complete with names your loved ones can research.
I'm working on the logistics of it all. How to print various different books, relatively cheaply, and with minimal copies necessary for an order. And I'll need an editor. I'm also working on putting together a book for my dying father. One he will soon leave me and my disabled sister. And although neither of us will have the "good" fortune to stumble upon it in his things when the time comes and have that moment I'm hoping tens to hundreds of people will have with the stories I will write just for them, I believe his life in words will somehow reconcile, within me, his loss. I plan to post images on this tab when the work is completed so you can see what you will be getting with your purchase.
If you are interested in having something like this done, if you have any idea how to print a book without selling it, or if you happen to know an editor who is looking for extra work, contact me here.