What inspired you to write your memoir?
Whisper My Secret is my mother’s memoir. The inspiration to write it came as a result of discovering her secret after she died. I went on a journey to try to find out why she had been separated from her first three children. At some point during that journey I decided to write about what had happened to her, partly because she had had to live with misplaced guilt and shame that forced her to suppress the tragedy that had so deeply impacted on her. She once told me that it was okay to tell a secret if I whispered it. However, I decided to disobey her and tell the world her secret as a declaration that she had nothing to feel shame or gult about.
About your Book:
How does a mother cope when she is forced to walk away from her three children and never see them again? That is what happened to JB’s mother, Myrtle. Eventually, rescued from her despair by tall, dark and handsome George Rowley who fell in love her, Myrtle started a new life and had seven more children. She buried the grief of losing her first children deep within and kept her pain secret. JB and her siblings were unaware of the existence of Myrtle’s first three children until after she died. Desperate to know how such a thing could happen to a devoted and caring mother, JB went on a journey to find out. What she discovered was a heartbreaking story of loss. It was a long time before JB was able to work out that her mother kept her early life and her first family secret out of misplaced guilt and shame. To redress that, JB decided to tell the whole world her mother’s secret. Whisper My Secret is a proud declaration that Myrtle did nothing deserving of guilt or shame.
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
Whisper My Secret was first published in 2007 through Zeus Publications in Australia. When my contract with Zeus expired I republished the book as an ebook through Amazon which provided a tremendous opportunity for writers to reach readers all over the world.
How do you see writing a Memoir as different from writing other genres of books?
I can compare writie a memoir to writing fiction. There is a huge difference in the amount of research that has to be done. Even though I am writing about people and places I know I had to verify that my memories were correct and fill in the gaps by doing research. Initially the research I did was for my own satisfaction but when the project became a book, I needed to undertake even more research. That aspect of writing non-fiction slows down the writing. Even though there is research involved in writing fiction it does not usually need to be as detailed and does not seem to wlow down the writing in the same way.
Author Bio:
JB Rowley grew up in a small Australian town called Orbost in the state of Victoria as one of seven children. She spent my childhood chasing snakes and lizards down hollow logs, playing Hansel and Gretel in the bush with her brothers, climbing trees, searching the local rubbish tip for books to read and generally behaving like a feral child. When she wasn’t scrapping with her brothers she was curled up in the hayshed reading books.
She now lives in Melbourne (Australia) where, when she is not writing, she works as an English tutor and an oral storyteller.
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Book On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5777618.JB_Rowley
https://www.facebook.com/BarnesRowley
https://twitter.com/jbrowley1
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