Let Hawley Roddick Turn Your Memories into Memoirs: The Gift of a Lifetime.

Your WriteAssets® Memoirs

Rarely do gifts give as much pleasure to both the giver and the recipients as the life story of a relative, friend, or colleague. And although few (if any) of us can know exactly what financial legacy we will leave, we all can share the legacy of our personal stories and perspective on life in a memoir that enriches people we care about.

Today, due to easy access to book printing facilities online and to small companies that print private-edition books, having your own book of memoirs is within easy reach. A memoir can be chronological like the late Robert Mondavi’s Harvests of Joy, written with Paul Chutkow. On the other hand, a memoir can be a series of anecdotes that are as brief as a page or as long as several pages. Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas beautifully exemplifies this approach. Ideally a memoir’s style is tailored to suit its narrator.

Owners of privately held companies can profit from recording company history. Like the Mondavi memoir, such a book combines personal and professional experience. For a firm with several partners, they each can contribute a unique perspective on company history. Sharing the story of a company's founders can expand market share by personalizing the company while transmitting policies and principles to board members, employees, and (in a family business) heirs.

When the James Frey 2003 autobiography was exposed as more fiction than nonfiction, it raised questions about the memoir form, but such betrayals of trust are rare. Most memoirs strive to convey genuine human experience and are rich resources for the book's narrator and readers.

Format & Investment

WriteAssets® Memoirs offer a range of choices. Four hours of recorded conversational interviews fill three audio CDs for about $650. A lightly edited, spiral-bound transcript of four recorded interview hours is about $3,100.

The ultimate full-length memoir with your photographs is printed on archival paper, with a linen, silk, or leather cover and matching slipcase. Book production is handled by a publishing company. This heirloom memoir typically involves an investment of $25,000 and up (based on about twelve hours of recorded conversational interviews divided into two-hour sessions). You can order audio CDs of our interviews for the book, too.

Please contact me to discuss these or other options. Whatever print format you select, I'll devote six-to-twelve more hours to transcribing, researching, writing, and editing your memoir for each hour of interview.

The stories of your life told your way not only convey your experiences and life lessons to people who will appreciate them but also influence how you will be remembered. And for the holidays, a gift certificate for a WriteAssets® Memoir is a thoughtful, imaginative, and flattering gift.

New Books

The great pianist Claude Frank and I have completed his memoir, The Music That Saved My Life: From Hitler's Germany to the World's Concert Stages. It began as a private commission from his daughter, but as he talked, I realized his is a story that should be published for music lovers everywhere.

And Karen Silk and I are writing a joint memoir: Gay Husbands and Fathers: Straight Talk from Two Former Wives. The book includes a section of "Conversations" in which we reveal insights about gay-straight marriages and ways they can be similar to, as well as different from, straight marriages (we've both had those, too).

Both books are represented by Harold Ober Associates.

Confidentiality

Those who prefer a private memoir known only to a select few can count on confidentiality. For example, I created a full-length memoir with family photographs for a client in the Napa Valley who chooses to remain anonymous.

If, however, you want people to know about your memoir and are willing to provide a copy for your local historical society, I'll send a press release to your local papers.

Email me at:

hroddick@comcast.net