Ever since I learned to read books at the age of four I had a dream of someday writing them. But it has taken eight decades to become a published author. And the first book, which came out when I was 88, was a memoir of that early life, because I lived it in Russia during the first years of the Bolshevik Revolution, which began when I was three. By the time I was four our pleasant middle class life in a large city on the Volga River was turned upside down. After five difficult years, my parents and I began a new life in America. Many years and several versions later, I published the story of my family's tribulations in those years in a memoir called 'Weather of the Heart,' which has earned me many enthusiastic readers -- and still does.
When I realized what an act of resurrection it was to bring my family out into the world on paper, it inspired me to write a second memoir about my first and everlasting love. 'Silver Pages on the Lawn' is built around the many hundreds of letters Herman and I wrote each other before we were finally able to marry, nearly three years later. We met as students during the anxious years of the Great Depression, when there were no jobs for young people, and our letters paint a picture of the times as we lived them day by day. This book has become very timely now that we are all concerneed about our own recession and its future.
As the time is coming when I will be physically unable to go out to sell my books at various fairs and sites, I am hoping to use the internet to attract readers with an interest in those days which are now history. All my books are described on my website: norapercival.com.
Yesterday was really a special day. The High Country Writers held their annual book awards, and I got the memoir one for my 'coffee-table' book, "Adya and Olechka" - a collection of the post cards my parents wrote each other when they were courting in Russia in 1913. It's such a sweet sentimental echo of a lost world that I had them wiping eyes as I read the short introduction.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great party. The pot luck was yummy and seven awards were presented. And our special guest was the irrepressible Sharon McCrumb.
I treasure this support group which has encouraged and inspired members to produce and publish a surprising variety of publiications. It has certainly been a major aid to me in producing five published works in the past ten years, and has earned my undying gratitude.