Diary: The Memoir That Wasn't

CAN YOU TELL LIES in your autobiography? That’s a debate we’ve had on this website a few times, but a case I heard about this morning shines a new light on the topic.

            A man called Augusten Burroughs wrote a memoir called Running With Scissors, which recorded his nightmare early life living with guardians in a family in which dog food was eaten, pedophilia was condoned, and an electroshock machine used. The St Martin’s Press book sold well, and the movie rights were picked up by Sony Pictures Entertainment.
            But the family sued for US$2 million, claiming that the book was a tissue of defamatory lies.

            It was announced by lawyers in Boston this morning that a settlement had been reached. The next editions of the book will feature an author’s note in which the term “a memoir” is replaced by “a book” and will say that the family’s recollection “are different from my own”.
            The family claims they have been totally vindicated by these changes.

            The author claims that he has been totally vindicated by the fact that the main text of the book remains unchanged.

            To me, the root of the problem is in the word “memoir”. It refers to a person’s recollections, and authors such as Burroughs argue that it should not be confused with the word “autobiography”, which implies a factual record of someone’s life.

            To my mind, the distinction is more than a little artificial. But making this distinction allows authors to sensationalize their lives and sell fictionalized material to readers as fact. I think readers deserve more respect.

            So I repeat my advice to authors I have been mentoring: never claim fiction is fact or vice-versa. The stress ain’t worth it.

*                      
EVERY SO OFTEN you meet a person or a group of people who re-set your perspectives on life, reboot your system and change your values.
            That happened to me last night. I had the honor of being Master of Ceremonies for a show by a group called Watoto, visiting Hong Kong from Africa. They’re a world-class group of singers and dancers, and their energy was so infectious that they got a highly conservative Hong Kong audience up from their seats and bopping in the aisles.

            But you know what was truly incredible about the event last night?

            They were all children, aged eight to 12.

            They were visiting from Uganda, one of the poorest countries in the world.

            They were all HIV-AIDS orphans.

            A short time ago, these were children with nothing: no money, no homes, no parents, no hope. That they could be transformed into role models that have rich Hong Kong kids looking on enviously is a stunning lesson in what humanity can achieve.

            Who did this miracle? There are no clues at all on their website, but the behind-the-scenes story is this: A self-effacing Canadian missionary couple, Gary and Marilyn Skinner, moved to Africa and persuaded churches around the world to contribute to a rescue program. They’ve accomplished no small feat: although the group who performed last night were just a dozen strong, almost 1600 destitute children have been rescued.
*

SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED publishers are blossoming in Asia, which is great news for writers here. Check out the website of Blacksmith Books -- these guys are on a roll.
            I can’t wait to pick up their latest production: Hong Kong On Air by Muhammad Cohen. It’s a novel about a couple working in the TV media during the late 1990s, written by a former TV station staff member. I met the author some years ago, and look forward to seeing how this insightful writer turns his hand to fiction.

            Besides, who can resist checking out a book by someone whose very name appears to be culturally impossible?

Comments

[Matt Moovas]

I am searching for a publisher for my HIV AIDS memoirs titled, "I am dying from AIDS." The memoirs are written in the form of diaries that I a have extracted from my journal and make, i would say attractive reading.
I would be glad to hear from you.

[Matt Moovas]

I am searching for a publisher for my HIV AIDS memoirs titled, "I am dying from AIDS." The memoirs are written in the form of diaries that I a have extracted from my journal and make, i would say attractive reading.
I would be glad to hear from you.

[Nury]

Dear Matt, I am not a publisher myself, but your story sounds like a powerful one. If it is well-written, it could make a great book, and I suggest you contact agents and publishers in your country.

If you have already written to publishers and agents and failed to get a positive response, then it is a matter of thinking through the strategy a bit.

My feeling is this: There was a huge spate of AIDS books in the 80s and 90s, several of which were autobiographical. It strikes me that publishers (who are business people and thus have to demonstrate the usual high degree of callousness that goes with the territory) might think that AIDS is of less interest these days than it used to be a few years ago.

To get over this problem, I would change the angle -- what is important in this book is not the disease, but the human response: what a deadly disease does to a person, and how a person reacts. That's something timeless that we can all benefit from learning about.

So I would change the title to something a bit less specific. I was at a literary festival recently and books on themes of death were launched there very successfully -- one was called The Household Guide to Dying and the other was The Young Widow's Guide to Home Renovation.

Both were about death, but neither of them mentioned the disease in the title. So i suggest you change your title to The First-Timer's Guide to Dying or something.

I hope that's helpful. Best of luck and warmest wishes!
Nury

[Matt Moovas]

I came across my lat year's comment and Mr. Nury Vitachi's kind technical advice in getting my HIV/memoirs published. I am glad to inform him that I have had the first book published by a self publishing publisher. I sense I will have difficulties in publishing the otehr books and in writing and publishing the whole HIV/AIDS story that the memoirs are narating. Below is information on how one can acess book 1 of my HIV/AIDS memoirs

My book HIV/AIDS Memoirs-I am Dying From Aids- Book I has been published. Interested customers may place orders for the book by getting in touch with Kathleen Haak on 800-834-1803 or at bookorders@rosedogbooks.com. You may also order the book on line through www.rosedogboksstore.com. Kindly contact me if you have problems in accessing the book.

About the Book
HIV/AIDS Memoir ~ I Am Dying from AIDS~ Book I is an autobiography that records the author's first three years (1999-2001) living with HIV AIDS. Written in journal form, the book is an extract from his original journal in which he records events in his life. He began the year 1999 with a feeling that something was going to go wrong during the year. Something did go wrong. He developed a severe flue, sore throat and weakness. The following year 2000 when the sicknesses became more frequent and more severe and were joined by dry cough, fever, skin rashes and night sweats it dawned on him that he was suffering from AIDS. His wife suffers the same condition and both sank into a state of self-pity hiding the fact that they suffer from AIDS from family members, co workers and particularly from their little daughter who becomes increasingly suspicious that all is not well. The author lives in fear as he sees other sufferers with AIDS complications and hears of deaths and suicides related to AIDS. He ends the year 2001 fearing that this was the last year of his life.

HIV/AIDS Memoir ~ I Am Dying from AIDS~ Book 2 will be published, I hope sometime this year

The control of the HIV/AIDS pandemic requires as a priority among other priorities knowledge of the disease. People need to know the sufferings the disease brings in order to see how important for them to protect themselves from getting infected. This HIV/AIDS memoir gives the reader the opportunity to hear it from the horse’s mouth; to read about the physical, mental and sociological sufferings the person with HIV/AIDS goes through. The book has in addition to the unique perspective that it shows despair and imminent death, a continuous effort to live with the condition, to suffer with it and continue writing. While at the end of each year I have celebrated that I have reached the end of the year I have at the same time lamented that I am going into my last year but only to live and see another end of a year still alive and suffering.

Very few HIV/AIDS memoirs have been published and so this book fills the knowledge gap that exists in that while almost everybody has heard of AIDS there are very many people in the world who have not seen an AIDS sufferer nor heard or read on the sufferings that AIDS brings to its victims.
Based on the above this book has a great potential for reaching a wide audience.

[Karuna]

Dear Matt
Happy that you have responded after nearly a year, with the good news that your book is published.
Will surely get a copy of your book from your online store
http://rosedogbooks-store.stores.yahoo.net/himeiamdyfra.html
Love to you, your wife and child
sincerely

[Matt Moovas]

Kindly comment on my HIV/AIDS Memoirs, I am Dying From AIDS Book One if you have managed to lay your "fingers" on it. I am still searching for a publisher for book 2. I AM YET TO SUCCEED.
Kind regards
Matt