Stevie Szabad, Author

I didn’t… until I wrote one myself! I always thought memoirs were boring and tedious: “I was born here and lived there…I did this… I did that…I’m more fascinating than you…” Except for very historical biographies, I had no interest at all in reading about the latest celebrity opinions and breakthrough stories of unrealistic people (the biggest, the best, the highest, the lowest..) I preferred fiction for that kind of reading.

When I wrote Camp Follower One Army Brat’s Story, it started as just collections of stories, vignettes, anecdotes. Nothing earth-shattering, just ordinary episodes of a full, up and down life. My life. Then I noticed something magical : the stories flowed into a river of a “Story” – the Story of a military childhood into a military life raising boys, becoming an IT professional and hockey mom, and settling as an “immigrant” in a new culture. My Story had become like a work of fiction – interesting! Yet it was a memoir, a true non-fiction book.

I’m almost 60 years old, and have been a reader my whole life. And now I’ve discovered that I have a new genre of books to enjoy reading : the memoir!