It’s been three years since I began working on family stories, putting my memories into word pictures primarily so that our sons would “know how Mom grew up.”

About a year ago, friends who had the opportunity to read some of those essays encouraged me to think about putting it together in a book.  I was encouraged–because these were friends who did not know our family, had not been acquainted with us over the years, and many of them online friends who, to this day, I have not met face to face.

It was satisfying to hear that readers identified with the narratives from a time and place that many had previously known nothing about. Some readers have indicated that they took advantage of some features they recognized in my memories and felt free to sort of adopt my heritage as their own, especially if they were an only child.

The manuscript preparation that I needed to do was finished yesterday and emailed to WestBow Publishing.

There is no release date yet, because the final manuscript is not yet completely within their pipeline.

They have indicated that once it’s in their hands, it may be expected to be available in approximately three months.

I will be providing updates here, and will, as well, be resuming more frequent posts of fresh essays now that the intensive process of writing and editing is done.

–Sharon Larsen Torgerson