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Hello I'm here in our classroom library with this wonderful author who I met here in Katy, TX
her name is Linda Kantor
and she's written two awesome books. I'm so excited to read and talk about with her.
And there they are. So first story is a Emil's Story.
just what we were talking about class
a memoir
and the other book is
the Enigma Journal
Why did you decided to write this memoir?
Well for years I've interviewed World War Two vets and I thought it was
a good thing to do because just to preserve that slice of history
and I would
interview somebody for
an afternoon or a day and
I would write out their story in their hometown newspaper,
sometimes it became a magazine article, I've written those too.
But since Emil was my own father-in-law
he became an entire book
because I had access to him for nearly forty years. True!
He didn't want to talk at first in the beginning of
the book in the introduction I address that fact, you know. Trying to dig facts out of
him and
when he started talking it was sort of like an avalanche, you know.
It started slow and it's like a lot of stories he had bottled up or forgot about
for the last
basically by then 50 years
came tumbling out and they were very interesting
Wow! Are they all in the story or just a few of them?
All the ones that I had saw fit to print
there was some things that were real personal that would only
be what the family would want to know. It would not appeal to a broader audience.
So I just kept those out. Oh.
But there really wasn't all that much. So a little editting and revising in there I like it. Yeah!
How long did it take you to write this book?
It was a long, long process. I probably started, I think in 1994.
And I was doing a lot of world war two interviews at that time and I started in on him.
and he told me enough to
make about forty pages worth
and so I wrote that up for his fiftith anniversary to his wife who
was also in the book
and I published that for the family. And after people read that
they passed it around and discussed it. And they said you know that's really good.
Maybe you should write it for the public at some point. I went back to it in
2011
last year
And I had lot more resources than I did the first time
during the interview between between 1994 and ten years later
after when he had passed away.
He was constantly adding to it.
Revising,"Well this isn't exactly how it happened. Let me tell you something more."
I mean I heard all sorts of interesting stories that I had no idea, he had never talked
about to anyone. Wow!
So anyway in ten years he did this revision.
And I was living in Texas he was living in Oregon and just back and forth between
the two of us.
So i had a good idea of what was there
before i started the other book.
And then he passed away.
And then for five years, like I said I wrote on that book.
Then I came back to it.
Once I came back to it last year. It took seven months. I had to fact check
everything that he wrote and there was alot of errors.
But I had
more opportunities to do that because I had the internet for one thing and I
discovered actually there was a book written by somebody in his bomb group.
The History of the Four Sixtith Bomb Group
and that was not very interesting because it was just cut-and-dry, you know.
Bomb such and such, you know two plane lost. Came back at 0600 hours or
something
There wasn't any emotion to it. There wasn't any flesh to it.
It was just cut and dry.
But then putting that together with the stories that Emil told me
it became a very interesting narrative.
What was your favorite part of the memoir that you wrote.
Well I guess it
was the process.
how Emil opened up to me, he told me things that he had never told anybody, ever!
Probably not even his wife. On the back of this book,
there is me wearing, well you probably can't see. Oh let me bring up.
I am wearing Emil bomber jacket. A wonderful bomber jacket, with forty one
painted
bombs right on the chest.
With an arrow that points right at where his heart is. I'm one of the few woman
in Katy with a real World War 2 bomber jacket.
It's one of my prize possessions.
So what advice do you have for people
that think they have a great idea for a story. And they are ready to start putting it down on paper.
How would you go about writing a story?
Well first of all, this is what i discovered about for revisions into my first book
and I wish I had discovered it right away. Because I was just poking around a
bookstore on my own one day and I came across a fantastic book on writing.
It's written by
Stephen King.
Really?! Really and I do not read horror
and he wrote this book and it's called On Writing...let me see... what is says
On Writing a Memoir of the Craft. Interesting.
and it's a small book, it's a cheap book. It has the best advice on how to write
concisely, clearly,
emotionally, stick to the subject. Everything you want to know!
Wow! And just read that over and do all your underlining and take it to heart and start.