Magnum's mom's husband - a.k.a my step-father-in-law - is 90 years old. For the past something years, he's spoken of this book he's been working on. His memoirs?
He'd tell us some tale of his family and/or past adventures, usually ending with, "It's all in my book". We first figured he was journaling and tracing his family tree - a nice little retirement hobby for him. Then he started mentioning publishers and ghost writers, etc. The book was becoming THE BOOK.
Honestly, this made some of us a bit uneasy, because as part of the family tree, all of us were in THE BOOK along with birthdates, birthplaces, extended family? How much information was he sharing?
A few months ago, Magnum's stepsisters sent Magnum copies of the portions of the book that feature us - our kids, and other relevant people. This so Magnum could check the accuracy and request any edits. We both looked over the pages and found the writing a bit choppy, honestly. Apparently, SFIL just dictated things to a writer who then put it into text.
I don't know how much he paid to have THE BOOK all put together and printed, but it is done. Magnum arrived home after a work trip to Colorado Springs, where his mom and stepdad live, bestowing a box and saying, "You're the talk of the town," referring to the senior living facility where his mom and stepdad live.
"Wha...?", my response.
He opened the box and revealed 3 paperback copies and one hardcopy of THE BOOK. Hardcopy for us and a paperback for each of our kids.
"Oh...", I recognized the cover.Several years ago, Magnum's mom asked if I would draw a pastel portrait of SFIL.
Yeah, sure. Why not?
When Magnum opened THE BOOK box, I remembered that, a few months ago, MIL asked if SFIL could use that portrait for THE BOOK cover.
Yeah, sure. Why not?
And there it was, all 190 pages, hot off the press. We've sort of been treating THE BOOK as "he's having his fun". Seeing it now, all done up, I'm hoping he's happy with it. I was a bit surprised to find the last several pages include original poems.
I skimmed a few pages, mainly looking over the photos, but have yet to sit down to read THE BOOK.
Judge a book by its cover?
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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. Book review! (hardly)
9 comments:
Thanks for visiting. Oh dear, could be all sorts of skeletons!
I meant to say 'beautiful portrait'.
Sounds interesting at least!
Nice portrait! Interested to hear what you think of the book!
Liz, actually, the few pages we saw for perusal had some little skeletons!
Allstarme79, it should be a fun read.
Jeanette, me too 😁
Oh man I would hate that- if someone wrote about our family and the now families of the family...just NO!
BUT your portrait is fabulous!
Linda Sue, from the little I've read, it's a recording of his thoughts about certain life events. In cases where others were present, they might not have known his thoughts at the time. Good and bad, they're in THE BOOK!
You drew that cover!?! It's so good! My stepdad is also writing a book all about his life in Sweethome Oregon. The similarities between your post and how I perceive his book to be are identical. I suppose I should draw a picture of him and hope to make the cover!
Kat, it must be the year for stepdad memoirs!
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