I’m writing a memoir which is turning into a piece that includes more about my mother than I thought it would, and a bit about the history of homes for unwed mothers in mid-century , Manchester, England where. my mother was born.

This writing is a journey of self and family discovery. It will provide some history for my posterity. Also, my story and my mother’s will be an encouragement to others and remind them that you can overcome various types of challenges even multi-layered ones.

The style is continuing to unfold. I use various voices; first, second, and third person to help me look back in a way that feels like I can see better, from a different perspective.

Maya Angelo’s auto-bio of her early life was one of the first books to make me think I wanted to write a bio too. Roxane Gay’s use of chapters is a model for me. I like the subtleness of Frederick Buechner. Maxine Hong Kingston has a way of interweaving the spiritual that I think works well. I see these and other authors doing things that I had been experimenting with, but they do it artfully.

I have been using AI for background information, and research and found it amazingly helpful on several occasions. Revising and editing by submitting a whole paragraph or short story has yielded some good nuggets too. I will continue to use it this way and may discover more ways to make use of this tool along the way,