Livestream with Annette Gendler, “Explore the stories in family history”

Many thanks to all of you in the audience today. Through a strange glitch in Substack’s livestreaming software this morning, I couldn’t see any of you in the chatstream, but we both appreciated knowing you were there. Truly, thank you for joining Annette Gendler and me today. Your added ❤️s and comments here help the algorithms appreciate the moment and put it in front of more people who might be interested. Thank you. Do you have family stories in you? Do you notice characteristics of your ancestors? Tell us about it in the comments below.Projectkin programming is offered free with the kind support of our Patrons worldwide. Explore our story and join us 👇.Many of you will recognize Annette from her presence here on Substack at The Past and the Present, from her many insightful notes and comments, or possibly from her involvement in Kathy Stone’s recent panel on privacy for Kathy’s Corner:In each program she’s brought the calm voice of an experienced teacher and talented writer. As she shared in our conversation, her writing career started with her first memoir, Jumping Over Shadows, the memoir of a German-Jewish love that overcame the legacy of the Holocaust. In our conversation, she shared the complex story that started with her grandparents’ tale and a mentor’s guidance to pull it together with her own love story. Annette’s gift of empathy for her readers extends to the writers she taught for so many years at StoryStudio in Chicago. The workshops ultimately led to her hit book, How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History. I loved how our conversation wandered into both the responsibility to preserve and the permission not to publish. Family history is a team sport. And sometimes, your collaborators are people you’ll never know. Listen for Annette’s story of her grandfather, whose typed “memoir” of preserved memories was a gold mine of research material for her book, Jumping Over Shadows. In this part of the conversation, Annette references a story that fascinated her, but wouldn’t fit into the narrative. Sadly, it ended on the cutting room floor. She later shared the piece as she added it to a post for her WordPress blog: “What Happened When Hitler Visited My Grandparents’ Hometown.” It’s a breathtaking scene, and yet… a narrative demands a story. There’s the challenge.The third book we talked about was Annette’s award-winning children’s book, Natalie and the Nazi Soldiers. It’s a story for early readers based on her mother-in-law’s life as a hidden child in France during the Holocaust. It’s also referenced on her author’s site, but Annette pulled me in with her post about the process of designing the illustration: Children’s stories aren’t lite versions of adult stories. This wonderful post works you through why and the mindset shift that takes you into your audience of children.Would your friends and followers appreciate this post as well? Kindly add a recommendation so they know how you feel. You’ll be doing us the favor of spreading our work.Thank you.I’m able to share these and all of our programs and posts for free thanks to both the economics of modern platforms and the generous support of our wonderful Projectkin patrons. You’re more than welcome to share this post with friends and family to encourage them to take the time to consider their own stories. Thank you. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe