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Monday, March 28, 2011

Boyd Lemon, Author, Traveler, Retired Lawyer Writes Memoir

It was a privilege and an honor to have Boyd Lemon as a guest on my blog.  He so understates himself when he discusses his writing.  I thoroughly enjoy reading his blog articles because they speak to the soul with honesty. 

A lifelong writer, Boyd Lemon now devotes the majority of his writing time to literary interests, including memoir, essays, short fiction and novels, and his blog. Boyd has finished a memoir about his role in the destruction of his three marriagesDigging Deep:  A Writer Uncovers His Marriages, which will be released soon

Some things a reader will discover when they read his blog are:  

·    Studies writing with Natalie Goldberg in New Mexico
·    Writes daily
·    Retired attorney
·    Travels the world frequently
·    Now lives in northern Tuscany and sometimes in Ventura, California and the woods of Vermont
·    He blogs

In Boyd's own words:
I lived most of my life in Southern California. Moved to Boston in March 2007, where I stayed until spring of 2010. I loved it -- great city. I write short stories and have finished a memoir about my three marriages. It will be published in 2011.  I'm learning to draw. I love good food, and listening to good music and visiting the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. When in Boston, I walked and walked and walked around that beautiful city.  Now I live in Paris.  What can I say? I love that so many of my life dreams have come true:
    
    Iguassu Falls in Brazil
     in my Alaska Oilers Baseball team T
    
  • Lived in a home with a stunning 180 degree view of the California coast
  • Travelled to Africa, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Ireland, and Costa Rica....
  • Am a working artist


What are some of the subjects you write about that can we find to read on your blog?  (Note: I added links directly to these so you can get to them easily if you wish to read them.)



Would you like to tell us a little more the new book that is to be released soon?

I am a retired lawyer, now an author.  I have published a number of short stories, but my “baby” is my first book, a memoir to be published in a few weeks.  It is titled Digging Deep: A Writer Uncovers His Marriages.
        
I take the reader with me on my journey to uncover my role in the destruction of my three marriages. With brutal honesty and hard-gained insight I uncover and expose my conduct and attitudes about women and marriage that had been profoundly influenced by my place on the cusp between the moralistic generation of the 1940’s and the next generation that embraced sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll and greater independence and equality for women. Deeply troubled by my career choice as a corporate lawyer, I, nevertheless, unwittingly used it for years to avoid my marital issues.  I hope my story will help others to resolve issues in their own relationships.
        
Writing my memoir finally healed me from the pain and guilt of ignoring my role in the failure of my marriages for years.  I found writing to be supremely healing, better than therapy. I wrote this memoir for me--to get as close to me as I could, to find the authentic me.  Writing got me closer.  But I’m not finished.  I hunger to understand as much as I can before I die.  I will continue to write what I buried, to dig deep.
        
Below is an excerpt from the first chapter of Digging Deep:

         “In March 2007 after a lifetime in southern California I move to Boston to live with Kate [the names have been changed], a twenty-four-year-old singer–songwriter and college student. I step out of the taxi onto the icy street and fall on my ass.  Welcome to Boston.  Only my dignity is injured.
         I’m not in a mid-life crisis.  I’m too old—sixty-six.  Anyway, it doesn’t feel like a crisis.  Something strong pulls me to Boston, and for the first time in my life I pay attention to such things.  I need to get away from the life I have lived.  I want to be alone, but I need the comfort of a friend nearby, like a cat I once had, who wanted my presence, but not too close. 
         Kate fits my needs almost perfectly.  She ignores me most of the time.  Occasionally, that hurts my feelings, but usually I‘m grateful.  I feel her comforting presence, even when we’re apart.  Her dirty laundry on the bathroom floor and unwashed dishes in the sink—I would have bitched at my wives—strangely add to my comfort.
Since, among other things, Kate is so much younger than I, there is no complicating romance.
         I’m writing short fiction, and Kate becomes my writing teacher.  She recommends books written by Natalie Goldberg, a well-known writing teacher.  I read them and more than a dozen others on writing, and attend two of Natalie Goldberg’s workshops in late 2007.
         Writing becomes the focus of my new life.  I decide to write about my three marriages.  The need roars inside me, though I don’t yet know why.  Kate and I discuss potential structures of a memoir, and I write an outline of incidents.  I start the first draft.”

Boyd Lemon
Please email me with any questions or comments, Boyd@BoydLemon-Writer.com.

My website and blogs:  



 On Franz Joseph Glacier
 in New Zealand, South Island









    
The Cathedral in Chartres, constructed in the 12th Century


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