Daily News

Today’s mail brought a book from a writer friend who lives near Manhattan. I met Charley Kempthorne several years ago when he gave a talk about writing family history at Barnes & Noble in Topeka.

In the ’70s, Charley began teaching writing workshops in Manhattan and encouraged people to write memoirs and family histories. His non-fiction book, For All Time: A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History, is a great resource.

One of the students that Charley mentored went on to publish a wildly popular memoir: Any Given Day: The Life and Times of Jessie Lee Brown Foveaux.

Charley blogs and keeps up a print edition of his Lifestory magazine/newsletter which you can subscribe to.

And, the big news, he has just published a novel, “Gary’s Luck.” I’d read excerpts of it before and I’m happy to have the book in my hands so I can read the whole thing now.

Check out Charley Kempthorne and his work at thelifestoryinstitute.com.

From the back cover of Gary’s Luck:

“Money, money, money! Gary Williams, once good-natured, solvent and carefree, can think of little else now that he owes everybody. The IRS is the biggest creditor by far, and they want their money now. His luck in his contracting business lately has been rotten. Things have gone from bad to worse. His back is to the wall. What can he do? This is the story of what Gary does and the surprises that it leads to.”

To order the book, contact Charley Kempthorne.

Filed under: other people's stuff, writing on February 25th, 2008