Today’s I’m writing about the prompt from the DIYMFA Book Club: Try a New Technique from the DIYMFA Book.
I tried the Story Sketch for my memoir, which is a way to list the essence of a book in one page.
Title: Family Resemblance: What I Learned About My Brain Tumor From My Father’s Stroke
Flap Copy: As the youngest of nine children, Cathy finds the fastest way to gain the attention of her harried mother is through a series of real but inflated injuries and illness, from broken bones to migraine headaches. But when unexplained epilepsy surges through her body like an electrical storm of dread she experiences it as her own secret madness.
Finally, eight years later, she comes clean and is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Years later, when her father’s brain is destroyed by a disabling stroke, she begins to understand how we all bring more to the world than our weaknesses.
Important Characters:
Cathy: Youngest child, wants to fit in and find her place in her large family. Keeps secrets and often imagines the worst. Uses illness to gain attention when young.
Dad: Hardworking patriarch of a large family who suffers disabling stroke.
Mom: Busy matriarch of a large family, loves Dad more than anything.
Brothers and Sisters: Serve as mentors, coconspirators, and chorus to Cathy.
World: Wisconsin of the 1970s, 1990s, and 2000s. Parents are depression-era Catholics. Family has Midwestern, thrifty, and down-to-Earth worldview.
POV: First Person POV – Cathy
Fortune Cookie Saying: You Reap What You Sow
Music Track: Moonshadow, Cat Stevens