It's been a London buses sort of month. Nothing published for ages and then two books come along at once. The first was Bazil Meade's
A Boy, a Journey, a Dream.
This time it's Peter Gladwin's book
Out of the Ashes.
Peter's is an inspiring story: disabled and scarred in a house fire as a baby, growing up surrounded by violence, crime, drink and drugs, he seemed destined for prison, depression and an early death.
He was contemplating suicide when a conversation with his sister led him to an encounter which changed his life forever; it was the start of a profound transformation.
Now happily married with three beautiful children, Peter is a living testimony to the hope that changes lives.
Ghost-writers get to meet the most interesting people.
4 comments:
Hi Jan -- could I ask a question about ghost writing? Who employs the ghost writer? Is it the author saying, "I have a story, I need to hire someone to write it." or the publisher saying "This person has a story, let's find someone to write it"?
Both. If you've never ghost-written before, working for the author is a good first step - but they generally have no idea about payment. Publishers at least undertsand that they need to pay you - but it's easier to get work from them once you've got a writing CV (which I seem to recall you have).
Why not email me and chat about it? Your mum has my address. Though how you'll find time to write while teaching, researching and grappling with Japanese culture is beyond me. And I'm worried about Kat ....
I confess, I think it looks like a HUGE amount of work. You have to please not only yourself but someone else too when you're not actually inside their head. Even with blogging, I make small compromises in accuracy and what I can and can't put in a post for style reasons but if I had a twin-me editing, I think they'd have a fit!
I more just curious about how the process works, at least at the moment. Maybe in the future when I loose one of the above mentioned tasks (but not the kat!).
The process is quite fun as an exercise in empathy (and can be challenging for the same reason). People really don't recall conversations etc verbatim, so a certain amount is creative imagination, but everything gets checked by the author and they correct it when you've got the wrong end of the stick. And many of my victims have been through some emotional/physical trauma. They are always surprised at how exhausting it can be to relive the experiences for my benefit. I sometimes feel like a psychotherapist/counsellor and have the tissues ready (even for the men!).
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