Alan Cook's Blog - Posts Tagged "computers"
Writing a Memoir About Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
This blog is about Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling, Traveling the World, and Other Adventures, by Bonny Robinson Cook. A giveaway of the book is on Goodreads May 1-29, 2016.
I have been bugging my wife, Bonny, to write her memoirs ever since she retired from Xerox in 2003 as a vice president. She started as a school teacher, and her career paralleled much of what is called the women’s movement. I was sure it would make an interesting story.
Years went by and nothing happened. I mentioned the book from time to time, hoping I could nudge her into action, but she didn’t nudge. She spent her time studying genealogy and DNA, and planning interesting trips we could take, which was fine, but it didn’t get the book I was sure had to be written—written.
Finally, I realized that in order to get the book written I would have to write it. That’s how I became a ghost writer. However, the book had to have her voice to be authentic. She wasn’t sure she wanted her story in print, especially some of the intimate details of her life. Well, okay, of course she would have the final say on what went into the book and what was left out.
We settled on how we could have a working partnership. I would grab her for a half hour when I could get her attention between looking for ancestors and working out at her health club. I interviewed her and scribbled notes furiously until I had a page or more. I knew what questions to ask her because I’d heard most of the stories before.
When I had enough notes for a segment 500 words or longer I would race to my computer and write it in Bonny’s voice, as closely as I could match it. Then she would read what I had written and make corrections and additions.
When Bonny saw the book unfold before her eyes she liked how it read, and she became more comfortable with it. People we talked to about the book said they wanted to read it when it was published. As a onetime salesman, I took that as a buying signal.
As the number of chapters grew we thought of additional events that should be included. Some of them I had written about, previously, in one form or another, such as how we met (by “computer” match in 1964 when computers weren’t even being used for that sort of thing).
We had to be careful about how we described other events. When we talked about some of the non-business activities taking place in the first places she worked as a programmer we couldn’t use names or titles of the people involved. Of course, the celebrity who pursued her when she sat next to him in First Class on a flight to Chicago had to remain anonymous. And she didn’t want the skinny-dipping episode put in at all.
We asked Ellen, a friend of mine, to read the book. Ellen worked many years for the Daily Breeze before moving east and eventually working as an editor for the New York Times. She gave us valuable comments and suggestions, such as having an opening chapter that started things off with a bang. Being a fiction writer, I was used to doing that to catch the reader’s attention, and it made sense in nonfiction also.
Bonny had some trepidation about letting Richard, who was her boss much of the time she was at Xerox, read the book, fearing he might nitpick it to death. She finally sent him a copy, and was relieved when he loved it. He gave us tips about telling how Xerox was ahead of the technology curve—for example, offering a predecessor to cloud computing, and developing the first feasible print-on-demand technology for book publishers to use (printing only the number of copies needed instead of having to print a large number of books at one time that might not be salable).
I came up with several suggestions for names. Bonny didn’t want a long name, but I argued that in nonfiction the name must say enough to interest a reader. We finally settled on Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling, Traveling, the World, and Other Adventures, by Bonny Robinson Cook. My illustrator, Janelle Carbajal, supplied us with a great cover, and we were on our way.
I have been bugging my wife, Bonny, to write her memoirs ever since she retired from Xerox in 2003 as a vice president. She started as a school teacher, and her career paralleled much of what is called the women’s movement. I was sure it would make an interesting story.
Years went by and nothing happened. I mentioned the book from time to time, hoping I could nudge her into action, but she didn’t nudge. She spent her time studying genealogy and DNA, and planning interesting trips we could take, which was fine, but it didn’t get the book I was sure had to be written—written.
Finally, I realized that in order to get the book written I would have to write it. That’s how I became a ghost writer. However, the book had to have her voice to be authentic. She wasn’t sure she wanted her story in print, especially some of the intimate details of her life. Well, okay, of course she would have the final say on what went into the book and what was left out.
We settled on how we could have a working partnership. I would grab her for a half hour when I could get her attention between looking for ancestors and working out at her health club. I interviewed her and scribbled notes furiously until I had a page or more. I knew what questions to ask her because I’d heard most of the stories before.
When I had enough notes for a segment 500 words or longer I would race to my computer and write it in Bonny’s voice, as closely as I could match it. Then she would read what I had written and make corrections and additions.
When Bonny saw the book unfold before her eyes she liked how it read, and she became more comfortable with it. People we talked to about the book said they wanted to read it when it was published. As a onetime salesman, I took that as a buying signal.
As the number of chapters grew we thought of additional events that should be included. Some of them I had written about, previously, in one form or another, such as how we met (by “computer” match in 1964 when computers weren’t even being used for that sort of thing).
We had to be careful about how we described other events. When we talked about some of the non-business activities taking place in the first places she worked as a programmer we couldn’t use names or titles of the people involved. Of course, the celebrity who pursued her when she sat next to him in First Class on a flight to Chicago had to remain anonymous. And she didn’t want the skinny-dipping episode put in at all.
We asked Ellen, a friend of mine, to read the book. Ellen worked many years for the Daily Breeze before moving east and eventually working as an editor for the New York Times. She gave us valuable comments and suggestions, such as having an opening chapter that started things off with a bang. Being a fiction writer, I was used to doing that to catch the reader’s attention, and it made sense in nonfiction also.
Bonny had some trepidation about letting Richard, who was her boss much of the time she was at Xerox, read the book, fearing he might nitpick it to death. She finally sent him a copy, and was relieved when he loved it. He gave us tips about telling how Xerox was ahead of the technology curve—for example, offering a predecessor to cloud computing, and developing the first feasible print-on-demand technology for book publishers to use (printing only the number of copies needed instead of having to print a large number of books at one time that might not be salable).
I came up with several suggestions for names. Bonny didn’t want a long name, but I argued that in nonfiction the name must say enough to interest a reader. We finally settled on Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling, Traveling, the World, and Other Adventures, by Bonny Robinson Cook. My illustrator, Janelle Carbajal, supplied us with a great cover, and we were on our way.
