Liz’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2010)

Liz’s comments from the Q&A with The Welches group.

Hello Manuela! We were thrilled that Harmony was willing to work with us on the hardcover, and really happy that the Three Rivers team found a cover off the bat that all four of us thought was great.

As for film offers, we just signed a contract with Sony Pictures. They are planning to develop the book into a television film... so we'll keep you posted on the progress!

We often get asked at readings, what is next? what are you working on? Will you do it together? Diana and I would love nothing more than to write another book together, but this one was special. And so the likelihood that we will collaborate on something again so soon is pretty slim. She is toying with fiction, I am starting to circle around a work of non-fiction and we will both be one another's readers, always... for those of you who have read the book, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on a follow up. We wrote a memoir--and so told that story! So next will be someone else's story... (though my book will have a little bit of me as well, and I bet Diana's will lean on her own experiences too...) Curious to hear what people think about memoirists? Who do you think succeeded in shifting from memoir to fiction or another type of non-fiction? I will have to read Jeanette Walls follow up to The Glass Castle... and then there is the great Mary Karr who has done several memoirs, but truly is a poet (in every sense of the word) Sean Wilsey, one of my faves, did one memoir and then went on to edit McSweeneys and a book of stories about all 50 states. Now, he is working on a book about NASA... I would love to hear about your favorite memoirists, and their follow up books!

I think perseverance really is what makes writers authors.... so many great writers in this world I am sure! But then actually pushing forward, knowing how hard it is to get published, but going for it anyway seems to me to be the trick. The other trick that worked for me is a GREAT workshop. I found one in my home town out on Long Island and workshopped every page of our memoir... and I just signed up for a workshop (with the same person, Karen Braziller of Persea Press, for my next book) It really helps to be in a group of people who are writing towards a specific goal and who will read with a keen eye and swift pen!

I look forward to reading your story one day!!

Patrick, I could not agree with Diana more. It is funny, because the first review we got was from Publishers Weekly. And it was lukewarm! Which is a bummer because that is such an important one... but it did not slay us, at all in fact! We were so geared up by then, so proud of our book and then right on the heels of that we started getting really amazing reviews: from Booklist, from Tattered Book in Colorado, from Vanity Fair and People and O magazine... suddenly, the lukewarm review really did not matter so much. We just figured that the reviewer did not get our book. and were so happy that so many other reviewers DID!

And so looking forward to meeting YOU!

We also like Geena Davis. She has an uncanny resemblance to our mom!

Hello Kitty! That too was my favorite moment of the whole process--reading our chapters aloud. We gave each of our siblings the opportunity to change things--anything that made them uncomfortable--but they did not want to change one word. On the way to the airport after that weekend, Dan, our brother called, and said, You guys did an amazing job. I am so proud of you and so proud to be in the book! Honestly, that moment made it all worth it! As for getting our story published... I have been trying for YEARS! Wrote the first draft in my twenties... and then again in my thirties before I asked Diana if she wanted to do it with me. At the time, I had an agent, but he did not think four voices was a good idea, so we found another agent who loved the idea. She took it to publishers for us and I am happy to say more than one wanted it! After so many years of trying to get the form and way of telling this book right, it is SO gratifying to see it in print!

I am a big believer in great first lines. "Our mother died three times. I have two of them on VHS tape." I wrote that line years ago, when I first started thinking about writing this book. "Amanda wanted to wear black leather pants to the funeral." That was another one--which shifted in the edit, to "the wake" instead of funeral, as that was factually accurate. Another favorite? "Between dad's death, mom's cancer and our money problems, we completely forgot about the Chilean exchange student." Oh I could go on and on! Just curious if you have any favorite first lines! From our book or others. For me, it really is all about that first line!

This is a question we get ALL the time. And here is our answer: by letting each sibling have space to tell her or his story, we all win! Diana and I started by comparing our own memories of various events: Dad's funeral, the gray house, mom's soap opera work, the first Christmas after dad died, etc. Since she and I are both writers, we would write scenes as we remembered them, then swap. I'd read her recollection and be amazed that we lived in the same house! And had the same mother! Our memories were THAT different. Inspired by that juxtaposition, we'd ask Dan and Amanda about that same moment: Diana and I would divvy up who got who. Sometimes I would call amanda and interview her about, say, Dad's funeral. Other times I would interview Dan about, say, the year we spent in the cottage. And then the most amazing part of the process was when Diana and I would get together to weave all these recollections together, sort of like scattering puzzle pieces on a table and seeing which pieces clicked together. The whole process took two years all in of interviews and weaving and refining. We would send Dan and Amanda their chapters and ask them to edit, or change any thing that felt wrong. And then, at the end of the process, we spent an amazing weekend together in North Carolina where we read the ENTIRE book, front to finish, out loud together. It was the first time Dan or Amanda had heard it in its entirity. And they said, it's great. So, back to my first point, letting people tell their own version of the story actually saves a whole lot of sorrow and sadness and misunderstanding! We agreed to disagree! How cool is that?

WE WILL!!!! and then we should get a fun casting thread going.... Diana and I think Jeanne Tripplehorn looks an AWFUL lot like our mom!

Ha! Funny you should ask Jenna.... Diana, my sister and co-writer as you know, has JUST written a piece about that which will appear on the huffington post on Tuesday! Without spoiling it.... let's just say, we think Annette Bening would be GREAT as our mother....

The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir

Our pub date is September 14th and we are gearing up for a busy week! If you have any questions: about us, the authors, about the book or the process of writing a memoir in four voices, fire away!