How I work with you in ten steps
One | My Writing
I don't write to record events. I write so you can step back inside them.
This work is sensory, visceral and emotionally intelligent. Together we'll return to the smallest moments — the ones that rarely vocalised. The warmth of a kitchen. The sounds that signalled the time of day. The pattern on your mother's dress. The weight of their hand finding yours when words were no longer enough.
It's often the quietest details that carry the greatest emotional truth.
My language is deliberately plain. I don't believe powerful writing needs complicated words. Instead I choose a considered and restrained tender vocabulary that lets the emotion do the work. Every memoir develops its own voice, because every life has one. I listen closely to how you naturally speak, and the writing gradually begins to sound unmistakably like you.
Two | Your style
Every memoir develops its own visual identity.Together we'll create a visual style that belongs only to your memoir.
Typefaces, chapter titles, image placement, captions, photographs, family documents and the overall rhythm of the finished book. Some memoirs feel quiet and understated; others are rich with photographs, maps, recipes, letters or memorabilia.
No two memoirs will ever look the same.
Three | Our Rhythm
A memoir isn't written in a rush.
Over approximately 10–12 weeks we'll meet every ten days for 45 minutes to an hour.
Each conversation has its own purpose. Some weeks I'll introduce memory-collecting techniques. Other weeks I'll send prompts or a theme before we meet so you have time to ponder what you might like to revisit. Sometimes our conversations are completely free flowing; sometimes I'll gently guide you with questions that help uncover stories that have been sitting quietly for decades.
Around week nine I'll usually be able to give you a preview of how your memoir is taking shape
Four | How we Communicate
Memories rarely arrive while we're looking for them. An old photograph. A recipe card. A familiar song. The pattern on a dress. Someone passing in the street who reminds you of a friend you haven't thought about for forty years. Those moments matter. When they arrive, send them to me.
We'll use Messenger, text message or WhatsApp for those moments. You can send photographs, voice notes, memories, or simply a message saying, "I'd like to talk about an old friend next time."
For our scheduled conversations, I use Microsoft Teams. It's reliable, free to download, and lets me record our sessions (with your consent) — so nothing you say is ever lost to a bad connection or a faulty memory (mine, not yours). But I'll happily adjust to whatever you're already comfortable with — Messenger, Instagram, FaceTime, or an old-fashioned phone call all work just as well.
The communication method is whatever feels easiest and most comfortable for you.
Five | Behind the Scenes
Every memoir has its own project notebook.
I build yours in Microsoft OneNote as the work unfolds. It's where I gather timelines, notes, memories, research, sequencing, edits, rewrites, photographs and contributions from family if you'd like them included.
It is a living working document rather than a polished manuscript.
Once your memoir is complete, I'll give you the notebook as part of your project — a record of how your story came together.
Six | A small practice
I write every word myself.
I don't outsource interviews, editing or writing because, I want this work to remain personal, intimate and deeply considered. Quality matters more to me than quantity.
Each year I write around thirteen memoirs, alongside Legacy Letters and Last Word projects. Although those pieces are shorter, they carry just as much emotional responsibility and care.
When you work with me, you're working with the same person from our first conversation to the final printed page.
Seven | Community
Alongside my commissioned work, I run complimentary memoir workshops throughout New Zealand in retirement villages, hospices, prisons, community groups and adult learning centres. They continually remind me how quickly memories disappear unless someone simply asks.I've learned how precious it is to help someone remember a few more stories while there is still someone there to tell them.
I do this because if someone isn’t invited to share memories, they not be inclined to give them, Thinking nobody would be interested - do it for yourself, first and foremost.
Eight | Craftsmanship
Every memoir is designed individually to reflect the life it contains. All workshop materials and printed pieces are produced in house on carefully chosen made in New Zealand paper.
Your finished hardback memoir is produced by a professional book printer to create an heirloom that is made to last for generations.
Nine | Where I Write
Every memoir is written from my old 1940 wooden home in Ngauranga Gorge, Aotearoa. I write from dawn til dusk, I wake up hungry for words. Words come easy to me. I spend my days clattering on a keyboard. I listen for the sound of silence to hear the right descriptors. Sometimes I look up and notice the changing light on the water, watching the southerlies approach.
I have to be in the mood to write, and Wellington with its hills, winds and village feel gives me that mood.
Ten | Privacy
Your memoir belongs to you.
Everything you share is treated with complete confidence and will never be published, circulated or used by me without your written permission.