Dear Substack readers,
On 29 April 2023, I published my first Motley Story. One year, 51 posts (that I have loved writing) and 250 subscribers later, I want to say thank you. I have had great support from the Substack community and appreciated all your comments.
I started Motley Stories because I was concerned that photos were being lost in a digital dark hole (read more here), so I started to write about how to keep your photos safe.
But then I realised that we risk losing ALL our correspondence and documents, because they have all become digital and ephemeral. Our emails, texts, journals, diaries, memoirs, photos etc. Everything about the life we live. So, I decided to write about this issue, and hoped there would be readers who would be interested.
There is a risk that our stories, the stories of our ordinary lives may be lost. In the past thousands of years the voice of ordinary people, the people’s history, has not been recorded because ordinary people were not literate. Ironically, we now have the most literate population in history, with the easiest, cheapest methods of writing and communication. But even if our documents are not lost, it will not possible to store them all forever. There is a limit to cloud storage.
The stories of all our lives contribute to the rich tapestry of history.
I don’t think there is an easy answer for how to preserve our stories, but I do want to look for solutions, and to encourage people to document their lives. Not just the writers, photographers and artists amongst us. I want to share and discuss the many different, easy ways there are to assemble materials and information for memoirs, and how to save your legacy.
Many of the people I want to reach are (sadly) not on Substack.
Therefore, I am going to write a book about memoirs and legacies, with ideas, practical advice and encouragement, using much of the content from my Substack blog1.
Any ideas and comments about my proposed book and the contents would be very welcome.
As always real life issues intervene. My daughter and I are selling our London home and moving to Scotland this summer. It is a big move, and emotional since this is the last house we lived in as a family, before my husband died. So, it will be a busy year.
In order to have time to research and write my book, and move house, I am stepping back a little from Substack, and will no longer write the longer weekly articles. But since I am hooked on writing (and reading) on Substack, I will continue to post, only much shorter articles, and not to a regular schedule.
My posts will contain short stories about small things. Small things can also call forth memories, and sweet remembering. I will include prompts, to help readers recall, enhance and save their own stories - and I hope you will share some of your stories with us, in comments and links.
On a Saturday, subscribers will continue to receive an email with a much shorter post and prompts, in case you would like to use the post to write your own story. I will also be posting on my Instagram.
I hope you will continue to support my writing, and I always value your comments.
The reason I have the courage to write a book is because of the support I have received while writing Motley Stories. From my daughter, who has always been my staunchest supporter. From my dear friends Simon & Sue, who have corrected my grammatical & punctuation errors, checked the links, and gently told me when I was writing a muddle. And from you, wonderful readers and commentators on Substack. Thank you,
Because I am writing a book, I have unpublished all my ‘technical’ posts, so I can review, edit and expand them. However, if you have any queries, comments, or want to be reminded of a post, please email me at motleystories@substack.com.
Congratulations, Kate on this big move. We're here to support you in your book and any way we can along the way. Reach out any time at all.
Best of luck!