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The Write Stuff (Part 2) - The Challenges of Memoir Writing
Nora Johnson
BREAKING VIEWS
BEFORE becoming a novelist, columnist and additionally memoirist (!), I had a frontrow seat in the world of crime. Wait, don’t go! Let me explain.
After postgraduate studies in the UK, I studied Law in Los Angeles (writing, and then winning, the Law School’s Moot Court Prizea surreal Perry Masontype experience) where I lived for a number of eventful years.
My Moot Court sparring partner, Tony, a cop with the LAPD, was so impressed I’d won the prize for us both, he helped me visit otherwise inaccessible areas like jails (my passion: criminal law). Since Hollywood film studios were on his beat he got me roles in movies for my English ‘accent’ and I even attended an Oscars dress rehearsal bumping into actors like Harrison Ford and George Clooney. Hi Harrison and George if you’re reading this! light’, not too invasive or loud, but equally as passionate and vibrant. Certainly something I’ll do again.
The late foreign correspondent Nicholas Tomalin wrote that success in journalism only required: ‘ratlike cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability’. Columnists, though, need a few other qualities: curiosity, energy and especially perseverance.
As for memoirs, in which category will Boris Johnson’s forthcoming tellall feature?
Fiction, horror, crime, black comedy, fantasy, adventure, misadventure, scifi, satire? Or, all the above?
Nora Johnson’s 12 critically acclaimed psychological suspense crime thrillers (www.norajohnson.net) all available online including eBooks (€0.99; £0.99), Apple Books, audiobooks, paperbacks at Amazon etc. Profits to Cudeca cancer charity.
Also worth repeating is my visit to Tomodachi in La Campana. This JapanesePeruvian fusion restaurant is celebrating its second year but I had never even heard of it until I received the invite. The owner, Ban ti Gurung, is surprisingly young for his wealth of experience, having worked for many years in the Nobu restaurants worldwide. He has come back to Marbella to make his mark with his own personal interpretation of this increasingly popular Nikkei cuisine. The food was truly delicious so I can also honestly recommend that too.
