Read What People Are Saying

 

John Bond’s book is a practical and fun guide on how to tell our stories for future generations or simply ourselves. He is a master motivator and helps the reader to push away any self-doubt—for we all have a story to tell and John is our greatest cheerleader in getting us to do just that. Patricia A. Perry, author of The Haunting of the Owens Family

 

Anyone who has ever wanted to write about themselves and their family stories, but never knew how or where to start, can now easily understand how simple it really is. Tom Lyons, Executive Director, Friends Village Continuing Care Retirement Community

 

Written for all ages, this writing guide highlights that real-life stories connect us to each other through laughter and tears. Carolyn Tice, DSW, Professor and Associate Dean, University of Maryland School of Social Work

 

This easy to read and applicable resource will help you capture, organize, and write the stories you have been putting off because you felt the task was overwhelming. Wait no longer. This encouraging and educational step-by-step guide will provide you with expert tools and tips to discover hidden treasures …to discover hidden treasures, as you explore “the story of you” Sheila N. Glazov, author of What Color Is Your Brain? and Princess Shayna’s Invisible Visible Gift

 

After reading John’s well organized, informative and entertaining book, I am very motivated to begin writing my own family story.  Judy Schulze, mother, grandmother, teacher

 

I am very excited to gift The Story of You to members of my own family who I think will benefit so much from its guidance.  We have great stories in our family, but they are told around dinner tables and at reunions and rarely written down.  We need to heed John Bond’s advice and begin recording these stories before they are gone. William D. Carrigan, PhD, Professor of History

Rowan University, author of Forgotten Dead

 

The Story of You is a practical how-to guide to creating a family history. The writing is “user-friendly” and encouraging, and should appeal to a wide range of readers/writers. The appendices, in particular, are very useful for this topic. In short, the author urges us all to start writing. Cheryl Rheiner, Reference Librarian, West Deptford Free Public Library

 

I found The Story of You to be a richly idea-generating book for the reader.  The writing flows well and establishes a sense of comfortable conversation with the reader – while also offering very useful guidelines for the creative process of writing about one’s personal life.  Betty R. Hasselkus, PhD, FAOTA, OTR, author of The Meaning of Everyday Occupation

 

John Bond’s The Story of You is full of human connections and essential tools for writing your family story. It will help you overcome your fear of writing with not only heartfelt reasons to make you want to tell your story, but a practical day-to-day writing plan with an  organized simple layout, such as his “If you were taking notes” sections after each chapter, and questions to ask to stir up memories.  His tips for conducting a family interview and overcoming obstacles to writing are refreshingly honest and useful for writers of all ages and stages! Readers will be drawn in by thinking about their own story and come away filled with motivation and insight on the process of writing personal and family history. Donna Fick, PhD, GCNS-BC, FGS, FAAN, Penn State, Editor Journal of Gerontological Nursing

 

My last surviving grandparent passed away, it occurred to me that with her passed any first-hand account of my family’s experiences from that generation. That, to me, is an incredibly poignant thought. What The Story of You reminds us–through motivation, sample prompts, and guiding principles–is that, while our own connections to the past may be hazy, we can certainly become the clear anchor point for our families’ future generations.  Tim Campbell, educator

 

You need to tell your story. John Bond’s book will lead you step-by-step to show you how uncomplicated this can be.  Reading this book is like sitting across a table from a dear friend who holds you at the center of his attention, and smiles at you and says, “Here, let’s do this together.  It will be easier that way.” And in the end, you will have the wonderful accomplishment of sharing something very important, very dear.  You will have found a way to discover who you are, and will have found a way to share that for ages to come.  So, as John would say, “C’mon, let’s get started. Piece of cake.” Carol M. Davis, DPT, EdD, MS, FAPTA, University of Miami School of Physical Therapy, author of Patient Practitioner Interaction and Complimentary Therapies in Rehabilitation

 

In  The Story of You, John Bond inspires the reader to discover the story of his or her family. Anyone can step into the role of family storyteller.  This practical and thorough guide provides an easy step-by-step manner; to not only learn ancestral stories, but how to turn them into vibrant stories that can be shared with others.  This storytelling will keep a loved one alive in their family’s hearts, imaginations, and around the dinner table.  This is a priceless gift for any family.  Emily Blanck, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Rowan University

 

The Story of You is a truly informative, very helpful, encouraging, exciting and well-documented book for me as I have been toiling with the idea of writing my own memoir/life history/family history for quite some time and now I found the guiding tools to fulfill my life’s desire. Thank you John. Hanshi Deshbandhu, educator

 

After reading the manuscript, I was reminded of stories my parents told of living through the depression and later WWII. Lives that included my father having to leave home to work at a munitions plant several hours away, my mother churning and selling butter for a little extra income, ration stamps, the list goes on. Had these stories been written down, they would have provided my family a wonderful history of the hardships and good times that are a part of our heritage. In this book, John has given us all step-by-step instructions that make this process so easy for us to follow. It would be a disservice to future generations not to pick up pen and paper or laptop and start making notes. Just thinking about how many things have changed in my 60 years assures me that children today will look back on our lives with astonishment. It is our personal stories that make us real and should be shared, warts and all. Thank you John for encouraging us to speak our truth. Anne Lester, Life Coach