In my invalid state I am proof reading my mother's manuscript of her time of living in Soviet Russia with intentions of having it published. She lived there from the age of 6 - 16 under Stalin's rule and during the Ukrainian famine. The war in Ukraine has made me revisit this project. This page, she is mentioning that her father carved little animals for her and her sisters out of sandstone, and only a couple of weeks ago my husband retrieved a box from the loft of souvenirs and although I hadn't gone through it I saw this on the top and remembered my mother telling me this story. So this had to be today's photo!
@careymartin@koalagardens Sadly she passed away before we got it published. She attempted to publish it in the 1960s but there was more interest is Svetlana Stalin's autobiography than an unknown British housewife. Having said that, the person who translated the book Dr Zhivago into English paid her many compliments and told her to get it published. After my mother's death my father spent ages editing and copying it onto a Word document but then half heartedly tried to get it published. Since his death in the 1990s I have had possession of the manuscript and my father's copy. I am now going through removing his edits (unless it was a glaring mistake) and returning it to her original voice. I will then put it to some publishers and see what happens! Thank you for your comments!
sounds like a wonderful project - hard work but I would imagine very cathartic. I hope you persevere, it would be a beautiful tribute to your mother's life and so interesting to read. I would always prefer to read the housewife's view point in these historic recounts.
Good luck with this project. Very meaningful to the world to be able to read her memoir of the time she lived there. Beautiful photo. It should go with the project when it's published.
@helenhall thank you Helen! She wrote it when I was 15 but I refused to read it then! I read it for the first time after my father passed away and when I bought my first Kindle probably about 12 years ago. I have read it subsequently again last year when the war in Ukraine started and of course I am re reading it now. I think it is a story worth reading for its historical and social content and I obviously hope it gets published. I might have to publish it myself, because she is hardly going to write q sequel or a selection of novels. She used to write short stories that were published in magazines at the time, and I have all of them somewhere!
@marshwader Interesting photograph with a story. Even if a publisher won't take it on, it is very much easier to self publish nowadays. Have a look at https://www.catfordprint.co.uk where you can price up your project without obligation.
