"The Creative Process of Writing
is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"
www.virtualwritingcoach.com
December, 2008
In This Issue:
1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. John Grogan's The Longest Trip Home
4. Helpful Hints
1. Preview
The Writer's Connection explores the creative process
of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings,
and actions. We are an interactive community of authors
and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge,
skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre,
but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.
Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips
for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing
information.
Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton
and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript,
and are provided to the general public. Because we are
an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints
are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters
with permission from Keith Barton.
2. Publisher's Note
December, 2008
Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,
This month's newsletter features: John Grogan's
The Longest Trip Home
3. John Grogan's The Longest Trip Home
Grogan hasn't skipped a beat since his bestseller,
Marley
and Me, about the lovable lab retriever who chronicled
his life with his wife and children until Marley's death
fifteen years later. His latest book,
The Longest
Trip Home, is about his life growing up in Detroit,
the son of a union man who worked at GM for forty years,
providing a decent living for his family. Devout Catholics,
Grogan's parents were strict about their Catholic beliefs
and hope that their children would finally come around
to the Catholic order of things, much to their disappointment.
Grogan's book reads a little like Bill O'Reilly's book,
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, but without the ego and
self-aggrandizement. Both talk about their pranks as Catholic
schoolboys and the vicious nuns who tried to mold them
into fine citizens. But unlike O'Reilly's book, Grogan
does not detour from his childhood, but extends is growing
up narrative for our reading pleasure.
Before Grogan was a bestselling author he was a journalist and reporter, his first job as metro reporter
for the
Florida Sentinel in South Florida. Like any good sermon, Grogan's book is divided into three sections:
Growing Up, Breaking Away, and Coming Home. Each section describes the author's development from childhood
pranks of the sixties and seventies to first job, family, children, and friends. The last section
is a poignant reminder of what all of us go through eventually, watching our aging parents become more frail
and dependent on us as reminders of our own mortality.
The Growing Up section is a hilarious recitation of his Catholic buddies growing up in suburban Detroit in a
lower-middle class family. His altar boy days were filled with humor, like the time he and his buddies drank
the leftover wine after communion; or the father-son bonding while cutting the lawn with an OCD father who
took over the lawn with the precision of the Normandy invasion; or looking at dirty magazines at twelve,
Modern Photography and
The Happy Hooker in his bathroom knowing that his depraved soul would go to Hell for
this venal sin; or smoking cigarettes to impress one Barbie Barlow who frenched kissed him at thirteen and
introduced him to the internecine world of lust and making out; or his marijuana days of cloudy thinking,
long hair, and average high school grades.
The Breaking Away section speaks to his marriage to Jenny and their becoming parents of three children.
The major struggle was between his over controlling Catholic mother and fiercely independent wife who were at
odds with Grogan playing referee in a constant battle for his loyalty. As John pulled away from his parent's
strict Catholism towards a more libertarian view of life's meaning, the three-way tension continues well into
his adulthood until his parents finally give up and grant their blessing on their son's new lifestyle and
choices. The hilarity continues with Jenny and John living in sin before their marriage, yet wanting a communal
Catholic wedding, to the dismay of John's parents. A simple wedding ensued that ensured validity to their vows,
yet honored their parent's faith and values. The children's baptisms present another few skirmishes as both
families strive for identity and purpose: John's parents learning to let go, while John and Jenny learn
to raise their own three children.
But the best and poignant section is Coming Home and John's reconciliation with his unemotionally absent father.
Twenty-three years after their sailboat ride they return to the lake where John grew up only to have his aging
father fall into the cold water while attempting to right the sail. Both emerge from the icy waters, unharmed
and laughing, but a first sign to John of his father's mortality (and his own). As his parents require
increasing assistance, John's older brother, Michael, moves in with them to handle their daily needs and doctor
visits. John was now working for the
Philadelphia Inquirer and
The Organic Gardener while his
parents remained in the home he grew up.
John gets word from his brother Michael that their father has been diagnosed with a blood cancer (leukemia) with
low platelet counts that threaten massive internal bleeding and death, while at the same time fighting
pneumonia from constant years of smoking. While visiting his father in ICU for the last time John tells his
father "you don't need to fight anymore; you can stop; you gave it everything you had; you've been so brave,
dad; you can let go now." And he did.
Grogan's story is everyone's story of growing up, breaking away, and returning to the home of our youth if not
physically, but emotionally and spiritually. It is a wonderful story of triumphs and disappointments, humor and
pathos, life and death. His story is our story and what a gift to readers everywhere during this time of
celebration and closure that we call the Christmas Season.
Helpful Hints:
- Compare Grogan and O'Reilly's memoirs; where do you see similarities and differences? What about reading
style, point of view, and voice?
- For those of us in our fifties and beyond, what have you learned from your own family of origins?
Does your own life seem to break into the same three sections of Grogan's book?
- What legacy do you wish to leave to your children and grandchildren? Where have you grown most in your adult years?
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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.
Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University
of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist
for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach
and is accepting new clients.
He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina,
consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded
and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing
group home services to persons with mental retardation. Keith founded
and has been running a clinical practice in Northwest Houston since 1990.
He writes part-time with the goal of completing one novel
a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate
interest in helping others become attuned to their creative
powers of storytelling.
Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family
therapy and health psychology. He has published articles,
made presentations and conducted workshops about:
Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality
