Oral History Interviews Archives - Jeanne Burrows-Johnson's Word Empowering Blog

AUTHOR TIME MANAGEMENT

Successful Time Management with a Simple Matrix!

As I wrote the blog that will first appear on Hometown Reads beginning on November 5, 2019, I realized the irregularity with which I’ve been writing for this site. Setting aside the publication of Murders of Conveyance, the third Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mystery and two bouts of flu, scheduling my time has been a major challenge to my productivity this year…Thus, time management has been on my mind.

SUCCESSFUL SCHEDULING
Every professional finds challenges in maximizing productivity. Often the problem exists in both personal and professional living. That has certainly been true for me. The Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mystery series is growing, and I maintain two websites, this blog, and two Facebook pages. These ongoing projects are my excuse for untimely scheduling this year. It has seemed that there are several deadlines I have faced each day and while I’m putting out those fires, I’ve failed to follow a simple time management matrix.

STEPHEN R. COVEY & DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

One of the most important philosophers in my life has been author and business consultant Stephen Covey [1932-2012]. He was a dynamic man who based his secular advice on his personal faith in the precepts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His doctoral dissertation was based on analysis of self-help books which he would add to later for the benefit of people of many professions and philosophies. For many of his readers, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was his most impactful book, which helps to move one from dependence to independence to interdependence. I found the most memorable advice he presented was the Eisenhower Matrix, a decision-making tool for prioritizing one’s activity, which he attributed to U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. [Note, the President credited the concept to an unnamed college president.]

EXAMINING YOUR INBOX
Consider the following classifications for the items in your existing calendar and inbox:

A. URGENT, IMPORTANT B. NOT URGENT, IMPORTANT
C. URGENT, NOT IMPORTANT D. NOT URGENT OR IMPORTANT

Obviously that which is Urgent and Important must be addressed first. This could be the biographical paragraph your publisher has requested for your latest book or a cover letter that you will package with gift copies. Conversely, items that are not Urgent or Important [Quadrant D] should be examined for worthiness; do they even merit being on your schedule? If they are indeed things worth keeping, can you handle them in a more effective way?

For instance, maintaining good relations with colleagues and service suppliers can be vital to your success. But rather than having frequent personal meetings, consider scheduling occasional festive events that include several of these people…or if they are not in close proximity to you, consider meaningful gifting at unexpected times. For instance, rather than sending cards and gifts for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Christmas, consider Thanksgiving, New Year, or even an unexpected surprise at Asian Lunar New Year. As to gifts, consider whether there is something distinctive about your work that would be appropriate. In both fiction and non-fiction, the focus of most of my writing is Hawai’i, so it has been easy to share Hawaiian macadamia nut candy.

Once you’ve dealt with Quadrant A’s Urgent and Important items and the elimination or redirection of the Non-urgent and Unimportant things lingering in Quadrant D, look at the Non-urgent but Important listings in Quadrant C. You have declared them to be urgent; but, they are not important in the abstract. This area of concern includes spur-of-the-moment issues that arise, as well as administrative paperwork and organization.

For me, activity in this area usually focuses on filing—especially the growing number of my biographies. These are written in both first and third person, ranging from two sentences to a couple of pages. Generic ones have a conversational tone and discuss my life in general. Others focus on my fiction [especially the Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mysteries]. Academic ones present non-fiction projects like Conversations with Auntie Carol, A Series of Hawaiian Oral History Interviews. Organized by word count, I can quickly determine bios that meet the requirements of an unexpected request. Usually, I then copy/paste contenders into a new document and create a new bio or two that can be folded into the master file.

We have now arrived at the all-important consideration of items within our Quadrant B. Why take it out of order? As Stephen Covey would say, this area of concern should be the essential focus of our attention in setting our daily, weekly, monthly, and overall life schedule. If we constantly work on the non-Urgent but Important areas of our professional and personal life, we will find there are less deadlines to be faced…and eventually experience balanced living. Of course, that does not mean that unexpected emergencies will not occur to encroach on our time periodically.

In preparing for expansion of my career as an author, I’ve faced many issues this year. They have included: redesigning my two websites, learning to insert art and audio files into this blog, creating a professional Facebook page, and completing both Yen for Murder (the fourth NS mystery) and writing an annotated introduction to the Auntie C project [including 74 endnotes]. The overlapping of these projects has been daunting at times, BUT the time spent on future editing should be manageable!

ALIGNING YOUR CALENDAR
Let’s complete our time management exercise by re-examining the contents of our daily, weekly, and monthly calendars from this new perspective. You may have pre-set appointments like children’s schooling and other activities, your own working hours, wellness appointments, etc. Even the scheduling of these could be altered or made flexible.

Are there other parents with whom you might share transportation? Would your employer consider changes in your schedule like a reduction or shift to earlier/later hours, or even remote work from your home? Can you shift medical, dental and therapy/exercise appointments to days of the week or month to harmoniously fill out set blocks of time? Within those preset appointments, you could double your productivity as I do in performing a bit of library research prior to meetings of my authors salon.

How might you delegate some of the work you now undertake personally? Should you hire an accountant for bookkeeping and tax filing? If this is not an option, consider software that can optimize the hours you do invest in this activity. I am fortunate that many obligations I once undertook have passed to my husband who is retired. He now handles shopping, bill paying, and even the preparation of most dinners, allowing me to pursue completion of inspiration in my work.

Like my protagonist, Natalie Seachrist, I am an avid devotee of list making. When I look at items falling within Quadrant B, I have found that several lend themselves to specific times of the year, when other required and/or predictable activity lessens. That usually means there are gaps in my schedule during the winter holiday season and summer, when many people I work with professionally are on vacation. These are the times that I clean out hardcopy folders, sort through old research, rearrange and re-label files. Well, this summer has passed without any of those tasks being addressed…so, I guess you know how my holidays will be spent!

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, and motivational speaker

To learn more about the award-winning Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mysteries, including Murders of Conveyance [Winner, Fiction Adventure-Drama, 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards] and other projects, please drop in at my author’s website JeanneBurrows-Johnson.com . You’ll even find Island Recipes that might inspire your culinary creativity.

For more ideas to strengthen your Wordpower^© and branding, please visit: Imaginings Wordpower and Design Consultation.

Follow Me:
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Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave

An Oral History Interview

Conversations with Auntie Carol: Seven Oral History Interviews with Caroline Kuliaikanuʻ ukapu Wilcox DeLima Farias

Researched, Conducted, Compiled & Narrated
by Jeanne Burrows-Johnson
[A sample of our conversation on Maui is below]

**Meet Caroline **Kuliaikanuʻ** **ukapu** Wilcox DeLima Farias**

It seems as though I have been absent more than present on the Internet during the last two years…what have I been doing?

~ Yen for Murder (the fourth award-winning Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mystery) was edited and awaits publishing…and began writing a fifth mystery, A Spineless Murder
~ I redesigned my websites, JeanneBurrows-Johnson.com (with Island recipes and tales of historic Tucson), and ImaginingsWordpower.com (addressing branding and professional development).
~ Added a professional page to Facebook.
~ I completed research for Conversations with Auntie Carol, adding: a summary of the Hawaiian language; a family chart; a few samples of family quilts. I also expanded the introduction and discoursive endnotes, the bibliography, the annotated glossary, and the master index.

The interviews are observations on childhood, family, and events reflecting the inner spirit of Auntie Carol [1923 to 2001]. She was a descendant of aliʻ i , Hawaiian nobility. As readers and listeners will observe, Carol was close to her family and proud of the prominent roles they played in the history of Hawaiʻ i. She was the grandniece of Col. Robert W. K. Wilcox, a major politician and a revolutionary who strove to restore Queen Liliʻ uokalani to the throne of a sovereign Kingdom of Hawai’i. Carol was also the second cousin of Johanna N. Wilcox, the first woman registered to vote in the U.S. Territory of Hawaiʻ i. Auntie Carol’s personal story includes performing hula awana at the Moana Hotel on the beach at Waikīkī on December 6, 1941, the day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other parts of Oʻ ahu that brought the United States into World War II.

Carol was one of the first people to welcome me to Honolulu in 1973. In 1975, Carol’s family helped plan my wedding and I was honored when she performed hula awana at the reception. In 1981, I returned to college. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in history with distinction at the University of Hawaiʻ i, I continued studies in Asian and American history and worked as a graduate teaching assistant in their World Civilizations program. As I learned more about Hawaiian history, I gained a deeper appreciation of the many aspects of Carol’s life. We remained in touch when I accompanied my husband to Newport, Rhode Island, where he taught classes at the U.S. Naval Education and Training Center and I began my career as a free-lance writer and marketing consultant.

When I returned to Hawaiʻ i, Carol shared the many changes that had occurred in her life. Three of the sisters of Johanna Wilcox had moved into Carol’s home in Kāneʻ ohe. This was a time of mixed joys and sorrows for the family. For although her aunties rejoiced in being united in Carol’s home, by 1990 the last of them had passed, as well as Carol’s beloved husband Freddy. After attending her birthday celebration in 1992, we discussed her desire to have me help organize the heirlooms and books she had inherited from her elder relatives. I soon realized our work could serve as the foundation for a book highlighting several generations of the Maui Wilcox women. Carol concurred.

Most of the topics we explored in the recorded interviews addressed her early life in ʻ Ulupalakua, Maui, and her second cousins known as the Wilcox Sisters. Our most poignant conversation was on the grounds of land her family had owned in Kalepolepo, Maui, where listeners delight in the sounds of the ocean, wind rustling through kiawe trees and bird song. The following is a sample from the interviews on this trip. I hope you’ll enjoy it and understand why I feel it is important to share Carol’s stories with readers and listeners of today and the tomorrows that will follow. Perhaps you will also catch a glimpse of the rainbows that brightened many of her days!

A Sample from Conversations with Auntie Carol: During A Trip to Maui

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, motivational speaker

Follow Me:
Amazon, Arizona Authors Association, Apple Books
Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave

THE AUTHOR RECYCLES

NEW CREATIONS FROM PAST WORK

Is your pen at the ready at all times? In past blogs I’ve talked about examining your previous work as a writer. Not only does this allow you to measure your progress, it also provides a pool of sources for new directions in content and style. I am a member of the National Writers Union and the local chapter recently asked me to be their featured speaker at a monthly meeting. Often, their speakers read from current projects, but since I’d help to fill in the previous month with a reading of both the Prologue and Epilogue from PROSPECT FOR MURDER [the debut title of the Natalie Seachrist Hawaiian Mysteries], I decided to give a talk on how I’ve recycled parts of past projects. While there’s nothing novel in this concept, I thought that in detailing how I’d used pieces I’d created during my years in Arizona, I might stimulate my listeners to consider the ways in which they might draw upon works in their own files…

Wordsmiths Don’t Fall into a Single Demographic Description
When you look around any gathering of writers, you’ll find that we’re: Young and old; formally educated and barely literate in the grammatical sense; gifted melodious speakers and hoarsely halting readers; technical prodigies and flawed yet persuasive explorers of every topic imaginable. The breadth and depth of our compositions are as varied as we are. And usually, if we’re old enough, such variety will be found spread throughout our individual bodies of work.

In projects of both fiction and non-fiction, I draw on a background in business, education, and the performing arts. As might be expected, there is no consistent pattern to my output—except for the decades of public relations, marketing, and design consultation I’ve performed for executives and their profit and non-profit entities.

Forms from the Past…
In preparing for my talk, I looked over previous work I had drawn upon for recent print, audio, and Internet projects. Not all were inspirational gems of form, content, or style, but each item I had chosen to re-purpose fulfilled a specific need. With every new project, I contemplate how the assignment fits within the scope of my professional history. Not only do I look for concepts, data, and text that may yield something I can reuse, but also the bits and pieces that should be moved to the recycle bin.

…Reshaping for Today and Beyond
This year’s springtime file pruning produced some of everything. I found business cards, ads, and brochures that could be used for marketing workshops. As I continued my file and closet clearing, I eyed posters and signage that could be augmented with a large artistic label for some future event. I quickly dismissed them as ineffective for a speech delivered from a podium. There was, however, one item I could share: a copy of Stephen Covey’s famous matrix of time and productivity management. The gist of this true jewel of philosophy is that if we focus on aspects of both our personal and professional lives that are important but not critical, we’ll be better prepared for challenges that may arise.

After a brief introduction of this principle to open my talk, I noted how elements of past writing had been folded into my writer’s blog [for samples, please visit https://www.Blog.ImaginingsWordpower.com]. From project inspiration to background research, through the phases of writing and editing, production, and marketing, I discussed how I select issues that may be of interest to other authors and artists. In addition to mentioning a few of those blog topics, I provided examples of material I’d chosen to use in recent book projects.

~ When I joined with five other authors to publish UNDER SONORAN SKIES, Prose and Poetry from the High Desert, I contributed both fiction and non-fiction. With new and as well as re-shaped pieces, we all expanded our repertoire. Knowing that publication of Prospect For Murder was approaching, I included its prologue. I also featured historical articles such as “The Holidays in Tucson, 1878,” which I read at the NWU meeting.

~ In Murder on Mokulua Drive [the second book of the mystery series], I’ve drawn on notes from my studies in history, plus a series of oral history interviews I conducted many years earlier. This has allowed me to mention the first woman registered to vote in the Territory of Hawai`i in 1920, and to place a major scene in the historic and ecologically significant site of Kawai Nui Marsh.

~ The compilation of the oral history interviews, Conversations with Caroline Kuliaikanu`ukapu Wilcox DeLima Farias has indeed proven to be an invaluable resource. Carol was a dear friend seeking to preserve her family’s history, library and other artifacts. Descended from Hawaiian nobility, her recollections of life in upcountry Maui in the early twentieth century and dancing hula in Waikīkī on December 6^th, 1941, delight both readers and listeners. In reshaping the layout for a book of the seven interviews and an audio edition comprised of the original recordings, I described how this resurrected project is benefiting from the comprehensive glossaries I’ve constructed for the Hawaiian and other non-English vocabulary included in the Hawaiian mysteries.

~ Finally, I referred to the fourth mystery, A Yen For Murder, for which I examined promo materials I wrote for Highland Games and the Hilo International Festival on the island of Hawai`i during the 1970s. This led to having Natalie reminisce about hearing a remarkable young woman play the Japanese koto at the Festival…and decades later having that woman, then a Buddhist priestess, become the victim.

In the future, I anticipate giving talks on the authorship process, for which many of these examples will be useful. Of course, there will also be samples of flawed book covers, changing email addresses, and evolving reviews to reference. How does all this relate to your work? Well, I wonder what awaits you when you dive into your own files. Will you choose to build on your dramatic successes? Or will you determine that what was once viewed as a failed project may rise to the realization of full and positive fruition?

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, and motivational speaker

For more ideas to strengthen your Wordpower^© and branding, please visit: Imaginings Wordpower and Design Consultation.

Follow Me:
Amazon, Arizona Authors Association, Apple Books
Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave

Interview and Oral History Projects, 2

EFFECTIVE INTERVIEW PREPARATION

The Art and Science of Writing
Today’s post is a recipe to help you prepare for any general or oral history interview you may conduct. While the ingredients may prove dry for some of my readers, my intent is to simplify the process for those of you seeking to broaden your skills as a researcher, interviewer and writer. For, like a piece of fine art, the strong interview provides a complex layering of elements that leads to a deeper understanding of the interviewee’s life, their place within world events, and the experiences that have made them who they are.

Relying on their charm and a heavy dose of luck, some interviewers claim that establishing a good rapport with one’s subject is all that is required for a strong interview. But although creating a personal connection with your subject is definitely required, I urge you to consider that doing a bit of research will strengthen your credibility with the interviewee and boost your skills as a professional interviewer worthy of respect.

Although the following example falls under the category of art, it demonstrates how the lack of professional training can interfere with one’s work. Many years ago, I met a gifted painter who employed the tiniest makeup brushes to create delicate lace, fine hairs on African wildlife, and complex patterns on silken fabrics. Noticing flaws in the placement of shadows, proportion of objects, and the musculature of human bodies, I gently suggested she take classes in the foundations of art.

When she responded that an art teacher had previously crushed her spirit, I suggested she study privately with an artist she could carefully select for compatibility. Over the years she has achieved a measure of success, but the flaws I first noticed continue throughout the body of her work. I can only imagine what the knowledge of an authoritative artist could have added to the depth of her art.

Where should you begin your research as an interviewer? Like the ideal scientist, you will want to thoroughly research your interview subject, confirming basic facts you may have assumed were correct. To establish a reliable foundation for the facts to be revealed in the interview (as well as to offer a concise expression of the interviewee’s viewpoint), you will need to conduct research that goes beyond the details of their résumé. This work should be completed before formulating the questions you will ask in the interview.

As you move through the process of gathering information, consider the following questions. What is the purpose of the interview project? What are the demographics of your target audience who will be accessing your work? Also, what direction is suggested by the format and themes of the media outlet with which you are working?

Regardless of the proposed thrust of an interview, information that the public may seek about the subject should be addressed. In addition, if you wish to separate your interview from others the subject may have granted, I believe it is good to have at least one surprising fact revealed.

Now comes what some will consider the boring work. There’s no way around it, unless you want to rely on your great charm. To organize the facts you have discovered effectively, I suggest you consider using several tools.

Create a double-spaced copy of the interviewee’s résumé or curriculum vitae [CV]. Highlight each piece of information you need to verify. Place a check mark beside each one you confirm.

Working from either a list provided by the subject (or revealed in your research), examine the interviewee’s articles, books, previous interviews, and other expressions of their thoughts that may exist.

As you proceed with your research, write out potential topics for your forthcoming dialogue.

Create a timeline of the subject’s life. Although you may be focused on their career and public persona, list highlights in both their professional and personal living as a guideline to help you respond to unexpected turns your dialogue may take. Depending on what has made the person newsworthy, you may wish to look at a graph of historical events that intersect with their life.

How will such timelines be useful? If, for example, the interviewee was involved in the labor movement of the post-World War II era, the strikes of labor unions on the West Coast and in Hawai`i greatly impacted the general public as well as union members. Consider also the arts. If your subject is a composer of music or lyrics, you may find that their noteworthy pieces were created at times of considerable importance in history. Sometimes their work will actually be named for such an occurrence or an entire era. This was true of a symphony named for, and embodying the discordant notes of, the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Depending on the flow of your interview, reference to an intersection of general history and your subject’s life may yield surprising insights about their career or personal living. This can help you communicate with your subject, as well as with your readers or listeners.

Prepare an interviewee survey. Sequence your questions from the information they have provided to you. You can simplify the process for your subject by filling in information you have been able to confirm through your research. This could include: Dates and descriptions of their degrees, certifications, accreditations, and other qualifications; institutions of affiliation; professional positions they have held; published works, community volunteerism and other involvement; names, ages, careers of spouse, partners, or children. Remember that if you put in data you have not confirmed, you may be inviting errors—should their memory be flawed, or they actually wish to perpetuate dissemination of erroneous information.

To further your acquaintanceship—and to trigger your subject’s memories—you may want to offer blank space for them to fill in items such as: Their nicknames; mentors and public figures who have impacted their life; programs and schools of thought that have shaped their perspective; adjunct and social organizations with which they may be associated; and, hobbies and interests. Whether or not you wish to pursue topics such as political, philosophical or religious associations may depend on both what you have learned about your interviewee and the orientation of the media outlet with which you are working.

Despite the details I am suggesting you consider, keep the resulting survey as short and simple as possible. I also recommend using a five-point Likert Scale for any questions you wish answered with a measurement of the subject’s agreement. Hopefully, your subject will be able to provide you with a completed survey prior to the interview. This will allow you to fold their responses into questions you are preparing for conducting the interview.

If you do not receive a response to your survey, have a pleasant conversation with your interviewee about your preparation, so that they will want to participate fully in the process. If necessary, try to reschedule the survey by a day or two to ensure you are fully prepared. If you must conduct the interview without seeing your subject’s survey responses, you may want to take a few moments to try to write notes in the margins of your interview questions about issues you now feel you need to explore.

By the time you are nearing completion of your research, you should know whether or not the facts you have uncovered demonstrate your subject’s ability and desire to answer your questions fully and honestly. In addition, you will have determined whether the facts revealed are in accord with the original goals of your project. It is also important to determine whether the direction of the interview indeed fits within the thrust of the media outlet with which you may be working.

It is possible that you will find there are fundamental conflicts within the facts revealed in your research, your initial perspective on the interviewee, and the boundaries of the planned interview. If you are able to control publication of the information resulting from your interview, you are fortunate. But if you are restricted by the media outlet’s direction, I sincerely hope you will discuss your concerns with their management team prior to conducting an interview that does not honor you or your interviewee.

Wishing you the best in your creative endeavors,
Jeanne Burrows-Johnson, author, consultant, and motivational speaker

For further information on interviews and oral histories, see:
Overview of Interview and Oral History Projects, June 2015
Researching for Interviews, July 2015
Conducting Interviews, May 2016
After the Interview, August 2017

For more ideas to strengthen your Wordpower^© and branding, please visit: Imaginings Wordpower and Design Consultation.

Follow Me On:
Amazon, Arizona Authors Association, Apple Books,
Audible, Authors Den, Barnes and Noble, Blogarama, Book Bub,
Cozy Mysteries-Unlimited, Facebook, Good Reads, Hometown Reads

Book sellers may contact book distributors such as:
Baker & Taylor, Follett, IPG, Ingram, Mackin, Midpoint, TitleWave