Amber Lanier Nagle has always been interested in keepsakes-a glass bluebird, a pocket knife, a dime-store locket, a faded fishing lure, a dented cake pan, a model train car, and so many others.
“Why do you keep this?” she asks. “Where did it come from?”
And then she listens as the stores and memories pour out. Project Keepsake is Nagle’s crusade to collect and publish the stories that transform simple, everyday objects into priceless keepsakes. Told in first-person by both seasoned and aspiring writers, each story in the anthology is unique, yet each reveals common threads that connect us all and celebrate the glorious human experience.
“I hope the book inspires you to write your own keepsake story.” –Amber Lanier Nagle
Targeted Age Group:: 30 to 100
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’ve always been interested in storytelling. In fact, I worry that, as a society, we are losing the ability to tell stories and preserve memories.
Several years ago, I started using keepsakes as writing prompts in my workshops, and I was so impressed with the resulting stories. I shared my idea with friends, and before I knew it, friends and family members were writing keepsake stories and giving them to me.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
No characters in my book. Project Keepsake is a collection of fifty-five nonfiction stories about keepsakes.
Book Sample
My revelation is a simple one: Everyone has a keepsake, and every keepsake has a story to tell. And so I launched Project Keepsake—my quest to collect and publish the stories behind people’s cherished keepsakes.
At one point, I considered writing a collection of stories about my own keepsakes and treasures or composing other peoples’ stories myself, but I feared my renditions would lack authenticity and fail to capture the depth and unique perspective of each item. The keepers’ own words convey the feelings and emotions much better than my interpretations. So, I encouraged others to explore the deep-rooted connections they have to their own keepsakes and mementoes and write about them. For those who were hesitant to write their own, I offered to help them, but only after they drafted their stories themselves.
For me, reading another writer’s keepsake story is like unwrapping a very personal gift. Through their words, the contributors allow me to peek into their hearts and souls, and sometimes, like a reflection in a mirror, I see myself.
As of today, the collection includes over fifty-five complete stories told in first-person by people with very different backgrounds and writing styles, and several other contributors are in the process of writing and editing their stories. Each story is uplifting. Each is transcendent. Each is beautifully sacred.
I am proud that Project Keepsake provides an outlet to celebrate these very special stories and memories and the very human journeys connecting us all.
While I have learned many things from Project Keepsake, one lesson presents itself over and over again: we all keep and hold onto objects that link us to the memories we care most about. We keep things so we will remember, but somewhere along the way, our keepsakes take on lives of their own and define where we came from, what matters to us, and perhaps most of all, who we are.
—Amber Lanier Nagle
About the Author:
Amber Lanier Nagle has always been drawn to books. When she was a freckled six year old, she often crawled under the dining room table and read Dr. Seuss books to a captive audience of disheveled dolls and thread bare stuffed animals. At some point in her childhood, her appetite for reading evolved into the desire to write.
She says writing is in her blood and remarks, “I come from a long line of writers, poets, and the finest storytellers who have ever walked the face of the earth.”
In 2006, after working for eighteen years as an engineer, she reinvented herself as a freelance writer. In a world where almost everything is interesting to her, she specializes in works of nonfiction with articles appearing in Georgia Magazine, Grit, Mother Earth News, Alive, Atlanta Life, Points North, American Fitness, Chatter, and many others. She also ghostwrites for two clients.
Nagle also teaches writing classes and workshops in Georgia and Tennessee. She specializes in teaching prescriptive nonfiction methods, memoir writing (small projects), and the business of freelancing to both seasoned and aspiring writers. She also offers “Writing About Keepsakes” workshops and presentations throughout Georgia – guiding writers of all skill levels through the process of crafting stories about keepsakes. For more information, visit www.ProjectKeepsake.com .
She is a graduate of both Georgia Institute of Technology and Mercer University, and a proud member of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and the Georgia Writers Association. She’s married to her sweetheart and writes from their home in Northwest Georgia.
Links to Purchase Print Books
Link to Buy Project Keepsake Print Edition at Amazon
Link to Buy Project Keepsake Print Edition at Barnes and Noble
Links to Purchase eBooks
Link To Buy Project Keepsake On Amazon
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Book Sample:
