Episode 48: [GUEST] From Personal Essays to Full-Length Memoir with Lara Richardson

Inspired Writer Collective Podcast

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It’s an especially exciting episode this week as we welcome an author who is local to us, here in Colorado, and we’ll be welcoming her to our local book club meeting next month.

Lara’s book, The Table: Seasons on a Colorado Ranch, was the result of completing her MFA at Western State University and submitting it for consideration for publication by the University’s press. It was selected and Lara was surprised and incredibly grateful.

It was a process of taking a series of personal essays and turning them into a full-length memoir. Her memoir shows her grit and gratitude for the seasons of life and reflections on the golden moments to embrace when navigating through difficult times.

It’s a memoir about her life on her family’s ranch where they raise Hereford cows and gather thousands upon thousands of bales of hay each summer. What you’ll discover as you read is it’s not just the stories of her family’s experiences, but an invitation to walk in her shoes and understand the experience of ranchers in our area in Colorado.

You’ll learn about the challenges being faced by ranchers as developers moving into the area are offering attractive sums of money to acquire land for multi-family housing developments.

There’s insight into cattle ranching and the meaning of its impact on our environment.

She was fortunate to have the support of her family who gave her space to write her book, but there were still struggles with staying focused. You’ll be interested to listen and learn about a special visitor to one of her writing spaces.

Lara masterfully weaves together various threads of her life story to connect the pieces that have contributed to her family’s success in their ranching business and in their lives. It hasn’t always been easy, but there’s a true sense of gratitude and fortitude in the work being done.

There’s a discussion of the editing process and how even with a publisher you can find errors after a book has been printed, but you can reach out and make sure any changes are made before future books are printed.

You’ll appreciate it when she talks about getting distracted and how easy it can be to be pulled away from your work. We’ve all been there. It’s why finding a place that’s not in your own backyard can be beneficial to your writing process. It can be too easy to decide to do the laundry, mow the lawn, or any other number of house chores.

We invite you, like Lara does in her memoir, to join her at The Table: Seasons on a Colorado Ranch. If you’ve written personal essays, you’re sure to find inspiration for turning your stories into a full-length memoir.

Who is Lara Richardson?
A former white-water rafting guide on the Arkansas River, LARA RICHARDSON lives with her husband and five kids on their family ranch in Salida, Colorado, where they raise over 300 Hereford mother cows and calves and grow over 30,000 bales of hay each summer. A voice for land stewardship, sustainable beef production,
and the family farm, she is a 2021 graduate of Western Colorado University’s MFA Program in Nature Writing. The Table is her first published work.
Find Lara online:
Lara Richardson Website
Lara on IG
Lara Richardson on Facebook
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