JamesSome guys hit 40 and buy a new car. Others take golf trips with their buddies. I wrote a 40,000-word book.
Memoirs are often thought of as rather boring books written by elderly people. This implies that to pen an autobiography, you must be retired and an active AARP member. But I disagree, and the resulting book, “Conquering the Need to Conquer,” I present as evidence to the contrary.
I wanted to record my history, because each year, I forget more and more details of my adventures. While writing, I struggled with names, places, and other elements of my stories, and spent considerable time uncovering relevant facts. I can’t remember my children’s birthdays, nor can I clearly recall meaningful experiences from even two years ago. This inability to retain information has nothing to do with dementia or lack of intelligence; it’s merely a result of information overload—too much data, not enough storage.
During the process of writing, editing, and publishing my memoirs, I began to recall events lost in the archives of my mind. These seemingly insignificant occurrences coalesced into a coherent story that evolved over a year, bringing to life a previously undiscovered purpose: my boyhood friendships, escapades of the college years at the University of Georgia, dangerous voyages abroad, and other unique experiences I previously categorized as “just a part of life.” But, when revisited, these events illustrated an unmistakable pattern of eloquent, supernatural design.
I hope that one day my children will read my memoir. And perhaps it’s possible that friends and strangers will benefit from my experiences. But I realize people are primarily interested in their own lives, so I don’t expect the story of a boy from Augusta, Georgia, to gain a broad audience. And that’s OK, because I found tremendous satisfaction in writing my story.
For those who merely desire to be amused, I published a short version containing a few of the most entertaining stories. This abridged version will suffice for the majority. But for those who have the capacity and desire to go a bit deeper, I’ve made the entire memoir available. For the slow readers or time-constrained, I created an audiobook that you can listen to at a faster speed.
- Conquering the Need to Conquer: A Memoir eBook (4-hour reading time)
- Conquering the Need to Conquer: A Memoir Audiobook (3 hours, 39 minutes)
As I mentioned in the Epilogue, I’ll never write another memoir—I’ll be too busy living out the sequel.
