Mastering the memoir
It was facing death that prompted then budding psychologist Josie Dietrich to turn to the career she’d always wanted – writing. Now a UQP author and UQ student, Josie shared her experience after the publication of her memoir, In Danger.
How did the book come about?
I wrote the book not knowing if it would ever get published. I hoped (with fingers crossed) that it would. In Danger was my second book. My first remains an unpublished manuscript: a young adult fantasy.
I gave up the idea of becoming a psychologist at 30; the time my partner and I returned from France so I could care for my terminally ill mother. This one year period of caring for her had me shake hands with death: I saw it, I touched it, I smelt it.
When you have an honest conversation with death, especially your own, you cannot cheat yourself. I decided to pursue what I’d secretly wanted to have at the centre of my life – writing and books.
It took me ten years to get into the ‘room’ – the publication room. I did a grad cert, then a masters in creative writing at QUT. At the time of my diagnosis with invasive breast cancer I started a blog. I used this platform’s diary type entries as the research behind my memoir for dates, names of treatments and the sequence of events. The blog became the skeleton of In Danger. Then, more of the art of memoir took over burying the blog’s skeleton in memories mined from old letters, and from cancer literature.
When it came to publication, for some time, I was always a bridesmaid and never the bride. I placed second, or reached the finalist's list. In short, nowhere. No agent, no publication contract.
What led to my final publication at UQP was a confluence of several factors: a mentorship on my final draft with Brisbane based author and super-talented teacher Kristina Olsson; an ASA speed dating event where non-fiction publisher Alexandra Payne picked up my memoir manuscript; areading at Caroline Baum’s book launch of Only at Avid Reader (another Brisbane-based author, Krissy Kneen, introducing me to her literary agent after hearing me at Baum's reading; and finally the then head of UQP, Jill Eddington, being in the audience at that reading. After six long months of my memoir manuscript sitting with UQP I was in. Overnight success, me!
Author shot (photo credit: Amanda Hamilton)
Author shot (photo credit: Amanda Hamilton)
Josepha at ABC Brisbane with Em Carey - once paralysed, now walking.
Josepha at ABC Brisbane with Em Carey - once paralysed, now walking.
Was writing something you’d always wanted to do?
If I'm being honest, yes. I was "successful" in primary school with my writing. I didn’t find it hard (then) and I loved it. My passion for reading took hold later than most writers, in my early twenties. By this time I’d ignored any chance of a creative life thinking it impossible to achieve and completed two degrees in psychology thinking I’d become a psychologist and financially secure. Plus, if you can pass the academics it’s a sure thing –writing is not.
"Did you ever think you’d write a memoir? What was the moment in your life that you thought “this is a story that needs to be told"?
I never thought I’d write a memoir. The moment I thought ‘this is the story I have to write’ was during chemotherapy. I was in the swampy brain stage where I could barely keep my mind focussed with how ill I was and how affected by cognition was. No one talks about how this feels, I kept thinking to myself. This sentence came to me many times. The moment medicos slid me from the hospital gurney onto the thin surgical table at 35 when I was about to have a radical hysterectomy; placing my hands over my abdomen before going under and saying goodbye to the second child I always wanted. The moment I woke up without my breasts and looked down on tightly strapped dressings – flat and boy-chested again, it was like I’d time travelled back to pre-adolescence. I wrote the book I wanted to read when I was going through breast cancer. A taking you by the hand memoir to show you what it feels like and how to come out the other side and continue, new normal and all.
What was the hardest part of writing it?
The technical skill of moving between past and present fluidly enough not to lose the reader, and for the narrative to ‘work’ this way. The chapter that was the hardest to write, and is the hardest to read is the one about my mother’s death on Christmas Day.
What was the best part of writing it?
Documenting my mother and my relationship; honouring my mother.
How was the editing process for you? A memoir would be close to the heart!
The editing process was terrific. I was hungry for a professional eye’s perspective on what worked, what was missing and what required more writing.
How did you choose the title?
It came as is ‘In Danger’, because my life and my son’s was in danger.
At the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital receiving Zometa to stop bone break down due to my cancer treatments.
At the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital receiving Zometa to stop bone break down due to my cancer treatments.
On a Sunday ride with Briony. Our team 'Breast Friends For a Cure' raised $120K for breast cancer research by QIMR Berghofer.
On a Sunday ride with Briony. Our team 'Breast Friends For a Cure' raised $120K for breast cancer research by QIMR Berghofer.
How did you get that cover shot? Are you happy with the result?
I did the cover shot naked (in knickers) as part of the Under the Red Dress project. The photographer Nadia Masot photographed about 25 women from NZ, North America and Australia after their cancer treatments. It’s a photographic thesis that promotes cancer awareness and addresses disease taboos. As yet, unpublished.
What’s it like seeing your memoir out in the world?
Wonderful. Such a relief to have it done. I can move on now, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if it stayed unpublished. It’s released me to write something else.
What’s the feedback been like?
Very positive. I’ve had people contact me via my author page from places like Sri Lanka and New Zealand to comment on how it’s helped them or their mother going through breast cancer. This is the exact reason I wrote it.
How has your family reacted?
In general, very well. I’ve had some negative responses from people uncomfortable with the difficult memories it returned to the surface, or 'witnessing' in word my son's medical treatments - the lost years.
What’s your next project?
I’m writing a young adult, realist novel about toxic masculinity. It may not have legs yet, we’ll see!
