We Have Liftoff! 70 x 70 Micro-Memoir Title Reveal
Plus subtitle, sub-subtitle, and big news about next steps...
I’m thrilled to announce that I’m taking the reins of my micro-memoir project, formerly titled This Is 70: A Life in Micro-Memoirs. The plan? To self-publish on or around my 72nd birthday on February 27, 2026. Over the coming weeks, I’ll share excerpts and updates here, but for now, hop aboard for what I hope will be an exciting ride!
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, here we go:
ESCAPE VELOCITY:
HOW ONE 70-YEAR-OLD PUSH-PULLED HER WAY OUT OF HER
TOO-MUCH-NOT-ENOUGH FAMILY
70 MICRO-MEMOIRS, 70 WORDS EACH
ONE
The Title
A cool term from physics that refers to the minimum speed that one object needs to be traveling in order to break free from the gravitational pull of another object, like a planet or other celestial body, and coast away on its own. We’re talking about kinetic energy, momentum, forward motion. Ever try to leave an enmeshed family? It’s not easy. It took me 70 years.
TWO
The Subtitle
How do you condense complex ideas into digestible word-bits so someone might be curious enough to pick up your memoir from among the piles of other memoirs? My dazzling editor, Michael Lowenthal, suggested we go crazy and long and fun and dense. And voilà.
THREE
The Sub-subtitle
All this time I’ve wondered how would I get in all that 70 stuff? The age thing (solved now), the number of essays, the number of words? Oh, I see! It’s gonna work. I just know it. I’m picturing the cover already.
FOUR
Big Twist: Art!
Speaking of picturing, here’s the best news of all. I have engaged the fabulous artist Anna Hall to create not only the cover and the book’s interior design but to create 70 black-and-white line drawings, one per micro. After seeing her stunning illustration of “Bosom Buddies” (excerpted from my book), which appeared on Short Reads in June, I sent her a thank-you and mused about how incredible it would be to have her illustrate all of them. It was a crazy wish. Now it’s reality.
I’m dying to say more, trust me, but it’s an early, delicate time as we brainstorm ideas. More shall be revealed. But for now, WOW.
FIVE
The Plan
So, check back on Fridays over the next couple of months—in addition to my weekly snippets, I’ll share some sneak-preview pages. As I noted last January in my Brevity Blog essay, “A Macro Micro-Memoir Challenge,” I never set out to write a memoir. I hated the idea. But I love, love, love flash nonfiction and wanted to write a book of snippets. Those snippets morphed into deeper stories and, with Michael’s (and others’) help, it ultimately morphed into a fully formed memoir, arc and all—told in just 4,900 words. Plus titles. Plus art.
So, join me at the launch pad as I fire up the engines on my most ambitious creative project ever.
Dear Readers: Hope you’re enjoying my Substack, where I post five snippets every Friday. I’m keeping a free subscription option for the foreseeable future, but I’d be grateful if you’d lend your support by subscribing ($7/month or $70/year) and sharing. And stay tuned for more publication news for Escape Velocity. Thanks for visiting!
I am so excited for you Debbie!
Congratulations! Sensational project. Glad to be aboard! And I am also loving doing flash, fiction and non.