From Pie Lady to Memoirist: A Writing Journey
Vickie Hardin Woods spent more than three decades as a city planner—someone who takes chaos and turns it into something manageable. It turns out that’s also a pretty good description of what memoirists do.
After retiring as the director of a 100-employee local government department in Salem, Oregon, Vickie channeled her planner’s instincts into two unlikely projects: baking and giving away a pie every single day for a year, and hiking with the same circle of women friends across 35 years. Both became books. And both found their footing, in part, right here in the book inc community, where Vickie worked through the Book Revision Lab and the Memoir Incubator before continuing her writing life with Project Write Now classes.
Earlier this year, The Guardian featured Vickie’s year of pie baking—and that coverage helped her land a literary agent for her pie memoir. We sat down with Vickie to talk about writing, reinvention, and what it means to finally decide your story is worth telling.
You came to memoir writing after a full career as a city planner—and with not one but two compelling stories to tell: Six Women Alone, about 35 years of hiking with a group of women friends, and Pie by Pie, a memoir about your year of baking and giving away pies. What made you realize these experiences were books worth writing?
VICKIE: I started Six Women Alone because I wanted a record of our adventures, and I couldn’t convince anyone else in our group to write it. I wrote up one experience. And then another. Then another. Eventually, it was apparent there was a bigger picture: one about friendship and endurance over time. It was supposed to be just for us, but as I wrote and thought about what it meant to have such good friends, I realized what a gift it was. It was a story worth sharing.
Pie by Pie was always in the back of my head. Baking a pie every day and giving it away was such an adventure, and it seemed to catch the imagination of others. I knew from the beginning it would be more marketable. I just wondered if I had the skill to write it well.
You worked through book inc’s Book Revision Lab and then the Memoir Incubator. What did those programs give you that you couldn’t have gotten working on your own?
VICKIE: It is hard… HARD, HARD, HARD to write a whole book. There were many times I wondered how I ever thought I could do it. Of course, there’s the skill of putting just the right words together, but more than that, there’s the organization, the research, and the work of creating a cohesive storyline. I had a huge whiteboard covered with colored Post-it notes as I tried to figure out where everything went. And it’s lonely, all in your own head. I went to a one-day seminar on memoir at my local library and learned so many helpful tips; it was obvious that some education would be valuable. I took an online class from a writer in Ireland. It was helpful, but the feedback was minimal. When I heard about Memoir Intensive at Project Write Now, I worried that I wouldn’t be good enough, but I really needed feedback and support. I submitted pieces of Six Women Alone and received such positive support and useful suggestions that I kept signing up. I finally finished the first draft (it took about three years). Jennifer Chauhan, the teacher, suggested I check out the Book Revision Lab. It was exactly what I needed. A group of people who all had a first- or second-draft.
When I mailed my first draft to my pod, it was the first time I’d shared it. It felt like I’d sent my firstborn off to college. I was on vacation in Alaska when my turn for review came up. I remember sitting on an unfamiliar hotel bed, tears streaming down my cheeks, listening to their comments and realizing they got it, that they truly understood what I was trying to say. After that, I was hooked. I took another Book Revision Lab to gather more reader response. When I started Pie by Pie, there was no question I would sign up for the Incubator.
Earlier this year, The Guardian ran a feature about your pie-baking year, and it led to a literary agent. Can you walk us through what happened? What was it like to see your story in a publication like that, and then to have an agent come calling?
VICKIE: Like so many of these stories, it was a long and involved process. The agent didn’t really come calling out of the blue. Almost three years ago, just as I finished Six Women Alone, I attended a Writer’s Conference in Portland, Oregon, only an hour from my home. It was the first one I’d ever been to. I felt like such an imposter; I hardly spoke to a soul, but I signed up (and paid a small fee) for eight minutes with three agents. One of them told me outright that there was no market for memoirs, but the two others were very kind, and one of them, Anjanette Barr, said she’d like to read Six Women Alone. I sent it to her right away. She got back to me about a month later with a very kind rejection. I wrote her back, thanked her, and told her I was working on another project, and sent her a link to a TEDx talk I had given on my year of pie baking. About two months later, she sent me a note saying she and her daughter had watched the talk and that she would be interested in the manuscript when I finished it.
Both the TEDx talk and The Guardian prompted me to respond to a call for applications to participate. The Guardian writes a twice-monthly column about people in retirement, and they were looking for stories, so I responded. A year later, I’d forgotten all about it when the reporter called. I waited anxiously for the story to come out. I knew what it was going to say because the reporter had asked me for comments and corrections. I scrambled to finish the third draft of Half Baked Retirement, even though I didn’t feel ready, because I wanted to send it as a query to agents when I had that publicity behind me. I notified Anjanette right away and sent her the link to the story. I got an immediate response from her. She read the manuscript within a week and said she was interested in representing me.
After The Guardian article, I got a call from an agent/producer in England who had read it and was interested in the rights to a film version. I checked her out carefully and found she was legitimate. It was fun to talk with her about how she might approach selling a film version, but I decided to stick with the literary agent first and then deal with any further offers after that. More than the money, more than the notice, what I really want is a printed copy of my manuscript in my hands. Isn’t that what we all want?
What does it feel like to be pursuing publication at this stage of life? Is there anything about coming to this work later that feels like an advantage?
VICKIE: It is a definite advantage to have so much perspective at this stage of life. I have the time, inclination, and patience with myself to write. As you age, understanding what has influenced you, what you have done, and what it means becomes increasingly important.
What advice would you give to another book inc writer who is sitting with a big life experience and wondering whether it’s “enough” to become a memoir?
VICKIE: Everyone has a story, and it’s yours to tell. I’ve heard so many compelling stories in the memoir classes I’ve taken. Life experiences are all we have. They have to be enough. With my story, whether it is ever published or not, it was important for me to tell it. Writing a memoir requires a depth of examination that brings understanding in a way I had experienced before.
What’s next for you?
VICKIE: There are many more steps to publication and a lot more work to do, so I’ll be spending time on that.
Just as I was starting to write Six Women Alone, my family bought me a Storyworth subscription. It asks a question about your life every week. You respond in writing, and they compile a book at the end. I got sidetracked by my two memoirs, but now I feel I owe it to the family to finish it.
And I’ll keep up my weekly PWN Writers class, Memoir Intensive, because there’s always a story to tell.