‘An Anecdotal History of Kathleen Doyle’ was a personal project and wedding gift for a friend. It began with the idea that everyone has lead an interesting life, if only we had a little editing. Kathleen became the unwitting candidate when her wedding nearly coincided with her 30th birthday.
I collected 20 submissions from family and friends, including 12 interviews resulting in 818 minutes of audio. Woven together, the book feels like multiple people telling the same story. The final product has nine chapters and 124 book pages.
While Kathleen’s book doesn’t contain any epic battles or famous people, anyone could empathize with the challenges of youth: fraught sibling relationships, the stress of an early career, and friends that last a lifetime.
FYI – The cover was chosen for two reasons: Kathleen has always been a fan of history and period dramas, and its a reference to a story told by her mother about she use to refer to young Kathleen as a little Marie Antoinette.