Author, Interviewer, Family Biographer, Historian
The joy of knowing family members in a new way.
Best Interviewing Tips. Biographies. Family History.
Honor your people by listening to them talk about their important life events and what these moments meant to them.
Explore their memories of the family history and the family members they knew.
Your own memoir
As a seasoned author and biographer, I am also pleased to share insights that will help you organize and write your own memoir.
Conducted via Zoom, we'll discuss techniques to organize your project, assist in your writing, keep you focused, and create a fluid, compelling narrative.
SCHEDULE A SESSION WITH KRISTIN:
storytelling: refocused
My book Storytelling makes an excellent companion to your Family Connection project via Zoom.
With clear, straightforward guidelines, I show you how to choose themes, conduct oral history interviews, craft spellbinding stories, preserve memorabilia, and research specific genealogies.
Order your copy now!
"More info in the 95 pages than other research on genealogy I have done. Steps were clear, straightforward and useful. Shows exactly how to start and pitfalls to avoid."
— Amazon Reviewer, February 2022
Memoirs • Family Histories • Family Stories • Tales of Life Experiences • Recipes
Creating a Lasting Legacy
We live in an exciting time in the history of books, with so many people self-publishing and telling their stories.
Now, in this extraordinary time around the world, with distancing having altered our physical connections, the idea of recording our family histories for future generations has taken on a new urgency.
As a biographer and ghostwriter, I conduct video interviews for those who wish to publish a book or for people who want to save their family stories and histories. I craft narrative accounts from these interviews, adding research to enhance the storyline.
With the use of new technology available to conduct virtual recordings⏤remotely and safely⏤that urgency to tell our stories is now matched by our ability to do so.
I'll be honored to help you get your story told.
Sparking Memories:
Candles & Bare Feet
Candles & Bare Feet
From Kristin:
"A single photo can be so evocative and has the power to surface our memories. For example:
"Of all my childhood photos, this is my favorite. Notice the table setting, with candles. This was our Sausalito digs. My mother was always about proper behavior, proper dinner parties, etc. Her friend came up from L.A. with her two kids. They look like Stepford children in this photo. I had just given myself a haircut. Note the bare feet.
"I was everything not proper in this photo. When I look at it, I think, 'Oh, Mother, it’s going to be a rocky road.' And, indeed it was. I never fit in her mold. Even at the end, after we had worked out our mother-daughter issues, she would still sometimes scold me for being too loud and not wearing the right thing."
At the dining table, Sausalito.
About Kristin
A history of me: my origins, the directions of my career, passions and aspirations. Plus: a healthy dose of Delaplane Trivia.
MEMOIRS
See how my portfolio of work honors and reflects my enthusiasm for capturing people's personal stories.
The Archives
A selection of my writing, including San Francisco Chronicle years, a collection of essays, and some of my certificates.
Kristin's garden in Tucson, 2019.
The universe is made of stories, not atoms. Muriel Rukeyser
The Promise
You know how so many people talk about recording their grandparents and parents to capture the family stories?
Often these realizations come up during the holidays when the family gathers and the stories pour forth. Yet few people take action, much to their regret.
Or perhaps you have reached “seniorhood,” that time when we realize we have a story and are the holders of the family history?
Don’t make the mistake of not being proactive. Take that step today to honor the stories and save the family history.
What about that box in a closet full of family papers and photographs that you have been meaning to go through, but it feels overwhelming and you don’t know where to begin? Yet, when talking about what you would take from the house if there was fire, isn’t it that box?
Now is the time to preserve those special mementos.
Have you tried to put together your genealogy, but find it tedious? Have you attempted to write your family history but get lost with all the dates and census records and feel that the story lacks excitement?
The Commitment
For more than 25 years, I have been committed to helping people capture and preserve memoirs and family stories.
I go way beyond Ancestry.com in my efforts on your behalf. This includes preserving history and personal remembrances that provide unique accounts about events and places and have great historic value.
Don’t procrastinate a day longer. Contact me. The opportunity is now.
The Delaplane Scholarship
“The Delaplane Endowed Fellowship” has been established for the journalism school at University of California at Berkeley in honor and memory of my father, Stanton Delaplane.
Storytelling
In her book, Kristin brings over twenty years of experience to show how to capture stories for memoirs about yourself, someone else in your family, or your ancestors.
MEMOIRS
Kristin partners with Duffy Jennings, her former San Francisco Chronicle colleague, on memoirs, ghostwriting, and family histories.
Books
Kristin's many publications include "as-told-to" biographies and family histories, many of which she's donated to historical societies.