A prompt book is not a biographer
Isolated questions produce isolated answers. A private biographer has to remember, follow, and wait.
ReadJoan’s Journal
Notes on memory, listening, and the stories between us.
Written by the people building Joan, not by Joan. The pieces are short, practical, and meant to be useful whether or not you ever start a membership.
Nothing enters the archive without approval
Approval is a gate, not a courtesy. What that actually means for a family.
ReadHow to preserve a parent’s stories without giving them homework
A practical guide to making family storytelling feel like a conversation, not an assignment.
ReadQuestions you’ll wish you had asked your parents
Not a list to rush through—an invitation to the ordinary details that make a life recognizable.
ReadRecording a conversation is not permission to copy a voice
Joan records so a story can be checked. That agreement does not create a synthetic voice, and it never will by accident.
ReadThe archive is the product, not the book
A printed book is one way to hold a life. The thing worth building is the private record it comes from.
ReadWhat makes a life story sound like the person who lived it
Why the pauses, phrases, humor, and small contradictions matter as much as the facts.
ReadThe first chapter
The first conversation is free.
One call, one finished story, the recording it came from, and no card. Join the families helping shape Joan’s first chapter.