Previously published in Sun Newspapers, Let’s Go! Entertainment section, December 28, 2011. We thank them for permission to reprint.

Memories Can Lead To ‘Doorways’

By McClaren Malcolm

Sun Correspondent

Were you ever offered a penny for your thoughts; how about $50 for your memories? That’s what “Doorways,” a memoir magazine, sponsored by Senior Friendship Centers, pays. Part-time and fulltime residents of Sarasota and Manatee counties can submit their life stories to “Doorways” which is published annually.

        Writing memoirs may lead to a writing career as it did for Madonna Dries Christensen.

        Christensen, editor of “Doorways,” did not start out with a life goal to write. However she did have a strong interest in family history. On her first attempt writing a family-history essay, her effort was published. While getting published seemed easy, it wasn’t to last. Subsequent attempts came up dry.

        At that point, Christensen, now motivated by her early success and desire to record family history, “took writing classes, attended seminars, read writers’ magazines” and most importantly, wrote daily.

        “I learned that rejection comes with the territory; it’s not the end of the line. It’s the opinion of the editor, who, for one or more reasons, can’t use your work. I learned that the best way to learn to write well is to write.”

        Gradually she built a body of published works. Christensen says, I began to think “of myself as a writer.” She had developed a nose for story and grit to see it through to publication. As an example of how far she has come with her writing, no other author came up with the true story about a swindler who conned J. Edgar Hoover. This book of intrigue is entitled “Masquerade.”

        Her book, “Swinging Sisters” is equally unusual with a surprise ending creative nonfiction account of an all-girl band in the ‘30s. “The Texas Rangerettes,” so accomplished, they got regular billing in Variety, Billboard and space in Time Magazine.

        In all, her work is published in five books, many e-books, and family histories. Her fiction and nonfiction are printed in more than 100 publications. A three-time Pushcart nominee with many other awards for her writing, Christensen’s greatest enjoyment comes from writing life history and memoir. “That’s how and why I became associated with ‘Doorways.’”

        For a dozen years, Christensen has been at the helm of “Doorways” as editor, assisted by Barbara Celnar, Senior Friendship liaison, Contributing Editor Lindsay Peterson of Tampa Tribune, and Contributing Editor E.P. Ned Burke, publisher of “Yesterday’s Magazette” and “Writer’s Magazette.”

        She likens her writing journey to something her father told her when she was a child. She worked with him on a used jigsaw puzzle. Christensen complained that the shopworn box had no picture of the finished puzzle to guide her. Her dad said, “We’ll keep at it, piece by piece, and the picture will appear.” Those words she remembers and uses as a guide to keep herself writing.

        Christensen recalls. “I now view” my dad’s good words about the puzzle revealing the picture piece by piece “as a metaphor for life; we live it piece by piece, unsure until the last what the picture will be. By this time in my life, most of the pieces have fallen into place. Memoir helps me understand and acknowledge the past and the present. Memoir is the most valuable gift I can give my” family.

Check out www.doorwaysmemoirs.com for writing tips, a mini-course in writing, and submission guidelines. Writers whose stories are accepted for publication in “Doorways” will each earn $50. Submissions will be accepted beginning after the first of the new year.Fans of Christensen follow her work online at www.madonnadrieschristensen.com