Kathy Seward MacKay

Former news/documentary photographer, working on memoir about the impact of HIV-contaminated blood. Published work: Dying in Vein: Blood, Deception … Justice.

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

MEMOIR LANE MONDAY: July '97
❤️This sweet moment between my son and a neighbor melts my heart. My husband had just died & for a few seconds, as I framed the picture, I had taken my mind off our loss. My camera has always been my friend in that way.
#amwritingmemoir #aidsmemorial

[Judith Lindbergh @JudithLindbergh]

15 years ago I started teaching a couple of writing classes in my neighborhood. Today, @Writers_Circle is a thriving creative writing community. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!
https://t.co/UbEMD6ErcD

#writingcommunity #writersky #booksky #creativewriting

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@contactrebecca @MerilynSimonds I’m in year seven for my memoir. Although, I didn’t know what I was doing for the first four years. 😳

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@contactrebecca How beautiful!

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

I highly recommend this webinar for emerging writers!

[Allison K Williams @GuerillaMemoir]

Hook, Heighten, Hold: How to Captivate Readers in Your First Pages https://t.co/KPBrXQfkaB

[Gerald Posner @geraldposner]

The success of @trishaposner’s “The Pharmacist of Auschwitz” should be an inspiration to every author who is collecting a stack of rejections from major publishers.

More than 20 publishing houses passed on Trisha’s proposal for the first non-fiction biography of Victor Capesius, the little-known SS officer who was Auschwitz’s chief pharmacist. She had learned about Capesius when we met in 1985 with Rolf Mengele, the only son of the camp’s notorious Angel of Death, Josef Mengele. He told us about how his father had escaped justice after the war and Capesius’s name came up.

“Auschwitz had a pharmacy?” Trisha asked as we walked home. It turned out it was there for the 7,000 guards and SS officers who ran the death machine. And it was the repository for Zyklon B, the poison used to gas more than a million Jews, and phenol, used to kill with injections to the heart.

In between other projects and helping me on my books, it took Trisha years to slowly gather the long-lost archival material needed to write about Capesius.

But there was little interest in her proposed biography. My own New York agent said he could not sell the book. One senior New York editor told Trisha, “The Holocaust is not trending.”

Trisha finally found a tiny UK-based publisher, Crux, and it agreed to issue the book in 2017. There was no advance, no advertising budget, no big newspaper reviews.

But the book drew the attention of other noted WWII writers and historians. Bestselling author @authordlewis said it was “Shocking. Revelatory. Compelling. A truly authentic and riveting read. A milestone in WWII and Holocaust history.”

British historian @aroberts_andrew called it “A harrowing, beautifully written and extremely well-researched account of a little-known aspect of the Holocaust. Patricia Posner’s fine prose style grips from page one, and the horror will stay with you long after you finish the book.”

What happened next is what every author dreams and hopes for: readers passed along the recommendations to their friends. Word of mouth steadily built the sales and nearly a year after it was published, the “The Pharmacist of Auschwitz” broke on to the @WSJBooks bestseller list at #6 and USA Today as well. A wonderful London-based agent, @lblaUK, sold the book to 16 countries for translation rights, where it compiled its own bestseller status time and again.

“The Pharmacist of Auschwitz” is proof that there is no better sales tool for authors than enthusiastic word of mouth from readers.

This day in 1959 is an important one in the book. Victor Capesius was arrested as he arrived to open his pharmacy. He was charged with “carrying out and monitoring, along with the SS doctor Mengele, selections on the ramp, selections in the camp, and managing and delivering the killing agent Zyklon B and phenol.”

It had taken 14 years for Capesius's dark past to catch up with him. Trisha tells a riveting, and previously untold story, of an ordinary man who flourished in the evil of Auschwitz and had almost gotten away with his crimes.

https://t.co/RuovaKuD9b

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@geraldposner @trishaposner Such a fascinating read! Kudos to Trisha for telling the story of this horrific man and others whose disregard for human lives should haunt everyone. Lest history repeat itself.

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@kerryowen1 @theaidsmemorial I am so sorry. ❤️

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

It’s hard to believe Dave’s been gone 27 years. Our sons are grown & thriving. We have a granddaughter on the way. I’m finishing up my memoir. Today, I honor those we’ve lost & those who’ve worked tirelessly to stop the spread of AIDS. #worldaidsday #hemophilia #amwritingmemoir

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@chillsmyname Eternally young.

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

This query-writing webinar is a deal! I have studied with Valerie and she knows her stuff! Sale ends Monday. https://t.co/rLnboBuMm5

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

Hey YOU! I want to talk to you. https://t.co/beavnuWewM

[Valerie Francis @valerie_francis]

A podcast for serious writers (novelists, memoirists, screenwriters) —  Join literary editors and writers, Valerie Francis and Melanie Hill, as they analyz...  #storynerd #writingadvice #writingpodcasts #amwriting #amediting https://t.co/3hm51vut88

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

I just bought Giving Tree Ornament by Kera Sanchez on @buymeacoffee! 🎉

Get it here — https://t.co/JNph5Q3ony

[Lisa McCarty @LBMcCarty717]

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” - Maya Angelou

#writerslift #quoteoftheday #writersoftwitter
#WritingCommunity #womenwriters

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@contactrebecca My whole body is aching! 🥺

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@smerconish @CNN Interesting

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@YvonneLiuWriter You and your story will get there! Slowing down is important. ❤️

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@JudithLindbergh @MiamiBookFair @RegalHouse1 See you there, Judith! ❤️

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@tammy_blakley Revising my ending! Wohoo!

[Kathy Seward MacKay @KathyS_MacKay]

@reneeygraham Thank you, Reneé! I was just griping about media coverage before I read this. You are spot on w/the term "journalist malpractice" and your reference to the former president getting "graded on a curve." His mental stability should be front & center today, as was Biden's age.