Have you ever wanted to share your life story in a memoir? To get some tips, we caught up with Jon Reiner–the author who teaches Mediabistro’s upcoming Memoir Writing course.

Reiner discussed the back story behind his award-winning memoir, The Man Who Couldn’t Eat, along with advice for writing a great memoir. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

Q: What advice do you have for others who want to write their own memoir?
A: Figure out the story first and test it with a trusted, critical reader or editor. Is the story compelling enough to keep a reader interested? That’s the first test and you can’t fudge it. If you believe the story can work, begin to write in a scene structure to avoid falling into the confessional diary pattern. If you find that it’s moving and scenes are begetting scenes, keep going.

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Stephen King’s longtime editor Nan Graham has been promoted to publisher and senior VP of Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint.

Graham has spent 18 years at the imprint, working with authors that included Don DeLillo, Miranda July, Frank McCourt, Annie Proulx, and Colm Toibin. Scribner Publishing Group president Susan Moldow had this statement in the release:

“As if Nan hadn’t amply proven how deserved this promotion is by her firm hand in shaping the list and staff and insuring the growth of the Scribner imprint over the last eighteen years, her performance of late surely demonstrates that she continues to exercise her singular editorial instincts, abilities, and leadership qualities at the highest levels.”

Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” is in declining health.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, the 78-year-old retired teacher suffers from skin cancer melanoma, and was recently moved to a hospice. The author had been treated at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering, but fell ill while traveling.

Here’s more from the article: “He recently made his first venture into children’s books with ‘Angela and the Baby Jesus,’ based on an incident from the childhood of his mother Angela. In an interview at the end of 2007 he said that he was in the middle of writing his first novel, and was also planning a book for teenagers.”