As many of you already know, Gerard has completed his memoir spanning the years 1966 to 1968. He started writing his story three years ago, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination.

Gerard can be a great story teller, but story telling doesn’t always translate easily into writing, especially for a dyslexic. Settled at the beach in south India for a month he took over my computer and struggled to learn his way around the keyboard via ‘hunt and peck’. Nevertheless he kept writing with the same dedication he applies to his painting—and his typing improved the more he wrote. (Thank goodness for spell check!) The story and characters that I’d heard came to life. For years, he’d helped me improve my India blog posts, now it was my turn. In those early days in India, I would wake in the middle of the night to the light of the computer and he was sitting up in bed typing away. Back in Boston he continued to write and revise. He learned about the old saying, ‘writing is rewriting’. The last and perhaps most difficult step was the book production. More tedious than writing the story, Gerard said. A professional editor was immensely helpful dealing with formatting, font and Amazon. The book is now available. For more information go to https://gerardwiggins.com/.

A review on Amazon :

“The time period in which this story is based contained some of the most influential and decisive moments in USA history. And, the author is right in the middle of it all. His descriptions of the racial divide and its influence on the jazz scene provides insights that few have experienced. All of this serves as a backdrop of the author’s own life changing maturation. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.”