Our Longreads Member Pick: ‘My Family Tree, in Black and White,’ by Dionne Ford

This week’s Member Pick is “My Family Tree, in Black and White,” a new personal essay by Dionne Ford and More magazine. The below story comes from the magazine’s September issue, which is not yet online. We’d like to thank Ford and More for sharing it with the Longreads Member community.

Read an excerpt here.

Become a Longreads Member to receive the full ebook.

Source: More Magazine
Published: Sep 24, 2013
Length: 10 minutes (2,562 words)

How I Lost $500,000 for Love

A writer looks back on her costly mistakes—blowing a generous book advance while pursuing a relationship with a married man:

“I was 27 the year my first novel sold for half a million dollars. During the three years I spent writing the book, I’d gotten by on next to nothing, eating ramen noodles for dinner and living in a rented apartment in Colorado over what may or may not have been a meth lab. I had $10,000 in credit card debt and $30,000 in student loans, and the most I’d ever earned in a single year was $15,000. Half a million dollars, I remember thinking, was more money than I could spend in a lifetime.

“I’d never had money before, and now that I did, I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. I met with bankers and accountants, strangers in suits who helped me divvy my new money into the kinds of accounts I hadn’t known existed, for purposes I hadn’t ever thought about: a CD for the significant chunk I would owe in taxes; a health savings account (HSA) to cover the deductible on the medical-insurance policy I could finally afford; an IRA to protect a portion of the money for the unimaginable day when I would need it to live on. Afterward, they would shake my hand and congratulate me on my success: I was making such good choices with my money!”

Author: Aryn Kyle
Source: More Magazine
Published: Mar 12, 2013
Length: 7 minutes (1,790 words)