Or what about time that your little sister. . .?

Or how about time that your mom was making. . .and burned the. . .?

You probably have hundreds of these stories tucked away in your memory. Perhaps you've even thought that someday you would like to write about them. There's only one problem. "I don't know where to start — I wouldn't know what to write," you think to yourself.

One simple technique that will help you recall those stories and put them into written form is called "clustering," which is featured in a book titled Writing Natural Way by Gabriele Lusser Rico (copyright 1983; J.P. Tarcher, Inc.)

Whether you are aiming for publication or whether you just want to write down your stories for your children and grandchildren isn't important. The technique will help you to recall your life stories.

Materials needed: several sheets of paper; a pen or a pencil.

1. Find a comfortable place that's quiet where you can work for 15 to 30 minutes without being interrupted (kitchen table; desk in your office; easy chair in your living room).

2. Think of a subject that is meaningful for you, such as Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, Easter, New Year's Day. Other possibilities include birthdays, a beloved pet, a best friend, an older brother or sister, a younger brother or sister, a cousin, grandmother, grandfather, your mom or dad, a neighbor who was like a mother/father/grandmother/grandfather. Additional possibilities could include an enjoyable hobby, such as growing flowers, vegetable gardening, baking cookies, baking cakes, making candy, or sewing.

3. Write subject that you have selected in center of one of sheets of paper and then circle it.

4. Draw a line with an arrow from your central word. Put it wherever it feels "right" to you. Up or down. Left or right. At an angle. Fill in point of arrow. Filling in arrow will give your brain a few seconds to make connection to next word or phrase associated with your subject. The basis of whole exercise is to allow your left brain and right brain to work together (to coordinate analytical and creative).

The newsletter, which officially began as a monthly publication in January 2004, is written and published by LeAnn R. Ralph, author of books, "Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)" (trade paperback; August 2003) -- "Give Me a Home Where Dairy Cows Roam" (trade paperback; October 2004) -- "Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Interviewing Family Members and Writing Oral Histories)" (e-book; April 2004).

Each newsletter contains a story related to some aspect of author's childhood growing up on a small family farm or author's experience of living in a rural area today. The newsletter also includes several recipes each month, as well as notes about author's experiences over past month, suggestions to check out certain blog entries for other good stories, opportunities for "sneak previews" of Ralph's next book project, and occasionally, opportunities to sign up to win free copies of Ralph's books.

"It's tremendous fun to write newsletter," Ralph said. "Before I started sending out a monthly publication in January of 2004, I sent out stories from time to time for at least a year before that."

According to conventional Internet marketing wisdom, newsletters should be published daily or weekly. Ralph decided to publish her newsletter monthly.