That's All She Wrote by Joan A’Hearn is a humorous memoir that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever worked for a big corporation where internal politics provided the entertainment and angst.  It will also bring back memories wherever GE has or had a presence.  This is a fast-paced account of what it was like to be the first female hired to write speeches for contenders vying to lead one of the most powerful and profitable companies in the world.  It is also a story of survival in a very masculine Corporate environment populated by eccentric, smart and extremely creative people.  From the "Main Plant" in Schenectady to the corridors of power in Fairfield, Connecticut, That's All She Wrote is entertaining, enlightening and, at times, exasperating.

 

That’s All She Wrote



by Joan A’Hearn

ABOUT JOAN A’HEARN


Joan A'Hearn claims she started writing soon after Guttenberg made type moveable.  Her first paying job was at an advertising agency in New York City and since then she has written articles, speeches, manuals, scripts for multi-media presentations and now a full length creative non-fiction account of her days at GE.  She also has a one-act play and a screenplay in
the desk drawer just waiting for a good kick in the pants to get her to do something with them. 


In the early years Joan was responsible for some of the captions on the Bigelow Carpet ads in the New Yorker Magazine (“A title on the door ...”) as well as copy for Studebaker Lark, Fedders Air Conditioners and Lenox China.  It's just a coincidence that two of those companies went out of business.  While at GE, she produced videos and wrote speeches promoting factory automation, transportation systems, financial services, and the major appliances business. 


After leaving GE in 1987 Joan wrote on a free lance basis for a variety of clients including Xerox, Cadbury, Waldenbooks, Nynex International, Berkshire Life Insurance Co. and Osram/Sylvania.  A short-lived audiovisual joint venture, Green Street Productions, bit the dust after two years.  She then joined the Schenectady Museum where she was marketing director for the GE Hall of Electrical History which  housed the photos, films, technical papers and artifacts salvaged from the GE main plant by the Elfun Society.


Joan is now officially “retired,” but can't seem to stop writing.  She is currently trying to finish a mystery set in Saratoga about thoroughbred racing and to lower her golf score.  She is booking bets on which will happen first.


    Follow Joan on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ajahearn


 

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Print copy available in the New York Capitol District/ Saratoga Springs Region at the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore in Saratoga Springs and the Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady.