getting personal

We are having a Sunday afternoon brunch-feast. Scrambled eggs, decaf coffee, ham, the works. Given that it is past 4 now, this may also be our dinner.
Today has been a lovely example of the Spanish proverb, "How beautiful it is to do nothing, then rest afterwards." Actually, I've been stirring in the house, doing the usual Sunday chores, such as laundry. But I haven't had anywhere to go, and the lure of triple-digit temps is nonexistent, so Scooter and I are enjoying a day of cocooning.
This week, I've been dusting off an idea for writing work that has never seemed to quite die, despite my well-intentioned efforts to forget about it. Five years ago, Scooter & I sent the state 10 bucks to take out a trade name for a personal-history business. We renewed it recently.
Personal historians do the stuff that families used to do themselves in the old days: they interview people (often older adults) for a memoir, video biography, or other written/multimedia product that children/siblings/passers-by can enjoy. The advantage of having a stranger do this for you are that they do all the time-consuming dirty work, they help you edit out the boring parts, and are happy to hear your favorite story, since it's new to them.
I was journaling about the sorts of writing I love to do and I realized the reason I could never quite put this one in the trash bin was my love for helping others understand the essence of a person. It's what I like to do when I profile people, and it's what I look for when I'm picking quotes in a story that reveal character. Usually stories from someone's "real-life" are better than any hypothetical situation you could dream up to make a point.
So we'll see how this goes. I've done a lot of preliminary research beforehand. The trick is educating the people who might really like personal history help that such a thing exists, and is worth paying a professional to do (or help with).
I've also got a round of new query ideas simmering. Some of them play off some previous topics I worked on when I did trade magazines. Every trade mag needs stories about how to run a business, and they can be a lot of fun to customize to a particular industry. More on this later.
Dinner will soon be served. Must run!