The Long
Memory
Narrative Legacy & Historical Storytelling
We write books that preserve the history, memory, and identity behind families, places, institutions, and brands.
The Studio
The Long Memory is for people and institutions who believe there is a story worth preserving and need help turning it into a serious book that will ensure the story lives on.
The right time to begin is while the people who remember the story can still tell it.
Who We Serve
You may be:
A family that wants to preserve its history through photographs, stories, and learning lessons for future generations.
A founder or executive who wants to document the story behind a company, career, major achievement, or life's work.
A hotel, resort, or private estate that wants a polished heritage book for guests, owners, VIPs, press, or brand preservation.
A town, village, city, or destination that wants to capture its history, identity, and sense of place during a period of growth, restoration, or change.
What Makes Us Different
The Long Memory creates custom legacy books for families, founders, hotels, towns, businesses, and institutions. We turn interviews, archives, photographs, records, and memory into polished narrative books that can be kept privately, shared publicly, gifted to guests or donors, passed down through families, or preserved as a permanent record of a place, brand, or institution.
"The right time to begin is while the people who remember the story can still tell it."
The Process
How the Process Works
You only need an idea to start: The story, the people, the history, or the belief that something should be preserved.
First Conversation
We discuss the story, the people involved, the audience, the book's purpose, and whether it should be private or public.
Story Plan
We identify the strongest angle, likely chapters, interview subjects, research needs, timeline, and final format.
Research & Interviews
We review documents, photographs, archives, press, records, and background materials. We interview the people closest to the story.
Book Structure
We turn the material into a clear narrative plan with chapters, themes, turning points, and a defined arc.
Writing & Revision
The manuscript is written, revised with the client, and polished for publication.
Final Delivery and Publication
The finished book can be prepared for private circulation, public release, guest gifting, donor use, archival preservation, or publication.
Featured Program
A Program by The Long Memory
For Hotels & Resorts
InnResidence
InnResidence is a program by The Long Memory for hotels, resorts, inns, estates, and hospitality groups with histories worth preserving.
Through the program, an author lives on the property while researching and writing a narrative legacy book about the hotel, its people, its history, and its place within the surrounding culture.
The result is a polished book that the hotel can use as a guest-facing heritage asset, VIP gift, owner gift, press piece, retail item, anniversary book, or permanent expression of the property's identity.
Starting at $85,000 plus residency
Investment
Pricing
Projects begin at $40,000. Each project includes the core work needed to turn interviews, records, photographs, archives, and history into a polished manuscript ready for publication.
Personal Legacy Book
Starting at $40,000
For families, personal memoirs, and private archives.
Founder & Company History
Starting at $40,000
For founders, executives, family businesses, heritage companies, and multi-generational brands.
Hotel & Resort Heritage Book
Starting at $40,000
For historic hotels, resorts, inns, ranches, estates, and hospitality groups seeking a polished brand heritage book for guests, owners, VIPs, press, or long-term preservation.
Town, Village & City History
Starting at $65,000
For towns, villages, cities, downtown districts, tourism boards, and civic organizations seeking a serious narrative history of place, identity, growth, restoration, or reinvention.
Featured Program
InnResidence Book
Starting at $45,000
plus residency
For hotels and resorts that want an author living on the property while writing the book.
Major Historical Project
Starting at $100,000
For larger historical, institutional, civic, family, military, political, or investigative books requiring deeper research, broader interviews, or more complex source material.
The Process
Cillian Dunne
Cillian DunneFounder & Author
The Long Memory was founded by Cillian Dunne, an author and professional ghostwriter whose work centers on history, legacy, memory, and immersive storytelling.
Cillian is the author of The Right Hand Man, a narrative nonfiction book based on his time living in Panama with Manuel Noriega's former right-hand man. His work combines interviews, archives, records, firsthand access, and immersive reporting.
He has also worked extensively as a professional ghostwriter across memoirs, brand stories, local histories, and the legal space, often helping clients turn complicated lives, records, interviews, and institutional memory into clear, lasting narratives.
Cillian created The Long Memory for communities, institutions, and people seeking to preserve the history, identity, and sense of place that define them before those stories are lost.
Featured Program
Begin a Legacy Project
For Hotels & Resorts
The right time to begin is while the people who remember the story can still tell it.
The Long Memory works with a small number of projects each year. We welcome serious enquiries from families, founders, institutions, hotels, and communities.