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Memories and Memoirs
Toll free: 1-877-ememoir
1-877-363-6647
New E-book Available
My new ebook Memoir Writing as a Healing Journey is available for instant download. Find out more about writing to heal, the value of writing stories and going beyond journaling, and follow the writing invitations to begin your memoir today.
Click Here to Visit the Store
New spring classes
start in April
Two creative and interesting women's organizations I want to share with you
The National Association for Women Writers
From their website:
The National Association of Women Writers (NAWW) was founded in 2001. We have over 3000 members worldwide. We help connect and educate our members through books, CDs, tele-events, physical chapter events and much more. Our weekly newsletter goes out to over 3,000 women writers, editors, and publishers.
- Do you need support from other women writers who share your passion for writing?
- Would you like to start and finish writing your book?
- Do you want to learn from the top writing professionals in the industry every single month via a live teleseminar?
- Would you like to promote for free on our blog?
As a member of the NAWW you can do all this and much more--learn about the NAWW today!
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Napa Valley Autumn
Photo by Linda Joy Myers
How innocent were these Trees, that in
Mist-green May, blown by a prospering breeze,
Stood garlanded and gay;
Who now in sundown glow
Of serious colour clad confront me with their show
As though resigned and sad,
Trees, who unwhispering stand umber, bronze, gold;
Pavilioning the land for one grown tired and old;
Elm, chestnut, aspen and pine, I am merged in you,
Who tell once more in tones of time,
Your foliaged farewell.
- Siegfried Sassoon, October Trees
Biographical note: Siegfried Sassoon, who fought in WWI wrote this beautiful poem. He spent time in a hospital to recover from what now would be called Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Like Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen, Sassoon was one of the major poetic spokesmen against the insanity of that war, and wrote a memoir about it, as well as poems.
Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.
- Elizabeth Lawrence
How to think of a retreat:
A time to re-connect to your Spirit, relax and clear your mind
To withdraw for purposes of meditation and spiritual contemplation.
For the last thirty years, I have loved escaping to the Napa Valley wine country to Calistoga. There I’d be nurtured by the delicious aromas arising from the earth and the vineyards.
I would walk in the vineyards listening to the birds. I’d perch by a stream to watch the water bubble around stones and twigs, taking in the wild chaos of nature. Everything slowed down. I could see what I had missed zipping by on the highway. The shapes and colors of the natural world refreshed me, and I would let go of the stress, opening to my own creative spirit.
The scent of lavender water and the slightly sulfurous mineral and mud baths welcomed me. I’d surrender to the strong hands that massaged me. Then, I’d go to a café to write. The relaxation and mud bath would open up my creativity. I wrote my first published story Calistoga Dreams at Bosco’s.
It is because of these moments of creativity and calm that I offer my retreat in Calistoga.
If you want to invite the muse to whisper in your ear, consider a retreat. And if you like to write and want to explore your creative voice and your life stories, join me in November at my Calistoga retreat.
Please contact me if you have questions. I take credit cards, and there are a couple of scholarship slots available.
writeforlife@comcast.net | 510-524-3898
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.
- Emily Dickinson, Nature 27 – Autumn
Writing Invitations
- Write about autumn—a favorite autumn moment or ritual in your life. Be sure to include sense of smell, taste, and tactile experience.
- What is your best recipe or food memory for fall? Who made it, where were you, and do you make this dish now?
- What rituals do you enjoy in the fall?
- What do falling leaves and darker days mean to you?
Writing from the body
When you write emotional material, it helps to center yourself into the time, place, and physical space of your narrator. Or if you are writing close to the inside of the body and through the eyes of yourself as a younger version than yourself, it is important to “embody” yourself at that time and place.
Writing from a memory, bodily or mental means putting yourself into the movie of your memories. It’s like a meditation, a focused entry into the point of view of you—the main character of the memoir.
- Choose a particular age from which to write through the eyes of you at that time. Visualize yourself at that age—the size of your hands, feet, arms and legs. The clothes you wore, the style of shoes, hair etc.
- Use “I” in present tense.
- Write a scene of a significant memory that has stayed with you all your life.
- Be IN the scene—give us colors, smells, sounds, and the feeling of a specific time and place.
- Write about your bodily reactions to something that changes or upsets you or moves you in the scene.
- Does this scene have a resolution? If it does, write it. How does your body change?
Setting as character
When you write about people, the action takes place at a certain time and in a certain place. It is important to sense and feel that time and place as part of the verisimilitude of the story, the things that make the reader enter into what John Gardner calls “the fictive dream.” He was talking about fiction creating a whole world. As memoir writers we see our story from within as well as through a movie camera, creating a “memory dream”, if you will. Through your choice of words, you can recreate a time and a place, bringing it to life in your story.
- Write about the town you grew up in; the neighborhood; the state. Its physicality, geography, colors, weather. Habits, significant attitudes.
- Make weather a character in a scene.
- Start with a sunny day, then bring in emotional change or shock. Show how the humidity, the feel of the wind or rain or sun helps to show a change in mood so you bring it alive in the scene without “telling” us about it.
- Show landscape, details such as city vs. country, smells, tastes, sounds, kinesthetic sense of the world.
Harvesting Your Wisdom Writing Retreat
Linda Joy Myers, Retreat Leader
Dr. Wilkinson’s Hideaway Cottages
November 7-9, 2008
$370 (15% discount if you sign up before October 20)
Credit cards accepted; Scholarship slots available
CEU credits for therapists
writeforlife@comcast.net | 510-524-3898
www.memoriesandmemoirs.com
Autumn: the earth releases its fruits into harvest
turning toward silence and reflection.
Take the time to hear your inner, wise voice,
Find a place to write from the center of yourself.
Writing your stories allows you to weave your past,
present, and future selves into who you are now
Listen to the small, certain voice within
Listen to your stories as they emerge from your wise self
Immerse yourself in your memories. Explore your life and the meaning of your history. Our retreat gives you time to focus on your deepest being and capture the stories that have shaped you. You will be received with full presence and unconditional acceptance. Visualizations, memory exercises, drawing, and group sharing open up the well of stories for you to draw from. You will leave with several new stories, a timeline, and future writing plans. The retreat is inspirational and provides a safe place for you to explore.
During the retreat there will be time for mud baths and walks, individual writing time, and consultation with Linda about your work. Wineries and wine tasting are minutes away. Contact Linda for more about the weekend schedule, food, housing, and enrollment details.
My deepest appreciation to you for helping me unlock my subconscious....and get it down on paper....it has helped me so much. A. McGrath
It's been quite a journey. The writing and the space you create has had a profound effect on my life and my healing. Lily Endlich
Therapists
These online courses offer you valuable CEU units.
Stay at home, write, and earn CEU units for your license.
New Courses, Special Introductory Prices
Jumpstart Your Story: 3 Units $59 | Add to cart
How to begin your stories. Beginning is often the most challenging, but with Linda’s guidance you will find yourself starting the stories you have always meant to write. Writing invitations stimulate your creativity and take you into the heart of your life.
Childhood Stories Part I: 4 Units $75 | Add to cart
Writing about the childhood memories that shaped you. Guided exercises help you to explore your roots, and find a deeper understanding of yourself and your family.
Childhood Stories Part II: 4 Units $75 | Add to cart
More stories from childhood. Learn how to balance the light and the dark stories.
Both Childhood courses: 8 units $135 | Add to cart
Writing Your Spiritual Journey 7 units $135 | Add to cart
Writing the soul’s journey through guided exercises and questions.
A unit is a lesson, and a week’s worth of writing. The course includes sending stories to Linda by email, and phone sessions are scheduled bi-weekly to maximum support and learning. These courses are geared to help therapists earn their continuing education units, but anyone may enroll in one of these courses.
Writing your stories is a great opportunity to explore your own path and as a tool for self-development. In addition, writing your own stories will give you a foundation for using story writing as a healing tool with clients. The articles and handouts about writing and healing teach you about the powerful healing process presented in Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story and in the CD “Write a Healing Memoir.” Explore legacies, family rules and patterns through writing your stories of early childhood and family.
 I am a certified CEU provider # 1918
Contact me if you want to create your own CEU course.
Are You Ready to Start Your Memoir?
510-524-3898 | writeforlife@comcast.net
… your work emphasizes writing as healing but I also want to say that there is another side to it for those who maybe do not need healing as much.
Your class could be called “Writing as Cherishing.” I really feel that for me, the dual process of going back and reliving moments in my life and trying to paint a picture of those moments with words to tell my story to the group is making me cherish my life in a way that I never did before. I find that this kind of writing to be spiritual and grounding. There is a kind of magic that happens in memoir writing. By going into the past, I feel more rooted, content, and awake in the present. --Laura Singh
 New Products at NAMW.org to help you with your memoir writing!
Click here to view the NAMW store!
There is a growing national and international memoir community where writers need support solving the difficult questions about how to write a memoir, how to have a successful writing life, and keys to the path of successful publication.
Memoir writers have other needs too: encouragement to listen to the stories that whisper in their ears, guidance about taming the inner critic, and coaching for the ways that memoir is a healing path toward self-realization and freedom of expression.
Visit www.namw.org to see the long list of membership benefits and learn more about us.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive a download of your free e-book: Begin Your Memoir Today!
Pre-Halloween Membership Discount:
From now until midnight on October 16 you can join NAMW for a very special discount at $97.00 -- $30.00 off the original annual price of $127.
To avail of this special discount, click here and enter the
Coupon Code: october08special if you want to join us at
the National Association of Memoir Writers.
 Being in the space you create has helped me a LOT. I find that I'm getting braver and braver. Sometimes I think: what the hell, might as well say it, what's there to hide or protect? No matter how difficult it seems, after I write it / read it / share it, I discover that the telling of it blows it wide open. There's no going back to the closed-in, closed-up feeling of "nursing" the wound in my own little corner.
- Lily Endlich
Current Events
Ongoing Groups in Berkeley, CA
Summer classes have begun, and fall classes in the local San Francisco Bay Area will be listed soon. Check here for more.
Thursday Women’s Memoir Circle
September 11 to December 4 | $380
Each week women of all ages meet to write and talk about stages in women’s lives—childhood memories, careers, love and family, and spiritual quests. The writers use poetry and prose to capture memories and to explore the richness of their lives. We write about important turning points--the lighter, humorous moments along with the dark nights of the soul. There is laughter and a few tears, and most of all the witnessing of our stories, an important component of healing and moving into the future. Women of every age learn from each other's experiences; everyone inspires each other to keep writing insightful and thoughtful true stories.
You will learn how to choose your scenes, how to use fictional tools, and ways to keep the inner critic at bay. We write during class, and share our work in a supportive atmosphere.
Saturday Spiritual Autobiography and Memoir Circle
September 13 to December 6 | $370
Read more here: http://www.memoriesandmemoirs.com/classes.html
Being witnessed to by all the group as I read my stories is one of the most powerful writing methods I've ever known. Linda knows how to provide a writing atmosphere that nurtures each one in the group. Non-competitive, only support and non-judgmental acceptance flows.
-- Allene Hickox
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