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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.
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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!
The National Association for Baby Boomer Women
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Lord, it is time.
The summer was very big.
Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows
let the winds go loose.
Command the last fruits that
they shall be full;
give them another two more southerly days,
press them on to fulfillment
and drive the last sweetness
into the heavenly wine.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Back to School Days
This week I walked with my grandson to his kindergarten where he munched on a cookie along with all the other kindergarteners, and listened intently to the principal explain what will be his new life. I doubt he really understood all of it, but I was impressed at how well he listened while other kids squirmed and shifted in their seats. The smell of the classrooms, the paper, paste, letters on the walls, and easels reminded me of what I used to love: going to school!
Many of us love shopping for school supplies even now. Back then, I’d inhale the different notebooks and books, sniff at the paint at the easels, check out the aroma of pens and pencils, erasers and chalk. The desks smelled of wood and varnish as did the cork floors in the schools I attended. The sensual experience of school was inseparable from the sound of chalk scratching across the board, the rustle of petticoats and scraping of shoes. And then there was the way the world opened up though books, maps, and art.
Going to Staples and Office Depot now does not quite replicate the experience of Woolworths or the corner store for finding supplies, but I enjoyed this week seeing the mothers and children choosing all the supplies to start the brand new year! My grandson got a new Thomas the Train backpack, along with other supplies. I bought new paper for my printer, a new cartridge and some pens. I always have to buy pens. To be a writer, we do have to have supplies—and we must keep our equipment going so we can seamlessly transfer brilliant ideas to the page, whether it is the computer page or the hand written page.
Enjoy the beginning of a new autumn of learning through workshops, retreats, and teleseminars available through your local authors, or through my offering here and at NAMW. (www.namw.org)
Musings about your school days and Writing Life
- What smells, sounds, and rituals are in your memory bank about starting school in September?
- Write about what you did to prepare for the first days of school and your feelings about school.
- What teachers do you still remember, and why do you still think of them now?
- School was often a mixture of positive and negative experiences for most of us. What was the best thing about school for you? The worst?
- Write scenes about these topics—with dialogue, setting, smells, sounds, and action. See how putting yourself into the scene again as that child feels to you, and how different it is than if you simply narrate your story.
Tips for getting your stories onto the page
- Write brief stories, vignettes, regularly—at least once a week.
- Don’t spend a lot of time wondering where to start. Just jump in and write a vignette. Start anywhere.
- Be willing to learn from the story about who you are and what you think. Writing just flows from the end of our pens, if we allow it to.
Write from photos or even magazine pictures that speak to you, that give you a special feeling of reminiscence or even longing. When you write from a feeling, you have a jumpstart into your story.
- Your stories can be written in the tone of letters to a friend, telling them about your experience. Paint a picture on the page of what you remember.
New Teleseminars for NAMW
I am happy to announce that we have booked teleseminars all the way through December, 2008 for NAMW. We are busy finding new experts to address subjects important to memoir writers through 2009. We are growing each month, and the members appreciate our efforts to offer something special, the monthly teleseminars, that help them in very specific ways to learn new things about memoir writing.
The next few months will bring new information that members will receive by download and then a CD sent at the end of the month.
Featured Teleseminar this month
 Writing the Collective Memoir: Matilda Butler
September 18, 2008 | 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Matilda Butler will talk to us about the collective memoir, a weaving together of different threads of stories written by many different people. Matilda will draw upon her own experience writing Rosie’s Daughters, the compilation of over 100 stories by women she interviewed interspersed with archival photographs and published memoirs to create a tapestry of voices that deepen our understanding of how women’s lives changed and evolved since WWII. (www.womensmemoirs.com)
Here is the list of speakers for 2008:
October 16 Martha Alderson - Plot for Memoir Writers
Marta Alderson, author of Blockbuster Plots, will help memoir writers learn about the backbone of a book - its structure - and the kinds of tools that help create a vibrant and publishable memoir. www.blockbusterplots.com
October 23 - Free 2008 National Association of Memoir Writers Telesummit
Writing and Publishing your Memoir Writing a memoir requires endurance, dedication, and hours of introspection into your life journey. To stay the course and become a published author, you need skills, inspiration, and knowledge.
This is the very first telesummit especially for memoir writers! Click here to learn more and REGISTER FOR FREE.
November 13 Denis LeDoux - Memoir Writing as Myth Making/Meaning Making
When we write memoir, we necessarily select to write this rather than that (not being able to include all). This selective detailing inevitably produces a fiction, but a fiction that is attempting to be true to a lived life. In this tele-class, Denis LeDoux will outline a process by which memoirists bring the fiction making element under control through understanding the myth-making process--which creates meaning and underscores the important themes in our lives and our memoir.
Denis LeDoux is the author of Turning Memories into Memoirs and other texts on memoir writing. Visit his wonderful rich website www.turningmemories.com
December 11, 2008 Jerry Waxler - Four Stages of Memoir Writing—Challenges and Strategies
Writing a memoir sounds daunting if you think of it as a single task. One way to get your arms around it is by breaking it down into parts. In this presentation, Jerry Waxler will show you how to look at memoir writing in stages, what the challenges are at each stage, and suggestions for overcoming them. www.memorywritersnetwork.com
And much more in 2009! Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Join us for the
National Association of Memoir Writers
FREE conference event in October!!
The National Association of Memoir Writers First Telesummit
A telesummit is a conference by phone.
October 23, 2008
11 AM - 5 PM PST
Downloadable Workbook
included for FREE
Writing and Publishing your Memoir Writing a memoir requires endurance, dedication, and hours of introspection into your life journey. To stay the course and become a published author, you need skills, inspiration, and knowledge.
We know that we can learn more about writing and publishing by attending conferences, which are great fun and stimulating. But now it is possible to attend a conference from the comfort of your home, on the telephone. Furthermore, it is FREE! To attend a telesummit, all you need to do is to call in on the number you receive after registration and join us.
At our first NAMW we are hosting the following great speakers and topics:
 [11:00am] Building Your Brand through Writing your Book - Sheri McConnell
As you begin to publish your work, you will discover that agents and publishers are looking for writers who have a “platform” and a way to market themselves for the most appeal to a larger audience. Don’t let this language scare you!
Read More
 [12:15pm] The Path to publishing—Traditional vs. Self-Publishing, and Everything in Between - Dan Poynter
Entering the world of publishing can seem daunting for someone who has been sitting at a computer for years alone, writing. There is so much to learn about—finding an agent, how the publishing world works, and how to makes one’s way through the maze.
Read More [2:25pm] Injecting Emotion into a Memoir Plot - Martha Alderson
Martha Alderson, an expert on plot and structure and the author of Blockbuster Plots, will present a special topic at our telesummit—Infusing Emotion into a Memoir Plot.
Read More  [1:30pm] How to Make Yourself Irresistible to any Agent or Editor
Every writer needs to know about how the publishing process works, which includes learning about agents—what they do, how you can get their attention, and how they intersect with the publishing community.
Read More [4:00pm] Developing Voice and Theme in Your Memoir and Personal Essay - Sheila Bender
How do writers approach writing meant to discover and share the shape of their experience? How can we approach our writing in a way that allows us to evoke our unique way of observing, remembering, and putting events and perceptions together to find insight? How do we write the way Robert Frost advised: “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader” (even if we are writing funny, by the way)?
Read More
This is the very first telesummit especially for memoir writers!
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!
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.
Mendocino CA.
 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
 Five Secrets to Writing a Publishable Memoir
Audio link with free PDF transcription: $27.00 | Add To Cart
CD and Downloadable
PDF: $37.00 | Add To Cart
Writing a memoir is a journey into the heart of your own life and story. This adventure demands many things of the memoir writer–to investigate the nature of memory, to explore the emotional as well as the history of a time, a place, and the personal life of a family. It is also a journey into the business of publishing–which can seem daunting indeed. [ Learn more ]
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