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unbelievable – Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
In May, Creativity Blooms All Over! Outside my house, my roses have exploded into rich, plate sized blooms! As I look at them, I ponder how amazing they are, having been watered by the winter rains, how much their fallow period contributed to the magnificence of their blooms now. Everywhere there are peach, amber, pink, white, and ruby red blooms. As I pass them and clip them for my vases and to give to my friends, I reflect upon the seasons and how the darkness and the cold are necessary to arrive at the beauty I hold in my hands. So it is with our creative work. There are the fallow, cold, and dark moments that are part of our lives and the cycles of our creativity. During those times, we may despair of ever getting our project done and wonder if our inner critic was right – “my story IS too boring, too much, too dark, too hard.” What I know to be true is that writing is a process, a cycle alternating between quiet and bursting forth of energy, of silence and an abundant flow of words. I know that I must make myself receptive to these cycles, and not give up when the stream seems to be a trickle. Remember that your creativity, even if is resting today, is waiting for you. It has been watered and fed by your memories, your experiences, and that special spark that only you have on this earth. Sit with your journal, and allow your story to bloom. Begin today! 
Weaving the Threads of Story: Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places by Kay Adams DATE: MAY 8, 2008 TIME: 11 am Pacific | 12 noon Mountain | 1 pm Central | 2 pm Eastern Every memoir writer occasionally bumps up against fallow fields, dry wells, or barren plains. When you’re as blank as the page, how do you inspire yourself to write freshly again? Join Kathleen (Kay) Adams, director of the Center for Journal Therapy and a seasoned writing teacher with 23 years’ experience, in this lively, interactive teleseminar in which we will explore five ways to jump-start your memoir writing from the inside out. You’ll learn: * How fresh language can provide the impetus for curious re-engagement * How to use metaphor, image and symbol to jump-start your story These simple yet powerful ideas can transform dullness into delight. There will be time for listener questions and involvement. Come prepared to take notes.
 I am happy to announce that we have booked teleseminars all the way through November, 2008 for NAMW. We are busy finding new experts to address subjects important to memoir writers through 2009. We have extended our pre-launch! Our deadline for joining us at the special prelaunch price is June 30! Here is the list of speakers for 2008: May 8 Kay Adams – Weaving the Threads of Story: Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places Kay Adams, author, therapist, and founder of Journaltherapy.com talks about how to use writing as a healing tool. She will discuss the special techniques she’s developed over the years using writing to help heal trauma, explore memories, and put the past in perspective. www.journaltherapy.com  June 5 Dotsie Bregel – The Power to Create Dotsie Bregel, owner and founder of The National Association of Baby Boomer Women and Baby Boomer Women Speaks, will join us to talk about the immense power of creativity that Baby Boomer Women have, and how they can use this creativity to change their lives and even the world. www.nabbw.com July 10 Joan Gelfand – Submission Strategies for Successful Publication Joan Gelfand will talk about how to submit your work to agents and editors and maximize your chances of being seen, noticed, and published. Joan is the President-Elect of the national branch of the Women’s National Book Association and a published author and poet. www.joangelfand.com August 21 Linda Joy Myers – Writing a Family Memoir Linda will be presenting this important topic with Matilda Butler. Writing a family memoir is a wonderful way to gift your family with a legacy they will always treasure. However, family memoir writers have many questions and arrive at the task with a feeling of responsibility and worry to the project. How to begin, structure and keep writing; truth and lie and family secrets; family dynamics and memoir writing and much more. www.memoriesandmemoirs.com September 18 Matilda Butler – Writing the Collective Memoir 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
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 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 Enjoy the Spring!
  Mother’s Day – is it a day with flowers and celebration for you, or do you dread finding the “right” card, one that Hallmark does not make? People approach Mother’s Day in different ways. Those who had a mother who was there for her, and/or have forgiven their mother for her human shortcomings approach Mother’s Day with more positive feelings than those who didn’t have a mother, had a mentally ill mother, or who had a very conflictual relationship with their mothers.
When I first began Don’t Call Me Mother, I tried to paint a “smoothed over” picture of my own mother, who left when I was four, but for whom I always yearned. I was afraid to put in all the “shameful truths” about how I felt about her, the rage I had toward her abandonment of me and the extreme pain that she kept my existence a secret throughout my life.
When we write about people and subjects that are conflictual for us, it is easy either to idealize the person, avoid the subject, or glow over it with cliches. It truly is a challenge to dig in and write the bare unadorned truth, but as the saying goes, “The truth will set you free.” Now, I enjoy Mother’s Day. I celebrate with my children and my grandchildren, feeling blessed that I am able to feel “normal” finally on this lovely spring day in May.
– Lily Endlich
Explore techniques for writing your spiritual legacy with well-known memoir coaches and authors, Linda Joy Myers and Matilda Butler. Learn to uncover and honor your life story. Recall memories and write from your deep personal feelings in ways that invite spiritual growth. Linda Joy Myers, author of Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story, will help you to find the pleasures and avoid the pitfalls in writing your spiritual memoir. Matilda Butler, author of the collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story, will help you discover how using the five senses in your writing can lead to a better understanding of your personal narrative, your spiritual journey.
Ongoing Groups in Berkeley, CA Thursday Night Women’s Circle Saturday Spiritual Autobiography and Memoir Circle Read more here: http://memoriesandmemoirs.net/category/memoir-writing-classes/
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 NAMW – The National Association of Memoir Writers
Have you been thinking of writing your memoir,
The National Association of 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. National Association of Memoir Writers Membership pre-launch rate is $107.00 (regular rate $127.) I will be interviewing the experts on the live phone teleseminars and having them share their knowledge about memoir writing, publishing, writing skills, plot, inspiration, dreams, spiritual memoir, and the healing power of writing—with much more to come throughout the year. If you join at the special pre-launch price, you will be part of a dynamic new organization connected to others who, like you, are wanting to learn more about how to write a publishable memoir, leave a legacy, or experience the personal satisfaction of writing a personal story. www.namw.org
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Spring is blooming all around, tiny seeds are becoming flowers, Buy a new journal. Write your spiritual autobiography.
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Kathleen Adams LPC, PTR, is a licensed psychotherapist and Director of the Center for Journal Therapy in Denver. She has taught journal writing as a tool for personal growth and creative self-expression for 23 years. She is the author of Journal to the Self, The Write Way to Wellness, Scribing the Soul and three other books. Kay’s memoir writing classes at the University of Denver’s Enrichment Program, where she teaches these techniques, are consistently wait-listed. She is currently writing her first novel.
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.
June 8, 2008
