Celebrating a Milestone on My Memoir Writer’s Journey~ My Second Blogaversary

Photo Credit: Celebration Balloons uploaded from Flickr “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius,power and magic in it.” Goethe It was December,2009 and I had just returned from the Writer’s Digest Editor’s Intensive  weekend in Cincinnati where Editors, Jane Friedman,Alice Pope and Chuck Sambuchino had promoted the idea of social media-facebook,twitter and blogging- as an expectation for anyone interested in publishing. Although I (naively) scoffed at the idea during the sessions, I found myself pondering their messages for weeks after the conference. One day I sat at my desk,sifting through some papers when I came across the above quote. That did it. I took the plunge, which at the time felt like a blind...

Posted by on Dec 14, 2011 in Author Platform, Celebrating a Milestone, Hope Matters, Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing, The Writing Life | 48 comments

Jewels of the Journey:Finding Sacred Moments in Memoir Writing

“The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information,but to face sacred moments.” Abraham Heschel This weekend I had the privilege of attending an amazing creative writing workshop ,“Untying the K(nots) That Bind” by visionary author and dynamic speaker,  Jan Phillips. It was held in New York City and sponsored by  Heather Summerhayes Cariou, author of Sixty-Five Roses, a Sister’s Memoir and founder of the Fireheart Writer’s Institute. For two magical days, Jan gently but firmly guided our group of five women into our own inner spaces to pull out snippets of memories of the people,places and things that had shaped our lives. Through writing prompts, rituals, visualizations and sharing our...

Posted by on Aug 26, 2011 in memoir-writing, The Writing Life, Transformation | 14 comments

Guest Post: “Eternal Hope”

“THEY CONQUER WHO BELIEVE THEY CAN.” John Dryden I am thrilled to feature fellow writer and Dan Blank’s Build Your Author Platform course classmate, Pat McKinzie, as a guest blogger this week on the topic of how hope has mattered in her life. When we share our stories of hope, we are all enlightened and enriched. I know you will be inspired by her words. Eternal Hope Autoimmune illness requires chronic courage.In my travels as an international athlete, teacher and coach in Germany, France and Switzerland, I once stood on the Acropolis, climbed the Eiffel Tower, swam off the shores of Crete and dined in Venice’s Doges Palace, but my dream holiday wish remains the same– I long for a vacation from my body. I am the face of the mysterious...

Posted by on May 6, 2011 in Faith | 12 comments

“Muse” Alert

“IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN ON THE CORNER OF WRITER’S BLOCK AND MAIN, TAKE A WRITE.” Matthew  Koceich from  a Christian Writers Guild blog, Just Write:Building Stories Out of Writer’s Blocks We’ve all been there. We can’t help ourselves. We love to write and you’ll find us jotting frantic messages on napkins,  used envelopes, scraps of loose papers, anything we can get our hands on to get our ideas down in written form.  We’ll be at train stations, in  grocery stores, sitting in waiting rooms and at traffic lights. With any luck, we won’t be driving. We are the self-professed writers of the world, published ,unpublished, yet to be published regular people from all walks of life  who just can’t help...

Posted by on Nov 5, 2010 in Inner Critic, Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing, Uncategorized | 10 comments

Staying in the Race

” THE ONLY WAY OF DISCOVERING THE LIMITS OF THE POSSIBLE IS TO VENTURE A LITTLE  WAY PAST THEM INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE.” Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future. On a picture-perfect sunny,blazing October (10/10/10) morning in Eastern New York, along the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, I had the thrill of following my daughter,Leigh Ann, as she ran her first marathon. Due to the engineering skills of her devoted husband,Dave, our stops at five different spots along the way were perfectly timed to cheer her on. Grandsons, Jacob,5 and Ethan,almost 4, played a key role in this effort as they held up their homemade ”Go,Mommy,Go” and “You Can Do It”  posters. When she reached the finish line four hours and nineteen minutes later,...

Posted by on Oct 14, 2010 in Lifewriting Craft, memoir-writing | 11 comments