Click on link at the bottom of this post to go direct to SFWC website – I highly recommend this one-of-a-kind conference.

SAN FRANCISCO WRITERS CONFERENCE ADDS A PRECONFERENCE DAY WITH IN-DEPTH FULL & HALF-DAY SESSIONS ON FEB. 11^TH, 2010

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Small Classes, In-depth Topics Taught by Top-Rated Presenters Allows Writers to Learn Even More at One of the Country’s Best Writers Conference!

    If you want to start attending the SFWC a day early (or for those who can’t attend the full 3-day main conference), the San Francisco Writers Conference has launched a full day of sessions on the day BEFORE the conference officially starts. “Several of our most popular presenters have agreed to launch the San Francisco Writers University with special SFWC PRECONFERENCE sessions on Thursday, February 11^th,” said Elizabeth Pomada, SFWC Co-Director. For details and online registration: www.SFWriters.org

    What is different about THESE sessions? They are intimate…about 25 people getting to interact with the presenter for more project-specific help. These sessions will be in-depth—full day or half-day in length. As you can see below, the preconference day will feature a wide range of the most popular topics from the San Francisco Writers Conference.

    The preconference sessions are open to the public. They are stand-alone sessions and attendees can chose one or more depending on their schedules, budgets and interest. Attendance at the Main Conference is not required.

 DONALD MAASS—Imagine a FULL DAY with this top New York literary agent as he conducts this intensive session on “WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL”.  Much more personalized attention than any other session Donald gives.  Full day session

SHELDON SIEGEL & ROBERT DUGONI will be “PUTTING THE THRILL IN THRILLER WRITING” during their session. Two (yes, TWO!) N.Y.Times bestselling authors show you how it’s done…so you can do it, too!         Half Day- Afternoon. 

KATHARINE SANDS—One of our most popular sessions…ever…“PITCHCRAFT!”  You MUST know how to pitch your book in order to get it sold. Katharine is the one to get you and your book pitch-perfect. Half Day- Afternoon.

STEPHANIE CHANDLER—knows all about using all the online tools available to writers, so learn from the master. “CREATING YOUR ONLINE PLATFORM”. Half Day-Afternoon.

LISA RECTOR MAASS conducts this intensive session–”THE 3RD DRAFT—Giving Your Novel that Last, Final Polish, after You Think It’s Finished”.Lisa will work with you to give your manuscript clarity and make it irresistible. It’s just what you needed!  Half Day Morning.

JULIE SALISBURY, founder of Inspire-A-Book will conduct “DRESSING YOUR BOOK FOR SUCCESS: How to Make Your Nonfiction Book Unique”. Julie will share proven techniques and lots of feedback on your project.  Half Day Morning.

MICHAEL LARSEN—He wrote the bible for nonfiction writers—“HOW TO WRITE A BOOK PROPOSAL”. He knows what it takes to present your book project and this session will help you finally get that proposal written.  Half Day-Morning.

    A ‘Full Day’ Registration fee is $300.00 and a ‘Half Day’ Session Registration is $149.00. Morning sessions run from 9AM until Noon. Afternoon sessions run from 1PM until 4PM. Lunch is not included. All 2010 San Francisco Writers Conference attendees get to deduct $50 from their Preconference Registration total.  For more details on these sessions or the San Francisco Writers Conference, go to www.SFWriters.org.

I had the rare and exciting opportunity last Sunday to hear powerful writing tips from Jason Roberts, author of A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler. He wasn’t there to sell books, although we coaxed him into staying around afterwards so we could purchase A Sense of the World from Book Passage and get his autograph. We have Tanya Egan Gibson, talented writer, author, and program chair for California Writers Club-Marin, to thank for coaxing him out of hiding, where he’s immersed in his next book.

While deeply serious about the craft of writing creative narrative for fiction and nonfiction, I’d have to say Roberts is an entertainer in disguise. His compelling tips, “From Silk Thread to Steel Cable,” were comprised of seven points – well, as he went along, he added another, so now there were eight – points he said he wished he’d learned before he discovered them for himself throughout years of writing. I’m sure he has a few more up his sleeve, and on Sunday he had an audience glued to his every word, anxious to hear any number of tips he took the time to graciously give his fellow writers – the crowd was enthralled.

I’m thinking perhaps he was trying this stuff out on us for our reaction prior to proposing a book on what he deems the narrative process. If he’s not planning to write such a book, he should. We’d all have bought it yesterday. Did I mention Roberts is a very clever fellow? Tricky even? And definitely handsome.

Next came the tricky part for me in trying to give you a taste of what I took away from his brilliant talk. He started off with a bang telling us, “Get over yourself. Don’t over write your prose.” Great reminder…”Get over myself” sticky note already up.

The following writing tips are my brief takes on a few of Roberts’ points. I am looking at them in relationship to the character grabbing, short memoirs that I encourage people to write. These true tales capture the character and spirit of people significant in their lives and often serve as the writers’ building blocks to longer works.

1.   “Cast your characters” by literally giving each character a role in your story. It is your job to see that your characters do something, rather than merely mentioning them. Ask yourself questions about each one of them: Why is this person in my story? Is this guy important to the story? Does the story work better without an appearance from this woman? If you think certain characters are not worth giving an active role, or if they seem to get in the way of the narrative, get rid of them.  Everyone needs a reason for being, right? Well, give them that reason for being, or out they go.

Each character, however, doesn’t need a balanced role – use or manipulate a character for a desired effect, and don’t make excuses for him. For example, you mention your dad in a story you’re writing about your mother. For the story to make sense, you need to depict him as a jerk, which is only one aspect of his character. Since this story isn’t about him, it’s not necessary or appropriate to show the reader his good side.

Roberts goes on to say, “You can clash with your characters if need be,” and “Don’t be too enamored of a character.” The resulting tension from a clash will give your work a desirable edge.  And if you’re overly absorbed in one of your characters, you leave little to the readers’ imagination. Mystery will give your audience the opportunity to read something into the characters – to see them as similar to people they know, including themselves. Moreover, when you don’t fully clothe your characters, they carry a universal appeal, which is what you need to achieve, if you want to be widely read.

2.  If it’s readers you want, remember “Readers are selfish,” so you have to give them what they need. Connection. They must feel a link or a tie between themselves and the characters when they read your story or they will simply close the book or turn off the screen, discarding the work that’s been your driving passion. So decide what you want your readers to feel before you write.

This sounds simple, but I know from my experience holding “Give the Gift of Story” workshops that many people, when they begin to write a story,  have no idea what they want others to feel. And has the idea about “how to touch others” occurred to them prior to starting their writing process? Perhaps not, since they often say they don’t even know what or how they, themselves, feel until the words start to flow. So, from here on out, I’ll put the horse before the cart and ask writers to spend time on what they want their readers to feel and what devices they can use to bring about that desired effect .

3.  “The past is a foreign country.” Capture the Zeitgeist. To successfully write creative narrative, your story must ring true with the spirit of the time in which the story takes place. In order to do this, you need to look at each place and period of time as having a personality uniquely its own. The Zeitgeist will have enormously influenced the hearts and minds and actions of your characters. Write this flavor of the times into your story to add depth and color, but also as a frame of reference as your readers get comfortable with your casts of characters.

Roberts reminded us, “You’re always writing about time.” On that note, I’ll stop now at a time and place where I know it’s up to us as writers to hone our craft with a spirit that craves more.

Thank you, Jason Roberts, for allowing me to share with my readers a bit of what I gleaned from your talk, even though you didn’t know what I was going to write. That’s trust, and I hope I have given them a connection to you, and that my rendition of and elaboration on a few of your points didn’t completely warp your intended meaning.

Links:

Jason Roberts, A Sense of the World. This book is now on my short list!

Tanya Egan Gibson, How to Buy a Love of Reading. You can also click here to read my review.

Now write like you’ve never written before as you capture the character and spirit of your mother or another significant person in your life. So they will always be remembered, write a bio-vignette and become a TellTale Soul.

The following is a recent reveiw of my easy-to-follow “how-to” guide to writing memoir that I’d like to share with you, especially for those who would enjoy learning the art of Tapping Memory to Write Memoir.

“Lynn, what a wonderful GIFT you’re giving writers! I loved your book, and your workshops are terrific!

Lynn Cook Henriksen’s Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory & Write Memoir in Five Acts provides a fresh approach to crafting engaging memoirs about significant people in our lives. Writers of any caliber will find this gem of a book useful.

Practical advice abounds as Henriksen shows you how to “Think and plan before you write,” when to employ literary devices, and innovative scene-building techniques. Then she goes deeper with the clarity that not all memories are smooth sailing, “When we stir memories, we will find some lumps . . . let’s examine them . . . as we continue on our journeys.”

Enticing story examples and a helpful glossary make Give the Gift of Story the perfect memoir-writing kit.”

Review by Teresa LeYung Ryan, writing-career-coach and author

The Story Woman asks you to write short, true tales about  significant people in your life to keep their character and spirit alive for future generations. This isn’t a monumental task, simply write a bio-vignette of 800-1500 words that makes the person you’re writing about come alive on the page.

Give the Gift of Story available here: You can do it!  Capture it… Write it… Connect it…

INVISIBLE MOTHER may have been all over the internet, as most everything is. But when my sister sent this to me, it was as my first-time reading, and she asked me to post the article on my blog, so I will – I am.

As you’re reading Invisible Mother, think about your mother, as well as yourself. Was she invisible – is she still? Or do you see her as individual? Write a mother-memoir that captures her character and spirit to let her know you “see” her.

“It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.

Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Obviously, not.

No one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated sum a cum laude – but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going; she’s going; she is gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England.

Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe…I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To My Dear Friend, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names.

These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam; He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.’ And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees’ I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.

It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.’

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘you’re going to love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.” Anonymous

The Story Woman asks you to become a TellTale Soul by writing a short, true tale that captures the character and spirit of your mother or another significant person in your life.

I’d love to read your story. The best way to send it to me is via email: lynn(at)telltalesouls(dot)com. Replace (at)  with @ and (dot) with the usual .com.

I figured what could be better than to start the new year with a guest blog by my great friend and brilliant author, Tanya Egan Gibson. Thank you, Tanya, for helping make 2010 a very interesting year to look forward to. My advice – read my review - then read her book.

On Meta-Memoir 

Halfway into writing an essay about your mother’s carefully crafted thank-you notes–the handwritten and heartfelt kind that seem to have gone the way of the mastodon–you find yourself stuck.  Perhaps you’re worrying that nobody else in the world could possibly care about this story, or that you won’t be able to properly convey the nuances of your mother’s motivations.  Or perhaps you’re finding yourself revealing more emotion or truth than you’re really comfortable with–you actually resented the time she took writing those notes when she could have been helping you with your homework/Home Ec project/boy problems.  As you ruminate about how difficult it is to tell this story, a thought strikes you: Why not tell a story about trying to tell this difficult story? 

It’s Genius, you think. You will write about disconnection–about how hard it is to be a writer who is supposed to make strangers feel things about events and people the aforementioned strangers really have no reason to care about.  Like thank-you notes.  And that velour shirt for Home Ec that was missing a sleeve.

 And wait, there’s more!  Why not go even a step further and comment upon writing this story about not writing a story about your mother, narrating every moment of your writing the not-story, employing a Twitter-esque present-tense hyperconsciousness?  As in, I keep looking back at the last paragraph, the dangling preposition taunting me, but I force myself to type onward.

 Clever you.  Meta- you.  Are you feeling the heart of your story?

 By meta-, I mean writing does not encourage the reader to experience a waking dream–in fact, it keeps telling the reader, “This is just a dream.”  The writer may wax self-referential (”I am writing about writing about writing”).  He or she may employ devices normally reserved for non-narrative nonfiction (e.g., footnotes which themselves extend the narrative or even take over the narrative).  He or she might play with the structure of the narrative to make the form of the narrative as important as/more an important than its content. (Imagine the thank-you note essay structured as a thank-you note to mom.)

 It’s cool.  It’s fun.  It can be stunning, when pulled off subtly, rather than like the hyperbolic examples I gave above.  As a reader and writer of meta-fiction, however, I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff–because it can also be an excuse for heartlessness.

 Though I don’t write memoir, I do read it.  I read for emotional reasons as much as for intellectual ones.  Perhaps, to be honest, even more so.  I read to feel like I’m not alone in the world.  I read to understand what goes in the heads of people I might never meet, or I might be afraid to meet, or I might be afraid wouldn’t like me if we did meet.  I read to connect.

 Good writing is honest and brave (and by “honest and brave,” I don’t mean you tell-all).  To be brave, I think, is to embrace emotion rather than skirting it.  When I’m reading something self-referential, I hope to find a “self” nurtured by meta-devices rather than obscured by them–as in Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, whose manifold footnotes seek to engage the heart instead of distance it, or Stephen Elliott’s highly acclaimed The Adderall Diaries (which I put on my wish list). 

It is lovely to be clever, and it is lovely to behold cleverness.  But as Egger’s work implies, genius and heart are often at odds, even as they inhabit the same ironic title.  And in the end, I’ll take “heartbreaking” over “genius.”

 Bio: Tanya Egan Gibson is the author of How To Buy a Love of Reading– a novel that may or may not be considered meta-fiction (and that may or may not satirize meta-fiction)–about nouveau riche parents who try to cure their teenage daughter’s hatred of books by commissioning a custom-written novel for her.  She’d love if you visited the book’s site at http://www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com and shared your own story about how reading changed (or even saved) your life.

This little turkey is taking a good look at all the reasons I have for GivingThanks. I won’t subject you to my thankfulness list, but I’m asking you to gather your thoughts about your loved ones and thank them for all they’ve given you throughout the years. Maybe you’ll thank them openly around the bountiful Thanksgiving table; better yet, put your thanks in writing.

 WRITING MEMOIRS THAT CAPTURE THE CHARACTER & SPIRIT OF LOVED ONES IS THE ULTIMATE WAY TO SAY THANK YOU.

Will you let your “loved ones” simply be forgotten? Will you make sure that doesn’t happen? “If you don’t write it down, it will be gone. Wouldn’t that be a shame?” Writing memoirs about significant people in your life will be one of the most exhilarating encounters you’ll ever experience. And what writing a memoir will be for you is absolutely unique. There is no one else who has your particular memories, your familiarity or understanding of the people, places, incidents, and events that you will portray in writing. Most importantly, there is not a soul on earth who has your voice – let it ring clear and true.

HONOR, REMEMBER, RESPECT, & RECOGNIZE OTHERS. The focus of TellTale Souls memoirs will be people who hold significant places in your life. Have you ever actually stopped to think about who they really are as individuals, as people unto themselves? What aspect of their being, what quality, action, or anecdote could you draw upon to bring the essence of their character to light in a short memoir, a bio-vignette, which would give someone reading your story a pretty good idea of what they are/were like as seen through your eyes?

At times they are mysterious, other times transparent. But of this you can be sure, they are not the same people to anyone other than you. For our purposes here, we’re not going to get philosophical, and we’ll leave the psychoanalysis to the docs. Their characters are multifaceted, their inner make up complex, but for you there are certain aspects of their spirit that stand out, those qualities through which their character comes to life.

What do you most want remembered about significant people in your life so that generations from now others will get a glimpse of them through the memoir you write now? Which significant parts of their character seem to be theirs and theirs alone?  Seize that little gem you’ve conjured up in your mind’s eye. Take hold of it, round it out, and polish it as you develop it into a true story that captures their character and spirit.    

Capturing the essence of the character of significant people can be daunting, but another way to think of it is that this is your opportunity to let them know that you find it valuable to take the time to look at them as individuals – there’s no better gift or no better way for you to honor them than to write a true tale capturing their character and spirit on the written page.

Give the Gift of Story to preserve the spirits of people you want remembered for generations to come. How will your great grandchildren get a glimpse of the treasures or mysteries you know and feel about them if you don’t safeguard them with a bio-vignette that only you can write?

4 Reasons to Tap Memory & Write Memoir: Give the Gift of Story

1.  Keep spirits alive. There is nothing like paying tribute to a loved one with a simple written record. A photograph captures a look at best, whereas a bio-vignette captures character and spirit. 

2.  Discover the secrets of men and women from different walks of life. Possibilities for embracing life unfold before us when we read true stories about people from a background different from our own. Shared wisdom compels compassion, understanding, and unity. 

3.  Create catharsis. The outcome of writing a short, true story about loved ones often results in emotional or psychological healing, when the relationship between the you and this significant person was at times difficult or rocky. 

4.  Become richer from the experience of actually writing a bio-vignette. Those of us who have embarked on this journey reach the other side more thoughtful, more knowing, and   more satisfied.

The Story Woman asks you to write a bio-vignette in Thanksgiving to show you remember the reasons you’re thankful for a significant person touching your life.

We may not need a “study” to tell us we will be healthier and happier if we surround ourselves with family and friends who are happy, but the following article is a good reminder.

Remember when we were kids and we sang, “If you’re happy and you know, then your face will surely show it?”

Smile and read on…

Good health can be both the cause and consequence of being happy. That’s why two pioneering scientists wanted to see if they could actually measure how happiness works in groups. What they discovered took everyone by happy surprise — the happiness of others, even those you don’t know, has a direct influence on your happiness.

The coauthor of this novel study on happiness, James Fowler, PhD, told me how the research was done. First his team combed through the records of 5,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, many of whom had identified one another as spouses, friends or neighbors. His team established a happiness baseline for these participants by checking their periodic answers to questions regarding their happiness over the past 20 years (1983 to 2003). Then they used a sophisticated statistical analysis tool to create a map of social connections among the initial 5,000 and other participants within the Framingham study. It showed how one person’s happiness rippled like a network, creating a cascade of happiness that increased the likelihood of others being happy too.

They discovered that there were various degrees of influence depending on the degree of social connection and that it was quite predictable. For example, within your social network, the happiness of someone with whom you have frequent and regular personal contact, called an immediate social contact (for instance, your spouse or closest nearby friend), increases the likelihood of your happiness by an average of 15%. The happiness of a second-degree contact (for instance, your closest friend’s spouse) increases your chances for happiness by 10%, while the happiness of a third-degree contact (your closest friend’s friend’s friend) increases it by 6%. In other words, your happiness is directly influenced by strangers.

MORE SPECIFIC LEARNINGS FROM THE HAPPINESS STUDY

• Proximity is key. The closer your happy friends and family live to you, the greater the probability that their happiness will affect you. For example, the happiness of your next door neighbor is more influential than the happiness of a neighbor who lives down the street.

• More social connections adds to your happiness. The bigger your social network of nearby happy friends and family, the greater the likelihood of your happiness.

• Unhappy people cluster together in unhappy networks. As the saying goes, misery loves company.

• Whether or not you were happy in the past and whether your social contacts are happy are more important predictors of happiness than your income, gender or education.

• Happiness is more powerful than unhappiness. The happiness of a friend increases the probability of your happiness by 9%… while his unhappiness decreases the chances of your happiness by only 7%.

• It’s not fleeting. The impact of another’s happiness on your happiness lasts about a year, on average, before fading.

HAPPINESS 2.0: ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Dr. Fowler and his coauthor Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, are now looking at the question of whether happiness spreads the same way via the Internet, specifically using the Facebook network. They assumed that those who posted smiling pictures of themselves with smiling friends were happy. Since Facebook automatically tags or uploads your photos to those registered as your “friends,” they were able to trace the paths of these happy pictures. They found that smiling friends had photos of other smiling friends and so on and so on. (People who didn’t smile in their photos, didn’t have photos with friends who smiled, who in turn also didn’t have photos of smiling friends.) Again — happiness begets happiness and the same goes for unhappiness. Next they’ll study how contagious online happiness turns out to be.

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

Dr. Fowler himself has been moved by his findings. “I think our study shows that the best thing we can do for ourselves is to connect to friends and family,” says Dr. Fowler. “I have been personally affected by the study — I have now seen the evidence that my happiness potentially ripples out and touches the lives of dozens or even hundreds of other people. In this very challenging time, creating a ripple of happiness can result in a tidal wave of change.”

Source: 

James H. Fowler, PhD, professor of political science, University of California-San Diego.

The Story Woman says writing memoir makes TellTale Souls happier people for having taken the time to look an important person square in the face and write a bio-vignette capturing their character and spirit..

The Story Woman stirs the cauldron.

A friend called asking me if I were giving my “Tap Memoir & Write Memoir” workshop at Book Passage on November 1^st because it was All Saints Day. Well, no. That timing had never occurred to me, but it’s an interesting tie, and it provoked a good chuckle between us.

Many people are dwelling on Halloween this weekend: witches on broomsticks silhouetted by the moon – black cat, as faithful companion, along for the ride; monsters and superheroes; and ghouls, werewolves, and vampires. I know Macbeth doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween, but ever since I was one of the three Witches, just a ‘few’ years ago in our high school rendition of this Shakespearean tragedy, I find myself each Halloween reciting,

“Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing –

For a charm of pow’rful trouble

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

Back to All Saints Day: My passion in encouraging and teaching folks to Give the Gift of Story by “Keeping Spirits Alive One Story at a Time” is all about writing a short, true tale that captures the character and spirit of their mothers’ or another person significant in their lives, as no photograph could ever do.

It is not about memorializing our mothers or others as “saints,” by any stretch of the imagination. The main characters in our bio-vignettes often come with warts and wrinkles rather than haloes and wings.  I’ve listened to and read many a story where, from the daughters’ memories, one would think their mothers vamped the blood right out of them. However, 90% of the bio-vignettes in my TellTale Souls collection are heartfelt slices of life. Anyway you look at it, through the dark, the light, and the gray shades, memoirs connect us with the truth about what it means to be human.

Here is a portion of the Wikipedia article on All Saints Day: The feast of All Saints achieved great prominence in the ninth century, in the reign of the Byzantine Emperor, Leo VI “the Wise” (886–911). His wife, Empress Theophano—commemorated on December 16—lived a devout life. After her death, her husband built a church, intending to dedicate it to her. When he was forbidden to do so, he decided to dedicate it to “All Saints,” so that if his wife were in fact one of the righteous, she would also be honored whenever the feast was celebrated.

Now is the time to remember and recognize, with a Gift of Story, a significant person in your life: Tap Memory & Write Memoir.

All Saints Day workshop at Book Passage with The Story Witch.

You may also purchase Give the Gift of Story: TellTale Souls’ Essential Guide to Tap Memory & Write Memoir at Book Passage, Corte Madera.

Sign up for the class at Book Passage

Book Passage to host three outstanding

Women’s National Book Association authors

C.W. Gortner, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Tanya Egan Gibson

for our 3^rd annual National Reading Group Month Event

The San Francisco chapter of Women’s National Book Association is proud to announce a special event at Book Passage’s Corte Madera location, celebrating National Reading Group Month this October. Please join us for this exceptional reading group of three authors, all local members of Women’s National Book Association: C.W. Gortner (The Last Queen), Kathi Kamen Goldmark (And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You), and Tanya Egan Gibson (How to Buy a Love of Reading).

C.W. Gortner will bring insight into his intriguing and highly adventurous historical novel, The Last Queen, and what’s next from him. Kathi will read about one fabulous character (her health-food-obsessed mom, Betty) from both a fictional and a nonfiction perspective. Kathi warns, “Bring your own wheat grass juice.” Tanya will read and talk about writing her critically acclaimed debut novel, How to Buy a Love of Reading, where you’re sure to fall in love with reading all over again. We aren’t suggesting the love of reading is something to be bought, but we know you’ll be inspired to buy these authors’ praise-worthy books.

The Women’s National Book Association launched National Reading Group Month in October of 2007 to celebrate the organization’s ninetieth birthday. This year, WNBA will continue its tradition of promoting women and the book and literacy in general by hosting events in their chapter cities: Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

WNBA-SF is a non-profit organization that fosters professional development and exposure of our members through a variety of book-related programs, workshops, and hands-on opportunities to make valuable contacts and connections that are beneficial at any stage of one’s career. WNBA-SF is part of a National network promoting the value of books and reading since 1917 throughout ten chapters stretching from coast to coast. Annual Membership is $45.

Many thanks to our partner for this event, Whole Foods Market, for providing specialty foods.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Kathi Kamen Goldmark is the author of And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, a novel; co-author of The Great Rock & Roll Joke Book, and Mid-Life Confidential: the Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude; and has contributed essays to several anthologies—including Feed Me! (edited by Harriet Brown). With her husband, Sam Barry, she writes a monthly aspiring-writer-advice column in BookPage called “The Author Enablers.” A 2007 San Francisco Library Laureate and winner of the 2008 National Women’s Book Association award, Kathi is the founder and a member of the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders, president and janitor of “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” Records, Author Liaison for many high-profile literary events—including Book Group Expo and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library annual Laureates Dinner—and the producer of the nationally-distributed radio show West Coast Live.

Tanya Egan Gibson was born and raised on Long Island’s south shore, the“Egg”-less side of the island Fitzgerald didn’t write about. She earned a B.A. in English from Cornell University and an M.A. from the University of Washington. She began writing How to Buy a Love of Reading ten years ago, while teaching high school English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.

C. W. Gortner is the author of The Last Queen (Ballantine Books). This book takes a look at the life of Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, and it is highly praised by Publisher’s Weekly. Half-Spanish by birth, Gortner holds an M.F.A. in writing, with an emphasis on historical studies, from the New College of California and has taught university courses on women of power in the Renaissance. He was raised in Málaga, Spain, and now lives in California. He is currently at work on his next book, which is about Catherine de Medici and will be released by Ballantine Books in 2010.

Kathi Kamen Goldmark

Tanya Egan Gibson

CW Gortner

Women’s National Book Association – San Francisco

National Reading Group Month

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