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Best Books of the Spring – San Francisco Book Festival Choice!

05/09/2012 By 2 Comments
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I just received notice that TellTale Souls Writing the Mother Memoir: How to Tap Memory and Write Your Story Capturing Character & Spirit won honorable mention for the San Francisco Book Festival competition for the best books of the spring in the how-to category! What more can I say? I’m absolutely thrilled about this honor! Well, The Story Woman has this to say, "When you write your very own short, true story about your mother or someone who made you feel like a daughter or a son—you’ll be thrilled, too!"

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How The Mother Memoir Came To Life

05/02/2012 By 3 Comments
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The gathering of Mother Memoir stories started after my mother’s death over a decade ago.  At that time, for reasons soon to be apparent, I sent a note to close friends and relatives asking them to send memories in story form about mother figures. Below is the letter I sent back then, which precipitated the release that was just the beginning of the remarkable chorus of voices that came pouring forth from TellTale Souls. “Dear_______,My mother’s death last fall prompted a plethora of remembrances. Through the tears of sorrow, bright rays of sunlight streaked as my sister and I talked of things recalled—great memories we enjoyed and hope to keep alive within our family.Invariably, when I spoke to friends or relatives at that time, their memories too were jogged. And they’d tell little stories. Sometimes about my mother, but more often than not, their stories were about their mothers.I found each story interesting. They ran the gamut from hilarious, passionate, bitter-sweet

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Publishing News: TellTale Souls Writing the Mother Memoir – Hot off the Press!

04/22/2012 By Leave a Comment
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  Who is she—your mother—deep down inside? How will she be remembered?    Why does it matter?Join author Lynn Cook Henriksen on a compelling journey, as she shows you how to discover your mother’s individuality and write to tell about it. TellTale Souls Writing the Mother Memoir: How to Tap Memory and Write Your Story Capturing Character & Spirit has the power to move people and change awareness.The book takes readers on a journey through emotional terrain to access the deepest spiritual truths of intimate relationships. By way of specific triggers, unexpected impressions will emerge and evolve as Henriksen shows daughters and sons how to discover their mother’s individuality and write to tell about it. “If you could tell just one small story that would capture your mother’s character and keep her spirit alive, what would it be?”     You will find secrets to answering this question via intriguing prompts and exercises throughout the guide’s Five

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Riding Truth into the Naked Light of Day, The Four Ms. Bradwells

03/24/2012 By Leave a Comment
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How do four women who met in law school sustain an everlasting sisterhood when the bones of skeletons in their individual closets have never ceased to rattle? Why is it that the connection of friendship between women, and the bonds of mother/daughter relationships can remain unbroken when deeply guarded secrets, jealously, even incest and rape, a questionable suicide, and the scent of smoke and ghosts make them second guess everything they believe in, including each other?Meg Waite Clayton introduces readers to the unforgettable characters, Betts, Mia, Laney, and Ginger, whose convincing actions answer these questions during a fateful weekend on Chesapeake Bay. They’ve unwittingly returned to the scene of a few crimes, in their attempt to support Betts, whose Supreme Court nomination has threatened to expose more than they ever wanted to reveal, as the press pokes about in the dark places of their collective pasts.As the book progresses, the Ms. Bradwells’ memories are rekindled

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Publish Your Book: Get Personal with Literary Agents

03/16/2012 By Leave a Comment
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  Authors and Writers “Speed-Dating” by the Bay at our 9th Annual Signature EventBack by popular demand:  Keynote Luncheon (see below) MEET-THE-AGENTS & ACQUISITION EDITORSLynn Henriksen, Event Chair, lynn(at)telltalesouls.com Saturday, March 24th, 2012 • 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.Sinbad’s Restaurant, Pier 2, San Francisco$50 WNBA member, $65 non-member, or $75 at the door(Bonus:  Coffee and “How to Pitch Training” included from 8:00 to 9:00 am)Space is limited (we sold out last year) – REGISTER SOONRegister via PayPal at www.wnba-sfchapter.org or mail your check made out to WNBA-SF to P.O. Box 244, Half Moon Bay, CA  94019Keynote Luncheon – 12:30 – $35.00 - Menu selections on our website.Bestselling author Meg Waite Clayton says, “I didn't start out being a novelist, I started out as someone who wanted to be a novelist but had no idea how one went about that - much less any faith in my own talent.” Stay for lunch to rub elbows with the agents and

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Russian Winter: The Story Woman’s review

12/12/2011 By 2 Comments
Russian Winter

We’re deep into winter here in northern California, although not a Russian winter by any means. Winter evenings, when afternoon light fades earlier each day into cold, inky sky, I relish the extra time I guiltlessly take to read good books. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay was one terrific novel I recently finished. It’s not a short read, but its complexity interwoven with love, loss, betrayal, dark secrets, intrigue, life-altering revelations, and redemption make for a true page turner.Daphne Kalotay crafts a magnificent novel rooted in well-researched historical facts with characters who compel attention. The personality of the ballet, life in Stalinist Russia and in Boston, and the exquisite depth of amber are superimposed on an interesting array of characters adroitly depicted by Kalotay in Russian Winter. Love affairs, lies, and political beliefs essentially trap humans in their tracks every bit as much as a spider finds herself forever suspended in time, emerging egg sack and

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Build Your Platform with Writing Coach Teresa

09/19/2011 By Leave a Comment
Teresa - Build Your Platform REVIEW 9-19-11

Coach Teresa wrote the guest blog posted below this one. I've now completed working through her outstanding guide, Build Your Writer's Platform & Fanbase in 22 Days. Here are some thoughts on what I took away from it:Let this book spur you into action. Teresa LeYung Ryan opens the door and guides you directly into the world all writers and authors must negotiate if they want their work to be known. But she doesn’t stop there; rather than tell you what to do, she lets you do it for yourself. In a clear, affirming voice, LeYung Ryan takes you securely by the hand and shows you exactly how to Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase in 22 Days. The focused series of exercises that make up this workbook build on each other and really work. With her finger on the pulse of the community and media interaction, she’ll have you drilling down to the basics while reaching for the stars, the blogosphere, and beyond. You want success?  Coach Teresa’s got it all figured out, let her

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Imperfect Endings, Zoe F Carter’s Memoir

03/27/2011 By Leave a Comment
Zoe Carter

She Summoned DeathWhether or not one believes the choices this family made in Zoe Carter’s memoir, Imperfect Endings, are right or wrong, Carter is an undeniably powerful writer, who has an easy way with words on a complex, but timely issue. She has taken the difficult, to say the least, subject of life and death and crafted it into an unforgettable personal story laced with wit, wisdom, humor, compassion, insight, and abundant food for thought. To be honest, when I first picked it up I wondered if I wanted to “go there.” I’m glad I did—I found it incredibly moving.I know it took more than a little courage for Zoe Carter to write this provocative slice of life. Imperfect Endings meant paring familial façade to the bone and sucking out the marrow, which she did unabashedly.How does a daughter say, “Yes, Mom, I’ll watch you die slowly by your own hand.”  I’ll be a party to your staged sit-in with death.Hauntingly beautiful are the two words that washed over my

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Listen as Judith Marshall Discusses “Husbands” on Blogtalkradio

02/25/2011 By Leave a Comment

Judith Marshall is a friend and colleague who has an interesting story to tell about her writing journey in fiction, based on the lives of lifelong girlfriends and the husbands who passed through, so I'm linking you to her recent interview on Blogtalkradio. Her award-winning novel, "Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever," was published in late 2009 and has recently been optioned for the big screen. Listen to Judith discuss her page turner with Nanci Arvizu on Page Readers. She will not only inspire you to take your writing to the next level, she’ll share with you which steps to take to get there.

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Make it Personal – Give the Gift of Story

12/06/2010 By Leave a Comment

Most of us have given our mothers cards on various holidays, complete with pat phrases, often via Hallmark, extolling the virtues of millions of moms.  This year take a good look at her—go deep down inside of her and yourself to write a “Mother Memoir” as only you can—one that fits her precisely.  Make it a short memoir, a bio-vignette. This story will be better than any other gift you could possibly imagine giving to her.Yes, she’s your mother, maybe your grandmother, or another woman to whom you felt like a daughter or a son. Have you ever actually stopped to think about who she really is as an individual, as a woman unto herself? What aspect of her being, what quality, action, or anecdote could you draw upon to bring the essence of her character to light in a short memoir?At times she is mysterious, other times transparent. But of this you can be sure, she’s not the same woman to anyone other than you.  Her character is multifaceted, her inner make up complex, but for

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