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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Empty Shoes? Fill ‘em with Passion

04/05/2012 By 6 Comments
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Have you ever enjoyed reading a story that didn’t grab you, that didn’t reel you in with characters whose emotional makeup you gravitated towards or were perhaps revolted by? I doubt it. You connected to the characters through feelings that kept you reading. Stories need passion and emotion or they fall flat as punctured soufflés.  When I—and I’m guilty of assuming I’m no different than most—tell a story, I’m doing so for an emotional response.The emotional response I hope to elicit from others will satisfy a need in me to be understood, agreed with, challenged, or maybe I just wanted to stir the pot. If my story doesn’t achieve the results I hoped for, I’ve not done an effective job as a storyteller. In the first place, think about why you want to tell a particular story. How does telling this story make you feel? Then define the emotional response you want to get from readers. If you can’t answer these questions, wait until you have the answers before you start

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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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Forgettable Women or Stars Brightly Burning?

03/13/2012 By Leave a Comment
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Ever feel like no one really sees you, especially, those of the opposite sex? Do you sometimes wonder, “Am I fading into oblivion?”  Don’t let it get you down, you’re among friends, and there are better things on the horizon than a “cat-call.”I communicate with women of all kinds—friends, relatives, and strangers: some in my workshops; some on the street; some in groups I belong to; and some on social media. I observe people and the interactions between them.After hearing women repeat sentiments about fading into oblivion as they age, I realized there is a theme reverberating among women in mid-life and beyond. Blurry lines frame the mid-life years it seems, since I’m hearing similar words from women in their forties on up to eighty-year-olds. Mostly, I sense that “forgettable women” feel a loss, perhaps bewilderment, a little pain, but not anger at being less visible. They accept, although they feel uncomfortably cut off, particularly from the opposite sex. They

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San Francisco Writers Conference 2012

02/06/2012 By Leave a Comment
2012 SFWC

A CELEBRATION OF CRAFT, COMMERCE, AND COMMUNITY! This headline for The San Francisco Writers Conference 2012 will provide exactly that and more. Click the link above for the line-up of inspiring bestselling authors, legendary agents, writing intensive workshops, classes on craft galore, and to register.As The Story Woman and a TellTale Soul, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be. Hope to see you sometime during the 5 day extravaganza, February 15-20, 2012.

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ON WRITING—INSPIRATION, INTENTION, FRUITION

01/25/2012 By 4 Comments
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Or is it intention, inspiration, fruition?  Many years ago, inspiration led me to write a book, a guidebook filled with exercises and stories to take “most anyone” on a journey along a writer’s path. For the past few years, my intention has been to craft it well, to make it different and special, and then to send this guidebook out to the masses. That is now coming to fruition—this spring TellTale Souls Writing The Mother Memoir: How to Tap Memory & Write Your Story will be published – March or April, well before Mother’s Day, anyway.Back to the order of the nouns. Fruition needs to stay put on the list, since it marks the end point, the fulfillment of the desire to transport your thoughts to paper through a heartfelt story or to Wow! the world with a brilliant 400 page page-turner.  However, whether to put intention or inspiration first on the list isn’t so cut and dried.  But, does it matter?  Let’s take a look at both intention and inspiration.Is it your

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Extolling the virtues of mom in memoir? Not for everyone.

01/05/2012 By 15 Comments
Reversible Skirit Holland

The point of writing The Mother Memoir can be misunderstood. The guest post, below, by Laura McHale Holland, “Some Spirits Are Better Left Alone,” provides an opening for me to add some clarity.  The Mother Memoir is not meant to be about extolling the virtues of or praising the woman you call mother, although mother’s positive merits are frequently in play when writing about a healthy relationship.  In any case, a Hallmark greeting card The Mother Memoir is not. Rather it’s asking you to look at mom from the inside out and learn more about her, as well as yourself, from a new perspective.I ask people to write one short story to capture the intrinsic character, whether positive or negative, of their mothers to keep spirits alive. In the case of difficult relationships, people can use what they learn from mindfully writing about their flawed connection with mom to honor themselves. Understanding ensues.The Mother Memoir is about honoring the relationship with the woman who

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