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WELCOME! | |
| Women's Memoir Writing Retreat | |
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Well, wow! Our Women and Memoir: Expanding Frontiers-Pushing Boundaries four-day workshop couldn’t have been better, if I do say so myself! But that’s what you get when you pull together an amazing group of women from five states, all readers and writers with fascinating stories to tell. It didn’t hurt that Red Wing, Minnesota, is one quaint little river town, and that the St. James Hotel is as charming and historic as the brochure promises. Each of our rooms featured period antique décor; the private Library proved to be the perfect gathering place with its comfortable chairs and roaring fire [a pretend fire, but you can’t have everything your way]. Thanks to Naturalist Bruce Ause for an early-morning hike high above Red Wing but still amidst autumn’s splendor, and to co-host Denise Holck and participant Michelle Foster for hosting a Saturday night reading at the Isaac Walton Clubhouse along the Mississippi River. From Thursday through Sunday, we tackled some fairly complex topics-What Is Memoir? Effective Workshopping, Focusing on the Story, Truth in Memoir, Use of Memorabilia, Research, Dealing with the Hard Topics, Editing, and whatever happens once that manuscript is finished. An aggressive agenda, true, but fascinating considering the discussion that evolved within each session and the feedback provided to Denise and me. So thank you, thank you, to the women who came ready to share, write, support and create. We arrived, some as strangers, and left as friends. That, along with creation of good, solid copy, is what this workshop was all about! Q. Will there be a 2009 workshop? A. Do you ask a woman right after she’s delivered a baby if she’s going to have more babies? Q. What’s that mean? A. Hey, we just delivered a workshop. So who knows about another? Maybe. Probably. Most likely. Yes. Okay, yes. But let me get my desk cleared off first. | |
