I’ve just returned from the 2016 Squaw Valley Community of Writers conference enriched by new friendships and inspired! My head’s chock-a-block with language, ideas, stories, craft lessons, characters and quotes. I look forward to sharing these discoveries and inspirations with you in the months ahead. At the Conference I heard a bit of advice: When you sit down to write: Stop. Sit quietly for a moment. Close your eyes. Journey with your senses. Consider what you hear, taste, smell, feel. Open your eyes. What do you see? Do this to enter into your work with your all of your senses working for you.–And don’t forget to turn off your phone and internet access!

Thank you to Mary Volmer and Hedgebrook for a fabulous one-day writing retreat for women last month at St. Mary’s College. It was a fabulous day of writing with a fascinating group of women on the beautiful campus in Moraga. 

I’ve been traveling quite a bit, reading, hiking, celebrating milestones and just completed my short story collection Hold Off The Night. I have returned to writing the final revision of a novel. My new work is currently published in  Alaska Quarterly Review, Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose and is forthcoming in Parcel.
 
The upcoming Lakeshore Writers Workshop Schedule includes a master class with the fabulous MOLLY GILES. Our ongoing women’s Thursday morning GENERATIVE workshop begins next month along with a new manuscript class on Tuesday evenings focused upon the art of REVISION. (see below for schedule and costs.) Note: Manuscript just means a work of writing in progress. Contact me for more info.

I’m developing an exciting roster of master teachers and classes for 2017, including a short seminar on publishing and a how-to: READING OUT LOUD. This class will help writers more effectively bring their work to life in public readings. (Holiday Lakeshore Writers reading event TBA.)  More news soon!

Some great reads to enjoy through summer’s end include: Mary Volmer‘s Reliance, Illinois, Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things, Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, and a story collection by Greg Spatz: Half as Happy. Enjoy!

Keep the pen moving!
Teresa