News and what’s coming up for Fall 2014

In this Post:

Writer Heal Thyself – My “Shame” Confession

Upcoming Retreats and Workshops:

August 7 – 10: The Sebright Residential Sanctuary
August to December – Writers’ Sanctuaries in Durham Region
September 2014 – August 2015 – A Novel Approach – Year Long Courses to get your book done
October 19 – A Single day of SoulCollage
September – December – The Artist’s Way
September – December – Pen In Hand, Ink on Page
April 2015 – ITALY – Radical Restoration
2015 – SoulCollage and Writing in Amherst with Pat Schneider 2015
Ongoing: Working on my licensing as a Registered Psychotherapist

Other Facilitators’ Workshops I Recommend

Reissue of the book: A Day’s Grace by Robyn Sarah

Upcoming Contests and Submission Deadlines – July 31 to September 30

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Writer Heal Thyself: My Shame Confession

Abstract Woman
I have been meaning to send out this notice about what’s coming up in the next few months for the last 60 days – ever since we got home from Italy. Every day when I get up I promise myself that I am going to get it out TODAY. And then the work I have promised to other people somehow jostles itself to the front of the line, and by evening I think, “Oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

What is it about many writers (and self-employed business people) that makes it so difficult to put ourselves first? (at least some of the time) What makes it so difficult to get to our own writing, or to promote ourselves?

In a word? Anxiety – probably the least acknowledged and most prevalent human emotion.

I know so many of my colleagues who, like me, support others in achieving their goals, but rarely get around to sending out their own work to contests, or to finish their books. I’m one of the worst examples of this. Case in point: months ago someone who heard my poetry feature at the ArtBar suggested I query my poetry manuscript to a prestigious literary publisher here in Canada. After much hemming and hawing, and months of delay, I did so.

This is really a huge good news/bad news story. The good news is that within 15 days, the editor got back to me and asked to see the rest of the manuscript. Right away. The bad news is that my manuscript is not ready. I have about 40 poems polished and ready to go. The rest are still in long-hand in my journals, interspersed with the writing of my two memoirs and two novels.

For weeks I felt a bit sick about it. I spend so much time helping, editing and encouraging other writers (and that is work that I adore and find immensely satisfying). But what is wrong with me that I don’t do a better job of balancing my own artistic output with my mentoring others? Why haven’t I been taking my own writing seriously enough to have my manuscript ready to go?

Two weeks ago I co-led a workshop in Amherst with the magnificent Pat Schneider, author of How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice. I left for Amherst carrying the weight of this with me. While I was down there, I created a SoulCollage card about the whole situation and wrote about it. (you can see it and read about it here if you’re interested.)

As someone who works with many, many writers, I know that wrestling with artistic resistance is common. But I do a lot of teaching; I facilitate a lot of writing groups and classes. When I confess how hard all of this is for me every day, the writers who write with me often express their astonishment. “You? It’s hard for YOU?”

Yes. It’s agonizing. And I feel incredibly vulnerable writing about it.

I’ve been reading Dr. Brene Brown’s work on Shame and how we createShame Resilience. I highly recommend her book I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t). Dr. Brown cites 4 different ways we can ameliorate the negative outcomes of shame and promote shame resilience, and this post encompasses two of them: Reaching Out and Speaking Shame.

I know I’m not the only one. So:

If you flush with shame every time someone asks “How’s your writing going?”

if you’re one of those writers who thinks you don’t measure up because you “don’t write every day”

if you’re one of those writers who hears the sound of deadlines whooshing by your ears far too often

or if you’re one of those writers who is so overwhelmed by your day to day existence, trying to get your “real” work done and fulfill your obligations to family and friends, that you rarely find the time to cuddle your Muse

… I’m standing in solidarity with you and telling you, you are a real writer, and you’re absolutely not alone.

And, having had this wake-up call from the publisher about my own art, I’ve developed several strategies to combat my artistic anxiety and get my work as a writer and a teacher out there more steadily. Some of these strategies are listed in my upcoming events, workshops, etc.
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Upcoming Retreats and Workshops:

August 7 – 10 – The Sebright Residential Sanctuary

Several years ago, after a particularly wonderful Writers’ Sanctuary, the participants laughingly rebelled and announced they weren’t going home. They wanted “a Sanctuary pyjama party”. And thus the Sebright weekend residential Sanctuary was born. This year the retreat begins Thursday evening August 7th and goes until Sunday afternoon. There is still ONE space available if you’re longing for 3 days away to support your writerly process. Go HERE to see more information and to register.

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One Day Writers’ Sanctuaries in Durham Region – near Port Perry / Uxbridge

I don’t usually lead Writers’ Sanctuaries in the months of July and August, but this year our new location is so heavenly we don’t want to be anywhere else! Consequently, there is a Writers’ Sanctuary on August 23rd that still has some space in it; there are also some dates in the fall that have room for writers. Writers’ Sanctuaries are one day retreats to support creating new material as well as silent focus on whatever project you’re engaged in at the moment. They happen in our beautiful wild location 20 minutes north of Whitby. You can see all the dates HERE, and register here as well.
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A Novel Approach – A Year for your Book-Length Memoir or Work of Fiction

For 5 years, James and I have been leading A Novel Approach – a one year course for producing your book length fiction project or book length memoir. Until now, we have been starting in January and going to December. But this year we decided to change the course so it begins in September (back to school! Yay!) and goes from there. We have also added A Novel Approach Second Draft to help authors who have finished a book length first draft and now need to craft it into a finished manuscript ready for sending out to agents and publishers or for self-publishing.

I love the work I do with writers in the expanse of a year and I’m always enthralled to see the changes that happen for them both personally and in terms of their craft as writers when they devote themselves to their books over the course of a year. Many of our authors have gone on to publication both traditionally and through self-publication after this course. If you’re longing to commit to a long project, check out the options HERE, including the Online version of the 1 year first draft course.

(Both James and I will be active participants in A Novel Approach Second Draft. We’re both looking forward to polishing up our novels in the company of other like-minded authors!)

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SoulCollage at Blue Heron – October 19th – a One Day Workshop

Some of you have asked about SoulCollage this fall. I’m not teaching any long courses, but I will be doing a one day workshop at Blue Heron Studio on October 19^th. You can register for it HERE.

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The Artist’s Way – 12 Weeks to reclaim your inner artist

I am so excited to be teaching this 12 week course (over two 6 week sessions). Twenty two years ago, as a young mother, I organized a group to make our way through Julia Cameron’s classic program for artistic self-recovery.

People sometimes make comments on how lucky I am to have the life I do (and I am grateful for it every day I promise!). I put a lot of credit for the life I lead on the work I did back then using Cameron’s ideas.

If you (like me) struggle with producing your art and claiming the life you want for yourself, give yourself the gift of commitment for these 12 weeks this fall. I will be engaging with the work of wrestling with my own artistic anxiety, and am so looking forward to facilitating this group. You can read more about it and register HERE on the Blue Heron website.

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Pen in Hand, Ink on Page

I will be facilitating the Pen in Hand, Ink on Page (and bum in seat!) class at Blue Heron Studio again this fall. This course is made for people like me who need scheduled, committed time to produce their own work. The time has been moved to Friday mornings from 9:30 to noon. You can read more about it and register HERE.

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Radical Restoration Writing and Yoga Retreat – ITALY 2015

In April of this year we did our first Radical Restoration Yoga and Writing Retreat in Italy. It was fantastic. Mornings of gentle and self-compassionate yoga under the superlative facilitation of Esana Lotfy and facilitated writing in a group, magnificent food, and afternoons spent relaxing, hiking, writing, napping and exploring the surrounding towns of Assisi, Gubbio and Perugia.

It was so fantastic we’re going back next year. The dates are already on the website HERE.

And you can read about this year’s adventure in detail HERE if you’re interested, or see a slideshow of the retreat centre HERE.

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SoulCollage and Writing Retreat in Amherst with Sue Reynolds and Pat Schneider

I just got back from doing a combined SoulCollage and Writing workshop co-led by Pat Schneider. Again, it was such a success that we’re talking about doing it next year. Pat has done a blog about it and there are some pictures at this location HERE. Also, there’s a link there to be notified when we decide on next year’s dates.

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Sue Reynolds, Psychotherapist (in the supervision phase of obtaining my license)

Sue Reynolds

As you may or may not know, I have been working on getting my registered Psychotherapist designation for some time. I am currently under supervision, which means that my education is mostly finished but I need to work through a designated number of “currency hours” in practice. I offer therapy sessions, but I have an experienced clinical supervisor that I report to.

Because I am in this phase of getting my license, my hourly rates are very reasonable. If you know of someone who would benefit from therapeutic counselling you are welcome to have them contact me.

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Recommended Courses: What I’ve Been Up To As A Student

I often recommend that my students and workshop participants try working with other teachers. I have had the incredible good fortune to work with a number of very gifted teachers over my career and each of them has taught me something that has expanded my craft as a writer.

This past spring I did a six week poetry course with Jacob Scheier: Writing about Grief (some of that work was in the query I sent the poetry editor). Jacob is the winner of a 2008 Governor General’s Award for poetry and he is offering two days of Writing about Grief on Saturday, August 16th, Personal Narrative: 11-5 pm and Sunday August 17th, Poetry: 11-5 pm

He will also be offering a longer version of Writing about Grief in the fall.

I’ve also been working on my next novel through Sherry Coman’s online workshop Getting Emotional: overturning the traditional story-first method of writing development. I’ve worked with Sherry before – she’s an insightful and generous teacher. If you want to contact her to be put on her list to notify you when she’s next offering the course, you can reach her at sherry.coman@gmail.com

I highly recommend working with both these talented teachers.
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Kudos:

I subscribe to The Writers’ Almanac Poem a Day and every morning look forward to starting out with a coffee and a poem.

A couple of years ago I woke up to the poem “Bounty” by Robyn Sarah. I’ve just learned that the publisher Porcupine’s Quill is reissuing the book of poetry it came from: A Day’s Grace. I think that’s so remarkable that it’s worth mentioning here, congratulating Robyn, and recommending the book. I love Robyn’s work – steeped as it is in being present. You can read more of her poetry at The Writers Almanac HERE.

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