April fools day has been and gone and if you got caught out, we have three April workshops in Newtown designed to leave your writing fool behind.
Meditating On Memoir – April 18 – May 23, 6 weeks of thursday workshops, 1pm -3pm .Two prices : with or without Super Session. Early Bird ends March 25 Info here For life story writers and fiction writers alike, using sense memory to create powerful stories. Book here.
The Haiku Art of Petite Book Making – Saturday April 27, 11am -3pm. Mess around with handmade papers from Laos and Bali and recycled materials. Learn the art of oriental stitching and folding. Book here.
Scrapbook Your Way Into Story – Sunday April 28, 11am – 3pm Spend a few hours with fellow creatives messing around with paper, scissors, glue and scrap book to create an image field for your next creative project. Book here.
Please contact Jan before making your payment to check there is a place for you.
Fresh from our Fiji Writers Breakthrough Retreat:
Margo Lanagan award winning fantasy author says:
I came here for the companionship of other writers, and to shake my mind and my writing loose from their usual patterns by listening to other people’s stories and discussing their work and my own.
I found affirmation in what I was writing, and that lifting of spirits that happens when you are being transported by someone else’s writing, whether halting first draft or polished near done chapter. It’s not just the companionship of sitting around talking about the process; there’s a particular energy and community that gets generated by being present at the source, or present at the birth, or present at the breakthrough moment for someone else’s story.
I’ll take home a new chunk of writers network, a new set of memories of a different country( so, new fodder for story settings) and twenty pages of the story I came to work on.
Arienne Alphenaar, fiction writer, says:
I came here to get the writer in me to come out; to stop holding myself back and to decide whether to keep writing or to give it away for ever.
I take home an inner acceptance, a strengthened desire to write and a direction for the future. I’m taking home the key to unlocking my stories.
Deb Fleming, fantasy writer, says:
I take home with me a lot of great material. A sense of joy in the journey. It may be hard sometimes grinding out the words, but there doesn’t always have to be angst about it. I learned that it’s not a failing to find it difficult to write sometimes. In fact you need to go through the grindstone in order for things to get smooth. I learned how to persevere.
Caroline Reid, playwright, short story writer, says:
I found the meditation and writing exercises gave me a way to begin writing even on those days when I felt I had nothing to write.
I found multiple new ways of entering the work, that brought back a sense of play. It made writing so much more interesting and fun and also took away the inner critic so that I was free to write and trust my impulses.
I found camaraderie with other writers.
Johanne Shepherd, inspirational writer says:
I would like to thank you so much for the wonderful week at Daku resort. After struggling all week with my writing, I felt the flow on the morning of our departure when I awoke early and began writing in earnest. Since then I’ve been head down every spare minute and I now have 15,000 words, with lots of dialogue, fantasy and a touch of intrigue. What fun! I never thought I could do this, but for me the key was seeing others and realizing its not so difficult after all.
Coming Up
June 6-16: Sacred Song, Sacred Story, Fes, Morocco (in conjunction with The Fes Sacred Music Festival).
Oct 7-15: Backstage Bali (inc 5 days at Ubud Writers Festival).
Nov 24 -30 : Mekong Meditations Luang Prabang Laos.
Jan 9-21, 2014: Moroccan Caravan.
