Early Bird Registration closes June 30. August 5-10, 2012 San Geronimo Lodge Taos, NM back to top |
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
|
Upcoming
Workshops
in 2012
Interp Writing Intensive
August 5-10
San Geronimo Lodge
Taos, NM
Advanced Interp Writing
Oct. 7-12
Wallace Falls Lodge
Gold Bar, WA
|
| Know someone who could use the information in this newsletter? Click "Forward email" at the bottom of the newsletter, or contact me and I'll add their name to the list. |
|
The Length of Communication
I'm outside the Grimeton Radio Center's visitor center in Sweden, a World Heritage Site, looking at the long line of antennas that stand like Nordic giants, their feet planted in a  verdant pasture sprinkled with wildflowers and dairy cows. I am contemplating the human need--not merely an urge, but a profound need--to communicate our stories to each other. A need so fundamental that we will go to incredible lengths to fulfill it.
The Grimeton Radio Station was built to provide wireless telegraph communication between Sweden and the U.S. Although Grimeton's boom time was during World War II, when cables were severed and Sweden's primary contact with the rest of the world relied on wireless telegraphy, the station itself was built to send wireless telegrams between Swedes who had  emigrated to America and those they'd left behind--an ongoing story I heard repeated in the exhibit halls of the Utvandrarnas Hus (The House of Emigrants) in Växjö and in other, more informal settings: the beaming cashier at the grocery, who told me about her American cousins she discovered on Facebook; the  young couple on the ferry leaning together as they tapped messages home on a tablet computer; ever-present cell phone towers and satellite dishes. New technologies don't necessarily replace the old; they add to it. Grimeton is still used for marine communications, and twice a year, volunteers fire it up and ham radio operators listen and respond. I still hand-write notes and cards, though not as often as I used to, and--this is to my son and his friends--I do not and never have used a quill.
I'm still thinking about this when we land in Newark, New Jersey, and I use my cell phone to call my son back in Colorado. It's Sunday, about mid-morning where he is. He sounds a little sleepy, and after I tell him that our flight's on schedule, I prod him for a bit of conversation. "Anything exciting going on at home?"
"Well, there's this fire that started yesterday..." he begins.
 By the time we retrieve our car from the lot at Denver International Airport six hours later, the fire has grown from 8,000 acres to almost 20,000. I shoot photos through the bug-splattered windshield while my husband drives. By the next morning, the fire will cover almost 40,000 acres, and as I'm writing this on Friday, June 15, more than 75 square miles have burned.
We pull into the driveway a little after 8:00 p.m. It's almost dark and everything smells of smoke. I taste the ash before I see it lilting gently on air currents, settling softly on my suitcase, the porch, my forearm, and I recall Greek mythology from  elementary school in Ohio, and wonder about Pompeii, and remember more recent stories about Mount St. Helens.
On Tuesday, a man quoted in the local newspaper rants about the lack of information: "When you can Google anything these days--" And even though I appreciate his frustration and fear, I think about how we want the final draft, the finished story, with all the details (all the ones that matter to us, right now this minute) first, before anyone's had a chance to figure out the story, to put the details into some kind of order that makes sense, and that even Google with its vast database can't do that. Not yet, anyway.
At 7:50 a.m. on Monday, less then twelve hours after arriving home, friends in Sweden email to ask if we're in danger. It's almost 6,000 miles from their house to mine. It's an eight-hour time difference. Even through the haze of jetlag and pooling smoke, I am amazed at how fast the story has travelled.
And yet, with all this time- and distance-closing technology, we are still striving to do the same ancient task: communicate with each other. Find our way to new worlds and report back on them, so those we've left behind don't forget us, and will perhaps follow us. Keep the old stories alive, so when those who've left come back, they'll know the place they've come back to.
As I finish writing this story, thunder rumbles beyond the ridge, where smoke continues to billow. It could be rain.
Judy
Comments? Questions?
Tell us!
970/416-6353
888/886-9289
email Judy
back to top |
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
I've heard from a lot of folks who say they want to come, they hope they can come, they're thinking about coming to the Interp Writing Intensive this August in Taos.
We must meet our minimum registration
by June 30, or I'll have to cancel the workshop.
If you're serious about your writing, don't wait!
back to top
|
|
Improve your writing this summer with the
Interpretive Writing Intensive
August 5-10, 2012 San Geronimo Lodge, Taos, NM
Freeman Tilden said interpretive writing should be
"concise, focused, inspirational, and engaging."
Lofty goals for any writer!
- What makes interpretive writing interpretive;
- How to create writing that connects with the reader;
- Techniques for strengthening language, including pacing, language use, and word choice;
- Strategies for organizing;
- How to write for any length or space;
- How to write for different media, different audiences, and different uses;
- How to write for maximum impact;
- How to write even if you think you can't;
- How to take your writing "off-site";
- Humble punctuation;
- Accessing--and improving--creativity (or, the Muse will visit if chocolate is involved);
- Dealing with writer's block (or, how to get the Muse to visit if you're out of chocolate);
- and MORE.
Improve your writing this summer at the Interpretive Writing Intensive, August 5-10, 2012 at San Geronimo Lodge, Taos, New Mexico.
Register today to take advantage of the Early Bird discount--$125.00 off the regular registration! Register three or more people at the same time and save another $50 per person! Early Bird Registration prices effective through midnight, June 30, 2012 or until workshop is full, whichever happens first. To ensure a quality experience with plenty of individual attention, workshop size is limited to 15 people. Registration is first-come, first-served.
back to top |
Join us at historic
August 5-10, 2012
Taos, New Mexico
Built in 1925, the San Geronimo lodge was one of the first hotels in Taos, and the first "resort" hotel. This enchanting inn offers historic charm with all the comfort and convenience of modern day lodging. back to top |
we help you tell the story
 | |
|
|
|
|
