ClarityWorks Inc

Newsletter for Writers - July 2013 

UpcomingEventsUpcoming Events

 

Early Registration Advised

Spaces Are Limited

 

New Event Listing!

Montreat in Fall

 Follow the Pen:A Fearless Writing Workshop
September 22 & 23
Montreat Conference Center
Montreat, NC



Lake Logan Retreat
Alumni Retreat!
Fearless Writing on the Blue Ridge Retreat for Women
November 10--17, 2013
Lake Logan Conference Center
Canton, NC
 

  

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From the Book

A woman's heroic
journey can be
summarized as her search
for the ecological relationship
between her creative
responsiveness and
her intense desire to
create something in matter
that is uniquely hers,
something that sings
of her soul across time.





Peggy Tabor Millin's
Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine


RemindersFromPeggyPeggy's Monthly Reminder


Practice Makes Possible

Writing Fearless
Practice. Practice. Practice.

Process before product.

Writing requires silence, solitude, space, and the courage and awareness to search our shadow side.

Write from the belly, not the brain; write from the heart, not the head.

The body with its intuition and our willingness to listen to what the body says are our greatest assets as writers.

Writing and publishing are not the same thing. If we write, we are writers. If we publish what we write, we are published writers. A published writer is not a better writer. A published writer is simply a writer who is published.


-Peggy Tabor Millin
excerpts from

Women, Writing, and Soul-Making

WWS-M Kindle Edition

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International Council of Thirteen Indigenous
Grandmothers

"We represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We look to further our vision through the realization of projects that protect our diverse cultures: lands, medicines, language and ceremonial ways of prayer and through projects that educate and nurture our children"

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Announcing a September Retreat
Wordly Wise from Peggy Tabor Millin
 Now that I am off medication and feel I have my brain back, Peggy I'm discovering details that have dropped to the wayside--like bookkeeping and the fact that I had reserved Montreat Conference Center for a Fearless Writing Retreat September 21-22!

I stared at the dates, reread my contract, realized I could still cancel the reservation, and then listened to my body. I felt an energy rush and excitement filled me.  The message was "Do it!" So I will, and I hope you will come.

If we choose, we can learn from our pain. One gift it has given me is a heightened awareness of my body's needs. I am so grateful for this. This herniated disk is the third major physical challenge in three years. My body is trying to get my attention. Slow down is one message, but I think the most important one (meaning the hardest for me to hear) is put yourself first.
Art by Kimberly Childs

As a woman raised in the fifties within the context of Christianity (very moderate) I was given the message "do unto others first and put yourself last." I've been unwrapping that dictum for quite a while, learning that if the server does not first serve herself, she can not serve anyone.

This requires more than saying "no." It requires that we truly learn to love ourselves, to honor and acknowledge our inner beauty. And this requires listening to our souls which often speak to us through our bodies. Centered Writing Practice is a tool we can use to expose what we need to hear.

Try the prompt, "the body says..."  You might challenge yourself and use the prompt every day for three days.

Keep writing!
Peggy

 

 Books to Explore - What Peggy is Reading
The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.

I haven't had opportunity to do much reading in the past months, so I am directing you to a New York Times review of  The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling.

I chose this book because a friend of mine and fellow writer, Carolyn Wallace, had listened to the audio book and recommended it. She said the strength of the book is in "the brilliant characterization. The reader knows the inside of the minds of a diverse group of people." Since there are eight households of characters, this is a remarkable feat, indeed.

Carolyn went on to say that "at the end of the book it was hard to believe these people were not out there in the world" and that even with their many imperfections she felt the reader could identify and care to them. The review by Amanda Foreman seems well balanced, neither "excessively fawning or unduly harsh."

I'm probably on of the few people in the world who has not read a Harry Potter book or seen one of the movies, so I look forward to reading or listening to Rowling's first adult novel without expectations.
NewsYouNeedNews You Need to Know
Writing Submissions

Off the Grid Press will publish a full-length book of poetry by a poet over the age of 60. Entry fee of $25 and award to winner $1000. Postmark deadline August 31, 2013.  Complete rules and submission guidelines
Narrative Magazine is now accepting submissions for its Spring 2013 Story Contest. This contest is open to all fiction and non-fiction writers.  Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest. Contest deadline is July 31, 2013. Read complete submission rules and instructions
here.

Project Gutenberg offers over 42,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. We carry high quality ebooks: All our ebooks were previously published by bona fide publishers. We digitized and diligently proofread them with the help of thousands of volunteers. No fee or registration is required, but if you find Project Gutenberg useful, we kindly ask you to donate a small amount so we can buy and digitize more books. Other ways to help include digitizing more books, recording audio books, or reporting errors. Visit www.gutenberg.org for more information.

Newpages: Good Reading Starts Herenewpages.com offers lists of places to submit your work.
NCnewsNC News for Writers

Pen-Journal
Sweet Woods Press announces the addition of audio blogs to the website of Brevard author and Clarityworks participant Karen Lauritzen (www.nothingvanishes.com). Audio blogs are a unique method for the listener to access the author as she speaks about her craft.  Her debut book, Nothing Vanishes, Memoir of A Life Transformed, is available locally, is sold through her website, on Amazon.com and can be purchased as an e book.  This month her memoir will be included in the AAUW display at the Transylvania County Library of books written by North Carolina women.  The author pledges 30% of all book sales through September 1 to PCM, People for Clean Mountains.

Carolyn Wallace presents: Creative Life Reflection Weekend (2) Writing Your Life Story: Getting Started
An "Aging Successfully" Series on October 4--6, 2013. Carolyn Wallace has spent the last 35 years developing non-profits, as a college administrator, writing and editing, and facilitating workshops such as Finding/Redefining Your Life Purpose, Attitudinal Healing, Shape-Shifting for Personal and Global Transformation, and most recently, Life Legacy Weekends:  Exploring Life Stories and Writing Ethical Wills/Legacy Letters. Carolyn is a past participant in ClarityWorks classes and retreats.
To register for this retreat please call: (828) 622-7206. $250 includes teacher's tuition, 2 night's lodging, 6 vegetarian meals, guided Appalachian Trail hike, hot tube at Hot Springs Mineral Baths.

The Great Smokies Writing Program is now accepting registration for fall classes. Great Smokies classes are open to writers of all levels and offerings include classes in fiction, memoir, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Visit this website for more information, class descriptions, and registration. You may also call 828/251-6099 or email [email protected] for more information.
Spotlight
ClarityWorks Participant Spotlight: Maggie Wynne
Button Box

Mama says the button box entered
our family, folded in tissue
like some blue blood baby's silver spoon.

I slide the wooden lid along, hold
my breath until the groove lets go.
I slip my hand inside, feel
the smooth, cool contents trickling
through my fingers like fool's gold.

I sprawl on the floor,
wrapped in silence and seersucker,
delight in a slow search, even though
summer's summons to bed calls
long before dark.

I pour buttons gently
on the bare floor. My fingertip
selects one, guides it away from the heap
to tell its story. A pearl baby duck says
he was present the day of my birth, sewn
on a dimity gown, trimmed with Mother's
yellow feather stitching.
Slow and perfect.
___________________   
Maggie, her husband, and their two dogs live in North Carolina, dividing their time among Raleigh, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the coast. She honed her skills as a writer beginning in ClarityWorks classes and since studied poetry. She has published A Little Bit of Yesterday, a chapbook, as well as individual poems in literary journals. Her novel , Homeward, to be released next month, is the story of her maternal grandmother who came alone from Brazil at age 12 to her own grandmother's home in Virginia to attend school.

Send it in!

We would love to feature something you have written to a prompt. Send it in and enjoy seeing your words published in the newsletter! Just email: [email protected]

 

ClarityWorks Participant Blogs & Retreat Anthologies

Follow these links to visit the blogs and websites of a few members of our ClarityWorks community. Enjoy!

 

Cheryl Dietrich  

www.cheryldietrich.net 

 

Ginger Graziano

www.gingergraziano.com/blog 

 

Karen Lauritzen

www.nothingvanishes.com

Martha McMullen  

 www.marthamcmullen.com   

 

Follow this link to read anthologies of retreat participants on the ClarityWorks' website. 

 

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Peggy Tabor Millin, MA

ClarityWorks, Inc. - PO Box 9803 - Asheville, NC 28815 - (828) 298-3863 www.clarityworksonline.com - [email protected]  

  

Inspire your writing. Enrich your life.