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Newsletter for Writers - August 2013
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 Upcoming Reading |
 Join Peggy and other localwriters for an evening ofpoetry readings. September 20, 2013 at 7pmUrban Dharma29 Page AvenueAsheville, NC 28801(828) 225-6422More information below.
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| Upcoming Events | |
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Keep the pen moving!
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Have you joined our prompt writing community yet? Sign up is quick, easy and free!
Peggy's Practice Makes Possible™ Writing prompts can be delivered automatically to your inbox five days a week, and always with an inspiring quote for the day. Since you're already a newsletter subscriber, just send an email to
clarity@clarityworksonline.com and ask to receive the prompts as well. And of course, you can choose to unsubscribe at any time. Jump in and join us! |
From the Book
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Women tend to explore meaning in a
circular pattern--meaning
that their writing and
talking begins on one level and spirals inward to what really matters.
Many factors determine whether and where the spiral begins and how deep it goes: time, mood, prompt, and safety are some of the variables.
This explains why regular writing practice in a group is particularly important.
We have the opportunity to try different things, to get comfortable with risk,
to be encouraged in our efforts even when the results sound flat and empty or even nonsensical.
We sit in the circle
and look at each woman as someone acting out a part of us, speaking our thoughts in a different voice.
We hear how tentative
this one is, how shy another, how funny and kind and guilty and hurt.
We see how hard it is
for her to claim the quality of her writing.
Peggy Tabor Millin's
Women, Writing, and Soul-Making: Creativity and the Sacred Feminine
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Peggy's Monthly Reminder
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Practice Makes Possible  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 Millinexcerpts from Women, Writing, and Soul-Making |
| Likeable Links | 
Abbey of the Arts
The Abbey is an online global monastery without walls offering retreats, classes, books, and resources to nurture contemplative practice and creative expression.
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| Picture Prompt |
Ready. Set. Write!
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Death by Soda Cracker
Wordly Wise from Peggy Tabor Millin | I'm feeling uninspired to write this piece; no topic rears its head. I pick up Good Poems, an anthology edited by Garrison Keillor and, eyes shut, I open it and point--a blank page. No help at all. On the opposite page is "Death Mask" by Edward Field.
Grateful that my finger hadn't chosen Field, I close the book, shut my eyes, and reopen it and point again. "You soda crackers! I remember..." I read from "Soda Crackers" by Raymond Carver.
I remember soda crackers, crushing them in my child's hands over a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup. stirring until they become a mass of red mush. Sounds unappealing now, but I would eat it with all its sodium and preservatives for the sheer nostalgia of it.
Soda crackers! I remember the blue and white box sitting on the blue formica-and-chrome table in the breakfast nook/dining area of our two bedroom home, the soup in a blue willow ware bowl from the five-and-dime. 
I'm looking toward the window at the end of the nook covered by muslin café curtains my mother decorated by sewing rickrack along the lower edges. If the curtains weren't closed I could see our neighbors' house, the Thompsons who gave me a Siamese kitten, unsaleable because she had white tips on her dark toes. I named her Spooky. She would only eat fresh kidneys, which my mother agreed to buy if I would agree to cut them up--at age ten, my first experience of handling bloody meat.
When my father brought home a dog, a German shepherd mix named Dusty, he led him into the house on a leash to meet Spooky. Spooky immediately sprang to the top of my sister's curly head, dug in her claws, arched her back, and peed. My sister never did like that cat.
My mother in her apron, the kind with a bib and pockets, put the Sunday roast in the oven to cook while we go to church. I recently found a 1950s apron, the same style and similar fabric, at a market stall and bought it for my sister. She told me that when she opened the package, she cried. Even so, the apron didn't make up for Spooky.
I look back at Field's "Death Mask." a poem worth reading, if only to remember that "in the mirror now,/what I see/reminds me/I won't be here forever." And that provides a reason to pick up the pen and move it across the page. To remember the humble soda cracker as well as those Black Russians that made me sick and turned me off kahlua for life.
Field's poem goes on to say,
How do you get from here to there--
I mean, from where I am
to the nursing home? 
In a snap of the fingers,
the blink of an eye.
Like my mother said,
as she was being loaded
into the ambulance,
It went so fast.
Sometimes even soda crackers lead us to examine our mortality, that blank page.
Keep writing!
Peggy
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| Books to Explore - What Peggy is Reading | | I recently cleaned out my bookshelves and found an amazing number of books I hadn't read along with much loved ones I want to read again.
Here are some of my favorite books on writing: 
What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter
Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius within You by Ray Bradbury
Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative by Janet Burroway
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. Essays by Jane Hirshfield
The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear by Ralph Keyes
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The Intuitive Writer: Learning to Listen to Your Own Voice by Gail Sher
If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland
poemcrazy: freeing your life with words by Susan Goldsmith Woodridge
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Upcoming Events
| | Peggy will join local poets in reading at "Speaking of  Mountains and Clouds" Poetry Reading. The event will be held at 7:00 pm, Friday, September 20, at Urban Dharma, 29 Page Avenue, Asheville. The reading is free and open to the public with donations benefiting Great Tree Zen Temple. Two books will be on sale: Speaking of Mountains and Clouds, a poetry anthology of local poets, published by Great Tree in 2012 and an anthology of essays, Receiving the Marrow: Teachings on Dogen by Soto Zen Women Priests (Eldo Frances Carney, Ed.) for which Teijo Munnich, abbess of Great Tree, wrote the first essay.
Join Peggy for Follow the Pen: A Fearless Writing Retreat, September 21-22. This two-day, non-residential writing retreat for women at Montreat Conference Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, inspires women writers to explore creativity and give voice to their truth in a safe circle. For more information visit the ClarityWorks website. To register visit Montreat's registration page. |
| News You Need to Know | | 
Coal Hill Review is now accepting submissions for their 2013 Chapbook Prize for poetry. The winner receives $1000 and publication in print and online. Visit their website for complete submission guidelines.
Bloom, an online literary journal, is accepting personal essays from writers of all ages. "Bloom is for writers and artists of all ages and stages, for anyone who believes that the artistic journey is, and should be, as particular and unique as each one of us; that there is no prescribed beeline to literary achievement." Deadline for submission is September 15, 2013 and the maximum length for pieces is 2500 words. Click here for submission guidelines. Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about mistakes--major or minor, tragic or serendipitous, funny or painful. "We're looking for stories about poor decisions, missteps, or miscalculations; we want to read about embarrassing boo-boos, dangerous misjudgments, or fortuitous faux pas in well-crafted stories that explore the nature and outcomes of human fallibility." Submission deadline is November 1, 2013. Read submission guidelines here.
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NC News for Writers
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The North Carolina Writer's Network 2013 Fall Conference will be held in Wrightsville Beach November 15--17, 2013. Registration opens in early September and the conference will feature readings, keynotes, and tracks in several genres. Visit www.ncwriters.org for more information. 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 nwilliam@unca.edu for more information. Classes start in mid-September. Malaprop's Bookstore presents author Lee Smith reading and signing her latest novel Guests on Earth. The reading begins at 7pm on October 8th, 2013. Visit Malaprop's website for more information or call 1-800-441-9829.
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ClarityWorks Participant Spotlight: Karen Lauritzen
| |  Six burning bushes bordering the rear of the cemetery have turned Christmas-red now that the weather has cooled. They rise from red clay against green lawn. Foggy ridges of mountains fade in the distance. The burning bushes, their branches dense with tiny red berries, are a favorite of the birds. The wood thrush and wrens no longer favor the dogwood since it dropped its dense green leaves. The bare branches leave birds too vulnerable to hawks that fly above, scanning the ground for prey. The crape myrtle, though, is holding onto orange and copper colored leaves as if it were holding its breath this fall. The trunk and limbs are nearly smooth, the bark shedding, dropping its long, brown, pencil-like shavings curled at the base of the tree.
The bark on the tree next to the bench where I often sit still bears the long, deep scars gouged by a raccoon that died in its struggle to free itself after being trapped in the V of a branch. My Cherokee gardener told me that the raccoon is a sacrifice to the garden, a good omen. "The tree will have great power to do good for you and for the people you love," she said.
Geese fly in formation above me calling to each other with their distinctive honking. JB lifts his ears, looks up into the sky from his spot on the front lawn under the beech trees below the garden, throws his head back, and howls with displeasure. He is annoyed that they have disturbed his tranquility, but mostly I know he is upset because they are beyond his reach.
The garden below the cemetery is brown and dying. Spent plants release they progeny. Seed pods are scattered on the ground around the dying heads of plants. Day lily leaves turn yellow and fold over themselves with the effort of forcing food stored in the leaves down to the root to be absorbed for next year's growth.
Leaves scrunch beneath my feet, some still green, some mottled with red-brown stains, others dry and gray. It is  quiet now. I wander the cemetery. No messages for me? Something whispered so quietly I do not hear? Maybe it is time for the deep sleep winter will bring. Sleep, my dear ones, sleep.
Excerpted from Nothing Vanishes: Memoir of a Life Transformed by Karen Lauritzen, available online and at Malaprops Bookstore in Asheville, NC.
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Karen began her writing career in ClarityWorks' classes and retreats. Her short stories, poetry, and essays have been published in The Chrysalis Reader, WNC-Woman Magazine, Kaleidoscope Magazine, and Women's Spaces, Women's Places. She lives in Brevard, NC, where she built her family cemetery Sweet Woods Garden near her home. Learn more about Karen and her writing at her website. |
Send it in!
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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: pmillin@clarityworksonline.com
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ClarityWorks Participant Blogs & Retreat Anthologies
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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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And the Kudos Go To...
| | ...Alice Owens Johnson whose poem Clothesline will appear in the latest edition of  Kakalack 2013.
Alice lives in Black Mountain, NC and has participated in many Clarityworks classes and retreats.
...Martha Jane Petersen, improvisational quilt artist, author, and workshop facilitator announces the publication of her memoir, Imaging My Inner Fire: Finding My Path Through Creative Art. From the book cover: "How can a person with no training in art, and a history of multiple diverse careers, in her sixties become a recognized visual artist? Join Martha Jane Petersen's  journey and discover your own possibilities. In these pages, she describes her surprising adventure into art through twists and turns, questions and doubts." Learn more about Martha Jane and purchase copies of her book at www.marthajanepetersen.com.
Martha Jane lives in Black Mountain, NC and has worked one-on-one with Peggy. She is a Presbyterian minister, as well as a quilt artist.
ClarityWorks enjoys celebrating the accomplishments of writers who have attended our classes, retreats and workshops. We want to share your writing success with our ClarityWorks' community! Send Peggy a "kudos" note at pmillin@clarityworksonline.com.
Thank you for sharing!
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The Gift of Creativity
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Gift thyself... or someone else!
Order Peggy's award-winning book, cd workshop, or gift certificates online at
Shop ClarityWorks.
Share the inspiration. Share the community.
Special web-only package offer available. Learn more...
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Peggy Tabor Millin, MA
ClarityWorks, Inc. - PO Box 9803 - Asheville, NC 28815 - (828) 298-3863 www.clarityworksonline.com - clarity@clarityworksonline.com
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Inspire your writing. Enrich your life.
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