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Newsletter for Writers - December 2013
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 Upcoming Events |
Early Registration Advised
Spaces Are Limited
Winter Writer's Retreat
Start the New Year Write!
A Fearless Writing Retreat
February 1 & 2, 2014
Montreat Conference Center
Montreat, NC
Click here to register
Announcing dates for Peggy's
2014 writer's retreats.
 Visit the Calendar of Eventsto view upcoming dates, to register and to learn more about upcoming Clarityworks programs.
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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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We must play the edge,
that place where all
artists live.
The seeming reality of
the world pressures
us about relationships,
earning a living,
being successful.
But another reality whispers
about being true to oneself,
about inner being,
about the power of art
to change the world.
Every human being lives
on this edge,
but very possibly,
only artists and spiritual
practitioners acknowledge
where they stand.
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 | 
Learn about the latest in
independent publishing and
find your local indie
bookstore at
www.indiebound.com
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| Picture Prompt |
Ready. Set. Write!
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Upcoming Events
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For the latest updates
and events, visit
Peggy's Calendar of Events.
Dates for 2014
retreats updated regularly.
Stay tuned for registration
information and updates.
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| Wordly Wise from Peggy Tabor Millin | Mistakes: Steps in Learning
When I was a graduate instructor in the Department of  Learning Disabiities at a California university, I was quoted as saying "mistakes are simply steps in learning." I still believe that mistakes are powerful and positive teachers. The November Lake Logan retreat provided such a learning experience. I haven't figured out how it happened, but there was a discrepancy between the web-posted date and the actual date of the retreat. As a result, many of those signed up could not attend. Instead of a full house of sixteen people, we had eight, including myself.
The weekly classes I've done in my home usually averaged eight to ten participants, a perfect group size for the space and for optimum interaction and writing time. The retreats have averaged twelve to fifteen, the perfect size to justify renting a site to accommodate overnight stays, yet still small enough for participants to engage with one another both within and outside the circle.
Originally the 2013 Lake Logan retreat was billed as a special alumni-only retreat, a reunion of women who had previously attended either Seabrook or Lake Logan or both. Spaces filled quickly; everyone was excited. Likewise, everyone, not least of all me, was disappointed, disheartened, and dismayed when the retreat was rescheduled and only only four of the original registrants could attend. The "specialness" of the event was bound to be lost...or was it?
At the end of the week, Kathy Boswell answered that question with this list poem:
Smaller circle
Tighter but more room
Same rules applied
Observed but more relaxed
Time in the circle to learn more
Hearing wisdom
Breathing metaphors
Laughter about Remington
Tears about Jeb
Contemplation about candles
Ghost story turned horror
(I apologize for that)
Challenges fulfilled
Postcards for poetry
Hesitating about coming
It won't be the same...
Far better
Far more wonderful
Never to happen again
So thankful I came
This circle was magic
Thank you
 We missed familiar faces, the voices of characters and their authors, the warm hugs from old friends, the laughter of shared memories. And we found a deeper intimacy and had time to converse about writing and ourselves as writers that we hadn't explored before. Kathy's poem sums it up: while the retreat didn't meet our original expectations, it presented a new experience, one that couldn't have been predicted. It was, Kathy says, "never to happen again." And that is what magic is, isn't it?
Keep writing!
Peggy
(And see below for the invitation from the Sunburst First Book Committee.)
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| Submissions Invited from Lake Logan and Seabrook Alumni | | Alumni from Lake Logan and Seabrook retreats are invited to submit wisdom, humor, and "slice of life" writings created in the retreat circles since 2001. This is our chance to share with the world the magic that happens in the Centered Writing Practice process and the words we craft to express our internal truths and feelings.
We, the participants at the recent 2013 Lake Logan retreat, have formed a loose association/committee to birth this project and named ourselves, "The Sunburst First Book Committee" (aka SFBC). Our goal is to publish a book of wise women "writes to prompts" that we have hiding in our journals from our retreats. These may be poems, short, short stories, flash fiction, or personal memories that leapt from our pens on to the pages.
You should already have received an email invitation with details for submission. If you have not and need further information, you may contact Kathleen Boswell at radatex@comcast.net or Vickie Manz at bonitavickie@comcast.net. Please put "Sunburst First Book Committee" in the subject line of your email.
Yours truly,
THE SUNBURST FIRST BOOK COMMITTEE
Kathleen Boswell Jennifer Browning
Deborah Cantrell Betsy Fletcher
Mary Freen Vickie Manz
Alicia Porterfield
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Books to Explore
| | Book Suggestions from 2013 Retreatants
New books by favorite authors
Billy Collins (poetry) Aimless Love (new)
Julia Glass (fiction) And the Dark and Sacred Night
Tommy Hays (young adult/adult) What I Came to Tell You
Elizabeth Strout (fiction) Abide with Me
Nowhere Else on Earth by Josephine Humphreys
A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa by Elaine Neil Orr
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Any of the "ballad" novels by Sharyn McCrumb
Becoming Kuan Yin: The Evolution of Compassion by Stephen Levine
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton
The Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness
Shadow of Night by Deborah E. Harkness
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
The Book Thief by Markus Rusak
Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation edited by Roger Housden
Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems edited by Caroline Kennedy
And one added by alumni Alice Johnson, The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler
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| News You Need to Know | | 
Qu Literary Magazine,
a contemporary literary magazine from Queens University of Charlotte, is now accepting submissions for its inaugural issue. Submissions will be accepted through December 1, 2013. They publish fiction, essays, poetry, and script excerpts of outstanding quality. Visit their webpage for complete submission guidelines and to learn more about Qu Literary Magazine.
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NC News for Writers
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The Great Smokies Writing Program has released its schedule of Spring 2014 courses. Courses are available for writers of all levels and in a variety of genres. Classes will be held in Asheville, Hendersonville, and Burnsville. Click here to see a complete course list and for registration information.
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ClarityWorks Participant Spotlight: Nancy Dunlop
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That Place
Carefree and happy go lucky, not a care in the world. What to eat for dinner was the most important decision to be made all week.
How I wish I could go back to that place. That place before the elephant landed on my breast and refused to leave. An elephant named Cancer.
He was surgically removed but that was only the beginning. His dander and excrement had to be cleaned up, radiated thirty-three times. The estrogen he fed on will have to be medically removed from my body to prevent another elephant from growing in my bones, lungs, liver or even my brain.
How can I be carefree and happy go lucky with not a care in the world? I can't. I know too much. I am afraid.
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___________________
Nancy writes creative nonfiction essays and has been  published in a wide variety of books and magazines. She is a charter member of The Secret City Writers, a member of Tennessee Mountain Writers and a frequent participant at Clarity Work's retreats.
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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...
| | ...Celia Szelwach whose poem "Judgement" has been published in The Great Smokies Review, the online publication of the Great Smokies Writing Program. Celia's poem was  inspired by a photograph of "The Last Judgement" mosaic in the cupola of the Baptistry, Florence. Visit the Great Smokies Review online to read. Celia will also be reading at the November 17th Writer's at Home program at Malaprop's in Asheville. The program starts at 3pm.
Celia is an Army veteran and an adjunct professor at Montreat College. She has attended Clarityworks retreats at Montreat and Great Tree Zen Temple. She lives in Arden, North Carolina.
...Deb Cantrell whose story "My Last Beauty Pageant" was accepted  for an upcoming episode of Tales from the South's Starving Artist Cafe. Visit the Tales from the South's website for more information.
Deb lives in Brentwood Tennessee and has attended Clarityworks retreats at Lake Logan and Seabrook.
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
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Share the inspiration. Share the community.
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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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