JK Rowling: Words of Wisdom

JK Rowling's Harvard commencement speech:

On the fringe benefits of failure, and the power of imagination.

Watch it here 

Getting to the Core

The 7th Annual Topanga Film Festival

July 28-31, 2011

Topanga, California

In addition to the slate of films, here's a salon discussion you don't want to miss:

"Getting to the Core" Salon Discussion - Friday, July 30th, 3-4:30 p.m.
Church of Cinema, 269 Old Canyon Blvd., Topanga 90290
Panelists: Karin Gutman, Laura Milner, Joan Schekel, and Dr. Robert M. Bilder

This salon discussion explores the human urge toward story, and how to go about unlocking the stories that need to be told. The panelists will offer various perspectives on the creative process from the very inception of our story ideas through their cultivation and development into a form that can be shared with others. Dr. Bilder, a neuropsychologist and the Director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity, will describe what is going on in our brains during this creative process.
See full details and buy tickets

The Art of Close Reading

"Improving as a reader is something you need to do to improve as a writer."

~ Jim Shepard

Award-winning novelist Jim Shepard shares his 5-step process of analyzing work towards the improvement of your own skills and craft as a writer--direct from the 2010 Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.

Thank you to Dani Shapiro for her Twitter post!

These Women!

Join the Institute for Cultural Change  

for a once in a lifetime gathering to honor

"THESE WOMEN!"

June 24-26, 2011 - Santa Barbara, CA

Pat Berry, Lyn Cowan, Christine Downing, Nor Hall, Ginette Paris,

Hendrika de Vries, Mary Watkins, and Marion Woodman

See full details

You are invited to experience an extraordinary weekend of dialogue, exploration and dynamic conversation with these seminal voices. Their writings and teachings unleashed our imaginations, steeped our lives in symbolic understanding, and guided us in trusting our emerging feelings and knowings. Their life work has shaped and expanded Depth, Archetypal, and Jungian Psychology.

This gathering is designed to be interactive, giving the audience an opportunity to ask questions and share reflections on a few turning points in their own lives that have been meaningful.

Read the brief bios for these amazing women authors, thinkers and cultural shapers of this century. Your sponsorship of any one of these women will permit you to attend the event at no charge.

Creative Efficiency

Take care when analyzing and editing your creative work... you may cut out its very essence.  As Aristotle once said, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Family Matters

FAMILY MATTERS

Tuesday, April 26th @ 7 p.m.

Diesel, A Bookstore

Brentwood Country Mart - 225 26th Street
Santa Monica 90402

Join memoir authors Jennifer Lauck (Blackbird, Found), Dinah Lenney (Larger than Life) and Hope Edelman (The Possibility of Everything, Motherless Daughters) as they read from their recent work and discuss the ups and downs, ins, outs, screeching halts and gymnastics involved in writing about family.

Find full details here

Script Frenzy

Have you ever wished there were a version of NaNoWriMo dedicated to scriptwriting?
There is! Script Frenzy!
 
Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April--screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, and graphic novels are all welcome. Every writer who completes the goal of 100 pages is victorious and awe-inspiring and will receive a handsome Script Frenzy Winner's Certificate and web badge proclaiming this fact.

Even those who fall short of the word goal will be applauded for making a heroic attempt. Really, you have nothing to lose-except that nagging feeling that there's a script inside you that may never get out.

30 days. 100 pages. April. Are you in?

P.S. Your NaNoWriMo user name works over at Script Frenzy.
 

Two Standout Memoirs - Hot Off the Press!

The month of March kicked off with a bang: two important memoirs have just been released, both written by special women who I've had the opportunity to get to know over the last year.

Meredith Baxter, most well-known for her popular role as Elyse Keaton on Family Ties, has emerged as a writer with her first book, Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering. Told with insight, wit, and disarming frankness, Untied is the eye-opening and inspiring life of an actress, a woman, and a mother who has come into her own.

Meredith's Book Signings in Los Angeles & San Francisco:

Vroman's Bookstore - Saturday, March 12th, 4pm
695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena 91101

Diesel, A Bookstore - Sunday, March 20th, 3pm
Brentwood Country Mart, 225 26th Street, Santa Monica 90402

Books Inc. in the Castro - Wednesday, March 23rd, 7:30 pm
2275 Market Street, San Franciso 94114

Then, in a follow up to her New York Times best-selling memoir Manic, Terri Cheney now shares her experience growing up with bipolar disorder in her new book The Dark Side of Innocence. By diving back into her own troubled childhood, Terri Cheney offers the first truly personal portrayal of this heartrending and controversial illness, which affects more than one million children.

Terri will be reading & signing books in the LA area:

Book Soup Bookstore - Wednesday, March 23rd, 7pm

8818 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90069

Barnes & Noble Bookstore - Saturday, April 2nd, 2pm

Westside Pavillion (1st Floor), 10850 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles 90064 

Memoirs Ink Essay Contest

Memoirs, Ink., is hosting its half-yearly writing contest. The purpose of the contest is to encourage others to write about their experiences and to give promising writers money to fund their writing habits. First prize is $1000 and publication at Memoirsink.com.

Guidelines:

Memoirs Ink. is looking for previously unpublished personal essays, memoirs, or stories that are based on autobiographical experiences. The narrative must be written in first person. Other that that, the contest is open to any type, genre or style of stories.

First Prize: $1000. Second Prize: $500. Third Prize: $250. 

Entry fee: $15.

Contest Deadline: February 15, 2011 (Postmark). Late Deadline March 1, 2011 (Requires additional $5) Winners will be announced April 30, 2011. Winners will be published at www.memoirsink.com.

Send entries to:
Memoirs Ink Writing Contest
10866 Washington Blvd., Ste. 518,
Culver City, CA 90232

Please limit entries to less than 1500 words.

Please submit entries as follows: Typed, double-spaced, 12 pt. font.

Please submit entries with Entry Form. Available here.

Questions? E-mail Jill

Upcoming Writing Workshops

 

 Kick-off your New Year with a Spirit of Story writing workshop!

MALIBU WRITING WORKSHOP
Come join us for a *FREE* sample session

Sunday, January 23rd, 2 - 4 p.m.
Held at a private home in Malibu
See full details

UNLOCKING YOUR STORY
Uncover, develop, and write your personal story

Jan 12th - March 2nd (Santa Monica)
8 Wednesday evenings, 7-10 p.m.

  March 8th - April 26th (Woodland Hills)
8 Tuesdays, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.
See full details