Volume V, Issue 46 November 14, 2016 Word of the Week: stranger Dear ,
You can probably tell this about me, but I not only love meeting people I don't know, I
love bringing together people who don't know each other, and doing what I can to build community as well as inspire and encourage writers so their writing dreams can come to fruition. (Lucky me! As the song goes, it's "Nice Work If You Can Get It.")
Watching what happens in my classes and retreats as folks make the transition between strangers and kindred writing spirits is sweet indeed. That's just what happened this past weekend at the WordPlay Coastal Writing Retreat, as you may be able to tell from this photo of us enjoying a Sunset Beach Pier sunset. We had a wonderful weekend together, and it was a joy to see (and hear)
so many good words written to move their book projects forward. It was great to see the way they supported each other with ideas, resources, and praise. It was hard to believe by the end of Sunday that they hadn't even met each other before Friday evening.
Isn't it astounding to really take in the idea that everyone—and I do mean everyone—you have ever loved, or even liked, was once a stranger? Even your mother and father, your
children (if you have any), your spouse (ditto)... and certainly your friends and writing buddies. Makes me think of stranger as a hopeful word, rather than an off-putting one. How about you?
I think stranger is a perfect word for our country right now, in the context of hoping each of us
will make the effort to reach out to welcome strangers, learn from them, create community with them. This is one of the intentions of an endearing book called Strangers I Have Known, by Melissa Schwartz, which, as it says on the back cover, "captures the best of ... everyday connections in a collection of conversations with a wide variety of individuals, including a hoop-shooting UPS man, a
brilliant third-grade liar, and the most charming pizza deliveryman on earth."
Ever since I met Melissa several summers ago, I can't hear the word stranger without thinking of her. You see, Melissa is one of those people who has never met a stranger, which basically means that she is always making an effort to meet strangers, because she enjoys doing so. I'm delighted to share an excerpt from Melissa's sunny book with you this week.
Here's more about her book, again from the back cover: "Do you know that a conversation with a stranger can improve your health and bring you luck? And that just a smile and a hello can improve the day for the two of you? . . . If you want to enhance your life through connecting with people whose paths cross yours, read this book. The stories will inspire you and the resources will give you ideas about how you can make the most of your daily encounters with those around you."
Here's to seeing the potential for a
good conversation—and, quite possibly, a good story—in the strangers you come across this week.
Love and light, Upcoming WordPlay
WINTER WRITING RETREAT (Writing as Renewal/Creating New Writing/
Tools for a Writing
Life)
Renew and delight yourself. The Winter Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or possibilities for our lives. Enjoy various seasonal prompts; they elicit beautiful material that can be shaped into essays, poems, stories, or articles. After a communal lunch, you'll have private time which can be used to collage,
work with a piece of writing from the morning, or play with a number of other writing prompts and methods. You'll take home new ideas, new drafts, and new possibilities.
$97 includes lunch and supplies
WHERE: South Charlotte area.
Details will be provided upon registration. WHEN: Saturday, December 17th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. Click here to pay online, using PayPal.
More WordPlay opportunities here. WordPlay Success Story
"[Maureen] is a true writing coach blessed with the skills
and vision to help you take your ideas or words—
or both—in the direction you want to go."
Meet Melissa Kotler Schwartz Melissa Kotler Schwartz is a writer, teacher and human interest aficionado. She volunteers as a children’s literacy tutor and teaches autobiography at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of
Cincinnati. She is also an English instructor at Chatfield College in St. Martin, Ohio.
Since she wishes there was more justice in the world, she loves reading mysteries and solving them. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and is at work on a mystery
novel.
Her most recent mystery involved an odd animal odor she encountered upon opening a basement window. “Squirrel” she announced to no one. Case solved. She is confident she could become a professional wine sniffer if she decided to switch careers and often thinks about insuring her nose.
She
lives with her family in Cincinnati, Ohio, and her favorites pastimes include playing with dogs (especially her own), knitting scarves she’ll never wear and researching ad nauseam anything she doesn’t know about but thinks she ought to.
What Melissa says about
WordPlay
A couple of years ago I took a writing class with Maureen at Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York. I found out she was a writing coach and showed her my work. “Wow!” she said, “most people write about people they do know; you write about people you don’t know. Why not blog your stories and turn them into a
book?” I wasn’t familiar with the ins and outs of the publishing world, so I said to myself, “A blog, how do I do that?” I asked Maureen if she would coach me, and she agreed.
Maureen’s a joy to work with! She is a true writing coach blessed with the skills and vision to help you take your ideas or words—or
both—in the direction you want to go. She’s right there with you on your journey. The whole process made me a better writer and editor. Best of all, it was a confidence booster. My book Strangers I Have Known is now on Amazon and I couldn’t be happier. I find myself checking Kindle more often then I should to see how many pages of my book have been read that day. (Yes, you can do that on Amazon.) I’m an author now, and you can be one too. Don’t think about writing that book anymore—just begin with small baby steps. (Ask Maureen to coach you if you need support.) And before you know it, there you’ll be, holding your book in your hands.
Featured Writing
from
Strangers I Have Known by
Melissa Kotler Schwartz
The Sunnyside Up Waitress
“Hey,” the waitress said, smiling at me. I had barely walked in the door. She looked around the restaurant, as if she had just noticed that it was pretty empty. “I guess you can sit anywhere.”
It was 2:45 p.m. The thing that’s great about
Waffle House is that even when you go at an odd time, it’s not odd. There’s always someone there or someone about to come in. If you want to talk, you can sit at the counter and strike up a conversation.
“So, do you know what you want or do you need a little time? Do you want some juice or coffee?” the waitress asked.
She had a sunny disposition. Her freckles seemed to match her friendly demeanor. She had fine straight brown hair to the top of her shoulders and warm delicate light brown eyes. I guessed her to be about nineteen.
We started talking because she wasn’t busy. “I’m glad it’s slow now,” she said, “because it gives me a chance to think about this paper I have to write for
my English class. You know, I’m taking four classes and it’s all good because I work here in the morning five days a week and then I have three hours off in the afternoon before my classes. Two of my classes are online, which is great, and two are on campus. It’s a good balance. It all works out because I get to see my fiancé in the late afternoon before my classes.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” I
said. I was thinking that someone else might complain about having to work five days a week and take four classes and try to save some money for a wedding and college, but instead she was grateful.
What is happiness? This is something I’ve been pondering lately. Why is it that some people waste their time complaining and holding grudges while other people just make the best of what’s handed to
them?
A man with a cane got up slowly from a booth. “Bye,” he said to the waitress.
“I’ll get the door for you,” she said and ran around the counter to help him.
“I’m fine, I can get
it…”
“No, it’s okay,” she said and held it open. “Bye, have a good day, see you soon.”
“Is he a regular?” I asked her.
“Yes, he comes in here a couple times a week. He’s so
cute.”
“You know,” she said, turning to the manager, who had just walked in from the back room, “Jack didn’t come in today. I hope he’s okay. Maybe I should call him. Maybe he’s sick.”
“He’ll be fine,” the manager said. “Let’s worry about it if he doesn’t show up
tomorrow.”
I was amazed that they kept the phone numbers of their regulars, or at least some of them. How touching that they keep an eye out for them.
I looked at the waitress. She was talking to a truck driver in the corner booth. She poured him a coffee. They said something to each other. She
laughed and then he laughed.
She’ll do just fine in life, I thought. It’s such a pleasure for everyone to spend time with someone who has a sunny disposition. Strangers I Have Known is available on Amazon as both a
paperback here and as a Kindle book here. WordPlay Now! Writing
Prompt This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and
potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "stranger."
PROMPT: Write about an encounter between any two strangers to each other, real or fictional. MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with
intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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