Volume VI, Issue 4 January 23, 2017 Dear ,
You may have
caught Mary Herbert Love's documentary on Martin Luther King when she was featured here in the Word-zine two weeks ago. (If not, you can check it out on the WordPlay Facebook Page.) She's back this week as an editor, rather than a writer!
As an editor for a beautiful lifestyle magazine called Charleston Style & Design, Mary Herbert is on the lookout for essays for the magazine, so I am passing the style guidelines on to you,
attached to this email. If you write personal essays, I encourage you to go for this! They even pay, as I know from personal experience.
There's a sample essay from the magazine below for you to check out, too, which happens to be about style. But please don't think that your essay needs to have anything to do with
fashion! Mine, written back in 2007, was about learning how to text when my son went off to college. I hated the idea of this new technology at the time—ha! How far we have all come in 10 years, right?
I've also read beautiful essays that focus on relationships, the natural world, travel. There was one on "coastal
snow" recently that I just loved. And I think you'll really enjoy "My Mother's Style" by Katherine Wilson, this week's featured writing.
And... because the word of the week is style... Who had more of it
than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?
Richard and I went
to see Jackie over the holidays—a fascinating movie! I'd had no idea how much the way we remember President Kennedy was "styled" by Jackie's determination. She knew what she wanted and how she wanted people to feel and think about her husband, herself, and her family and she crafted her words, and every fine detail, to shape the country's collective memory of the Kennedy years.
We writers have that power too, through the written
word—to communicate our own thoughts and feelings, and to connect with others so that they can see some part of the world, some aspect of being human, the way we do. The essay is a perfect form for that. Even if you don't take advantage of submitting one for Charleston Style & Design, even if you don't write essays at all, I hope you'll use
this week to focus on your own writing style. Let yourself be influenced by writing you admire, try on different sentence structures and forms, but be true to your own heart and gut. Here's to your style, shared!
Love and light,
Upcoming WordPlay
COASTAL WRITING RETREAT
Connect with Your Creativity at the Sunset Inn
(Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration) Renew yourself and reconnect with your own creativity, whether you are a practicing writer, closet writer, or as-yet-to-pick-up-the-pen writer! The techniques and prompts we’ll use will spur your imagination, and can be used to create nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry—the choice is yours. $378 for the weekend beginning Friday, February 17th through Sunday, February 19th. The Coastal Writing Retreat includes writing sessions, two nights’ lodging, two
breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included). Want to extend your retreat? If you’d like to stay another day to write, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering to Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night, February 19th, at half price. (Extra retreat sessions are a possibility too. Email info@wordplaynow.com if you’re interested.)
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, February 17 – Sunday, February 19, 2017*
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at
888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, February 19 at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
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PROJECT BOOK RETREAT:
GET YOUR BOOK OUR OF YOU AND INTO THE WORLD
(Writing / Publishing Your Book-length Writing Project) A hands-on workshop for any writer who would like to write and/or publish a
book and
1) doesn’t know how
2) doesn’t get around to it
3) feels
a) intimidated
b) confused
c) overwhelmed
d) uninspired
e) all of the above You’ll gain clarity, confidence, direction, momentum, and working knowledge of the steps you need to take and the procedures and pieces that are necessary (overview, synopsis, outline, and all that jazz), as well as an
introduction to today’s publishing world (major publishers, university presses, small presses, self-publishing, e-publishing, and print-on-demand). We’ll talk about marketing, too, whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert. $378 (plus tax) includes retreat, lodging, two breakfasts and
Saturday lunch. Note: Class doesn’t include critique of your book manuscript, which is a separate service.
$378 for the weekend beginning Friday, February 24th through Sunday, February 26th. Includes Project: Book sessions, two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included). Additionally, for those who
might like to stay another day to work on their writing, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night, February 26th, at half price.
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, February 24 – Sunday,
February 26, 2017*
TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding
rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, February 26, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured Writer
YOU! Because it’s your opportunity to submit an essay
to Charleston Style & Design
Image courtesy of: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/20489/
Featured Writing My Mother's Style
by
Katherine Wilson
as seen in Charleston Style &
Design
The ultimate compliment in our family was “you look Italian.” The words pretty, stylish, even stunning carried no weight; Italian was the adjective that mattered.
The seeds of my mother’s religion (thick black eyeliner and thick black belts, Italian leather heels, devil-may-care décolleté) were sown 1952, when she lived in Rome for a year as a young girl. She and her parents moved there from a little town in West Virginia. From pastel sweaters buttoned to the neck and “sensible” shoes, my mother landed in a country of impossible curves and Salvatore Ferragamo heels. Post-war Italy was ravaged and hungry, but gorgeous, always
gorgeous. The country was trying to stay alive, and the beauty of women like Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren helped.
From the moment my mother arrived back in small-town America, her mission was to be mistaken for an Italian woman...
Read the entire essay 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 "style."
PROMPT:
Take your pick! Or do them all! - Send an essay to Charleston Style & Design. (You may have to write or revise one first.)
- If you write fiction, write a scene that focuses on a character's sense of style, in any realm: fashion, home design, parenting, work, etc.
- Write about style, your own, or someone else's, and how it manifests in the world. What image does this style portray? What impact does it have? What results does it produce?
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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