Volume VI, Issue 38 September 18,
2017 Dear ,
Happy first day of
fall to you! I am a certified fall leaf nut, so it's a special day for me.
In honor of the day, I wanted to share a favorite September/October with you by Irish poet Seamus Heaney called "Postscript." You can read it here and listen to him read it in his gorgeous Irish brogue here.
It begins with this stirring phrase: "And some time make the time..."
If writing is something you want to make the time for now, you're invited to grab one of the last
two spots of this Saturday's Fall Writing Retreat. Details below, and here.
Wishing you beautiful days of, to loosely quote Seamus Heaney in"Postscript,"
having "your heart caught off guard and blown open."
For, as memoirist Annie Dillard reminds us, "What's a heart for?"
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
FALL WRITING RETREAT
This Saturday
2 spots left!
Renew and delight yourself. The Fall Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or new 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, September 23rd, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m.
* We’ve also scheduled our Winter Writing Retreat for Saturday, December 16th and if you’re interested in
registering for both, we’ll bundle them at a 10% discount. Your cost for the two retreats would be $175. If you’d like to register for both retreats just click this link to be taken to PayPal. -----------------------------------------------
COASTAL WRITING RETREATS
Connect with Your Creativity at the Sunset Inn
(Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration)
Due to
response, this retreat will be offered on two different weekends: November 10th – 12th and November 17th – 19th. Pick the dates that work best for you.
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.
$418 + room tax for the weekend beginning either Friday, November 10th through Sunday November 12th or Friday, November 17th through Sunday, November 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 Coastal Writing Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night at half price.
(Extra writing 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, November 10th – Sunday, November 12th, 2017
~ and also ~ Friday, November 17th – Sunday, November 19th,
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, November 12th or 19th, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
More WordPlay opportunities here. 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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