Word of the Week: frontier
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Dear ,
First, my apologies for the peculiar email you received Monday -- I had a number of people express that they were having trouble reading, and even receiving, my zine, so I am trying out a new company, and, well, I hovered over a wrong tab and was very surprised by the result. I'm hoping the problems are resolved. If this email is blank, or you don't get it, let me know ;).
So, you may wonder, why "frontier"? (And if the words, "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier" rang through your head when you saw the subject line of this email, I apologize again! Or maybe you heard "space, the final frontier"?)
Well, I have been taking on a number of frontiers lately -- some I haven't chosen, like the loss of a dear college friend to cancer. And some I have, like a new email service and a new teaching format (see Upcoming WordPlay below for details) and a climb up to Max Patch Bald last week with my husband. Here I am at the top, with a 360-degree panoramic view of the North Carolina Mountains.
Life is full of frontiers, and I am inspired whenever I see someone boldly go where they "have never gone before." So I was moved when my longtime WordPlay retreat participant and coaching client, Bonnie McCarson, sent me an essay called "The Last Great Adventure" that she wrote using the prompt from the "Adventure" Word-zine issue (If you missed it, read it here:
http://wordplaynow.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/word-of-the-week-adventure/.) (I'll warn you, it may bring tears to your eyes. But it will also make you smile.) I'm so grateful she said yes when I asked if she'd be willing to share a short version of it with you all.
I hope you'll join Bonnie in taking on new frontiers that challenge you to grow. And I hope you'll join me for some WordPlay, too. I'd love to have you with me when I brave my first ever teleseminar! (Details below.) I may push a wrong button, but I'm pretty sure none of us will be "beamed up" or "beamed down" anywhere! And I know we'll have a good time exploring ways to banish writer's block forever!
Here's to your frontier life,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
DELICIOUS MEMORIES
Food not only nurtures and sustains us, it's a rich source of metaphor and memory. We'll explore our connections with food as we write of when, where, what, with whom, how - and even why -- we ate! You can use your food writings to create memoir, creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, a food blog, family cookbook -- or just for your own pleasure. $37.
WHERE:
Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204.
WHEN: Thursday. September 20, 10 am to noon
TO REGISTER: Click here
to download a printable registration form to mail in. (Or paste this link into your web browser: http://wordplaynow.com/WordPlayRegistrationForm.pdf
Or register online via PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=67DGPD5W83ADY THE FIRST EVER WORDPLAY TELESEMINAR: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BANISH WRITER'S BLOCK FOREVER
New tools, new ways of thinking, new delivery method! This teleseminar will provide what you need to allow your words to flow freely and to give you the "oomph" to complete your writing projects. Yes, you'll get handouts, just like in a non-teleseminar class. You'll also have a chance to find out about a brand new group coaching program I'm offering later this fall. And it's all free, to celebrate my launch into cyberspace! Want to participate but have other plans? No worries. If you register, you'll get a replay of the teleseminar and all the materials, too.
WHERE: The comfort of your own home.
WHEN: Monday, September 24, 7 - 8:30 pm
TO REGISTER: Email info@wordplaynow.com for registration details.
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WordPlay Success Story "Working with Maureen has given me the encouragement and the tools to get going and accomplish my goals."
Meet Bonnie McCarson
This photo of Bonnie McCarson was taken at
Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, two years ago when she was on an "adventure." Bonnie is a retired teacher with a lifelong interest in writing who also enjoys reading, travel, genealogy, gardening, and, of course, a good adventure. In her retired life she pursues a variety of new learning experiences and activities, as well as fulfilling her writing dreams. You can read more about Bonnie (including more details about her great adventures) at https://bonmcc.wordpress.com.
What Bonnie says about WordPlay
"I've just finished emailing my writing group -- a group that has been going for six years now. About a year before we began, having such a group was a dream of mine. Then I took an Artist's Way workshop with Maureen Ryan Griffin at the North Carolina Writers' Network. I was launched. With a couple friends I was able to pull together a group of like-minded, creative women to commit to twelve weeks to study The Artist's Way.
That was only part of my dream. The other part was to finish some of the many projects I had begun and/or wanted to write. I had been writing for a long time and had published poetry and nonfiction, but I wanted to do a memoir, a family history, and some fiction. I was stalled and overwhelmed by the variety of things that I wanted to do. Though I did write and had been writing for many years, I was undisciplined and disorganized in the way I approached my writing.
Working with Maureen has given me the encouragement and the tools to get going and accomplish my goals. Last year I published the family history and was able to put it into the hands of my extended family. I have completed the memoir and am now well into a historical novel. I continue to write poetry and to maintain a blog. Maureen has been a wonderful teacher, mentor, and guide with her coaching and through the many workshops I've attended. I continue to grow and learn in working with her.
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Featured Writing
The Last Great Adventure by Bonnie McCarson
During our married life, my husband and I had a number of great adventures. Though many of them included harrowing moments, they were fond memories we often recalled. Now they remain as pleasant reverie and comfort.
The first such adventure began when we packed the few things we owned into a U-Haul trailer around the time of our first anniversary and moved from our home in the beautiful mountains across the length of North Carolina to a lonely outpost on the northeastern coast. We'd gotten a job offer from that area when none were forthcoming in our home area of Asheville, and the person recruiting us had painted the area we would be moving to as a Garden of Eden. How could we decline?
Once we were settled in a rented cottage on the Currituck Sound, we discovered we were also just at the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp and that, perhaps, we'd been a bit naive. Dismal was a good word for much of the year we spent there, though it was educational. Living through a very cold winter in a summer cottage taught us much, especially that we wanted to move back, closer to home and to civilization. Currituck then was desolate in the winter. We really made the decision to move closer toward home after making an impromptu trip back to Asheville for Thanksgiving -- eight hours drive each way, during which time I read aloud to my husband and our puppy from Steinbeck's Travels with Charley
. A few years later in our new home in the Piedmont of North Carolina, after we'd taken on the adventure of becoming parents and building a house, we began to muse about our dream vacations. Short of money, we came up with plan for seeing as much of the country as possible on a budget, inspired, of course, by Steinbeck and Charley. Over the years, we had a number of memorable adventures, camping far and near. Our trips became the subject of much reminiscing and laughter.
Life, as we all know, brings not only adventures but also great challenges. After we gave up camping we had other adventures, like the marriages of two of our sons and the births of our grandchildren, but those travel adventures were the ones I recalled for my husband the day after he'd been moved into Palliative Care.
For two months he had been facing one of the biggest challenges of his life in the form of critical illness. Like Steinbeck's when he traveled the country in his camper, my husband's health was failing. When, per his wishes, the feeding tube had been removed, and his illness was sapping the last of his life, I reminded him of all the great adventures we'd had. We held hands and laughed and wept together, and accepted that inevitable one great adventure he was preparing to face.
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 "frontier."
So often, when we write, we look back at where we have been for inspiration, whether we are writing fiction, memoir, essay, or poetry. This week, look forward instead, through your own eyes or the eyes of one of your characters. Writing is a great tool for bringing dreams of new frontiers to life, after all. So it's "bucket list" time. Give yourself a good thirty minutes to come up with a list of 50 things you (or a character) would love to accomplish. Where will you go? Who will you connect with? What goals will you achieve? Dream big!
Want to be featured in a future Word-zine?
Send in a piece of your writing that you think could inspire other WordPlayers to write. 500-word limit, please.) You can send something inspired by this writing, or anything else of your choosing. Email your words to WordPlay here
and your piece may be chosen for a future Word-zine.
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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 two collections of poetry, This Scatter of Blossoms and
When the Leaves Are in the Water. 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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