Two Fundamentals

Photo by Lydia Bear Ishmael

I encourage writers to include two fundamental habits in our life: secure that place and time to write (everyday); gather with other writers. Today I am sharing some places to come write, gather, learn, and make contact with your Muse (and the page).

Let me start with the FREE WRITERS’ Retreat: Spring Green, WI. On SATURDAY MARCH 4th we are offering my first 2017 (free) WRITERS’ RETREAT at a friend’s home southwest of Spring Green in Clyde Township in her spacious, lovely home. Begins at 10:00 am and goes till 4:00. Write, enjoy a sunny spot on a window bench (she has a large home with plenty of writing spots). Please email me for directions and to register: julie@julietallardjohnson.com

Next up THE WRITERS’ INSTITUTE, March 24th–26th. A weekend packed with opportunities to learn, get your pages critiqued, pitch your idea to an agent (learn how to pitch to an agent), and meet up with other writers. You will need to take a day off afterward just to digest and integrate all the abundant information you will receive.

My Keep It Simple  WRITER’S Consultation CIRCLE has room for one more dedicated writer! (You) We meet up once a month in Prairie du Sac at Healing Services on the River, on the 2nd Monday of the Month.

This summer, June 26th-30th join me and other writers at Write-By-The-Lake in beautiful downtown Madison on the UW campus.  I will be offering my class on Write Meaningful Nonfiction: Turn Your Personal Experiences, Knowledge, and Journaling into an Inspiring Book, Blogs, or Other Writing. (Mine is filling up so register soon!)  And here’s a list of the other offerings:

1. NEW! How to Write, Revise, and Submit a Picture Book: A Hands-On Workshop for Aspiring Children’s Authors, with Georgia Beaverson
2. NEW! The Best Kept Secret to Writing a Book Readers Can’t Put Down: A Step-by-Step Guide to Plotting with Urgency, with Ann Garvin
3. Break Through the Competition: Hands-On Workshop to Make Your Novel Pop to the Top, with Lori Devoti
4. Stories That Matter: Creating the Resonance That Publishers Crave, with Tim Storm
5. Your First Novel: Fast and Finished!, with Kathy Steffen
6. Writing Short Fiction, with Christopher Chambers
7. Writing & Selling Your Compelling Creative Nonfiction Book Proposal & Book, with Laurie Scheer
8. The Literary Memoir – Show, Tell, Muse, with Coleman
9. NEW! Writing Women’s Lives Workshop, with Theresa Kaminski
10. NEW and Expanded offering! Personal Essays and the Themed Anthology: Evaluate and Polish Personal Essays for Inclusion in a New Book, with Amy Lou Jenkins
11. Write Meaningful Nonfiction: Turn Your Personal Experiences, Knowledge, and Journaling into an Inspiring Book, Blogs, or Other Writing, with Julie Tallard Johnson
12. NEW! CARRIED AWAY: How to Make A Poem Take Flight, with Marilyn Taylor
13. Master Class: Your First Fifty Pages, with Angela Rydell
14. Master Class: Finish, Polish, Publish, with Christine DeSmet

Writing Day

 

Consider the slight nudge

that a leaf once found

with the late spring wind

that one that held on through winter

like so many soft brown apples

now overly ripe

food still for the migrators

 

The leaf

now adrift in air

with that slow descent

moves out over the prairie

rising up

then down

then almost catching

on the Angelica

 

following the softest breeze

out and away

around the corner past the oak

that hangs over the pond

 

The leaf that disappears from view

but captured perhaps by another’s.         (JTJ,  2016)

Hope to see you!

Your grateful writing Sherpa,  Julie