Join us October 29th through October 31st, 2010
Schedule: Friday from 7:30 PM to Sunday 12:30 PM
Location: Calistoga, CA
28 CEU units available!
Reserve your space now–retreat limited to 10 participants!
Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers offers a retreat twice a year, an opportunity to work with Linda Joy in person, and at a wonderful location–the heart of the Napa Valley wine country north of San Francisco.
In this retreat you get to immerse yourself in writing from your heart and exploring where your stories come from—memories, dreams, and “moments of being,” as Virginia Woolf calls them. You can think of it as a spiritual retreat, where you get in touch with that “still small voice within” or a way to connect with other writers. Perhaps you would like to write for three days without the distractions of the family, the house, and the world disturbing you. You can write in whatever style you prefer, whether it is a memoir, fiction, or poetry. This special retreat time invites you to focus on yourself and and tune into the inner source of the stories you want to write.
Feedback is supportive, accepting your work, thoughts, and being with full presence and unconditional acceptance.
Visualization, memory exercises, drawing, and group sharing open up your well of stories to draw from. At the end of a weekend that goes all too quickly, you will have several new stories, a timeline, and a writing plan to take home with you.
During the retreat there is time for spa treatments with discounts available at the conference resort for retreat participants, as well as walks, individual writing time, and individual consultations with Linda about your work.
Give yourself a gift: spend a whole weekend immersed in your stories. You will come away with a sense of wholeness and deep resonance with yourself through writing several new stories and being listened to with full-hearted acceptance. Most women find that taking the time to nurture themselves this way helps them to create a new sense of self.
The retreat includes:
- Dozens of handouts with writing exercises for the retreat and to take home for future writing.
- Tips for mining your memories and writing your true and significant stories.
- Suggestions for how to handle family questions about writing a memoir.
- Ideas for creating a writing life that works.
- Learning about using fictional techniques to heal and to create a vibrant story.
Writing Retreat Details & Experience
We meet on Friday evening informally for an optional Wine Tasting at Cuvaison Winery at 2:30 PM, followed by dinner (also optional) at Checker’s in the center of Calistoga at 5 PM. The formal retreat then begins at 7:30 PM.
On Saturday morning, we begin at 9 AM–coffee, tea, snacks are provided–and work until 2 PM. There’s a break from 2-5 PM on Saturday for musing, spa treatments, mud baths, massage, writing or dozing, and we meet again from 5-7 PM. Dinner together is optional, and always enjoyable for those who decide to join us.
Sunday AM we begin at 9, and work until 12:30. Again, coffee, tea, and morning snacks are available. Everyone comes away with several new stories, a timeline, turning point lists, dozens of handouts,and hundreds of writing prompts. And best of all–the inspiration and support to keep writing!
Weather is normally cool but not cold, with brilliant autumn colors and the aroma of mineral springs. The town has charming shops, and wineries and wine tasting is available in Calistoga and nearby, as well as all along the Silverado Trail and highway 29 through the Napa Valley.
For more information, please email info@namw.org or call 1-800-e-memoir.
Praise for this retreat/workshop:
[table “64” not found /]“There is an intensity to devoting a weekend to this work. Maybe it’s the act of designating a time and place for it, that people take big risks. I was moved to tears and blown away by people’s courage and stories.” —Lily Endlich, Retreat attendee
… a safe, warm writing environment where stories from my heart could be allowed to surface onto paper. Being witnessed to by all the group as I read my stories is one of the most powerful writing methods I’ve ever known. –Allene Hickox, Retreat attendee
Linda Joy Myers, retreat leader, has been a therapist, author, editor and writing coach in Berkeley, California for the last 30 years. She is the author of Don’t Call Me Mother: Breaking the Chain of Mother Daughter Abandonment which received the Gold Medal Award from BAIPA. She is also the author of the groundbreaking memoir writing how-to book, The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story, published by Jossey-Bass in January 2010. Linda received her MFA at Mills College, and has taught Marriage and Family Therapy. In addition to her degrees in psychology, Linda has a B.S. in Music Education from the University of Illinois, and a B.A. in Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Her specialty throughout her teaching, coaching, writing and therapy practice through the years has been to help people to become healed and transformed through self-expression, creativity, art, and writing.
Lodging Options are available on the retreat center property, starting at $169 per night!
