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You are here: Home / Archives for memoir writing workshop

AZ Authors Associ Writers Circle welcomes Patricia L. Brooks to speak on The Art of Writing Memoir

September 17, 2013 by patricia

WRITERS FAIRE 2012 011

 

The Art of Writing Memoir

AZ Authors Association – Writers Circle

 

  North Mountain Visitor’s Center

12950 North 7th St., Phoenix, AZ 85022

 

RSVP/register info@azauthors.com

Limited Seating

 

 Patricia L. Brooks, speaker, author, consultant patricia@plbrooks.com

 

 www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

for details 480- 250-5556

In this workshop you will immerse yourself in the art of powerful storytelling and take an unflinching look at your own stories.

You will learn to incorporate fictional techniques into your memoir writing to enhance your effort to share galvanizing events.

 

Objectives of this Workshop

ü Learn to help your reader see and feel what you saw and felt.

ü Understand the process and structure of memoir writing as a learned craft that will enhance your art.

ü Appreciate the power of storytelling by being loyal to your truth.

ü Further empower yourself to tell the truth.

ü Take an unflinching look at your stories and share your galvanizing events.

ü Bring your memoir writing to a new level with fictional techniques.

 

 

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, Featured post, gifts of sisterhood, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS Tagged With: AZ Authors Association, gifts of sisterhood, memoir, memoir writing, Patricia L. Brooks, published authors, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, women authors, writers

The Art of Writing Memoir – Desert Foothills Library welcomes Patricia L. Brooks

April 24, 2013 by patricia

WRITERS FAIRE 2012 014The Art of Writing Memoir

 

Desert Foothills Library – Writers Connection

 

Fri. May 3, 2013

1:00-3:00 p.m.

Cave Creek, AZ

 

 Patricia L. Brooks, speaker, author, consultant patricia@plbrooks.com

 www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

for details 480- 250-5556

In this workshop you will immerse yourself in the art of powerful storytelling and take an unflinching look at your own stories.

You will learn to incorporate fictional techniques into your memoir writing to enhance your effort to share galvanizing events.

Objectives of this Workshop ü Learn to help your reader see and feel what you saw and felt. ü Understand the process and structure of memoir writing as a learned craft that will enhance your art. ü Appreciate the power of storytelling by being loyal to your truth. ü Further empower yourself to tell the truth. ü Take an unflinching look at your stories and share your galvanizing events. ü Bring your memoir writing to a new level with fictional techniques.

Filed Under: brooks goldmann publishing, gifts of sisterhood, libraries, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU Tagged With: authors, books, desert foothills library, gifts of sisterhood, Gifts of Sisterhood - journey from grief to gratitude, memoir, memoir writing workshops, Patricia L. Brooks, Patricia L. Brooks Seminars, writers

Some of What I Learned at the Desert Nights Rising Stars Conference – Seven Secrets to Writing Memoir – and more

April 10, 2013 by patricia

Seven Secrets to a Successful Memoir – and more

My thoughts – Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference

Arizona State University – Spring 2013

 

Timing is everything, as they say and the timing at Desert Nights Rising Stars could not have been better for me.  By sheer coincidence the DNRS move this year to more memoir and creative non-fiction arrived in the wake of my second memoir.  Here are Seven Secrets to this genre I discovered at the conference, and a few more tips – including some of my own.

Have you ever wondered what happens at DNRS conference weekend behind the vastness of Old Main?  The answer is simple:  invaluable guidelines on writing prose, demonstrations on how to write memorable dialog, lists of quality books to read, demonstrations on editing, thoughts on seeing images clearly to enhance descriptions, encouragement about being critiqued, and so much more.  I learned too that I must show immersion in my memoir and fine tune my writing with some fictional techniques.

The positive and upbeat attitude of the faculty reinforced for me that there is a place for all writers in this writing life.  Here is an elaboration of my notes on memoir from that weekend.

 

Be Open to New Ideas

The most important thing you can capture in your research is how to process your memoir.  Start with little chunks.  Write from memory, from interviews, from reflections on old photos and revisited conversations.  I write with fierce abandon initially and use these prompting methods.  This plan allows me to enjoy building my story.  Start with rhetorical questions you can come back to periodically.  With a journal I find “morning pages” helpful.  Try these:

  • What am I willing to share?
  • What if?
  • Who will I tell?
  • How will I tell it?
  • How will I get to the truth?
  • Who tells me not to share my story?
  • Do I own it?
  • Is my story too dangerous to tell now?
  • Am I willing to journal first and then share?

 

Live the Whole Truth

Remember this is your version of the truth.  Write for a sense of discovery too.  You do not need a timeline and are not limited to just what happened.  Your philosophy about these experiences, and your lessons learned, are valuable parts of your memoir.  You are the expert and have wisdom and knowledge in many areas.

Do not be afraid of your truth and lose your power.  Do not change your story.  Remember your truth is stronger than fiction.  There is power in your honesty.  Take an unflinching look at your life and your experiences to catapult your work to a new level.  Do not be afraid to step out of memoir to fiction if you want to experiment with your stories, but be sure you do not lose what you want to say.

I feel freer in my second memoir than with the first.  It is an unbelievable experience for me to tell my truth about the violence and trauma in my story and have the encouragement I have received from my critique group.

 

The Seven Secrets

  1. When you tell
    1. Take time to contemplate that decision and be sure you are ready.
    2. Allow the distance you need from a traumatic event or the insight required for a galvanizing experience.  Do not portray yourself as the victim.   I waited five years with my first memoir due to grief and loss and 10 years with the second one due to post-traumatic stress recovery from violence.
    3. Step back and give the story and experience time to blossom into something that is worth sharing.
  2. How you tell
    1. Be sure the voice you choose is the best voice for the story.
    2. Consider your voice as a child or that of another family member or as the narrator.  I prefer first person as I feel that is my strongest voice and critical to my success.
  3. What sequence you use
    1. Look at the big picture and analyze your stories thoroughly.  A chronological format is not the best way to go with your memoir.  You need a hook in the beginning and an arc where the change takes place.
    2. Get the reader in quickly to the intensity of the prose.  My assault story leads in detail to my second memoir to advocate for women who have experienced violence.
  4. Where you end the breadth and span of time
    1. Remember a memoir is about a particular event or time in your life.  We can write many memoirs.  I am writing a second one now.  When asked what genre I write I respond with memoir and non-fiction.
    2. Memoir is not a life history or biography in chronological order.
  5. What amount of backstory you need to use
    1. Avoid the pitfall of being too close to the material and not seeing the flaws in your thinking or the unimportant items in your stories.
    2. Consider the areas of your past that are lessons learned.  Use events that have shaped who you are and what you are about to complement the points you are making with your memoir.
    3. Intersperse them in your main theme as threads.  I have used my past trauma and violence survival to show patterns, and my walk through recovery to show hope.  I view my life from many angles.
  6. Who is involved in your storyline
    1.  Acknowledge you understand others can help bind the work.
    2. Be able to forgive and look at the lessons learned.  With my second book on assault and survival with violent crime, I had a lot to forgive.  I address forgiveness in my spiritual journey chapter.
  7. Why you select a particular structure
    1. Write your memoir/ non-fiction in your unique way.  Invite your readers inside the story with a gripping theme to help move it along.
    2. Consider using quotes and other materials.  We have the experience in these incidents and we are the expert on the topic.  We have a right to tell our stories and see ourselves in our own light.
    3. Take your theme throughout the book and thread your ideas to keep it a page turner.  In my second book it is the PTS issue from violence and my spiritual transformation in recovery from PTS that sets it apart.

 

When Family is Involved

It is important to note that everyone reacts differently to physical descriptions of themselves.  So many of us fear the secrets that we know exist in our families and in our lives.  I know I did, but I also knew that the truth would set me free. I had to describe the enemy the way he was and not fear retaliation.  I had to tell my truth about love addiction and abuse.

Often, on so many levels, we are in denial of what happened in our lives.  Sibling rivalry does exist.  It is usually not seen because we are in the middle of the competition and it is all that we know.  This can be good fodder for a memoir.  Most family members want to be portrayed as a hero.  This writing at times is going to be difficult, so just do your best.

Your imagination can fail you, so tell your story true to you.  Do not be concerned about bitterness and anger, just confess what you know and forgive yourself and others along the way.  There will be a moral imperative – somebody was deeply wronged somewhere in your family history.  That may be the story to tell.  Give yourself permission to tell it from your perspective.

Inciting events need to be in your story.  Consider fictional techniques such as scene and dialogue, plot and setting descriptions to enhance your work.  Go deep to bring them to us in memoir form.  Have empathy for all the characters and add some humor in there too.  Remember, you are not the victim of your story.

Now that you have moved away to write and given yourself some space and permission, tell the story and share the experiences the way you want to give us your work.  Be the heroine or hero in your pain or joy and triumph in the end.  Write with your mind and your heart.  Ask yourself what voice leads your truth.  Good luck and happy writing.

It is with much gratitude I say thank you to both Marylee MacDonald (http://members.authorsguild.net/mlmacdonald/index.htm ) and Bhira Blackhaus (www.underthelemontrees.com) for their generosity as speakers at this conference.  I have shared some of their ideas in this piece.  I appreciate the insights they gave and the opportunities they offered us.  We learned from them.

 

Patricia L. Brooks, author, speaker, consultant, educator

patricia@plbrooks.com 480-250-5556

www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

 

Filed Under: Blogroll, conferences, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU Tagged With: ASU writing workshops, books, Desert Nights Rising Stars, Marylee MacDonald, memoir writing, memoir writing workshops, women writers, writing memoirs

Scottsdale Society of Women Writers – welcomes Carlette Lewis Patterson – speaker, author and sports life coach to share her ideas

August 10, 2012 by patricia

SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS

Welcomes Carlette Patterson I Thought We had Forever….

Speaker, Author, Sports Life Coach – August 29, 2012

WHO: Scottsdale Society of Women Writers

WHAT: Monthly Speaker/Dinner Meeting

WHERE: Chaparral Suites Resort, 5001 N, Scottsdale Rd. at Chaparral Rd light, NE corner – Enter off Chaparral Rd – 4th Floor Grill entrance, then left to the Cactus Room

WHEN:          August 29th Wed. 5:30-7:30 – Sizzle in our Summer Season!

HOW: PLEASE – RSVP now to Patricia L. Brooks, president/founder

Cell 480-250-5556 or patricia@plbrooks.com See Details Below

WHY: The Scottsdale Society of Women Writers
gives members access to events of interest, a format for exchanging ideas, an
opportunity to network with other women writers and authors, an alliance with
businesses relating to writing, publishing, camaraderie and support.

SPEAKER/AUTHOR: Carlette Patterson is the author of I Thought We had Forever a collection of love letters, emails, and journal entries that reveal the passion and pain a
family went through when their forever ended on July 28, 2004. It is a love
story that began when retired NBA player Steve Patterson took a blank piece of
paper and penned a collection of love letters that changed the course of many
lives. Carlette holds on to her family as her five-year-old daughter is forced
to understand grief, her young adult daughter finds her way back from drug
addiction, and her oldest daughter navigates life with Aspergers. www.ithoughtwehadforever.com

BIO: Carlette Patterson is an internationally recognized Sports Life Coach, a professional speaker, and CEO of Patterson Sports Ventures, a company committed to equipping people to become Agents of Change utilizing the language and power of sports. Carlette is committed to
Coaching for Significance and draws on her personal challenges and triumphs combined with 20+ years of senior leadership in professional, collegiate, and amateur sports organizations to ignite purpose and passion within her clients.  Carlette and her family live in Phoenix, Arizona. www.carlette.com

See notes below for dinner fees, format and location directions.  Thank you.

MENU:  Salad, dessert, beverage and roll or a sandwich/soup, dessert, beverage and roll. Both with tax and gratuity included – make your choice the night of the meeting.

COST: $22.00 for members – $25.00 for guests (able to visit twice before joining)

CHECKS:  Please make check payable to Scottsdale Society of Women Writers prior to
coming to the meeting to save time at the check-in table.  Thank you.

CHECK-IN:  Please check-in between 5:15 and 5:45.  The meeting starts promptly at 6:00.  Leave your check made payable to SSWW.  All those attending the meeting must pay for
the dinner/room/speaker.  Pick up your name badge – thank you and ENJOY!

AGENDA:  The agendas will be on the dinner table – always a lot of good INFO for you.

DIRECTIONS:
Chaparral Suites is in Scottsdale at Chaparral Rd just north of Old Town.  Chaparral Rd has a light.  Parking is in the rear – two large parking lots.

Note: best to enter from the middle elevator for the 4thFloor Grille. From the 101 freeway exit Chaparral Rd and go west.  Just prior to Scottsdale Rd enter the side drive at 4th Floor Grille – take that elevator.  Note awning marked 4th Floor Grille.  This is the easiest way in – NOT
through the main lobby.  The larger parking lots are in the back of the complex.

Goals of the Group

Value all the professional women writers seeking to
share their expertise

  • Honor all genres and all forms of professional writing
  • Attend monthly meetings  to move the group and its members
    forward
  • Learn and share in the experiences of monthly
    professional speakers
  • Grow the group to a membership of active and
    contributing women
  • Encourage participation by members as presenters,
    mentors, judges and volunteers
  • Support and challenge each other to always be
    writing
  • Help members to stretch as writers and reach lofty
    personal goals
  • Have fun,  meet trustworthy women writers, share dreams

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, memoir writing workshop, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS Tagged With: authors, books, Carlette Lewis Patterson, grief and loss, memoir workshop, memoir writing, publishing, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, women writers, writers, writing

A YEAR IN ITALY: A Perfect Fit for a Love Story – book review

May 16, 2012 by patricia

Cover_PaperbackHTEO

At first glance there seems to be a simple connection between the suggestive yet simple title of Susan Pohlman’s memoir Halfway to Each Other and the breathlessly gorgeous visions we ave
of Italy, but that would be wrong.  The story is so much more.

How a year in Italy brought our family home is enticing and alluring as the sub-title.  The photo
of a weathered red door gracing the cover easily brings us through the entry of
this European lifestyle.

 

Within the pages of this memoir Pohlman is a glorious romantic yet a sensible realist about her marital situation and the risks of leaving her California life behind to live a year in Italy.  A place she and her husband have only known as a beautiful spot for a business conference.

For a year she seamlessly blends the practical side of her life with the beauty of this Italian seaside village they call home by sharing her many stories of courage and hope.
The memoir’s real life back story is as arresting as the one we want to create
about our own possible life there.

The words on the pages are inspired by the love between the author’s four family members who leave Los Angeles County for a place almost unknown to them for an adventure of a lifetime.
That’s the gem of the idea that Pohlman nurtures in her imagination and in real life.

She maintains a journal like email trail by corresponding with her girlfriends in LA about her family’s Italian escapades, but eventually keeps these emails private to produce this journal like memoir.  She is generously writing and begins the outline of the book.

Halfway to Each Other begins in Italy with Pohlman and her husband on a business trip.  She is
contemplating a divorce from him as she is very discouraged and unhappy with the way their life has gone along.  They begin to talk one evening about the possibility of taking a year off from that life while the seaside village where they are staying romances them.

This is also the end of the story of Pohlman and her family’s demanding pace in Los Angeles.  They have come to a fateful bend in the freeway.  When her husband Tim agrees that night at
sunset over a glass of wine that they should go to Italy and live off their savings to find what they have lost they begin ever so slightly to mend their wounds. Their children accept the move at different levels and add a lot to the story.

Pohlman will not know until a chance meeting near their little seaside village apartment that some very wonderful Italian people, now their new neighbors, will change their lives and become forever some of their most loyal friends.

What transpires is a classic expatriate’s success story transcending the commonplace because of the Pohlmans great love for each other as a family and the author’s determination to make it work.

For Pohlman and her husband, as well as their two children of impressionable age, an emergence occurs for them as individuals.  As family time travels for them at a new and
slower pace.  We are allowed to enjoy their journey.

Theirs is a love so big that Pohlman gives up her constant questioning of herself and her marriage and eventually fully embraces her new life with all the lessons, challenges and opportunities it has to offer.

Like other adventure pieces that capture our imagination Hallway to Each Other is built around
the unique cultural and social mores of an Old World country.  I fell in love with Italy while reading these pages and learned a lot about it in this memoir due to the quality of the
editing.

A sampling of European immigrants that changed our country’s look and landscape at one time in our history is beautifully portrayed here.  This book is a great lesson in
that history and an appreciation of the beauty of the Old Country too.

You don’t need to have an immigrant family history to adore the other characters in this book, but you will value Pohlman’s descriptions and dialogue just the same.  She does an
outstanding job endearing their Italian friends and neighbors to us.

You need only a deep appreciation for exquisite writing as this is a story enriched by
the power of abiding love.  I highly recommend this memoir as a cozy summer beach read for 2012.

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, Book Reviews, business consultation, memoir writing workshop, PUBLISHING PICKS, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU Tagged With: authors, books, Italy, marketing books, marriage and family, memoir, publishiing, relationships, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, susan pohlman, women writers, writing

BOOK REVIEW The Slumber Party from Hell – author, Sue Ellen Allen and reviewer Patricia L. Brooks

March 20, 2012 by patricia

 

The Slumber Party from Hell, the book Sue Ellen Allen published in 2011, seems like an intimate chat with an old chum.  It’s a book that is more like an overheard
conversation.  You feel you’re intruding but you can’t stop listening.

In this well written work, The Slumber Party from Hell puts the spotlight on the Arizona prison system that is penalizing, but not rehabilitating its inmates.

Allen says it took her seven years in prison to realize the Arizona prisons are part of the problem as they focus narrowly on penalizing and punishing our prison population.  She believes her life has changed completely from this experience of dealing with breast cancer as a prisoner, as well as the unnecessary death of her friend and roommate Gina to cancer while she too was in prison.

Allen knew it was the end of the world as she had known it once she stepped in to that life and she was determined to make the best of it.

Allen puts some of her self-made power to work by being a leader and role model while behind bars by volunteering her expertise and ideas learned on the outside as a professional woman and community leader.  She helps many of the younger women who are struggling develop themselves within the confines of an unfair and unjust prison system.

She also attempts to shrink the negative impact of prison for herself and her fellow inmates by starting programs positive in nature.  This is no easy feat because most of the rules are unrealistic and frustrating at best.

Although often her writing leaves you wishing things were not as she describes them, you find joy and humor in the small things she celebrates during those seven years of incarceration.

You are able to decipher what is really going on in some of the chaos and craziness to make a little sense of the journey, but in most areas to no avail.  It is what it is and the few gems in the story are Sue Ellen herself, along with a couple of her friends – inside and out.

This is a story of a few founders of the truth in a world where innocence and beauty do not exist.  Some readers will be engaged by Allen’s fierce convictions and continuous mentions of hope and gratitude for the lessons she is learning and the person she is becoming.

Others will be turned off by the blatant honesty of life in the Arizona prison system and the horrors she witnessed.  But throughout it all, you will find humor and humanness to admire just as I did.  You will find respect for her in your own way and you will surely be grateful for your life just the way it is today.

This week she is celebrating three years since her release March 18, 2009.  She celebrated 10 years cancer free on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14, 2012.

Book Reviewer:

Patricia L. Brooks patricia@pplbrooks.com
480-250-5556

President/Founder – Scottsdale Society of Women Writers

President/Owner – Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC

www.blog.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Author – Gifts of Sisterhood www.amzn.com/B006MLA91Q

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, business consultation, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, Old Reviews, PUBLISHING PICKS, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS Tagged With: Arizona Prisons, breast cancer, cancer, courage, Faith, Gina's Team, Hope, Perryville Prison, PUBLISHING PICKS, Sue Ellen Allen, The Slumber Party from Hell, women in prison, writing

Celebrate My Sister’s Birthday – FREE EBOOK Gifts of Sisterhood-journey from grief to gratitude

January 13, 2012 by patricia

Title:    Gifts of Sisterhood-journey from grief to gratitude

Publication:    December, 2011

Contact:          Patricia L. Brooks, author

Address:          7970 E. Camelback Rd., 710, Scottsdale, AZ  85251

Cell                 (480-250-5556)

Email:             patricia@plbrooks.com

Publisher:       Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC

www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Scottsdale Author/Publishing Consultant
Launches FREE EBOOK to Celebrate Sister’s Birthday Jan 14-16!
Gifts of Sisterhood – the gifts that keep on giving!

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, January 11, 2012 – To find hope in her
grief and to celebrate her sister’s life is God’s plan for this author. This past
month, Scottsdale author Patricia L. Brooks www.amazon.com/author/patricialbrooks
as Brooks Goldmann Publishing Company, LLC of Scottsdale, AZ enhanced her book Gifts of Sisterhood with updates in an Ebook now available to you
FREE for three days – Jan. 14-16 in celebration of her sister’s birthday.  This new Ebook supports the importance of family relationships and the journey of grief when a loved one is lost. www.amazon.com/giftsofsisterhood.

In today’s firestorm of spiritual doubt, this book is a collection of heartwarming stories that should not be overlooked.   Brooks gathered the stories from true
accounts of her relationship with her sister and their growing up in the upper
peninsula of Michigan.  They experienced the unusual, the synchronistic, the amazing.

She tells them in her own words with her sister’s permission.  Each one is a small miracle, often a life-changing experience that will touch your heart.

In addition to reducing the mystery of life, death and grief in her book, Gifts of Sisterhood, Brooks asserts life’s challenges occur all the time and change our lives forever; many times for the better.

Brooks, who represents not only her writing but her spirituality here, serves the community in many ways.  She teaches and works within natural
approaches to the grief journey and offers her workshop outline in this revised
Ebook.  Readers who sample this beautiful Ebook will become open to the possibility of achieving greater well-being and peace with life’s many challenges.  Her Stop Smoking Sister campaign is introduced as well.

Patricia is the president/founder of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers; building the group to 60 members since 2007 with monthly speaker/dinner meetings, critique groups and other outside book event activities.

The Brooks Goldmann Publishing, LLC website www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com
provides information on their publishing services.    As a published author and Scottsdale business woman, Patricia L. Brooks performs the duties of publishing consultant/book shepherd for the independent writer/author seeking information in the self-publishing maze.  Patricia confirms her new Ebook is thought provoking and genuine and fits the other authors she has helped in the memoir, self-help and non-fiction arena.
Patricia can help you travel the writing and publishing maze.  Feel free to visit her many posts on writing and publishing on their blog http://brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

We give and receive gifts, but the gifts that keep on giving – Faith, Courage, Love, Friendship, Happiness and Acceptance – are the gifts her youngest sister gave so freely.  Too often it takes a life changing experience to recognize what we already have, affirm what we already know, welcome what is given to us and share it with others.

Patricia is a “sibling survivor” of the #2 killer of women today.  While rejoicing in her sister’s memory she preserves her story and important legacy.  Through emotional healing Patricia takes you on a journey of love and friendship, grief and acceptance as she gives her sister’s spirit back to their “roots” in County Tipperary, Ireland.

You will learn to awaken the compassion within you, forgive yourself when facing life’s challenges, find the hidden gift of hope in your life and have faith that nothing happens in God’s world by mistake.

Patricia reveals her upbeat and insightful personal story of the relationship she had with her youngest sister – her friend, her confidante, her soul mate.  Their lives constantly intertwined, both growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and living 2,500 miles apart as adults.

Now God takes you on the Journey from Grief to Gratitude to a place of inspiration and acceptance.  The faith Patricia has her sister’s life was not in vain calls her to share her gifts with you.  By embracing her sister’s wit,
charm and beauty she weaves together a meaningful story of love and courage you can reflect upon as you travel your own life’s path.

A portion of the proceeds of this book goes to the Vital Care Hospice of the Straits of Mackinac County Michigan in memory of my sister. Thank you.

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, gifts of sisterhood, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, PUBLISHING PICKS Tagged With: amazon, bereavement, brooks goldmann publishing, cronan, ebook, family, gifts of sisterhood, grief, la salle high school, lilliquist, loss, lung cancer, memoir, michigan, relationships, sisters

Scottsdale Society of Women Writers welcomes Lisa Farringer Parker – memoir author, professor of writing, AZ Republic columnist

November 4, 2011 by patricia

SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS

Welcomes memoir writing expert – professor of writing and newspapercolumnit to speak at monthly dinner meeting!

LISA FARRINGER PARKER

Speaker Scottsdale Society of Women Writers

WHO: Scottsdale Society of Women Writers

WHAT: Monthly Speaker/Dinner Meeting – celebrate writing

WHERE: Chaparral Suites Resort, 5001 N, Scottsdale Rd. at Chaparral Rd light, NE corner – Enter off Chaparral Rd – 4th Floor Grill entrance, take elevator, exit 4th floor, left to the Cactus Room

WHEN:          NOV30th Wed 5:30-7:30 – Celebrate Fall with us!

WHY: The Scottsdale Society of Women Writers gives members access to events of interest, a format for exchanging ideas, an opportunity to network with other women writers and authors, an alliance with businesses relating to writing and publishing, and camaraderie and support.

HOW:             PLEASE – RSVP now to Patricia L. Brooks, president/founder

Cell 480-250-5556 or patricia@plbrooks.com SEE DETAILS BELOW

SPEAKER: Lisa Farringer Parker – Memoir Author, Professor of  Writing and Columnist

Angels in the Darkness

Historical/Memoir

Publication Date: April 2011

Author: Lisa Farringer Parker

ISBN: 978-1-60494-438-9

A Family’s Triumph
over Hitler and World War II Berlin: 1935–1949

THE BOOK

It is 1936 and Jesse Owens is poised for victory. Berlin is on full display. Hitler is firmly in control.  Six-year-old Jutta Bolle relishes Owens’s victory and the excitement of the Olympics. But the darkness is already engulfing Jutta’s world as her family confronts the evil of Hitler. Each year brings more unimagined hardships and heartbreaks until finally, in 1945, bombs destroy what remains of Berlin and fifteen-year-old Jutta and her father run for their lives. The Russians are coming. In a matter of days Berlin will be surrounded, unleashing a new round of misery.  Though written like a novel, Angels in the Darkness tells the dramatic true story of the Bolles’ struggle to survive the tyranny of Hitler’s government, a war they did not believe in, and the subsequent brutal occupation of their home and city by the Russians.

THE AUTHOR – Lisa Farringer Parker

www.lisafarringerparker.com

Lisa Farringer Parker is a successful attorney and author. A former professor of writing at Arizona State University, she has appeared on CNN and is a regular contributor to the Arizona Republic. She lives in Paradise
Valley, Arizona, with her husband, Vernon B. Parker, the former mayor, and her two children. Jutta Bolle is her mother.

See notes below for dinner fees, new format and new location, thank you.

MENU:  Salad, dessert, beverage and roll or a sandwich/soup, dessert, beverage and roll – both with tax and gratuity included – make a CHOICE the night of the meeting.

COST: $22.00 for members – $25.00 for guests (able to visit twice before joining)

CHECKS:  Please make your check payable to Scottsdale
Society of Women Writers PRIOR to coming to the meeting to save time at the check-in table.  Thank you.

CHECK-IN:  Please check-in between 5:00 and 5:45 at the table at the door so we can start the meeting promptly at 6:00 – thank you.

(1) Leave your check made payable to SSWW

(2) All those attending the meeting must pay for the
dinner/room/speaker

(3) Have your name checked off the RSVP list

(3) Pick-up your name badge – your receipt for the food
server

AGENDA:  The agendas will be on the dinner table and
the format remains the same.

DIRECTIONS: Chaparral Suites is in Scottsdale at Chaparral Rd just north of Fashion Square Mall – Chaparral Rd has a light.  Parking is in the rear – two large parking lots Note: best to enter from the middle elevator for the 4th Floor Grille.

From the 101 freeway exit Chaparral Rd and go west.  Just prior to Scottsdale Rd enter the side drive at 4th Floor Grille and come up that elevator – it is in the center of the hotel complex.  There is an awning marked 4th Floor Grille.  This is the easiest way in – not through the lobby.  The parking lots are in the back of the complex.

Goals of the Group

Value all the professional women writers seeking to
share their expertise

Honor all genres and all forms of professional
writing

Attend monthly meetings  to move the group and its members
forward

Learn and share in the experiences of monthly
professional speakers

Grow the group to a membership of active and
contributing women

Encourage participation by members as presenters,
mentors, judges and volunteers

Support and challenge each other to always be
writing

Help members to stretch as writers and reach lofty
personal goals

Have fun,
meet trustworthy women writers, share dreams

Filed Under: Blogroll, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU Tagged With: angels in darkness, books, lisa farringer parker, memoir writing, newspaper columnist, professor of writing, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, women writers, writing, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU

Scottsdale Society of Women Writers partners with Barnes and Noble Booksellers

August 9, 2011 by patricia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS

Patricia L. Brooks, president/founder 480-250-5556 cell or patricia@plbrooks.com

Scottsdale Society of Women Writers partners

with Barnes and Noble Booksellers

WHEN:  Tuesday September 6th, 2011 – 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. – Free Event

WHERE: Barnes and Noble Booksellers

Scottsdale, AZ – 90th St., Shea Blvd., W of the 101 freeway

WHO:  Three award winning authors of MEMOIR Sue
Ellen Allen, Dee Horwitz and Dawn Marie Roeder

WHAT:  Share their writing stories and sign books

The Slumber Party from Hell

Who Made My Bed?

It Doesn’t End Here

HOW:  RSVP Patricia L. Brooks, patricia@plbrooks.com or 480-250-5556

SUE ELLEN ALLEN

What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in prison with advanced breast cancer at 57? How would you cope? It happened to Sue Ellen
Allen. This former University of Texas grad, former educator, former business owner, former community leader, former inmate at Arizona State Prison is a .current activist who found her purpose in prison. She is co-founder and Executive Director for GINA’s Team, an organization that brings educational
programs into prison to inspire and empower the inmate population to strive for a better future and a successful reentry. GINA’s Team is named for her prison roommate who died there of medical neglect. Gina’s death was the defining moment of Sue Ellen’s journey, giving her life a new purpose and passion. Her motto is Been there. Done that.

Now how can I help?

In prison, under harsh conditions, she survived breast cancer and learned to turn her pain into power. Despite incredible odds, she found her purpose. Now she works with prison officials, legislators, and interns from Arizona State  University to serve the forgotten population behind bars so that upon their re-entry to society, they will join our community as positive, contributing members. The author of The Slumber Party from Hell, a memoir about her prison journey, Sue Ellen was awarded the Dawson Prize in Memoir
in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American  Center. Her writing was
also included in Serving Productive Time by Tom & Laura Lagana,
authors of Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul. Additionally, many of her poems have been published in Cosmopolitan magazine.  An inspirational speaker, Sue Ellen has a unique story and powerful message.

__________________________________________________________________________

DEE HORWITZ

Who Made My Bed? is the story of Samuel  Bronstien and his family, and the United States Bedding Co., better known as King Koil.  Personal anecdotes and national and world history parallel the company’s growth from its founding in l898 to the time it became an international corporation.  The authors discovered old documents that revealed the real name of the founder who was able to leave Russia at a time when Jews were being slaughtered.  They also discovered that Samuel had a younger brother, a rebel rabbi who apparently was the black sheep of the family because no one in the family had heard of him.

Dee Horwitz has enjoyed a long career as a writer. She has been a columnist, reporter and editor for various publications, including the South Bend Tribune and Chicago Sun Times. Although retired, she still writes for bridge publications and recently wrote Who Made My Bed?
and her memoir,
Finishing Strong.

DAWN MARIE ROEDER

Dawn Marie Roeder, a member of the AZ Authors Association, The Catholic Writer’s Guild and Scottsdale Society of Women Writers.  She is a first-time author of the book It Doesn’t End Here: An Amazing Journey of Faith and Forgiveness, an incredible true story of faith, persistence and love. Her story has aired on CBS’s 48 Hours, local and national news outlets, including the front cover story of The East Valley Tribune and Jane Magazine. Dawn Marie lives in Scottsdale, AZ and cherishes a full life with her husband
Robert and her Maltese, Misty.

Book info: It Doesn’t End Here: An Amazing Journey of Faith and Forgiveness  The unimaginable events that led to her son Nathaniel’s death could have broken her. Instead, Dawn Marie Roeder embarked on
a journey to help others avoid tragedy by warning them of the unusual side
effects of her ADHD medication. This story resonates with passion and faith and gives us comfort and hope that our own seemingly senseless tragedies can also be transformed with God’s love and forgiveness.

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, business consultation, libraries, memoir writing workshop, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS Tagged With: Faith, memoir women writers, non-fiction, publishing, SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS, true stories, women writers, writer your life story, writing

Making Memorable Memoirs Magical – Well Red Coyote Bookstore, Sedona, AZ

August 24, 2010 by patricia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:          Earl L. Goldmann, Manager

                        Brooks Goldmann Publishing Company, LLC

Address:          7970 E. Camelback Rd., 710

Scottsdale, AZ  85251

Cell                  (480-250-5556)

Email:              egoldmann@cox.net

Web Site:        www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

Blog:               https://brooksgoldmannpublishing.com

 

JOIN US IN THE RED ROCKS

THE WELL RED COYOTE

BOOKSTORE SEDONA, AZ

to feature Scottsdale author with her

Memoir Writing Workshop

 

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, August 22, 2010.    Do you want to learn what memoir writing is, what the memoir story can mean and what significance it can have in your life?  Do you wish to gain insight into how writing a memoir is an integrating experience that can lead to your wholeness?

 

If your answer is yes, then join us in the Red Rocks of Sedona for this inspiring two hour workshop.  You will come away with a lot of valuable information you can use immediately.

 

WHO:  Author, writer, publishing consultant, professional speaker and Scottsdale business woman, Patricia L. Brooks,  www.plbrooks.com and www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com is the memoir writing workshop presenter you will not want to miss. 

 

WHEN:  Saturday September 18th, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.

 

WHERE:  The Well Red Coyote Bookstore, Hwy 89-A west, in Sedona.   

 

WHAT:  The Well Red Coyote Bookstore, and the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers, of which Patricia is president and founder, continue their speaker series with Patricia’s talk on memoir writing. Her workshop, Making Memorable Memoirs Magical, will feature her first memoir Gifts of Sisterhood in the discussion.

 

HOW:  Please RSVP to Kris at the store www.wellredcoyote.com

 

Patricia takes you down the path to writing a Compelling Memoir.  The journey will be a fresh and uplifting account of how to prepare to “dig deep” and trust your judgment.  Her perception on Retrospective Writing is both generous and worth noting. 

 

Patricia shares her inspirational portrait of the characters you want to develop – especially you the protagonist. Taking the theme you desire to produce your final manuscript, Patricia will show how to move from Point A to Point B to Point C, the desire and struggle and realization of your life. 

 

Through wit, courage and faith she offers tips and techniques to help you find the “emotional beats” in your life’s events.  Her insight into a philosophy of a writing life worth emulating inspires attendees regardless of the challenges to launch readable memoir.    

 

Patricia L. Brooks is president/founder of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers, a member of the AZ Authors Association, AZ Book Publishers Association and Phoenix Writers Club.

 

She is owner of P. L. Seminars, LLC (www.plbrooks.com),

Brooks Goldmann Publishing Co., LLC, (www.brooksgoldmannpublishing.com)

She has resided in Arizona for over 30 years and has been active in the business and academic community for all of that time. 

 

Patricia holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Management, teaches workshops for Arizona State University’s Osher Life Long Learning Institute, has achieved the Advanced Toastmasters designation and has been named to “Who’s Who of America’s Teachers.

 

She can be reached at patricia@plbrooks.com or 480-250-5556.  Patricia will be signing books at this event – Gifts of Sisterhood, a memoir.  FREE chapters are available on www.plbrooks.com

 

Filed Under: AZ Authors Association, Blogroll, brooks goldmann publishing, gifts of sisterhood, Memoir, memoir writing workshop, WRITING TIPS FOR YOU Tagged With: authors, AZ, compelling memoirs, making memorable memoirs magical, memoir research, Patricia L. Brooks, publishing, red rock canyon, retrospective writing, sedona, well red coyote bookstore, write memoirs, writers, writing tips

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Welcome!

CUT-OFF Noon Friday before – March 21!

MEETING MARCH 25th, 2020

SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS

SSWW monthly dinner/speaker meeting

Speaker: VIJAYA SCHARTZ

Join us and RSVP now!

Location:  Starfire Golf Club, 11500 North Hayden Road, Scottsdale, AZ


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BROOKS GOLDMANN PUBLISHING COMPANY, LLC the author’s partner The author’s answer to guidance and consultation in an independent publishing partnership…… Consultation, Production, Publishing expertise at your disposal in a win/win relationship to meet your needs on your timeline…… BASIC CONSULTATION Being there for you! THE FOLLOWING INTRODUCTORY CONSULTATION SERVICES CAN BE AVAILABLE to … Read more

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Brooks Goldmann
Publishing Company, LLC
7970 E Camelback Rd, #710
Scottsdale, AZ 85251

480-250-5556

Contact:
Patricia L. Brooks, MAOM
Earl L. Goldmann

info [at] brooksgoldmannpublishing [dot] com

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