Category Archives: Education

Writing Workshops for Storytellers (& Aspiring Storytellers)

Join me at Vroman’s, Southern California’s oldest and largest bookstore.

I’m thrilled to be returning to Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, CA to teach two writing workshops. There’s still space available.

One-Day Writing Workshop: Novel vs. Screenplay: Exploring Your Options. Saturday, May 25th, 1:30-4:30 PM.

Six-Week Writing Workshop: Storytelling Techniques. Six Thursdays, starting May 30th and skipping 4th of July, 6:30-8:30 PM. For authors of fiction and narrative nonfiction.

Both classes are open to participants at all levels. There will be lectures and writing exercises.

This is a safe space where your writing will be supported with constructive suggestions and where you can receive instructor feedback in class or via email.

For complete descriptions of each workshop, plus registration information, got to the Vroman’s Ed page. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

The Mirror of Graces: the Final Blush of Accomplishment

“A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word [accomplished]; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.”
Pride and Prejudice

The following is an excerpt from  The Mirror of the Graces, by a Lady of Distinction, 1811, reprinted here with kind permission from The Jane Austen Centre.

Title page of The Mirror of the Graces; British Library

When so much has been said of the body and its accoutrements, I cannot but subjoin a few words on the intelligence which animates the frame, and of the organ which imparts its meaning. 

Connected speech is granted to mankind alone. Parrots may prate and monkeys chatter, but it is only to the reasonable being that power of combining ideas, expressing their import, and uttering, in audible sounds, all its various gradations, the language of sense and judgment, of love and resentment is awarded as a gift, that gives us a proud and undeniable superiority above all the rest of the creation.

To employ this faculty well and gracefully, is one grand object of education. The mere organ itself, as to sound, is like a musical instrument, to be modulated with elegance, or struck with the disorderly nerve of coarsene vulgarity.
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Make this summer an Austen summer

After all, this summer will mark the 200th anniversary of the great author’s death, and thus the perfect time to celebrate her life. Here’s an idea that sounds to us like Jane Austen heaven: 200 Years of Persuasion: The Jane Austen Summer Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, from June 15-18, 2017. You don’t have to be a scholar or even a student in order to attend; all are welcome. According to the program’s site, it is open to “anyone with a passion for all things Austen.” 

Every year, The Jane Austen Summer Program at UNC Chapel Hill focuses on one of the author’s works. This year, it explores Austen’s last finished novel, Persuasion (which happens to be my personal favorite, though I can discuss the various merits of each of the author’s precious novels with fellow enthusiasts for hours, months, and years and never get bored).

Here is one of my favorite testimonials from past participants of The Jane Austen Summer Program: “All the professors I met were so friendly and welcoming, so I never felt intimidated talking with such impressive scholars.  It was a totally comfortable environment for all!” Read some more of the glowing testimonials yourself, and you’ll be filling out that registration form before you can say “You pierce my soul.”