I was planning on writing a long and thorough Story Circle Conference wrap-up and then thought—after seeing all the other great summaries of the event—Hey, why re-invent the wheel? There are plenty of other great stories that have already been written.
But before I get to sharing those stories with you, I want to let you know that my Journaling for Memoir presentation went well, I thought, in spite of feeling nervous about my placement during the last session of the last day. I figured everyone would either be busy checking out of the hotel or saturated with writing presentations, and I pictured a large conference room with 7 women in it. So I was truly pleased to find my conference room filled with warm, talented writers. And even the technology worked (something I never count on) in spite of it being my first ever iPad slide presentation!
The entire conference was a lot of writing, listening, playing, thinking, and just plain fun! Roll out the picture gallery …
Gail Straub signing my copy of Returning to My Mother’s House
Conference Hall
Presenters Marlene Samuels, Suzanne Sherman, Judy Watters, Carolyn Scarborough, and Yours Truly
More presenters, including Linda Joy Myers (left) and Kentra Butler (right)
Gail Straub @ book signing
And finally, here for your reading pleasure are links to a number of great blog posts about the event:
Dawn, at lifelinesjournaling, shares a poem she read for Open Mic Night.
Kate Farrell, over at Wisdom Has a Voice, writes about what it means to be Deep in the Heart of Texas with an entire group of women writers, as well as a very nice summary of Gail Straub’s keynote speech.
Pat Bean Played Hooky. Really Pat? But just from the first day, right? I know … ’cause I saw you there 🙂
Update: In her comment below, Pat referred to her follow-up post, also titled Deep in the Heart of Texas, in which she summarizes Straub’s talk, “My Mythic Memoir Journey,” in a deeply personal way.
Len Leatherwood, another presenter at SCN writes about her SCN Conference experience on her blog, 20 Minutes a Day.
Over at Search for Soul blog, Sam Heggen has written a heartfelt piece about how attending the conference changed her life. And you know … you can’t wish for better than that.
Thanks for the link, Amber! I wish we would have had more time at the conference – I don’t think I even had an opportunity to chat with you!
No, we didn’t! There were so many wonderful women I wanted to meet and/or chat with. Where did the time go? … Oh, I know … I was on learning mode and in sessions 🙂
Thanks for the links and the mention, Amber! Delightful and even profound to read others’ blogs. It certainly extends the value of the experience. I wish I could have been in your session while I was doing mine. 🙂
Yes, I loved reading everyone else’s take on things. And me too … I would have loved to have been in your session, writing about Mother.
It was only the pre-conference day I skipped half a day, and I also wrote about the awesomeness of being deep in the heart of Texas with a fantastic group of supportive women the next day. Loved your session, which I attended, and love your blog, which I read faithfully. Thanks.
Thanks, Pat. I was joshin’ with you … I knew you were there, as we spoke. I hadn’t seen your Deep in the Heart of Texas blog post, because it didn’t show up in my Google search. I’ve added the link above. Evocative writing!