Plot Your Next And Best Chapter
Dear Friends,
The acorns are falling! The acorns are falling! I know it’s only July (and I also know that if you follow me on social media, you’ve likely already heard my thoughts about the acorns falling), but by God it’s always a gut punch when this sound starts in, slowly, during the second half of July. It means summer will, alas, end.
Grief!
But, grief, too, can be beautiful, as evidenced by this incredible poem by Matthieu Callier (see the end of this email to read it).
And anyway, the time impending autumn is the perfect threshold at which to commit (or recommit) to a juicy creative life. That is what I am currently engaged in—mapping mine out, in as much detail as possible, for the months ahead. Putting my imagination, my calendar, and my vision to work to outline exactly how I will get my work from here to there between now and winter. If you are interested in doing the same, I have four ways you can work with me in the months ahead!
Our Radical Revision retreat in the stunning beach oasis of Troncones was booked fully for this December, but I was able to secure three more rooms from Present Moment Retreat Center (meaning we have the whole place to ourselves!), and two of those rooms are still open. If you have or want to have a long-form project in motion, this is an incredible opportunity to materialize the best possible version of that project. More info here; inquire as soon as possible, because this opportunity will not last.
“Change Your Story, Change Your Life” is the powerfully true theme of the upcoming 4-day September 8-11 intensive at the beautiful, mid-century modern Hackmatack Retreat Center in Illinois. This intensive, Thriving Along Disturbed Edges: Explore the Threefold Path of Past, Present & Future to Plot Your Best Next Chapter combines yoga, meditation, nature (Hackmatack’s grounds are gorgeous and expansive!) and inventive, surprising, and deeply effective reflective writing exercises to fully—and we really mean fully—imagine yourself into the most alive and dazzling version of what comes next, both on and off the page. This is an extraordinary opportunity to re-imagine your creative life in the most vibrant possible way, while also actively engaging in producing new creative work and gaining specialized tools for enhancing all of your creative processes toward the most illuminated possibilities. This also applies to your life. The idea is that we understand ourselves and others through narrative. It is our tool of meaning-making. Therefore, it is also a powerful, everyday tool for profound transformation. Registration opened last week and we have several spots available for this September intensive and I would be genuinely honored for you to join us! My youngest, Billie Ouellette-Howitz, will teach the yoga (accessible to ALL bodies), and the delightful, funny, skillful, irreverent yet so soulful Tyler Lewke and his partner Grant Goehler will lead meditation.
Writing in the Dark is back! I created this lively, generative virtual workshop Zoom at the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and it is still going strong in year three, with more than twelve sessions and two dozen cohorts (that’s more than 200 writers!) who’ve participated during that time. There is good reason this workshop is so popular: it’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s inspiring, it’s communal (indeed the community is incredible!), and it helps writers produce extraordinary work that so far has been published in an impressive array of journals, from Calyx to Brevity to Manifestation to Fourth Genre to Hippocampus to Sweet and many more, plus a variety of anthologies. The new session starts August 18, and I would love to write in the dark with you!
Individual mentorships are one more way to put your creative work on the front burner with the benefit of structure, deadlines, thoughtful, devoted feedback, and plentiful resources to keep you engaged and moving forward. If you think you might benefit from this kind of one-on-one attention to your work, check out my mentoring page and then get in touch with your questions or to request a complimentary call to discuss your project. I am full right now but have an active waitlist I turn to when my one of my current roster of writers finishes their project! Which they do!
That’s all for now, dear friends. I will leave you with this gorgeous poem by Matthieu Cailler (published this week in Postscript Magazine).
Love,
Jeannine
