Cup o Soul, a wonderfully cozy coffee house at 711-A Orange Avenue in Winter Park, Florida, will be hosting two events for local writers, one an old favorite recently revived, the other brand new. Many poets have lamented the loss of the Monday night poetry open mike, but it’s back(!), 7-9 p.m. every Monday.

The new event is the Second Saturday Pajama Party, 7-10 p.m. (to which you’re genuinely welcome to wear your PJs), featuring a different exceptionally talented local storyteller each month. This will be followed by an open mike. For both of these events, the format is family friendly and children are welcome, so we request that language and content be appropriate for all ears.

If you are interested in being featured on a Second Saturday, please contact Kathryn DiBernardo at kathryndibernardo@gmail.com  ASAP, because the schedule is filling fast. We look forward to seeing you at both of these events!

Check out Cup o Soul’s Web site at www.cuposoul.com .

WRITING WORKSHOP ON PROSE STYLE

with Gerald J. Schiffhorst, Ph.D.

Winter Park Public Library       July 8- Aug. 12, 2010            7-8:15 p.m.

This second annual workshop, on six consecutive Thursday evenings, is intended for both fiction and non-fiction writers who want to develop their prose style.

·        Learn how sentences and paragraphs work and how you can create more varied and interesting ones.

·        Learn how to construct expressive paragraphs, using description and other modes of writing.

·        Create your own one-page descriptions, stories, or articles and practice analyzing, revising, and editing them.

Dr. Gerald Schiffhorst has taught writing for more than 40 years, mostly at the University of Central Florida.  He is the author of numerous (non-fiction) books, articles and reviews as well as six editions of a college writing textbook (with Donald Pharr), Grammar, Etc.  Chris McClelland, a fiction writer who is assistant editor of Narrative magazine, will join in the presentations and discussions.

Registration:

The workshop is limited to 18 people, so register early. Non-residents of Winter Park are welcome!  The cost is $25 for members of the Lifelong Learning Institute of the WPPL, $50 for non-members.  The fee includes the cost of course materials. Call the Institute at WPPL at 407-623-3279 to register.  Or go online at www.wppl.org/institute.

The course will meet on the third floor (Melanson Room) of the Winter Park Public Library, 430 E. New England Ave., Winter Park.

Calling all genealogists…

Or anyone with a family story that needs to be told.  Learn how to write this history in a four-week class called “Bringing Your Ancestors to Life,” which focuses on how to use dates, facts and figures to tell a story the non-genealogist would enjoy reading.  Just for starters, we’ll study how to make your ancestors “real” and not just names on a chart and ways you can take secondary information and re-create the environment in which your ancestor lived.  And I promise you, you’ll have a good time doing it.

Classes meet on four consecutive Thursdays in July (8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th) from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the Marks Street Senior Recreational Complex at 99 E. Marks Streets (corner of Marks Street and Magnolia Avenue) in downtown Orlando.  Advance registration is required, and cost of the class is $60.00.

For more information or to register, contact Patricia Charpentier at writingyourlife@cfl.rr.com or by phone at 321-279-1791.  The web site www.writingyourlife.org also has lots of good info.  I hope to see you in July.

Writing Your Life

Summer Schedule

June 2010

Writing Your Life Story – four-week workshop designed for those who wish to learn more about writing your best – topics may include effective uses of voice, tone, sentence structure, narration and so forth – class meets on Thursdays, June 3^rd, 10^th, 17^th and 24^th from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. – $60 for the four-week session

First Saturday Writing Workshop – I provide prompts designed to call up long forgotten memories followed by five to fifteen minutes to begin writing out the memory – you probably won’t finish many stories, but you’ll leave with the beginnings of ten to fifteen pieces that you can work on at home – workshop meets Saturday, June 5^th and the first of every month (except holiday weekends) from 9:00 a.m. until noon – $15 per workshop

July 2010

Bringing Your Ancestors to Life – four-week class on combining your genealogical research and various writing techniques to create a captivating narrative focused on your family history – learn to characterize people based on limited information, to effectively establish historical settings and develop plot lines of your ancestors experiences – class meets on Thursdays, July 8^th, 15^th, 22^nd and 29^th from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. – $60 for the four-week session

First Saturday Writing Workshop – see description above – workshop meets on Saturday, July 10^th (second Saturday because of Fourth of July holiday) from 9:00 a.m. until noon – $15 per workshop

August 2010

First Saturday Writing Workshop – see description above – workshop meets on Saturday, August 7^th from 9:00 a.m. until noon – $15 per workshop

Focus Workshops – two separate workshops will be held, which focus solely on one aspect of writing – final topics to be announced later but may include writing dialogue, detail and description, characterization, etc. – workshops meet on Thursday, August 12^th and Thursday, August 26^th from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. – $20 for each work workshop

For more information on any of these workshops and classes, contact

Patricia Charpentier at writingyourlife@cfl.rr.com  or 321-279-1791. 

All classes and workshops are held at the Marks Street Senior Center at 99 E. Marks Street at the corner of Marks Street and Magnolia Avenue in downtown Orlando.