“Short HOT Flashes”
One Hundred and One Stories of 101 Words
by David Rasch and illustrated by Jason Cirimele
An Illustrated Collection of Flash Fiction with Sketches
5×8 • 62 pages • $10.00
ISBN 978-1935530954
Reason #1 to Share Your Life Stories
CCW Speaker—Vanessa Diffenbaugh: “The Language of Flowers”
Vanessa Diffenbaugh: How to write a page-turnerWhen drafting her debut novel, The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh aimed to write a book that readers wouldn’t be able to put down. It stayed on the New York Times best sellers list for 50 weeks and was translated into more than 40 languages. At the January meeting of Central Coast Writers the author will offer tips on how to write a page-turner.
Diffenbaugh is a Californian, born in San Francisco and raised in Chico. Graduating from Stanford, she worked in the non-profit sector, teaching art and technology to youth in low-income communities. Following the success of her novel, she co-founded Camellia Network, a non-profit whose mission is to connect every youth aging out of foster care to the critical resources and support needed to thrive in adulthood. She lives in Monterey, CA.
January 20, 2014 at 6:30 pm (social hour 5:30 with optional dinner menu) MEETING IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
CENTRAL COAST WRITERS at PT PINOS GRILL, 79 Asilomar Blvd., Pacific Grove, CA
Write & Publish Your Guided Autobiography Book—January 2015 Classes Now Forming
CLICK TO Watch video of people sharing their experiences with Guided Autobiography.
Bruce Feiler wrote a fascinating article in the NY Times He said, “The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.”
In other words, the children who know the most about their family history—the traditions, the set-backs and successes of parents and grandparents—had the best odds of bouncing back from hard times.
Write and Get Books of Your Life Stories in Just 99 Days!
Classes are now forming in Pacific Grove: January 21 to March 25, 2015, (10 weeks) at the Masonic Lodge, 130 Congress Avenue. Two time slots are available: 12:30-2:30 p.m. or 4-6 p.m. Call for other class times and procedure to follow if you have to miss a class. Reservations are required as space is limited. Call 831-649-6640.
What is Guided Autobiography? A weekly 2 hour class meeting over a ten week period, based on the Guided Autobiography method developed by pioneering gerontologist James Birren. This is a proven program to help you get your life story on paper by breaking it down into short, easy-to-write themes and by turning the process into a fun, social event by sharing your stories with others in the class. No previous writing experience necessary and no computer or special equipment needed. — Only $245 – that’s less than $25 per class!.
Turn Your Class Experience into a Published Book! This option gives you the 10-week class program described above, PLUS: YOU WILL RECEIVE 5 PRINTED BOOKS BY APRIL 30, 2015. We will design, format, publish, and print 5 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your stories (up to 30,000 words) that you type into a Microsoft Word.doc, plus 2 photos per class theme that we will scan at each class.—$795.
Intermediate Writing and Book Package: All of the above, PLUS: We will professionally edit your book and publish it on Amazon. —$1495.
Premier Writing and Book Packages: All of the above, PLUS: We’ll turn your printed book into a Kindle e-book and launch a Custom Marketing Campaign that can include a press release, 100 postcards, 100 business cards, a web page for your book, a blog, and other Social Media. —Individual pricing based on choice of services you desire.
ALSO AVAILABLE: Custom design services, private coaching and instruction are available. You may add additional book pages and photos, print hardcover books, video and audio recordings and production with upload to “Keepers of Our Culture” YouTube Channel. Services priced individually for your custom package.
RESERVE NOW – SPACES ARE LIMITED TO 8 PER CLASS – RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED
INSTRUCTORS Patricia Hamilton and Joyce Krieg are certified by The Birren Center to teach the Guided Autobiography method developed by James E. Birren. Books will be published by Park Place Publications.
TO RESERVE or for more information, please call Patricia Hamilton at 831-649-6640 or e-mail:
Error: Contact form not found.
Benefits of Telling Your Life Stories ala Guided Autobiography Themes
A Brief Introduction to Guided Autobiography
By Joyce Krieg and Patricia Hamilton
Guided Autobiography is a class to assist people of all ages in writing their memoirs. Typically, it consists of ten weekly sessions of two to three hours each. The method was developed by pioneering gerontologist Dr. James Birren and has been in use for over thirty years with participants ranging from college students to residents of senior facilities.
What makes Guided Autobiography unique and powerful is that participants are writing essays on specific themes and then sharing them with others. Many people say they want to write their memoirs, but few actually follow through – usually because the project is too overwhelming, or because it’s just not fun to do alone. Guided Autobiography deals with both of those issues head-on: by writing on a specific theme, participants are able to break down their life story into small, easy-to-complete projects, and they bond with other class members and form friendships by sharing their stories.
No previous creative writing experience is necessary, and no special equipment is needed. The only requirement is to show up, and the only “homework” is a two-page essay on the theme of the week. A computer is not a must – the stories can be handwritten or spoken into a recorder.
A typical Guided Autobiography class consists of two parts. In the first hour, the instructor leads the class in a discussion of the week’s theme, plus a few fun and easy exercises to stimulate their creativity. In the second hour, the class breaks into small groups in which everyone reads aloud the two pages they have written on the theme for that session
Benefits to the participants are many, and include:
- Learning more about themselves and understanding the ‘why’ they may have done the things they have done.
- Understanding and appreciating others and their life story.
- Greater ease and confidence with writing as they learn to tap into inner feelings.
- Developing close friendships with fellow students.
- Leaving a legacy for their children and grandchildren, and to the world at large.
CLICK TO Watch video of people sharing their experiences with Guided Autobiography.
Bruce Feiler wrote a fascinating article in the NY Times He said,
“The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.”
In other words, the children who know the most about their family history—the traditions, the set-backs and successes of parents and grandparents—had the best odds of bouncing back from hard times.
Basic Package: Weekly 2 hour class for ten weeks, writing using James Birren’s Guided Autobiography Method. YOUR BOOK WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE CLASS: We will Design, format, publish, and print 10 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your Word.doc, up to 30,000 word text file, plus 20 your digital photo files.—$795 for writing instruction and 10 books.
Intermediate Package: Weekly 2 hour class for ten weeks, writing using James Birren’s Guided Autobiography Method. YOUR BOOK WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE CLASS: We will Design, format, publish, and print 10 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your Word.doc, up to 30,000 word text file, plus 20 your digital photo files. PLUS: Professional edit your book and publish it on Amazon. —$1495 for writing instruction and 10 books.
Premier Package: Weekly 2 hour class for ten weeks, writing using James Birren’s Guided Autobiography Method. YOUR BOOK WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF THE CLASS: We will Design, format, publish, and print 10 soft-cover books for you, prepared from your Word.doc, up to 30,000 word text file, plus 20 your digital photo files. Professional edit your book and publish it on Amazon. PLUS: Publish to Kindle; Marketing Package, including press release, postcards, business cards; Internet: set up blog/website and other Social Media. —Individual pricing based on choice of services you desire.
EXTRAS: Private coaching and instruction are available. You may add additional book pages and photos, hardcover books, video and audio recordings and production with upload to “Keepers of Our Culture” YouTube Channel. Services priced individually for your custom package.
INSTRUCTORS Patricia Hamilton and Joyce Krieg are certified by The Birren Center to teach the Guided Autobiography method developed by James E. Birren. Books will be published by Park Place Publications.
For more information, please call 831-649-6640 or e-mail:
Error: Contact form not found.
“Self-Discovery: Prose” by Sam Harris
“Self-Discovery: Prose”
a COLLECTION OF PROSE by Sam Harris
Prose by Sam Harris, Carmel artist and writer.
8.5×5.5 • 140 pages • $6.65
ISBN 978-1935530848
“Walking for Our Lives” by Donna Rankin Love
“Walking for Our Lives”
a MEMOIR by Donna Rankin Love
“This child will never walk,” the doctor said. “Wanta bet?” retorted her mother. Fifty-nine years later, Donna Love walked over 5,000 miles in three peace walks in the United States and in Russia. Every step was a step toward peace. In Walking For Our Lives, Donna’s third book in the three years since she turned 80, she tells how these peace walks alerted citizens of the world to the futility of the nuclear arms race. She chronicles her evolution from a passive homemaker to an involved peacemaker, and into a life where anything’s possible and one person does make a difference. Let there be peace…
“Journalist, mother and author, in Walking For Our Lives Love captures a combination of pioneer spirit and American zeal that brings back a time when nothing seemed impossible. I felt right there through the heat, sweat and each turn in the road. This must-read book is a reminder of who we are as American women—true, strong, and tenacious. Love’s compelling story unfolds on the backdrop of an America in the midst of change that continues to this day, a reminder that individuals contributing together can make a difference.” — Marsha L. Keeffer, MBA
“Donna Love, proper society wife and mother, boldly set out to walk 5000 miles across two continents for peace. Participating in the Great Peace March across the United States and the Peace Walk in Russia transformed her life and her perspective. From page one, I was caught up in Donna’s story—watching her change from passive homemaker to passionate peacemaker. This is a story not to be missed!” — Laura Davis, author of The Courage to Heal and I Thought We’d Never Speak Again And let it begin with me.
314 pages • 6×9 • $18.00
ISBN 978-1935530503
About the Author
Since my 80th year, I have written and published three books of stories based on my rich and varied life. I nurtured four sons born within five years. When they left for school and their father left, too, I returned to school for teaching credentials and opened a tutoring center for dyslexic students. After 15 years, I heard about the Great Peace March and walked from Los Angeles to New York to Washington, DC, then from Leningrad (S. Petersburg) to Moscow for Peace. When 230 Soviets came to the United States, for a peace walk, I joined. Born with crippled feet, I have walked more than 5,000 miles for a single cause. Then I remodeled four houses; two in Mexico, one on a farm in Oregon, and a cottage above Monterey Bay in California and married again. For a while. I am keeping the cottage. Each day I write. And speak to audiences about the pleasures in telling our stories. I believe that writing our stories gives us an opportunity to understand our families, our culture, and ourselves. That understanding often translates into forgiveness, which is fundamental to peaceful co-existence. One more step toward peace in the world. To people who are intimidated by writing, I say, “Write your lives one tale at a time. Remember, you don’t have to start at the beginning.” My first book, Tell Me a Story, is a compilation of 43 short stories that view aspects of my heritage and life. Initially, it was a Christmas gift for members of my family, but has been available on Amazon since its publication. The second book, To Make the House Complete, is about the four houses and marriage that needed work. Walking For Our Lives is twice as long as the others, about 300 pages, and gives an autobiographical perspective to the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, 1986, and to the other peace marches in the United States and in Russia. The memoir follows the journey from my life of comfortable conformity to becoming comfortable with myself. Through the tales, readers discover how my experiences walking for peace transformed my opinions of what is important and what is worth fighting for from the easy choices to the meaningful ones.
“Dearest Umeno” by Nancy Tamura Shikashio
“Dearest Umeno…”
a BIOGRAPHY by Nancy Tamura Shikashio
The life of Katsuchika Tamura, with letters to his wife, Umeno Tamura, from American Internment Camps, 1941-1946
8.5×11 • 308 pages • $17.96
ISBN 978-1935530336
Customer Reviews
- Highly recommend!!! Such a lovely book with insightful historical content. (By Shelby on August 25, 2014)
- Awesome book because I’m a big fan of hstory. (By Hazel Shikashio on August 25, 2014)
“Disobedient Virtues” by Mark D. Shannon
“Disobedient Virtues”
PROSE & POETRY by Mark D. Shannon
8.5 X 5.5 • 134 pages • $9.45
ISBN 978-1935530817
Mark D. Shannon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up just north of Boston. Mark’s outer explorations have included back streets since boyhood, when he accompanied his father on business trips and developed an ease within diverse circles. Mark’s inner explorations were nurtured by his mother, an academic with a voice rich in perspectives, who took time not only to teach but to listen to her children. Mark’s present course includes passing on those traditions of good parenting to his son and daughter, now ages eight and five. He has a deep love for creating art, for travel, and especially for his children, who he currently resides with in San Francisco, California.
“The Inherited Heart” by William Minor
“The Inherited Heart: An American Memoir”
a MEMOIR by William Minor
A boy grows up just outside of Detroit, Michigan. All he wants is to be a boy who plays hockey (a goalie, no less), likes to box (under the influence of Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson), learns to play jazz piano (under the influence of Art Tatum and Nat “King” Cole), and perhaps find a genuine girlfriend—but he is inundated, imposed upon—to his mind—by stories his parents tell of illustrious ancestors, with the implication that he has much to “live up to.” Swamped with tales of ancestors who go back to 17th century New England and Middlesex County, Virginia—Civil War heroes on both sides (Southern and “Yankee”), notable authors who wrote praiseworthy memoirs and hobnobbed with Mark Twain and Walt Whitman—it would take this boy a number of years to “reconcile discordant elements.”
The Inherited Heart: An American Memoir tells the story of that endeavor, directly, up to the age of nineteen, and indirectly—through simultaneous narration or “robbed time”—throughout a lifetime. The book tells the tale of many meaningful, invaluable discoveries made along the way. It’s a “trip,” an adventure, described in the author’s lucid, playful and purposeful prose—a book that will appeal to everyone with a family (which is all of us!), those interested in American history, American humor, boyhood adventures, adolescent agony, or just those who enjoy storytelling at its best. The book suggests that we are each linked, through inheritance, by all that surrounds us, to an extended family we may learn to love.
8.5×5.5 • 432 pages • $12.14
ISBN 978-1935530718
William Minor was originally trained as a visual artist (Pratt Institute and U.C.-Berkeley), and exhibited woodcut prints and paintings at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and other museums and galleries. His woodcut prints incorporated the text of Russian, Modern Greek, and Japanese poetry–which he also translated. Attracted by the “multimedia” work of William Blake, e.e. cummings, Kenneth Patchen and Shiko Munakata (and the voice of Dylan Thomas)} he began to write poetry as a graduate student in Language Arts at San Francisco State, producing his first book containing poems and woodcut prints, Pacific Grove, in 1974. Bill has, since that time, published five more books of poetry: For Women Missing or Dead, Goat Pan, Natural Counterpoint (with Paul Oehler), Poet Santa Cruz: Number 4, and Some Grand Dust (Chatoyant Press), for which he was a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, as has his short fiction—-which was selected for inclusion in Best Little Magazine Fiction (NYU Press) and The Colorado Quarterly Centennial Edition. A one-act play, Contacts, was performed at Monterey Peninsula College in California, and then published in The Bellingham Review. A jazz writer with over 150 articles to his credit, Bill has also published three books on music: Unzipped Souls: A Jazz Journey Through the Soviet Union (Temple University Press), Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years (Angel City Press; Bill served as scriptwriter for the Warner Bros. film documentary based on the latter, same title as book), and Jazz Journeys to Japan: The Heart Within (University of Michigan Press). A professional musician since the age of sixteen, Bill set poems from For Women Missing or Dead to music and recorded a CD–Bill Minor & Friends (on which he plays piano, tenor guitar, and sings). A second CD, Mortality Suite, offers original poems and music. Bill was also commissioned by the Historic Sandusky Foundation to write a suite of original music and voice script based on a married couple’s exchange of letters throughout the Civil War: Love Letters of Lynchburg. In May, 2011, Bill was “first grand prize winner” in a national essay contest, “What Music Means to Me,” sponsored by RPMDA (Retail print Music Dealers Association). More biographical information and links are available at www.bminor.org.
Customer Reviews
- An exciting memoir about a boy growing up in Detroit in a family with historical roots back to the 1700’s. This guy of course has talent that we can all envy. He accomplished many things in several different art venues. I laughed, I cried and I wondered. How did this fascinating family background influence these artistic skills? A great read from a talented author. Loved it. (By Vernon Lee Rexroat on June 28, 2013)