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BOOK WORM

Special Events Highlight Spring for Area Writers

Writing is a joy, I think; but can be an escape as well, even a place of sanctuary. This was certainly the case for me some 15 years ago as I struggled to write the novel which would one day become HarperCollins hit, “Pilate’s Wife.”

My partner was desperately ill. The physical and emotional support I gave him—dismally inept at times— was essential to his well-being. The challenges involved with daily living were incredibly tough on both of us. How wonderful it was then for me to be writing a novel, to take brief respites into another time, another life, another place.

The characters I created moved freely in the realm of my imagination. A historical setting and plotline was at that time particularly liberating. How fabulous it was to immerse myself in the first amazing milieu of lst century Rome! For brief periods of time—usually an hour or so--I lived in another world, a land peopled by gladiators, priestesses, emperors, Centurians and courtesans.

Writing was a refuge in every sense. The necessary research opened another world for me which, in turn, presented the challenge of creating a plot and characters that would do justice to such an astonishing era.

Life evolves from day to day, as we all know. One set of challenges resolves itself as others arise.

A few years later when my career as a journalist took me to Yucatan, I used many of my experiences as a caregiver to form the plot of my second novel, “The Sacred Well.”

For the many kinds of caregivers out there, Linda Abbott Trapp’s upcoming workshop, “Writing to Heal,” sounds like just what the doctor ordered. A cliché, you say? Just consider that Linda’s event is all about memoir writing strategies.

The workshop will be held from l:30 to 4:30 p.m., Feb. 25 at the Calaveras Country Arts Council in San Andreas. The class is open not only for caregivers themselves but to all those suffering trauma. The instructor is a former dean of the California School of Professional Psychology and has had a counseling practice in several states and abroad.

“Trauma is a certainty of life,” Linda says, “healing isn’t. However, there are a number of ways a person suffering from pain or loss can regain control and develop a purposeful, passionate life again. There is a great deal of evidence that writing can hasten the healing process.”

“Writing to Heal” will offer guidance in implementing a writing program for the express purpose of rediscovering hope, health and joy.

The event is sponsored by Manzanita Writers Press. Call Monika Rose 754-0577, or Linda Field 736- 0222 for additional information. The price is $50 and the workshop is limited to the first 20 registrants.

Writers at all levels are welcomed, but spaces are filling fast.

I’ll be there, will you?

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IN OTHER NEWS: Its Gold Rush time again. Ink in May 4,5, and 6th on your calendars as a reminder of the the 7th annual Gold Rush Writers Conference to be held at the Hotel Leger in Mokelumne Hill.

The conference committee is excited to announce its two headline speakers who will also lead workshops. Cara Black, whose eleventh mystery novel will be published by Random House in March, will be discussing both plotting and a sense of place. Cara’s Parisian heroine-detective, Aimée Leduc has been called a “delightfully unbuttoned Audrey Hepburn for the 21st century.”

Michael David Lukas, who is already receiving rave reviews for his debut novel, “Oracle of Stamboul” published late last fall by HarperCollins,” will discuss both magical realism and the importance of place.

The conference will offer a choice of 16 workshops led by prize winning published authors, plus talks, panels and three meals for $145. Register now before the price jumps on March 30 to $175, Also several workshops are already filling.

The event is sponsored by Poets & Writers, the Calaveras County Arts Council and the Mokelumne Hill Trust. Go to http://www.goldrushwriters.com/ and see why there is nothing out there to equal this boutique event.