October 2008
Writing Newsletter
Dear writer
I wish to share a scene from Kit’s Wilderness (David Almond)
with you.
Kit is plodding though boring homework about time differences,
writing what the teacher wants when his grandfather, an ex coal miner, enters
the room. The old man bears gifts - “a flat rectangle of coal polished like a
pony” with a tree bark imprint and a black fossil, an ammonite – “a spiralling
horn-shaped shell.”
Grandfather talks of the sea laying sediment that turned to rock
and over time the rock pressed down on ancient trees and animals:
When we dropped down in the cage we dropped through time. Million years a minute. Pitmen. Time travellers. … Mysterious business… it was the light and
heat of the sun that made those trees grow. They lay pitch black in the pitch
black earth… this stuff blacker than the blackest night, holding the heat and
light of the ancient sun…” He giggled, moved the fossil across the desk as if
it were alive. He slid it onto my written page. “It’s for you…and the fossil
tree as well.” He slid that onto my page, rested it on my answers. “Gifts from a time traveller.”
These thoughts arose out of journaling in response to the passage.
I think about writing, how
it is so simple (a high count of monosyllables here), how it is like sliding
objects onto the written page, laying questions on our mundane, routine
answers, resting in the spaces between lines, the gaps between words so the
words glow with their presence. Reflect them in their origins, meanings and
sounds. Here too, overlaid, is the
grandfather’s oral tale as the boy writes the story of their relationship. And
the subtle irony of grandfather’s wisdom, childlikeness and metaphors imposed
on the dead school text. A story within a story. Seeing a word in a lump of
coal.
Close observation of a text we love can teach us so much about our
craft.
Dorian’s Oct. Workshops
Stellenbosch
Pastel, Prose and Presence
12 Oct 14:00-17:30 R300 (includes all materials and
refreshments)
My Bookshop Die Boord, Stellenbosch
Prose is a coloured window, the colours can be seen only when a
candle is lit behind it.
Join
Dorian and Margaret Laubser, a process art facilitator, as we light a candle
behind prose. Explore colour through a pastel picture exercise and mindful presence, as we craft the written piece. No art or
writing experience needed. Please confirm with Margaret: 021 851 7678 Cell: 082 747 0530
mlaubser@eartheart.co.za
Egoli
Imagine Life (Coral Wilder) invites you to
a Workshop series that I’m facilitating
Contact coralw@telkomsa.net 011 622-8793 083 450-9148 for venue and costs.
Coral has organised an in-house day with Life
Line around stories and meanings.
Discovering
Meaning through Creative Writing:
‘Finding
Meaning though Words’
Sun 19 Oct 09.30
-13.00
I
know that there is room in me for a second huge and timeless life (Rilke)
Explore the meaning that is unique to you in your life, through the
art of creative writing.
You will be guided in a process that will help you ask questions
about the purpose of your existence. You will explore your creativity and
imagination and find words to tell your story… to infuse that story with
meaning and make it more alive. The
workshop also focuses on how to be present in our writing and engage readers
and ourselves as part of a great conversation that opens into mystery.
talk to
Coral about these themes: A
Book of Nights and Days ‘Keeping a Journal’
and
Finding the Fire ‘Rekindling our passion
for Life and Work’
Southern
Suburbs,
Hiding the
Plumbing, Wiring and Roof Timbers in the House of Story:
A Workshop
on facilitating Workshops using Stories
Sat 25 Oct
(2-5) and Sun 26 Oct (10-4) bring a light lunch
Outlay: R860 (*R360 deposit secures) (includes Dorian’s CD Tortoise Stories, Stories from
Why stories? Because
stories are origins and origins are places that we walk out from. Because
stories have many feet and travel several roads at once... because the story conjures the invisible. (Deena Metzger)
In
this workshop we experience the power of story at many levels. I offer
practical and theoretical input on the vitality of this ancient craft. We
consider mythology, modality and methodology. We engage with hidden aspects of
story-shops as we explore the equation: emotional IQ + social IQ + spiritual IQ
= Story IQ. While looking at parts, we come to an understanding that the whole
is greater than the sum of those parts.
Some topics
covered: how to tell and
position a story…. quantum reality… circle learning…
building a bank of stories… listening…
structure… timing… quotations…
who
should attend? facilitators involved in: coaching… business… teaching in any
form…psychologists and healers…seekers and wanderers…those considering career
change…NGO’s… those in edutainment…lovers of life…those who remember
contact Gerard
le Sueur Gerard.lesueur@4knowledge.de
021 706 1688 076 544 4015
Stellenbosch
Increase
your Joy: Read Like a Writer - Write like a Reader
28 Oct (6-8pm) R65 includes a glass of wine
or juice.
The books we love
are our first teachers. They offer private lessons in the art of writing. Attention closet writers, lovers of words, book clubbers, book lovers, I
offer interactive
talks on how to enhance your writing/reading pleasure and enrich your writng / bookclub evenings. We
consider how readers read, and how writers read other writers.
Nov
approaching
Celebrate the joy of being alive… a five day extravaganza…even stood on Hogsback?
Hogsback East Cape– Writing,
Reflecting, Being
Mon 24 – Fri 28 Nov
(Mon afternoon to Fri after lunch
Join East Cape poets Cathal Lagan and
Brain Walter and
Ongoing
activities
Anywhere: Spring Stories at Home
This season I have been a storying for
groups of friends…an evening, a fire, wine, cheese, breads and tales for the
telling. Any rhyme or reason – birthdays, TV fatigue, the art of conversation, sommer. Gather a group for Spring.
Mentoring
/ Email Courses
Memoirs, mindfulness adventures, work in the word…
genres tumbling out of folk on the one-on-one path. Such a richness of story
here
5-
Some folks respond to structure, assignments… if so, ask and it shall be
negotiated.
Poetry for Publication (PFP)
Bob
Commin and I guide you in writing and selecting your poems for a solo self
publication
Books x Three
Corals
Publishers is publishing one of my children’s stories, The Water Diviner.
Should be out by Christmas.
The
Halo and the Noose, the Power of story-telling and story listen in Business
Life with Graham Williams will be out by Nov. Pat Grayosn
of Graysonian Press is publishing it. Watch this
space for launces in Egoli,
.....should be
seen as an exciting step in the long process of reconnecting business life to
the mainstream of human history. (
The Achilles
Heal, The Healing Art and Craft of Poetry with Bob Commin will be out mid 2009.
For 2009
Conscious Living Diary with quotes, poems, recipes, play-dates and
gardening-by-the-moon tips contact linda@stillpoint.co.za
Competitions (repeated
from Sept)
The Poetry
Society’s National Poetry Competition 2008. You can enter now at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/
Workshops/Literary Events
with other Folk (repeat info)
Bob
Commin (poet, creativity coach ,
storyteller and pastor) runs poetry courses/events in the Southern Suburbs (
Spirituality
Group meets every month (2nd Tues) 6.30
pm at home of Mandy Young,
Writer-sites and News (Repeat info)
Lynette
Steel (thanks Lynette) highly recommends Robert
McDowell, Poetry As Spiritual Practice:
Consuelo Roland writes
My website called www.goodcemeteryguide.com
is now live. It uses my novel The Good Cemetery Guide as a starting
point to explore the topic of death in our society and how we handle it, from a
cultural perspective.
Helen Brain, author,
has begun writing for a Canadian web-zine
(specifically about writing for children) see link at: http://writingforchildren.suite101.com/
Source new opportunities every month. Check out Lee Cahill’s www.sabookworm.com
Thanks you Lee for a site that informs and supports writers. This is writer
good news.
Wordsetc A South African Literary Journal Loosely based on the idea
of The New Yorker, this is a new literary journal to look out for.
Writers need to read as part of self-tutorship. I suggest you
subscribe to New Contrast (poetry and prose) – 4 copies per annum. www.newcontrast.net. Hugh Hodge, the editor is doing a fine job for writers. Thank you Hugh. Submissions
to ed@newcontrast.net - price is on the website.
May
matter rest on and enter your pages.
Dorian
PS Thank you to all those
who drop this letter into the wind.
Dr Dorian Haarhoff
021 855 3937 / 082 873 6802/ fax 086 511 4751
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com