For the past month I have been participating in a community writing workshop called Voice CATCH at Chatham College. It has been a wonderful experience for me. It’s rather informal, the participants vary, but it is always a room filled with energy and great writers. It is a very eclectic group, although most of us are at least thirty years old. Jenny, the facilitator, is wonderful. She bakes us something fresh each week, and offers invaluable feedback. Each week begins with a reading passage that we respond to in writing. After sharing what we wrote, we take a break. When we return, anyone who has a selection to “workshop” shares their writing, and the group critiques it. I have shared four stories so far. This week will be the week to make all the edits. Some are minor, others are major. I have promised myself that by the end of this month, I would submit at least one story to a magazine for possible publication. I have the Christian Writer’s Market Guide for 2013. I will likely choose a few places from there.

The writing exercises, interestingly enough, are igniting sparks for my big project, writing my family history. I am planning to write either a novel or series of short stories that tell the history of my great grandparents, or further back if I can get there. It will have to be historical fiction as I won’t have enough facts to do it any other way. The last two writing exercises were like warm-ups for this project. I am going to type today’s prompt and share it with my mother, hoping it will trigger more memories. She always loves telling me the stories of her youth. Looking forward to the next one.