Becoming Whole:

Write the Story You've Always Wanted to Write

Find answers to the tough questions a memoir writer faces:

• Will my family be angry at me?
• What do I do about telling the truth?
• How can I forgive and be forgiven?

Whether you suffer from an emotional problem or a physical disease such as asthma or arthritis, you can help yourself heal by following the guidelines and exercises in this book to unravel the complicated, sometimes daunting, yet exhilarating task of writing a memoir.

Learn How To:

• Choose your stories and structure your memoir
• Handle the secret stories that are the key to healing
• Sort out the ethics of writing about your family
• Use the power of writing to heal
• Bring the people in your past to life with fictional techniques
• Join the right writing group
• Transform your life through memoir writing

Don't Call Me Mother (New Cover)

"I wanted to tell the secret stories that my great-grandmother Blanche whispered to me on summer nights in a featherbed in Iowa. I was eight and she was eighty…"

At the age of four, a little girl stands on a cold, windy railroad platform in Wichita, Kansas to watch the train take her mother away. For the rest of her life, her mother will be only an occasional and troubled visitor.

Linda Joy Myers's compassionate, gripping, and soul-searching memoir tells the story of three generations of daughters who long for their absent mothers, yet unwittingly recreate a pattern that she was determined to break. Accompany Linda as she uncovers family secrets, finds solace in music, and begins her healing journey. Learn how she transcends the prison of childhood to discover light in the darkness of strife, abuse, and undiagnosed mental illness.

Don’t Call Me Mother is an inspiring chronicle of perseverance, healing, and the transformative power of forgiveness.

Two Book Special

Both "Becoming Whole" and "Don't Call Me Mother" for one low price.

Find out how Linda resolved the challenges of writing a memoir that is story-based by reading both books for the special price of $29.95.

E-Book: Memoir Writing as a Healing Journey

We are happy to announce our new e-book to help you explore the powerful healing journey of memoir writing.

Memoir Writing as a Healing Journey is available for immediate download.

Writing a memoir is a powerful journey to the self and to the heart of who we are.
This book presents the exciting research about the healing power of writing and offers suggestions for how you can write your unique story. Chapters include: Discovering, Facing, and Writing the Truth, Memories: the Good, the Bad, and the Dangerous, The Process of Healing.

Memoir Writing as a Healing Journey contains links to important books and websites about healing and writing. Writing exercises at the end of each chapter invite you to pick up your pen and begin your healing journey today.

Saturday Spiritual Autobiography and Memoir Circle

Saturday morning writing circle

January 12 - March 29 (7 participants)

10 AM - 1 PM

Berkeley, California

Have you ever said, "I need to write my story"? If not now, when? Memories and Memoirs offers a choice of memoir writing classes, workshops, and retreats to help you get started and keep going.

Memories carry deep personal meaning in our lives and for our sense of self. Through exploring them we discover our own unique stories to craft as memoir or fiction. Join our supportive classes to help zap your inner critic. We offer writing tools and exercises each week in class and encouraging, positive feedback. Write the stories you have been meaning to write, whether for your own development and healing or to leave as a legacy for others.

According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr. James Pennebaker, writing stories heals body and mind. You can read more about these exciting studies in Dr. Myers' book Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story, available at any bookstore and at www.Amazon.com.

Classes are geared to all levels of writers, and focus on your specific goals. Mining memories, healing trauma, and being witnessed are part of the healing process. In addition you will learn how writing scenes and using sensual details create an atmosphere of healing. The classes embrace a wide range of interests, from writing journal entries to writing a full length memoir.

Several of Linda's students have completed their memoirs and have won prizes. Memories and Memoirs focuses on the craft of writing. Class members write memoirs, personal stories, autobiographical fiction, and poetry. The work is shared in a respectful environment that offers support for both emotions and creativity. Class size is small, from four to eight people. Students are able to read their work during each class meeting.

Thursday Night Women's Circle

January 17 - April 3

7 P M - 9:45 PM

Each week women of all ages and backgrounds meet to write and talk about motherhood, single dating, careers, romance, memories of family, and their spiritual quests. The writers use both poetry and prose to capture memories and to explore the richness of their lives. We write about important turning points--the lighter, humorous moments along with dark nights of the soul. There is laughter and a few tears, and most of all the witnessing of our stories, an important component of healing and moving into the future.

Women of any age are invited to participate in these workshops. You do not have to be "old" to have a great deal of wisdom to share in writing the story of your life. Women of every age learn from each other's experiences in our groups; everyone inspires each other to keep writing more insightful and thoughtful true stories.

NEW! Sampler Classes

February 3rd

March 2nd

Additional dates to be announced

1 PM - 2:30 PM

Sign up by calling 510-524-3898 or email linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com

Don't have time to enroll in a series of classes? Try one of our sampler classes. Sign up and learn about memoir writing, begin some of your stories and get great support--all for only $30. Bring paper and pen to do some quick writes during the workshop. You do not have to have writing experience to enjoy meeting other writers and sharing your writing--poetry, memoir, or short stories. Bring novel ideas if you are writing fiction. A friendly, relaxed way to meet other writers and find out about how to zap your critic, write vignettes in 10 minutes, and how to use fictional tools.

Get Started

For those of you who are beginning to write your story, this special introductory coaching session will answer the questions you've been asking about writing your memoir. Why you want to write, how to keep the critic voice at bay, and how get started are issues for this coaching session. Includes handouts and writing exercises.

$50 for 1 30-minute phone coaching session. Bring your questions to the call. I will answer your questions about how to get started, develop, and structure your story.

More issues that memoir writers want help solving:

• Capturing memories
  
• Making a date with your muse
  
• Quieting that the inner critic
  
• Vignette writing
  
• How to write a memoir without making my family angry

On Your Way

2 sessions $189
2 20-minute phone sessions—Includes introductory articles and exercises, feedback online and on the phone.

This package helps you to get started and gives you feedback between sessions so you can bring more questions to session number two. Positive, supportive feedback keeps you focused on your story. The important turning points of your life story are highlighted along with the emotional healing and transformative aspects of writing. You will get writing invitations to jump start your stories.

Premier Coaching Package

6 sessions $510
A session is one hour— Includes introductory articles and exercises, feedback online and on the phone, and reading time. This coaching package guides you to begin and write your memoir with the maximum support and feedback. It is just like being in one of my classes or sitting next to me in my office. We are able to work on the usual issues that memoirists face, and to give attention to the particular problems that you encounter in your memoir.

Manuscript Editing

Manuscript editing $50/hour.

Editing your work is supremely important when preparing for publication, contests, or agents. Linda has years of writing and editing experience. Send your manuscript online or mail it. Quick turnaround possible. All areas that need work are marked. Editing can be done efficiently and quickly in MSWord online or on the page.

Email for details. linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com

Or call: 510-524-3898

Manuscript Evaluation Special

Special Price $299
Up to 350 pages, Includes 10 minute phone call

Evaluation covers:

• Suitability to the market; grammar and language; story structure and development.
• Character development; plot; depth and breadth of story.
• Believability and accuracy.
• What is needed to get the memoir completed if incomplete?
• Is it ready for an agent or publisher?
• What needs to be done to bring it to a professional level?

Email for details. linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com

Or call: 510-524-3898

Write Your Family Memoir

8-Week Online Class
$287
Includes extra bonuses and phone coaching

Sign up online and get started right away
Contact Linda at linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com

Your story is unique, and you are the only one to tell it. It’s an important legacy for your family and a way to have the last word in your family story!

All family stories have joys and sorrow, coming together and moving apart, birth and death, and so many memories. Your past history is a treasury of historical times, places, and customs—towns, buildings, headlines, clothing, holidays, grandparents, cars, and school days. Falling in love, marriage, births of children, and new family traditions are all stories everyone wants to know more about.

In this course you will learn:

• How to use the timeline tool to discover and organize your stories
• How to write in your own natural style
• How to use scenes and dialogue to improve your story
• The importance of being a narrator, and using creative description to bring your stories to life

Each week:

• You will receive handouts of writing prompts
• Feedback on the stories you submit
• Extra articles, resources and links
• Information about how to complete, edit, and publish your memoir

Bonuses:

• Handouts about publishing resources
• 3 10-minute phone coaching sessions during the course
• Extra reports and articles about memoir writing

Sometimes there are several people in a course at one time, and other times you will receive the benefit of one-on-one coaching.  Feedback is designed to be supportive and keep you writing.

This course begins when you are ready.  Start now to create your special memoir.   Your family will love you for giving them a special gift.  You do not have to “be a writer” to write your memoir.

Please contact Linda at linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com to discuss enrollment or ask any questions. You can sign up online or by check.

- Retreats -

Body and Soul Writing Retreat

April 4-6, 2008

Calistoga, California

(in the Napa Valley)

Learn more.......click here

Email for details: linda@memoriesandmemoirs.com

Or call: 510-524-3898