Matilda Butler & Kendra Bonnett
Pre-Conference Workshop

Writing with Heart: Five Easy Steps to Writing with Emotion, Energy and Color

The goal of every writer is to engage her readers and draw them into the story. But that takes more than good narrative. To engage a reader's heart, you must write with heart. You need emotion, sensory detail, energy and more. You need to apply the techniques of good fiction and creative non-fiction writing to your memoir or personal history. But with so many elements to choose from, how do you select? How do you know you've found the best way to tell your story? Our Writing Alchemy process will make this easy and natural. Join us for an afternoon of writing magic that will transform your writing process forever. Bring your idea for a memoir vignette, and you'll leave this workshop with the start of a beautifully crafted story.

Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett are Women's Memoirs. Their popular Women's Memoirs website is a resource for writing prompts, recorded author conversations, book reviews, ScrapMoirs, marketing and publishing advice and more. As a team, they teach and coach writers, develop memoir-writing workshops and training materials, and even find time to write. Between them, they have written, co-authored or ghostwritten 10 books and hundreds of magazine and journal articles. Their collective memoir, Rosie's Daughters: The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story, received a 2008 IPPY national book award.

Their latest book teaches their Writing Alchemy method (Knowledge Access Books, 2010), a technique they will debut nationally in the Stories from the Heart pre-conference workshop. Everyone who signs up to take their pre-conference workshop will receive a free copy of the book. Matilda and Kendra have tested Writing Alchemy on writers of all skill levels and find its impact "nothing short of transformative."

Read our interview with Matilda and Kendra, from the June issue of the SCN Journal.

You may register for this workshop separately, without registering for the conference. Or you may register for the workshop and conference together.

Rosie's Daughters:
The "First Woman To" Generation Tells Its Story

Heather Summerhayes Cariou
Keynote Speaker

"Writing from the Heart: The Agony and the Ecstasy"

Heather Summerhayes Cariou will share the story of her 20 year odyssey in bringing her award-winning memoir, Sixtyfive Roses: A Sister's Memoir, to fruition. She will also discuss what is required both technically and emotionally in order to produce a memoir, and how writing your life story can transform and empower you.

Our Friday-night keynote speaker, Heather Summerhayes Cariou, was born and raised in Ontario, trained at the National Ballet School of Canada, and was a founding member of the Ontario Youtheatre and the Center for Actor's Study in Toronto. She enjoyed a professional acting career for twenty years across Canada and off-Broadway. She now lives on the Hudson River in New Jersey with a view of New York City and is working on a novel and co-producing the feature film "Make Believe" with her husband, stage and screen actor Len Cariou, who was recently nominated for an Emmy for his role in Into the Storm. (Check out this photo of Heather and Len prior to the award ceremony.). She is the acclaimed author of Sixtyfive Roses. Visit her website.

Read our interview with Heather, from the September issue of the SCN Journal.

Sixtyfive Roses

Dianne Donovan
Saturday Luncheon Entertainer

Dianne Donovan, our Saturday lunch entertainer, is queen of the classical radio airwaves in central Texas, as daily show host and also producer of "Classical Austin" for KMFA Radio. Ms. Donovan is a Montreal-born jazz vocalist. She currently produces a weekly vocal jazz show, "Voices in Jazz" for CKUA Radio in Edmonton. Her first jazz CD, "Yes and No," received critical acclaim and national airplay. Her follow-up release, "A Musing," features mostly original compositions. With Mady Kaye and Beth Ullman, Donovan is also a member of the popular jazz/pop trio, the Beat Divas.
[Photo by David Grimes]

Live at Reed's

Mary Gordon Spence
Sunday Luncheon Speaker

Mary Gordon Spence, our Sunday lunch speaker, has taught kindergarten to college, written Texas history materials, drafted legislation, directed statewide environmental programs and worked for a former president and has been a magazine editor. Her storytelling, ukulele playing, wit and wisdom have been legendary throughout her career. Visit her website.

Read our interview with Mary Gordon, from the December issue of the SCN Journal.

Finding Magic in the Mundane