A Writing Workshop Anniversary

This Tuesday marks ten years of the monthly writers' workshop which meets at our local county library, the social hub of our mountain village. We started meeting on the second Tuesday of the month in September 2007, and within a couple of years, I started a website/blog for our group: MECAC Writer's Workshop. The "MECAC" stands for Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council which was started by Judith Dupree and myself back in 2006 and which soon included the writer's workshop meetings. Due to health issues and changes in our lives, MECAC is now concentrated almost solely on the writer's workshop. And that's fine.

Our group has hosted Dr. Dean Nelson, founder of the journalism department at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), several times for Saturday workshops. We've also hosted poetry readings, readings by local and not-so-local writers, and even Write-Ins as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).We've also often attended the annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea at PLNU as a group.

2017 Writer's Symposium by the Sea line-up of speakers

But most of all, we've shared our writing with each other. We bring the next poem, the next chapter, the next editorial, the next blog post, the next reflective essay, and we distribute copies and then read our work aloud, receiving encouragement and constructive feedback. Occasionally we tackle a writing prompt together, sharing the results and commenting on the good and the "needs help" areas.

And often we celebrate publication by the members of our group, whether a poem or an editorial is published in the Valley Views or the Alpine Sun (our town's monthly publication of news & events, or the newspaper of the next-largest town on the way "down the hill" into San Diego, respectively), or an article or poem printed in a periodical, or a book self-published on Amazon, or a book published by a publishing company. It's all happened within our group over the last ten years.

Our group is ever-changing, but usually we end up with six to eight writers showing up on the second Tuesday of the month. I think our record is thirteen writers. Some of our group are published authors, and some are just now trying out their writing wings, and all are welcome. I've been with the group the longest, so by default I've become the leader, with Judith, a poet who most recently published Sky Mesa Journal with Wipf and Stock Publishers, starting to come a year or two after the group began. Teresa, a poet from Campo, has been coming for at least seven or eight years, and Dianne, who started writing memoirs and has recently embarked on a mystery novel, has been attending for at least six years. Others are a bit newer, including Elaine who moved to our mountain communities from the East Coast, and Linda who lives atop Mount Laguna and has published a series of time-travel romances. And the oral tradition remains strong with Elwood and his wife Pearl who drive up the mountain from Alpine. Mary, a new writer, also comes up from Alpine. Teresa and Mary often have their therapy dogs with them, and Lancelot and Pup Pup curl up at our feet, content to listen to stories, too.

At a Write-In at the Pine Valley Library, November 2015. From left to right: Mary, Sermsee, Linda, Judith, Dianne 

Over a year ago we lost a dear member, Betty from Mount Laguna who wrote songs and memoirs, to cancer. But we keep an eye on her rocking chair, knowing that she's ever with us in spirit. And longtime member Maureen moved from Descanso to Oklahoma after the publication of her first book, but the "gang's all here" when she can attend our meetings when she visits San Diego once or twice a year. Others come and go, but these writerly souls are the beating heart of the monthly Writer's Workshop.

I've shared poems and parts of my fan fiction novels and stories with this beloved group, but lately I usually come empty-handed, with too much grading and teaching on my plate to give me time to write regularly, if at all. Even writing in my journal is a rare opportunity. I don't want to lose the joy of writing, the freedom that comes when nib scrolls its path across the page, when words pop into mind and are committed to paper. Writing is a joyous thing, a cleansing thing, a hallowed and holy thing. 

And everyone can do it, from telling a story aloud to publishing a book and everything in between. It's a joy that I pray we can--and I pray we will--expend our hearts and time in accomplishing.

One of my writing students at our homeschool co-op Class Days wrote something in an essay that I immediately jotted into my quotation journal  (I've collected hundreds of quotations on writing in my journals and via Pinterest). Deceptively simple, this seemingly simple sentence says it all. Lydia wrote:

"Words convey far more weight than we often acknowledge." 

And while I added one of my favorite Poe quotes on writing to my Quotation of the Week in the sidebar of this blog, these words spoken by Robert De Niro at the 2014 Academy Awards give us the flip side of writing:

"The mind of a writer can be a truly terrifying thing. Isolated, neurotic, caffeine-addled, crippled by procrastination, and consumed by feelings of panic, self-loathing, and soul-crushing inadequacy. And that's on a good day." 

And Anne Lamott, my favorite writer who writes about writing, wrote:

"If you can't find an hour to write, even Jesus can't help you."       

So when our little group of writers gather on Tuesday evening, I'll share the joy of this tenth anniversary of the Writer's Workshop, and together we'll freewrite to a prompt, listen to each other read our work aloud, offer our two cents' worth of feedback, and, most of all, we'll celebrate the joy of writing!

Writing with you,

Poem: In the Confessional

Last night our Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council (MECAC) Writers' Workshop met for our monthly gathering to share our work and encourage/critique each other's writing. Seven writers attending our workshop in the summer is a very respectable number, and I very much enjoyed our ninety minutes of "shop talk."

I shared a sheet of online sites with the group, including writing contests, publication opportunities, the upcoming Writers' Weekend at Sacred Rocks Reserve in Boulevard which will be facilitated by our own MECAC Director Judith Dupree, plus additional opportunities for local workshops, etc. I encourage local and other writers to check out our MECAC Writers' Workshop blog for some helpful information I've gathered for our local writers.

Judith also shared about her week in Santa Fe at the The Glen Image Journal Christian Arts Workshops which sounds absolutely wonderful. She enjoyed the playwriting workshop very much, a change from her usual poetry workshops. If only we all could go!

Then we took turns sharing our work and receiving feedback. Norm read us an essay about questions and answers revolving around the ideas of time and heaven. Betty read us part of a story about rockclimbing in Idyllwild, and Maureen shared some backstory of her Children of Cain novel that held us spellbound. I shared the poem below and appreciated the ideas presented to me which really helped put the finishing touches on it. Teresa read aloud a poem a la Tennyson about the Sirens, and although Judith didn't have time to read the scene from her play Rebekah's Children, she gave us the scene to take home to read, and we'll discuss it next time. It was a very productive, affirming, yet helpful gathering of writers last night.

I've been working on this poem to submit to a Christian journal; the theme of the next issue is "confession," so this is what I've done with it. A few parts are still a little rough, but I wanted to put it up as doing so often helps me to revise a problem line or two, or replace a word with one that works better, etc.

In the Confessional

Fear tastes metallic.
Eyes clenched, lowered,
I whisper the litany of my sins.
My cheeks redden --
a badge of transgression
unseen by all but the confessor.
Kindly he averts his gaze,
granting grace as I gather
breath and composure.
He has heard it all,
I scold myself.
He won't think less of
the bared soul before him --
I hope.

But shame envelops my tongue,
now dry as cotton,
choking words back into
my drought-scorched throat.
I vainly regather shreds of dignity,
desperately trying to cover
my exposed soul.

In this sacred space
my Lover cups my face
between His shattered palms,
gazes heart-deep
into my tear-stained soul,
looses my tongue from warp and weft
of imagined bonds.
My voice restored,
I raise my eyes to
meet the confessor's gaze...
At Last.

copyright 2009 Susanne Barrett

So it was a wonderful meeting, and I thought it was one of the best workshops we've had this year. And the Genealogy Class that preceded the Writers' Workshop was also helpful as I finally filled in all of my great-great-grandparents in my pedigree chart with some helpful information on Google genealogy searches. So the evening was an extremely productive few hours of genealogy and writing in the Community Room of our little local library.

Sacred Rocks Reserve

Marshall Chapman, MECAC Treasurer, at Sacred Rocks

On Thursday afternoon the Board of Directors of the Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council (MECAC) had their monthly Board meeting at Sacred Rocks Reserve in Boulevard (30 minutes east of our small town, 90 minutes east of downtown San Diego). The Reserve currently is more of an RV park/campground, but the owners, Dmitri and Sharon Courmousis, are planning to turn this gorgeous 160+acre site into a colony for artists. Currently eight very environmentally-friendly vacation cottages have been erected for rental or purchase with plans for many more to be added. The Art Colony will use only 20-some acres of the property with the remaining 140 acres remaining as a natural preserve.


The most interesting aspect to me was the large labyrinth modeled on Chartres in France and apparently the largest in the state of California at 100 feet in diameter and over 1500 feet in length. Apparently it takes more than twenty minutes to pray one's way in and twenty minutes out, plus meditation time in the center. I have walked the labyrinth in Alpine, but this one is quite a bit larger and although newer, has been weathered such that it appears just as old if not older. The premise is to slowly walk, praying silently, through the labyrinth to the center where one can sit to meditate and pray, then on the path out, one gives up all that has been prayed for into God's keeping. It's a beautiful way to pray in His creation; sunrise or sunset are definitely the best times to walk an outdoor labyrinth.


After lunch and our MECAC Board Meeting, Sharon kindly took us on a tour of the grounds, starting with the labyrinth and the artists' cabins on out through the vast expanse of the property dotted with 400-500 year old oaks. At the end of the tour we were shown the incredible rock formations for which the reserve was named which were probably used in religious ceremonies by Native Americans for hundreds of years. The rocks are huge (refer back to the first photo with Marshall to see the scale), surrounded with oaks hundreds of years old (and a little poison oak as well, of which Sharon warned us). The tour finished at the large salt-water pool and hot spa. Sacred Rocks was a lovely treat, a beautiful place to spend at least an afternoon, if not much longer. If you are interested, you may follow the blog for Sacred Rocks for up-to-date information on artistic events.

MECAC hopes to work with Sacred Rocks Reserve in supporting and promoting the artists of back country San Diego County while also preserving wild open spaces with mature trees and incredible rock formations seemingly carved by the palm of the Creator.

Third Annual "A Taste of Art" Summer Youth Program

Benjamin (age nine) created this tribute to Pollock at the Third Annual "A Taste of Art" Summer Youth Program sponsored by The Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council (MECAC), a group founded by poet Judith Deem Dupree four years ago. She asked for my help, seeing that I am the organized, detailed left-brained type and she is the creative, big-picture, vision-oriented right brain artist. Our joke is that between us we have one brain. :)

This summer was our third foray into children's "art camps." The first year we had classes every Tuesday over the month of July, running in both Lake Morena (near Campo) and Pine Valley. Last year we stuck to Pine Valley only and did it all in a single week, Monday-Thursday. And this summer we did the same. We averaged between 25-30 kids each day this summer, a slight increase over the last two summer programs. The kids pay a nominal price of $5 per class to cover materials, and we've come out even or a bit ahead the first two years; I didn't run this year's program so I don't know if we broke even this summer, although I assume we did. We also provided "scholarships" for families who couldn't afford the fees.

Myrna Mora and Mary Aragon organized this summer's classes, with Marshall Chapman taking care of the boat building and races. The younger kids (ages 6-11) worked on different projects each day: boats, painting abstract designs on gessoed Masonite boards, making abstract mobiles, carving and painting plaster casts, and finally making Pollock-inspired dribbled canvases like Benjamin's above. The best of the projects were shown in the MECAC booth at Pine Valley Days. Benjamin had two pieces on display: the above Pollock canvas and an abstract painting on Masonite.

Keith loved Benjamin's Pollock painting so much that he stretched and nailed it to a wooden mount and plans to frame it. It's hanging above his desk in our kitchen at present and looks wonderful. Abstract art isn't really our thing, but we see much talent in Benjamin's piece and especially the colors he used: deep forest green, ochre, a rusty red, black, greyish tan. It's a wonderful piece, especially by a nine-year-old.

Our older three kids worked on the same project all week: a mosaic mural of our town on canvases, designed by Dianne Holly. Each young person between the ages of 12 and 17 painted their own individual canvas according to a pre-determined color scheme given them on a small card, and when all the canvases are put together, we have a mural of the main street of Pine Valley that will be presented as a gift to the Pine Valley Improvement Club (PVIC) to be hung permanently in the Pine Valley Community Clubhouse.

If you would like to see photos from this summer's program, please click on this link: MECAC "A Taste of Art" 2009. Although I'm more on the periphery of MECAC this past year as a result of my busy schedule, I am still involved in some of the projects, and I am especially proud of "A Taste of Art." It was one of our first artistic outreaches into the community, a community in which art is taught in the schools only because of the efforts of the Art Docent Program (in which I volunteered when Jonathan was at Pine Valley Elementary), funded by the PTA and not the schools as our district is the most under-funded in the state of California.

The kids up here are literally art-starved, so providing "A Taste of Art" may be a child's first introduction to holding a quality paint brush, painting on a genuine art canvas, etc. Our goal: provide a "taste" of different artistic genres in order to excite kids about art and provide a creative outlet for them as most creative opportunities have been denied these backcountry children. That's why I'm so proud of this program and of MECAC in general ... and of our Benjamin whose artistic talent is rapidly developing.