The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing

  • The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing

    The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing

    The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing is a collection of a wide variety of stories and includes an extensive resource section with information on how to write about difficult topics without add trauma.

    Shavasana by Karen Handyside Ely

    (excerpt)

    I lie flat on my back. Dewy in yoga sweat. Flushed and giddy after strenuous twisting and turning and stretching my limits. Shavasana, corpse pose, is the final pose of my yoga class. I close my eyes, relax my muscles, and travel inward. For most practitioners, it’s the cool sip of water at the finish line, a time for deep restoration; but not for me. Since my father died, Shavasana has become something else.

    Maybe it’s the music that Dr. Helaine, our yoga therapist, plays as we settle in, supine, with our eyes closed. It is nebulous and transcendent, gloriously mysterious, with no real rhythm. The frequency resonates within me, connecting me to the universe. It wraps around me like a velvet, indigo blanket studded with diamonds. It carries me up and away, I am swimming in stars, filled with wonder. I am enveloped in lines of the galaxy’s cold code, written in the luminous night sky.

    And I am not me. I am my dad, floating in space, being granted his greatest heart’s desire (second only to his wish to share eternity with my mom). I am a piece of the sky. I am free without falling; one with the cosmos; at peace and entwined with all that is. An indescribable contentment fills every cell of my weightless body. I have come home.

    In yoga class, our practice comes to a tender end. I am still on my back, as tears squeeze from the corners my eyes. They leave a cold code of their own, sliding down the edges of my face and pooling in my ears. How can this place inside me be both painful and so very comforting? I am left to wonder in gratitude, and awash in sorrow. My Shavasana is such a bittersweet release. It is not a respite for me, but a necessary facet for my grieving process; at least for now. It leaves me aching for more understanding and acceptance. But it also lights the path for me, offering a way to move forward with grace. It shows me the way home. Namaste.

    The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing is available for $15 at Amazon and as an e-reader.

    admin

  • Stressed? Sensory Awareness might be the answer for healing.

    Today’s Guest Blogger Jean Grant Sutton writes about why we are stressed.

     The Great ‘Post Covid’ Unwinding It has become so very clear to me of the havoc that has been wreaked on our world from the Covid Pandemic. Of course, for most of us the disruption to our financial stability is still having ripple effects. For those in small business or even those that lost jobs or needed to let their job go because of the lockdown may still be struggling to get back above water. 

    Where I am experiencing the most clarity of devastation is in our human nervous system.

    With the knowledge of physiology and how we are wired in our brainstem for survival, I personally feel and witness in others the huge contraction that was triggered by this threatening virus.

    Huge repercussions to many connected systems take place when the stress response is activated as it has been.

    This is called Stress Response Hyperstimulation.
    We know there was a huge stress response activation globally, we were put on lockdown, isolated and masking for most of 2 years.(Some people are still for their various reasons)

    What happens when the stress response is activated and hyper-stimulated is well documented in our health sciences. If affects all systems, organs, glands in various ways that can lead to so very many symptoms of dis-ease. 

    Heart palpitations, Chest pain, Dizziness, Lightheadedness, Muscle weakness, Numbness, Tingling, Weak limbs, Asthma, Anxiety, Chronic pain, Back pain, Chronic fatigue, Insomnia . . .  the list goes on. 

    I bring this to your attention to help support your understanding of the need to be sure to do whatever is necessary to help unwind the layers of stress in order to come back to homeostasis and equilibrium in your body/mind systems. 

    Doing a Daily Deep Relaxation like ‘savasana‘  the resting pose has shown to relax the central nervous system and return it to healthy ‘rest and digest’ functioning.  Consider creating a new habit for yourself. Every day take 7-10 minutes to lie down on floor and let the sensory awareness of your body prevail. The results may surprise you in how you feel. 

    Another resource for calming the nervous system: Sankalpa.

    “Sankalpa is your heartfelt mission, said in a short phrase or sentence, clearly and concisely expressed, using a present tense “I” statement. It is said to ourselves in the present tense because it is in the now, as it is really only now all the time. This sustains your inner felt sense of purpose, meaning, and value.”

    Jean Grant-Sutton’s approach to Integrative Yoga Therapy, is based on a vision of health as a unity of body, mind and spirit. She focuses on bringing balance, strength, flexibility and awareness to the body and mind. To raise awareness of the primary intention of yoga: awakening of Spirit–our essential nature.

    Jean’s yoga classes are both in person (Petaluma, CA) and online.

    Marlene C

    , , ,

  • Healing Starts When You . . .

    “Healing starts when you write about what happened and how you felt about it then, and how you feel about it now.

    And in order for our writing to be a healing experience, we need to honor our pain, loss and grief.” — “Opening Up By Writing It Down” by James Pennebaker

    “The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing” has an expansive section on how to write about difficult subjects without adding trauma.

    Marlene C

    , ,

  • Healing. Prompt #565

    Write about a time you experienced a healing—physically, spiritually, or emotionally.

    Or, if you are in the process of pursuing healing . . . write about what you are doing.

    Or, what healing methods do you want to pursue?

    Let me count the ways . . .

    Aromatherapy, autogenic relaxation, art, biofeedback, deep breathing, exercise, Feldenkrais, guided imagery, hydrotherapy massage, meditation, music, prayer, progressive muscle relaxation, qi gong, tai chi, tapping, visualization, yoga.

    There are a number of resources listed in The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing, especially ideas about how to write about difficult events without adding trauma. Available at Amazon, print ($15) and ebook ($3.49).

    Marlene C

  • Guest Blogger Susan Hagen: Birthdays, cupcakes, and healing through writing

    Note from Marlene: Guest Blogger Susan Hagen encourages us to have fun. And shows us how we can heal through writing . . . one of my strong beliefs, also.

    I hope you enjoy Susan’s post:

    To celebrate our 62nd birthdays, my best friend and I recently spent the weekend in Disneyland. Despite creaky knees and stiff backs, we were ready to party like … well, like eight-year-olds.

    We had great fun on the (not-too-wild) rides and enjoyed being playful and somewhat silly. But in that space of awareness about our childhoods, what arose in both of us were memories of disappointing birthdays of the past.

    It’s never too late to have that birthday cupcake.

    For me, it was 1963, the year I turned eight. My mother was supposed to bring chocolate cupcakes to my third-grade class at the end of the school day.

    But a few days before my birthday, President John F. Kennedy was shot. Guess what day his funeral was? That’s right. My birthday. No school, no cupcakes, no party. I was too young to understand why everything shut down that day. All I knew was that my birthday was ruined, and I was devastated.

    Disneyland was my cupcake.

    So at age 62, I made Disneyland my cupcake. I screamed like an eight-year-old on the roller coaster. I ate the ears off more than one Mickey Mouse confection. I even climbed aboard a few kiddie rides with my BFF, who found a way to heal her own birthday traumas, too.

    When the weekend was over, we declared it all complete. We’d both had the best birthday EVER in the Happiest Place on Earth.

    You can heal that stuff through writing, too.

    Sometimes it takes putting your story down on paper to see how you can heal things from the past. Writing helps us bring ourselves current. We write a story about some part of our lives, and then we see how we’ve grown—not only since that time, but maybe even because of it. Writing helps us illuminate the dark places. It helps us bloom into greater self-awareness and self-acceptance. And it helps us make sense of our lives: how we got to here from there.

    So go ahead. Have that birthday cupcake, even if it is 54 years old! 

    Susan Hagen’s writing career began in the 1970s as a newspaper reporter in Northern California. She later served as editor of employee publications. She has since worked as a freelance writer for more than 100 corporations and nonprofit agencies across the country.

    In 1994, Susan became a firefighter and emergency medical technician in rural Sonoma County, California, where half the members of her firehouse were women. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, she and her colleagues were acutely aware of the absence of women in media portrayals of rescue workers at Ground Zero.

    Susan combined her knowledge of the fire service with her experience as a writer to conceive of the idea for the book, Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion, with co-author, Mary Carouba.  She and Mary traveled to New York City to find and interview female first responders for their award-winning book, which was published by Penguin Putnam in 2002.

    Since the publication of Women at Ground Zero, Susan has seen firsthand the power of sharing one’s story. Many of the women featured in her book believe that telling their stories was the first step in healing from the tragedy of 9/11. Susan draws on these experiences, along with those from her own life-changing journey, to help others give voice to the stories of their lives.

    Note from Marlene: Women at Ground Zero is one of my favorite books. A fascinating story of remarkable courage . . . the courage that took Hagen and Carouba from their comfortable home in Northern California to New York City to learn more about the first responders for the attack on New York City. They interviewed 30 women whose stories are told in detail in this riveting book that reads like a novel.

    Marlene C

    , ,

  • The Healing Power of Images Prompt #139

    Today’s prompt is inspired from Poetic Medicine by John Fox, “The Healing Power of Images.”

    Morning glory“A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books” — Walt Whitman

    “Images are drawn from sensory experience and help us to feel what the writer or speaker is communicating. Whitman is more satisfied by the morning glory because it is real and alive, it communicates something to him about reality that is particular, clean and unmistakable. Images offer us direct experience. They can show themselves to us through any of the senses.”

    Think about the house you grew up in, or where you spent most of your childhood. Or, if you want to write from your fictional character’s point of view. . . picture a place where the protagonist spends a lot of  time.

    Petaluma MuseumNow, think about routes you routinely took . . . to school. . . or the library. . . a store . . . or playground

    Travel back in time, or to your imaginary place, and see the sights and scenery. If you are working on fiction. . . use this prompt to visualize your story’s setting.

    Owl.3Zoom out like an owl and observe the activity below. Perch on a rooftop or a pole or a high wire.

    Let’s have the owl observe something on your daily route, or your character’s. A place that evokes a strong memory for you.

    Take a moment and picture this place. . . an intersection, in front of a store, a front yard, a back yard, an untamed place or a place filled with human or animal activity . . . a familiar place, either from real life, or make it real with your imagination.

    Zoom down, get closer to the action. Perch where you can clearly see details of the place you have selected.

    Prompt: Describe as precisely as you can, the images and direct sensations you see, hear, feel, intuit, smell.

    Use sensory detail: Smell, sound, taste, touch, visual: a vendor’s food cart, sewer sour milk smell, wind chimes, brakes screeching, popcorn, hot dogs, brittle wood on telephone pole, dirt, yard ornament, cigarette butts.

    Marlene C

    , , ,

  • The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections

    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections

    While I was finishing up with the first book in The Write Spot Series, The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries, the idea of a book with writing in it from a mother and her adult children came to me. It hung around, like a toddler at my feet and wouldn’t let go. As I gathered stories to include in this book, I realized how connected we are.

    The photo on the cover is my mother when she was fourteen, in 1945, and letters she wrote to her mother.

    Every piece of writing in Connections comes with a writing prompt, hopefully to inspire you to write your stories.

    Speaking of writing prompts, there are over 400 prompts on my blog, The Write Spot.

    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections illustrates how story-telling can be used as a technique to ignite imagination and inspire writing. The fiction, poetry, and personal stories in Connections show how we relate through stories. It’s unique for being both entertaining and featuring techniques to ignite the imagination for inspirational writing. Connections includes an extensive resources section for writers.

    Dime Sightings by Pamela Swanson

    (excerpt)

    Although my mother, Ione, could not afford them, she loved diamonds. Eventually she did save up enough money to buy herself a diamond ring. She was so proud of that ring. One year, early in November, Ione died without warning at the age of 54. Suddenly I was traveling the 2,100 miles from California where I lived to the small town in Minnesota where she had died. Completely unprepared, I found myself faced with finalizing my mother’s existence on this earth.
    Grand Marais, a small fishing village located on Lake Superior, is where I was born. It is where my Mom grew up, met my dad, and was married. My roots are firmly planted there so when I arrived it was to the open arms of my aunts and uncles. Soon after, family members from other distances began to arrive. I was cocooned in love and support.

    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections is available for $15 at Amazon and Book Passage (Corte Madera), and at Amazon and as an ereader.

    admin

  • Write to Heal

    Write to Heal

    When we experience an emotional event, we tend to replay it in our minds. Sometimes we want uncomfortable situations to disappear, so we try to ignore and suppress what happened.

    But we don’t forget.

    One way to manage intense feelings is to write about them.

    “When a writer keeps things inside, it becomes a ball of tangled yarn. As each story is told, the ball becomes untangled. Writing from memory can help us to let go of those stories we tell over and over again. We may not even need to tell them again [after writing about them].”

    —Patricia Hampl, I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourn in the Land of Memory

    When we dream or have a nightmare, we react as if it’s true . . . we perspire, our heart beats faster, our breathing becomes shallow. The same physical response can be felt when writing about a troubling incident.

    We can’t change what happened, but we can change how we perceive it.

    With writing, we can shift our perspective so the grief and hurt is manageable. We can then view what happened in a new light.

    Tell your story so you can move on.

    “The therapeutic process of writing goes something like this: We receive a shock or a blow or experience a trauma in our lives. In exploring it, examining it, and putting it into words, we stop seeing it as a random, unexplained event. We begin to understand the order behind appearances.”

    — Louise DeSalvo,  Writing as a Way of Healing


    Sometimes it helps to write about something in order to understand it.

    Learning to write about your past without it overwhelming you can be empowering.

    Contents

    • The Freewrite Method of Writing
    • Guidelines
    • Have A Plan
    • Toolbox
    • Get Ready to Write
    • Visualization and Writing Prompt
    • Transition After Writing

    The Freewrite Method of Writing

    You can use a freewrite to explore your reaction to an unpleasant encounter.

    A freewrite is writing spontaneously with no concerns about the outcome. Just putting down word after word, with no worries about spelling, punctuation, or how it will sound.

    It’s writing without “thinking.”

    Thinking is bringing the editor in and this isn’t the time for editing nor censoring. With a freewrite, it’s the process, not the product.

    One way to start a freewrite is to use a prompt: A word, a phrase, a line from a book, or a line from poetry. You can also use a visual item as a prompt.

    The challenge of freewrites is getting out of the way of yourself.

    The joy of freewrites is making discoveries.

    Freewrites are like very rough first drafts. It doesn’t matter what the writing is like . . . it can be fragments, or unrefined ideas, or mental doodling set in writing.

    Let go of your worries and let your writing flow with no judging.

    During a freewrite, immerse yourself in your writing. Choose a place and a time where you won’t be interrupted.

    When you are writing in this free style, you are not creating something for an audience. You are giving yourself the gift of writing for yourself.

    As you write, you might notice uneasiness, especially if you are recalling an unpleasant experience.

    When you are feeling uncomfortable, you can either stop writing and come back to it later. Or, work through it.

    Guidelines

    When using a writing prompt, feel free to write whatever you want. You never have to stay with the prompt.

    Follow your mind and write wherever it takes you.

    Keep writing, don’t cross out, don’t erase . . . keep your pen moving.

    If you get stuck, write: “What I really want to say.” And go from there.

    If you know you are going to write about a difficult subject, have a plan before you start writing.

    Have A Plan

    The key to writing about troubling events is to manage emotions that emerge while writing.

    Create a plan to take care of yourself while writing about challenging subjects.

    Prepare a healthy snack before you begin to write.

    Have a glass of water nearby.

    If the writing brings up an emotional response, choose an item from your toolbox to relax your mind and relieve tension.

    Toolbox

    • Repeat a calming word or phrase
    • Breathe slowly and deeply.
    • Look away from your writing.
    • Focus on a favorite item or a special memento
    • Walk around.
    • Look out a window.
    • Step outside.
    • Take a break for food, a refreshing cool drink, or a soothing hot drink.
    • Wash your hands with a special scented soap.

    Notice where there is tension in your body. Put your hand there or mentally touch that place. Breathe into that tight spot. Write from that place.

    “If we write about our pain, we heal gradually, instead of feeling powerless and confused, and we move to a position of wisdom and power.” — Louise DeSalvo, Writing as a Way of Healing

    Get Ready to Write

    • Take a big, deep breath in. Hold for a few seconds. Exhale.
    • Stretch arms overhead and then stretch out to the sides. Let your arms drift into a relaxed position.
    • Roll your shoulders around. And then around the opposite direction.
    • Wiggle your toes. Rotate your ankles in circles
    • Relax your legs. Let go of any tension in your legs
    • Let your chair take the weight of your thighs.
    • Relax your stomach
    • Sit comfortably in your chair, feeling firmly supported
    • Rest your hands on top of your thighs, or on the table.
    • Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, release any tension that might be lingering.
    • Let go of your worries. Let go of your fears.
    • Have a writing prompt ready or use the prompt below.

    Set a timer for 15-20 minutes.

    Visualization and Writing Prompt

    Go back in time to when you were 4 or 5 or 6 years old. See yourself at this age. Perhaps you can see a photo of yourself at this young age.

    Travel up in time, starting with a memory of when you were 4 or 5 or 6.

    Pause when you feel an energetic or physical response. You might feel a flutter in your stomach. Or a tightening in your jaw. You might feel a constricted throat.

    You can put your hand on the place on your body where you feel energy or a physical response. If you can’t put your hand there, put your thoughts there.

    Take a deep breath in. Hold for a moment. Let your breath out.

    See yourself when you were twelve.

    Take another deep breath in. Release. Let go.

    See yourself at 16 or 18.

    Remember when you were a young adult . . . early twenties . . . mid-twenties.

    Scroll through your memories.

    Choose a memory that produced a strong physical reaction. The reaction could be joy, pain, pleasure, or discomfort.

    Think about what you were like before this incident occurred.

    Then the incident happened and you weren’t the same after

    Drill down to the precise moment the episode happened. Look closely, like looking through a microscope.

    See the details of where you were and who was there.

    What happened?

    Write about it now . . . Freely . . . with no concern about the outcome.

    Transition After Writing

    Shake out your hands.

    Take a deep breath in. Hold for a moment. Release your breath.

    Stretch.

    Take a few minutes to transition from writing to being back in the room.

    Move around.

    Be in the here and now.

    You are free to keep writing on the same subject until you feel finished with the topic.

    I have been writing about my pivotal event that happened in 1963 for sixteen years. In 2020 I felt closure as I wrote and revised my story one last time, which you can read in The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing.

    Keep writing. It’s healthy, free, and freeing!




    Life is sometimes a maze, sometimes a jigsaw puzzle. While writing you can explore paths to navigate the maze and find the pieces that fit together to form a balanced whole. — Marlene Cullen

    • Marlene Cullen is passionate about encouraging writers. Her series of books, The Write Spot anthologies, feature stories that entertain as well as offer inspiration for writers.
    • Marlene has been facilitating writing workshops since 2002. Participants often experience transformational changes in her “Healing Through Writing” workshops.
    • Marlene hosts The Write Spot Blog, a treasure chest of inspirational gems for writers.
    • Her awarding winning short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers, including Tiny Lights, Building Bridges, More Bridges, Redwood Writers anthologies, and The Write Spot anthologies.

    admin

  • Books

    Books

    The Write Spot books are a series of anthologies edited by Marlene Cullen. These books are collections of entertaining short stories, poems, and vignettes. Each Write Spot book has writing prompts and a resource section with tips to inspire your writing.

    The Write Spot Books

    • The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year chronicles emotions and experiences during a tumultuous year.
    • The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing illustrates how to write about difficult topics without adding trauma.
    • The Write Spot: Possibilities is a mixture of playful, experimental, and insightful stories with prompts, resources, and words of encouragement for writers.
    • The Write Spot: Memories, like all the Write Spot books, includes writing prompts at the end of each story to encourage writing.
    • The Write Spot: Reflections is a treasure chest of short stories, vignettes, and poems that inspire readers to become writers.
    • The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections is a collection of writing from mothers and their adult children, using story-telling as a technique to ignite imagination and to inspire writing.
    • The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries is a compendium of essays and short fiction to inspire transformative writing. Stuck on what to say in your memoir? Can’t think of the right twist for your novel? Tired of staring at blank page without any ideas? Marlene Cullen has inspired hundreds through her workshops and rules-free process. Discoveries is a fascinating selection of tales that speak to the soul with evocative prompts to spark ideas to tell your stories.

    Available from your local bookseller. Print books and e-reader available from Amazon.


    What readers say about The Write Spot Books:

    The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year
    Many anthologies are special, but one that springs out of a global pandemic holds its own kind of relevance. —Karen Ely


    The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing
    I have been savoring Writing as a Path to Healing. Reading it is like a warm conversation with an old friend, a chance to slow down and breathe: self-care at its best! Thanks for showing and telling about the healing power of writing! I’ll be holding onto my copy for a long time! —Marjorie Helm, LCSW


    The Write Spot: Possibilities
    These words will touch your heart and might even move your pen. — Brenda Bellinger


    The Write Spot: Memories
    I love this book and the way it encourages, instructs, and gives writers practical ideas to write. The stories are captivating and written from the heart. Each writer ends with an honest description of their Inner Critic and how they tame it. I read this book twice because of the honest and sometimes humorous stories. — Janet P.


    The Write Spot: Reflections
    Once I started reading, I didn’t stop until I’d read it all. Reflections is a delight, just as were the first two Write Spot anthologies, so treat yourself. You might even find a bit of enlightenment along the way. — Janet S.


    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections
    An absolutely wonderful collection of essays that touches the spirit with joy. This is a well-organized and fascinating book. I like how each entry includes an author bio and a picture of the author’s younger self, along with a letter to the author’s younger self. These images and letters add another layer and much interest to the book. —Judge, 25th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards


    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries
    Discoveries shows the how to’s and the rich results that can come from the free write format: relaxing into the richness of memory and imagination, then planting an idea in the form of a prompt— a word, a poem an object—to trigger a story idea. A beginner writer who needs guidance and encouragement, or an experienced writer who is stumped for ideas, can both benefit from a “Jumpstart.” — Kathy M.Making The Most Of Your Writing ExperienceRelax into your chair. Escort your inner critic out the door.
    You are free to write whatever is on your mind.
    Be open to whatever comes up . . . write from an instinctual level.
    Your writing doesn’t have to make sense. Don’t worry about how it will sound.
    Keep your pen moving.
    See your story and tell it.
    If you run out of ideas, you can respond to:

    I remember. . .
    I don’t remember. . .
    What I really want to say . . .

    “Writing isn’t about the destination
    – writing is the journey that transforms the soul and gives meaning to all else.”

    — Sue Grafton

    admin

  • Forum

    Forum

    We write to tell a story or a tall tale, to narrate our personal stories, to explore our past and write towards an epiphany, to figure out what happened, or for personal enrichment.

    How to go from ideas to writing our stories?

    Writers Forum features a variety of teachers, workshop leaders, and experts in the writing arena.

    We welcome beginning and experienced writers.

    Registration is not required to attend Writers Forum on Zoom.

    Simply click on the Zoom URL Link at 5:45 pm on the date of the event. Zoom in early to make sure technology is working. We start promptly at 6 pm.

    Next Forum is:
    Wednesday, February 18, 2026

    Wednesday, February 18, 2026

    Truth Telling in Memoir

    Presenter: Samantha Rose

    6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Pacific Time

    In memoir writing, we set the intention to tell a truthful story about our own lives but often, truths that were buried or unknown, come through in the writing. This is the sneaky surprise of writing—you begin by telling one story, and the writing tends to lead you in other directions. When this happens, especially in memoir writing, you must decide: am I going to give these new “truths” space? Give them a voice? Or will I edit them, or delete them all together?

    More about this event


    In the spirit of truth-telling, I will discuss the truths that emerged for me while writing Giving Up the Ghost and how they shifted the story I was telling—not only on the page, but also the story I’d been telling myself for much of my life.


    More broadly, we’ll discuss how to navigate the truth when writing family members and other loved ones into our stories who may have a different memory or experience of the same event. How do we determine whose truth is “right”?


    And finally, we’ll discuss the healing and transformative power of writing about the hardest, scariest and most deeply buried things, and how channeling these stories onto the page can set us free.


     If time allows, we’ll write and reflect on the following:

    What small or big truth mattered most to you in your writing? What was important to get “right”?

    Was there a memory or a piece of the story that shifted for you during the writing process and became a new truth?


    How has writing about something difficult helped to change your perspective about an event? Release buried hurts? Heal a relationship with someone else, with yourself?

    Samantha Rose is an Emmy award-winning television producer and a New York Times, USA Today internationally bestselling ghostwriter of nearly twenty titles, some that have been selected as Reese’s Book Club and Target Bookmarked Picks.

    Her writing has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Oprah and Harper’s Bazaar. 

    She is the principal of Yellow Sky Media, a boutique editorial agency in Petaluma, California, where she lives with her son.

    Her new book, “Giving Up the Ghost” was awarded Best Memoir at the 2025 San Francisco Book Festival.

    “Giving Up the Ghost” is her first title written under her own name. 

    Thursday, February 26, 2026

    Making it to “The End”—Trusting Your Writing Journey

    Presenter: Debra Koehler

    6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Pacific Time

    Debra Koehler will share her writing journey, from believing she couldn’t possibly be imaginative enough to write fiction, to producing a four-book fantasy series, the first of which she self-published August, 2025.

    She will share tips on how to keep going with your writing project even when you get so fed up you want to throw it away. Which she did. Multiple times. Only to pull it out of the recycling bin, smooth out the pages, and keep going.

    More about this event

     Debra will also cover how using intuition to trust her story, as well as her writing process, helped her move beyond the setbacks and blocks that can be part of any writer’s journey. 

    Inspired by her elementary school English teacher, who read Edgar Allen Poe to a batch of fourth-graders, Debra Koehler penned her first story at the age of nine riddled with words like “eerie” and “utterly dreadful.” (Fan fiction, anyone?) Horror quickly went by the wayside, but her love of writing remained. Today she writes cozy/epic fantasy with humor and a touch of romance.

    Debra lives in Northern California with her husband, daughter, and three rescue cats, one of whom bangs on her bedroom door at five every morning demanding to be fed. The early start gives her plenty of time for taking long walks, writing, knitting, reading, more reading, and . . . oh yeah . . . reading.

    Her debut novel, Amoran: A Cozy Contemporary Portal Fantasy with Humor and a Touch of Romance, is available where paperbacks and ebooks are sold.

    Midwest Review of Amoran:

    “Original, deftly crafted, and a fun read cover to cover with a genuine flair for the kind of imaginative and humor laced storytelling that will appeal to fans of fantasy, romance, and unllikely heroines drafted to save the universe.”

    A review on Goodreads:

    “Utterly charming! What a delight to find an adventure (with a bit of mystery, magic, and the risk of peril) which is also bright with curiosity and strong relationship ties. Amoran is a fascinating world I can’t wait to revisit! I’m dying to know what happens with the major thread left to be resolved in a future book.” 

    Thursday March 26, 2026

    Presenters: Samantha Rose and Debra Koehler

    6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Pacific Time

    Samantha Rose and Debra Koehler will share the business side of their writing journeys, from researching to publishing to promotion.

    It will be fun to hear different strategies that led to the goal of publication.

    More about this event


    Samantha Rose is an Emmy award-winning television producer and a New York Times, USA Today internationally bestselling ghostwriter of nearly twenty titles, some that have been selected as Reese’s Book Club and Target Bookmarked Picks.


    Her writing has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Oprah and Harper’s Bazaar. 


    She is the principal of Yellow Sky Media, a boutique editorial agency in Petaluma, California, where she lives with her son.


    Her new book, “Giving Up the Ghost” was awarded Best Memoir at the 2025 San Francisco Book Festival.


    “Giving Up the Ghost” is her first title written under her own name. 


    Debra Koehler lives in Northern California with her husband, daughter, and three rescue cats, one of whom bangs on her bedroom door at five every morning demanding to be fed. The early start gives her plenty of time for taking long walks, writing, knitting, reading, more reading, and . . . oh yeah . . . reading.


    Her debut novel, Amoran: A Cozy Contemporary Portal Fantasy with Humor and a Touch of Romance, is available where paperbacks and ebooks are sold.

    Midwest Review of Amoran:

    “Original, deftly crafted, and a fun read cover to cover with a genuine flair for the kind of imaginative and humor laced storytelling that will appeal to fans of fantasy, romance, and unllikely heroines drafted to save the universe.”

    Writers Forum Resource Suggestions

    The Write Spot, a seven-book series features writing that entertains as well as offering inspiration for writers.

    All of the stories, vignettes, and poems in The Write Spot books include writing prompts. These books are like portable writing groups.

    The Write Spot books are available from your local bookseller and as both print and ereaders from Amazon.

    Sign up

    admin