Barbara J. Hamby

A Day at the Beach

Yesterday I spent most of the day at a writers’ workshop in Manzanita. I drove over to Wheeler on Friday afternoon, had a great dinner at a new little restaurant that just opened a block from the lodge where I was staying, and spent the evening working at my laptop computer. On the way over I drove through acres of Scotch Broom, which, unfortunately, always gives me hay fever. So, in spite of a comfortable bed and a soak in my spa tub, I didn’t sleep well because I hadn’t brought my inhaler or nose drops.

While I was lying awake between two and four a.m. I started thinking about the memoir stories I’ve been writing for a couple of years and trying to organize recently. It occurred to me that one of them has a catchy title that might sell a book. So maybe I should start with that story and then flash back to my earlier years. I’m kicking that idea around now.

The first question I asked the workshop presenter on Saturday morning was, “Does a memoir collection have to be chronological?”

She replied, “The short answer is, No.”  She gave me and the seven other female writers attending a lot of information about how other writers have handled memoirs and a list of some of their books. I guess I’ll get busy and read more memoirs and fewer mysteries for a while.

We did a number of writing exercises in between the instructor’s talks and read some of them to each other in two small groups. We had the option of commenting, or not, and most of us chose to do so. It was an illuminating day and I was tired when I left at three p.m. Driving the first ten miles I was convinced I’d never make it home, but the fresh air and the ocean view along Highway 101 revived me so, by the time I got to the Highway 26 entrance, I decided to head on back. I stopped twice, once at a rest stop to change shoes and then at a Dairy Queen for a cone I decided not to wait in a long line for.

Home again, I collapsed and rested while catching up on email. After ten hours sleep, I got up this morning and headed to the pool for my swim and exercises. I’m unpacked now, caught up on laundry and ready to get to work