Hippocamp 2018 Writer’s Conference thrilled me

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being yourself, Jane Paffenbarger Butler, teacher, writing

This year’s creative nonfiction writer’s conference, Hippocamp 2018, in Lancaster, PA was wonderful. I was particularly delighted with two contacts I made, both offering future collaboration on projects I am thrilled about. This doesn’t even cover the many other writers I met who were fun, inspiring, and helpful, the great speakers, and finding some wonderful books for sale at the book table.

One of the notable speakers was Lisa Romeo, who gave a talk titled, “Reconstruction: Transforming Essays into a Narrative Memoir Manuscript.” I’ve attended her workshops before and always, she had plenty of very useful information to share. This year’s topic, well it is precisely what I need to know right now: how to use what I have already written to recraft the story I want to tell. After the talk I spoke with her further, then ended up at a lunch table with her later in the day. We hit it off so well that she asked me to write a guest blog post for her blog, Lisa Romeo Writes (http://lisaromeo.blogspot.com/) about my job as a theme reader at the local high school. I am thrilled to tell people about the cool job I get to do as a writing coach to young people, that also supports my own interest in writing.

The second wonderful encounter I had was with Alexander Monelli who held a session titled, “Call the Doc: How Documentary Filmaking Can Help Creative Writing.” Well, I love documentaries, so sitting in a class where we discussed their structure was fascinating. It was actually a bit frustrating, though, because the instructor kept stopping the video to make a point about how the narrative was developed just as the story was most compelling! Got to watch those online to see how they end up!  (https://www.monellifilms.com/) During the course of a Q&A I realized he might be the perfect person to talk to about producing a short book trailer for my memoir. My book proposal, which goes to various editors, promises that I will put a book trailer on my website once the book is published. Yikes! What was I thinking! No problem, Alex told me, he’d be willing to work with me to put it together. Yay! This story will be continued…

A win at the Philadelphia Writers Conference!

I found a suspicious envelope in my mailbox Friday that threatened to be exceedingly convincing junk mail. It looked eerily authentic as something personal, but I’ve gotten this stuff before and I was not expecting much.

When I opened it, here’s what I found!

I attended the Philadelphia Writers Conference in June but left before the awards ceremony. Ah well! Foolish me.

Regrettfully, I missed the chance to hear my name called, hear a smattering of applause, hear anything they might have said about my writing, and missed the joy I might have felt for the past few weeks knowing I’d won a prize.

Happily though, it is here now!

 

LOST – Another win at the West Chester Story Slam!

“So even though it doesn’t sound likely, you can be lost and alone and not even know it”. That’s how I started my story Tuesday night when I stepped back up to the microphone at the West Chester Story Slam. The topic, LOST, was perfect for me, because I recounted growing up on an isolated estate just outside of NYC where it seemed no one was ever home, and I ended up arriving at adulthood unaware of just how lost I was.

As I told the crowd gathered at the Side Bar Restaurant, I love telling stories about my life because it helps me connect with people. Despite my unique circumstances, listeners relate to the depiction of isolation and insular thinking that was the hallmark of my childhood. I know because some stepped up to me afterwards to say they appreciated hearing my story. As they did I thought to myself wait, didn’t you hear me….I grew up surrounded by thousands of acres of trees. How can you relate to this?? But that’s what I’m talking about, sharing my stories has the power to connect me with people even though on the surface you might not think we had much in common.

Thanks to everyone there Tuesday night, but especially to Diane Yannick with whom I tied for first place. Because of this win we are both now slated to tell stories at the Grand Slam on November 1!

Thank you to my first beta reader!

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being yourself, Jane Butler, joy, writing

A few weeks ago I met with a woman I did not know, my first beta-reader for my manuscript of You’ll Get Over It, Jane Ellen, specifically to get her reaction. She, of course, knew all about my life and had opinions on it, and that was a shock. It was a surreal experience. Because I grew up in isolation one of my childhood dreams had been to have a witness, someone there to see it all unfold, so I wouldn’t have to live it alone. I used to tell the stories of my life to the trees, to the air, to no one, pretending there was someone there, and practicing in case someday someone would be there. Now that I have done that, told the stories to that nebulous someone out there, it feels pretty crazy.

She called the book “compelling” and “honest”. I was aiming for that! She said that the characters were living in her head even when she wasn’t reading the book. She even put in writing on my feedback questionnaire this: “It was also a powerful reminder of the importance of staying in touch with one’s feelings. From the standpoint of a writer, it was a strong example of powerful writing techniques.” When I asked what the theme was she wrote, “Finding one’s own voice, self, and sense of purpose in spite of great family challenges.”

She is a co-director at the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project whom I’d met at a writing workshop two years ago where I got her name and email address. So glad I dared to contact her recently asking if she’d be up for reading my story. I could not have asked for a better first beta-reader experience. Many thanks, Janice.

Reading at Chester County Book Company

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being yourself, writing

I always jump at the chance to read my work aloud. I just love doing that because I find it fascinating to see what people think of it. I also get to hear how it sounds out loud, for real. It’s one thing to read aloud in your dining room and quite another to do so in public with everyone looking right at you. This was a successful reading and folks came up to me afterwards to talk about the story I read, “Lots and Lots of Love and Kisses” an excerpt from my memoir.
Here are a few photos of me at the podium that night, May 18, 2015.

My published writing!

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Jane Butler, teenagers, writing

When I headed off to college I realized that my parents had left me on the doorstep of adulthood believing everything I did was wrong and useless and stupid. My life as a teenager was highlighted by the presence of several doting boyfriends that helped counteract the unintentionally destructive messages my folks were sending me. Even though the boys were kind of shady at the time they seemed great!

Recently a few stories from my teenage years were published in an anthology called Unclaimed Baggage: Voices of the Main Line.  It is presently available on Amazon.com if you’d like to learn more.

Book launch including some of my stories

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being yourself, dreams coming true, Jane Butler, writing

My writer’s group, the Main Line Writers, has put out an anthology of poetry and short stories. I’d love for you to come and support me as I take my first steps into sharing work from the memoir I am writing. My piece, Rolling in the Meadows of Our Minds, tells the story of my first date, at the age of fourteen, with a boy I have only met moments before on the telephone. Revelations follow as I discover a social world far different from the one I know on the vast isolated estate I live on miles away, where my family seem to be serfs in a feudal kingdom. How can I ever go back after that?

Come join us at our book release party at Nestology (a cool pop culture store) in the King of Prussia Mall this Sunday, 27 October, from 1 to 3 pm! 

Here’s our facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com//mainlinewritersgroup

and here are the details of the book launch:

https://www.facebook.com/events/428094900630423

UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE: Voices of the Main Line Writers

Baggage. We hide our treasures inside it when we travel. But sometimes fate makes us leave it behind. It becomes unclaimed baggage waiting for a new owner.

Inside this collection are 21 treasures from the authors of the Main Line Writers Group. Open Unclaimed Baggage and you will find stories of bravery and horror, loss and reconciliation, ghosts and demons, racial violence in Malvern and death in Amsterdam.

Hope you can come and cheer me on. If you cannot and would like a book, let me know and I’ll get you a copy ($9.00-ish) or you can get a copy for your Kindle after the launch. Wish us luck!

Jane

I started a website for myself because people said I should

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being yourself, dreams coming true, express feelings, Jane Butler, Jane Paffenbarger Butler, writing

For all of my readers out there, please high-five me now because I have taken the grand step of publishing a website for myself to help promote my upcoming memoir, You’ll Get Over It, Jane Ellen.

Yes, some day I will figure out how to get my story published and then finally share my long held secrets.

It’s a little fuzzy now just why it all started, but I did sit down very deliberately one day ten years ago to begin writing my story. Something about it felt quite right because in the end I couldn’t stop myself. It seems that in the long run putting in order all the stories of my life has been enlightening and empowering. I cannot hide from some of the themes rising out of my own words. This after taking myself to a writing workshop week after week for six years and offering up my stories for the group to hear read aloud. Folks asked pointed questions that forced me to look hard at precisely what ideas my words conveyed.

I have been waiting for the day that I would feel proud of this project, and at last I do. Writing the stories of my life has given me the precise words to use to share my most profoundly affecting experiences in a way that is more powerful than any other I have ever had.

So go look at my website and let me know what you think.
janebutler.org

Public reading of our work

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being yourself, express feelings, Jane Butler, Jane Paffenbarger Butler, New York City, writing

I once had an aunt whom I loved to see, Anne, a fascinating and cosmopolitan New York City lady. There was tragedy in her life and eventually she ran away from the family, years ago, shunning us all in favor of a more reclusive life. She lives alone in her studio apartment with a slew of animals, not having worked for decades, living off a trust her parent’s established for her when they broke off. Even though I have let her know I’d love to see her she has told me she must ‘feel better, look better and be better’ before she is up for a visit. Still I hold hope I’ll get to stop by her sometime before the end of her life.

In her honor, since she turns 79 this week, I am reading a story about seeing her in her apartment in New York when I was eight, from my memoir, You’ll Get Over It, Jane Ellen, at the Chester County Book Company on Monday, January 7 at 7:00pm. Members of the Brandywine Valley Writer’s Group will read ten minute selections from their work to all assembled. Since the bookstore is closing its doors shortly, this will be our last public reading in this venue. If you’d like to say goodbye to the shop and hear some entertaining speakers stop by to see us.

Hope to see you there.

January is full of promise

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being yourself, change, dreams coming true, end of the year, fear, friendship, goals, helping others, Hurricane Sandy, inspire, Jane Paffenbarger Butler, January, joy, relationship, teacher, writing

At last it is January! This is one of my favorite times of the year. The expectations of the holidays are over making it a time to focus on my own goals, the plans I am making that I am personally excited about. Because I actively try to shape myself the new year holds great promise.

This year I hope to give to others more regularly. And I say this selfishly because I know from experience that it feels good to get my hands dirty helping others. I am anxious to spend the day next week assisting folks whose homes were flooded by Hurricane Sandy, down in Atlantic City, with a group of like-minded people. It’s a chance to surround myself with others who feel strongly about putting in effort towards the improvement of us all. Being around those kinds of folks, and working together as a team, I know will send me home tired and satisfied, temporarily, that I have contributed. It is easier to accept help from others when I know I have offered my abilities already. When my sister and mother and father were dying, and my home had flooded at the same time, I had to accept the help of so many people. I owe back to the world at large many times over for this, and tearing out moldy drywall and flooring for someone else is a way to do it. This is one of the things I am looking forward to, genuinely, this year.

This year I hope to figure out how to share the story I have written about my childhood, You’ll Get Over It, Jane Ellen, and how I learned to create a new life to live today instead of continuing with the one I started out with. Recognizing that you can change who you are and how you live your life has been a profound revelation for me, and I am committing time daily to finding ways to share that idea.

This year I hope to build new friendships in the writing community locally and to participate in those more, being committed to following my strong inclination to write and be heard. I hope to be strong and fearless in that even though it is tricky taking steps down a lonely path, following my intuition just because I trust it.

So January is full of excitement for me because these are things I care about. There is enough new here to fill my time along with my husband and children, teaching introductory piano students, teaching high school students to write papers, running a beach property and speaking out about ideas I care about. January is just the start of all these days I can’t wait to live.