Your family stories could be part of our next anthology
Marilyn Norry and Michelle Hohn
(Creator My Mother’s Story) (Registered Therapeutic Counsellor)
co-editors of My Mother’s Story: Gone Too Soon
issue a challenge:
WRITE YOUR STORIES
For our next anthology
GENERATIONS
20 paired stories of 20 families
Open to women and men
including those who have already written their mother’s story
and those needing a push to write it
This is your assignment. Your deadline is September 30, 2024.
See Generations workshops for more information.


Why would I want to do this?
Are you fascinated by your family tree and/or a genealogy buff?
Are you curious about how to learn more about the extraordinary details of ordinary people’s lives?
Is becoming a published author on your bucket list?
If your answer is YES to any of these questions… this project might be for you!
We have also discovered you can make sense of the world and your place in it by writing down the stories living in your head.
Your memories are not common; they are not made up by AI or Hollywood writers. They are unique and only exist because you were there. Value your role as witness by recording what you know.
Make peace with who they were by writing your family into history. Your history.
And it will be fun.
WORKSHOPS WORKSHOPS WORKSHOPS WORKSHOPS
Write your first draft in a 6+ workshop
Throughout spring and summer 2024, Marilyn and Michelle will hold their now infamous 6+ one day workshops both live and online
What’s a 6+ workshop?
You already have enough stories in your head to write a great first draft telling the story of your mother’s life (or your grandmother, grandfather etc). The challenge has always been
· First: knowing that you know enough to start and sitting down
· Second: not getting lost in all the memories and emotions
· Third: sticking with the story until the very end
Enter the 6+ workshop!
In one 6 hour day you will plough through all that resistance, do some memory inducing exercises, get your courage up and your fear to one side and WRITE YOUR FIRST DRAFT. Then you’ll know what you don’t know, be ready to check
facts, edit anecdotes, debate what you’ve said in the scary bits, clarify, clarify, clarify.
A few weeks after that full day (TBD by each workshop), we will meet again for 2 hours to hear what people have written, get feedback, and celebrate our good stories well told. That’s the +!
Reading your story to others and hearing their stories is the best part of this workshop. You may think this project is all about you and your mother but it’s in the hearing and sharing of stories that we experience how amazing our stories really are and how valuable they are to the human race. Women all over the world have given birth to babies and there’s a story every time. Wow!
If you want your stories
to be considered for the GENERATIONS book, you have to take a workshop.
We will be giving special instructions on intergenerational influences – trauma, genetics, personalities, fame and fortune. We will also discuss how to split the facts of a family story into two 2000 stories.
Live workshops are planned for Vancouver and Vancouver Island. I’ll be in Ontario in June – let me know if you’re interested in a LIVE workshop.
We will consider other locations if you get some people together and we can
get there!
Marilyn’s Workshop Dates (so far):
In-Person (Vancouver): Saturday April 6, (London ON): middle of June
Virtual: TBD based on levels of interest
Contact me today to sign-up! mymothersstory@gmail.com
Michelle’s Workshop Dates:
In Person (Vancouver Island/Nanoose Bay): April 27/May 25, 2024
Virtual: TBD based on levels of interest
Contact Michelle today to sign up: michelle@akashiccounselling.com
Workshop
Fee = $260 + GST