Patti Digh, Jennifer Louden, and I are offering a one-day writing workshop in Portland, OR, on N ov 6. We want you to come. Or just win a prize. Or both!

The prize part:

We want to give you a chance to win goodies . We also want  you to come to Portland and bring your writer friends so we hope you will share this contest page with everyone you know who writes — or keeps meaning to.

You do not have to attend our Portland one day once in a lifetime writing retreat to enter this contest!

You could win one of the following:

Grand Prize:
Attend the retreat free! No, we can’t also fly you and rent a limo and pay for your hotel room but we will hug you extra hard. Details on the retreat are below. Yes,  you can give your winning golden ticket to someone else if you can’t make it. Yes, if you have already signed up we can refund all your hard earned monies.

First Prize
You could win 30 minutes of writing coaching with Susan Piver, Patti Digh, and Jen Louden. 3 separate sessions! Scheduled directly with each of us. 3 writers with a bizillion book and articles and blog posts between them helping you — one-on-one.

Second Prize
Mailed to your home-sweet-home, signed copies of The Life Organizer by Jennifer Louden, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart by Susan Piver, and Four-Word Self-Help by Patti Digh.  Your very own signed DiLopi collection.

Enter here

Retreat Details

I’m so excited to have the chance to teach with Jennifer Louden and Patti Digh! During the workshop, each of us will host a panel focusing on a particular aspect of the writing process. There will also be an “ask the writer” panel with all three of us, where we hope to offer helpful answers to questions about process, publishing, creativity, and whatever might come up.

I’m excited for you because we’ve planned an awesome day of teaching, dialogue, and hanging out. I’m convinced you’ll walk away more confident in your voice and inspired to use it.

I’m excited for me because they’re each wonderful writers, teachers, and all around excellent human beings and I look forward to working with them. Plus I’ve always taught alone and I’m really looking forward to collaborating. I love collaborating. Well, sometimes.

I’m excited for all of us because we’ll get to have the joy of camaraderie—which is often in short supply in this most solitary of artistic pursuits.

To support, inspire, provoke, and amuse you, we created a one-day workshop called Walking Into Fire: Sidestepping Fear, Writing Your Heart Out, and Letting Your Story Tell Itself. I think it’s pretty unique. If I weren’t in it, I’d want to take it.

Here is the schedule:

9:45-11:00 One Taste – Meditation, Creativity, and Joy: How Doing One of These Makes You Do All Three with Susan Piver

11:15-12:30 A Million Ways to Kiss Your Writing into Being with Jen Louden

LUNCH

1:30-2:45 Put Down Your Clever and Pick up Your Ordinary with Patti Digh

3:00-4:00 Writers: Take Your Mark or This is the Part Where We Write with Susan, Jen, and Patti

We will give you an hour of writing energy and prompts and fun that will blow you open to new material and give you clear jumping off places to keep writing. Stuck on a project – no more!

4:00 -5:00  Panel discussion w/ DiLoPi in which you lob your questions and we make up answers.

5:15-7:00 Book signing and cash bar cocktail party with the authors

If you have any questions or concerns, you must email me. You can also visit this page to get more details and to sign up. Sign up! You know you want to! Don’t give me any of that “but I’m not a writer” lip.

Register here

I promise you won’t regret it.

Ethan Nichtern, founder of the awesome Interdependence Project, interviewed me for his podcast. Topics: finding the path, relationships and the lack of Buddhist teachings on them, creativity, and more.

I loved talking to Ethan. Check out his book. One City.

Here is the interview. Enjoy!

From The Worst Horse