STORY CIRCLE NETWORK

AUSTIN E-LETTER

Vol. 1 Number 12
December 2000

• Holiday Party

If you are a Story Circle Network member, please bring your friends and join us at our holiday party on Sunday, Dec. 10th, 2-4:30, at the LCRA Colorado Room, 3700 Lake Austin Blvd.  We will be serving refreshments, before and after our special program: Susie Kelly Flatau, author of From My Mother's Hands, will speak on "Holiday Moments and Memories". She will be available to sign copies of both of her books. In addition, you will be able to buy Susan Wittig Albert's latest China Bayles mystery, Mistletoe Man, plus some of her other titles, and get them signed by the author for holiday presents. Profits will go to benefit Story Circle. See http://www.storycircle.org/party.html for more details.
(NOTE: Mary Lee Harris in Round Rock would like to share a ride with other Round Rock women going to the party; if you are interested, please call her at 248-9284.)
 
• Time to Renew Our Commitment

If you're a Story Circle member, it's time to renew your your commitment to your story, to yourself, and to Story Circle. Look for the renewal form in your November Story Circle Journal. We rely on your membership support to keep Story Circle alive and growing (we now have 315 members!), so please don't put it off!  (You can also renew -and pay for- your membership online. Go to www.storycircle.org and click on "Join SCN".)
 
• Special Issue of the Story Circle Journal

We will be publishing a special issue of the Story Circle Journal in January. Free to renewing members, it will contain stories by women around the country. If you have written a story that you would like to have considered for publication in this issue of the Journal, please email it to Judy Fettman at judyfet375@gmail.com, or mail it to her at 1805 Chaparral Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.
 
• Austin-area Story Circle Network members:

State Theater Company invites you to attend the 2001 season productions at the State!  Some of you may have attended "Girls' Night Out" events last season, including "Women Who Steal," "Nunsense," and "The Beauty Queen of Leenane."  The State Theater Company is grateful to all of you who made the 2000 season such a success and look forward to seeing each of you this year. Contact Lara Toner (ltoner@austintheatrealliance.org) for more information.
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• "Stories from the Heart":  National Story Circle Network Conference 2002, February 8-10, Austin, Texas

We've got a web page for the national conference now:  http://www.storycircle.org/Conference. We will update it at least once a month with the latest conference details and status. Questions/comments?  Contact Judith Helburn @ thehelburns@sbcglobal.net.
 
• Story Circle Calendar

Having a hard time keeping up with all of our activities? We've got a calendar of all local events on our website:  http://www.storycircle.org/calendar.html
 
• Austin Chapter Officer Nominations

We'll be electing Chapter officers for 2001 in early January--time and place of the meeting to be announced. We are looking for women to nominate to be officers in 2001, so if you know someone who would like to help plan Story Circle activities for the coming year, please contact Catherine Cogburn (ccogburn1@austin.rr.com). The chapter now has 100 members!
 
• Internet Chapter

The Internet chapter now has 84 members! IC officers recently contacted each and every IC member to encourage her to become active in ecircles, both writing and reading, as well as to solicit feedback about other IC activities currently in place. We are now in the process of electing Chapter officers for 2001. Nominations are currently being accepted. Our online voting will take place during the week of December 11th; we will hold a Chapter meeting in the chat room on 12/11 to vote and discuss other chapter business.

Coming in January: Susan Albert will once again teach her "Writing from Life" writing workshop online. Come and join her, and start writing YOUR life story! (Note: this workshop is available to Internet Chapter members only. More details can be found here: http://www.storycircle.org/ICworkshops.shtml).

We'd love to have you join our internet chapter! If you're not already a member but are interested in joining the Network, check out the Story Circle web site (www.storycircle.org). To learn more about the Internet Chapter (or to join!), click on "Internet Chapter".
 

• OWL Project

If you are interested in learning more about the program and how to set up workshops in your area, please contact us at 512/454-9833, or visit our website, www.owlcircle.com, for more detailed information about our project.  To receive a newsletter containing stories from the workshops, please fill out our online form, or call 512/454-9833, or email us at owlcircle@owlcircle.com.

Part-time position available: Director of Older Women's Legacy Circle Program. Organize workshops in the Austin area through new and established contacts, market and promote the workshops to area women, train facilitators, and administer the program. Compensation dependent upon income generated from the program. Experience in teaching/training, administration, and marketing desired, and involvement in the senior community a plus. Contact: Catherine Cogburn, 512/454-9833 or owlcircle@owlcircle.com.
 

• Journal Back Issues Available

The Story Circle Journal is a unique, exciting publication that documents women's efforts to
tell their personal stories. If you're collecting the Journal, now is the time to make sure your set is complete! To purchase the copies you're missing, go to our website and click on "Buy Story Circle Journals".  You may choose to buy on-line through PayPals, or you can print out the page and send it to us with your check. Either way, this is an important opportunity to catch up on the issues you've missed.
 
• Austin Chapter Reading Circles

The evening reading circle has a new home: Faith Lutheran Church, Room 208/209, 6600 Woodrow Ave. Also, please note that there are several spaces left in the Evening Reading Circle.  If you are interested in joining, please contact Susan Albert (susanalbert@storycircle.org).
 
• Austin Chapter Writing Circles

Interested in meeting with other women to write and share stories? Please join one of our Austin Chapter Writing Circles for support, encouragement, and ideas for life-writing topics. The Circles meet monthly:
• Judith Helburn leads the Tuesday mid-day group; contact her via email: writingcircle@storycircle.org or phone: 512-454-7229. NOTE: there will NOT be a meeting in December!!!
• Daisy Stanley leads the Sunday afternoon group; contact her via email: writingcircle2@storycircle.org or phone: 512-443-9591.
• Carolyn Scheider leads the Wednesday mid-day group; contact her via email:  writingcircle3@storycircle.org  or phone: 512-258-8635.
For more information, visit the Austin Chapter Writing Circles web page.
 
• Start your own Reading or Writing Circle

We encourage you to volunteer to start your own writing circle or reading circle. We need more of these!  If you are interested, please email Susan (susanalbert@storycircle.org).  She will get volunteers together and do a few how-to-do-it sessions in early fall.

If you are a member of the Story Circle Network, please think about how you can contribute to the Journal. You could send us your story for publication in True Words from Real Women, but we also welcome your contributions of women's quotations, brief book reviews, and life-writing tips and ideas. Please note that we are also looking for contributors to our Journaling Page and Writing for Health section. Our Writers' Guidelines are now available on our website: http://www.storycircle.org/WritersGuidelines.shtml. Please email your contributions and ideas to susanalbert@storycircle.org or mail them to The Story Circle Journal, PO Box 1616, Bertram TX 78605.

Are you signed up for the National Story Circle e-Letter?

We are now publishing two monthly e-Letters. The National e-letter brings you writing tips, quotes, and book reviews, while the Austin-area e-Letter brings you news about Story Circle events and activities in the Austin, TX area. To subscribe to the National e-Letter, either go to http://SCN_eLetter_National.listbot.com and enter your email address, or send email to SCN_eLetter_National-subscribe@listbot.com

The Story Circle Network is an organization made up of women who want to explore their lives and their souls through life-writing -- writing that focuses on our personal experience, through memoirs and autobiographies, in diaries and journals, in personal essays, in poetry. The Network is chartered as a 501c(3) organization. Your dues and other contributions are tax-deductible. As a non-profit, we welcome your gifts to support our work. Please be generous!

Annual membership is $24 (prorated at $2/month) in the U.S., $30 in Canada/Mexico, and $36 elsewhere. Members receive four issues of the Story Circle Journal, a 16-page quarterly filled with writing ideas, members' writing, interviews, articles, and book reviews. To join, fill out our on-line form (click on "Join SCN" on the Story Circle website) and send a check to

NOTE: If you received this email from a friend and would like to join our Austin mailing list, either go to http://SCN_eLetter_Austin.listbot.com and enter your email address, or send email to SCN_eLetter_Austin-subscribe@listbot.com

Compiled and edited by Peggy Moody
pmoody@pobox.com
(We're sending this in HTML. If you're missing some links, email us and we'll tell you how to access the information.)

Copyright (c) 2000 by Story Circle Network, Inc.
Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this newsletter only in its entirety, including this copyright notice.