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My spring vacation – Part 2

  • Posted on May 3, 2012 at 8:28 am

After leaving Patty’s house I drove about five hours to the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop at the Dayton Marriott where all the funny people I knew and hoped to meet were gathering. A few I knew from their blog photos, some I recognized by name and the others – well they were a gift in another package.

When I walked through the door EB Heron’s masculine figure lured me to the proper table where Jody gave me my EB princess tiara and my EB’s Harem tee-shirts. I saw other familiar faces such as Wanda, Rose, Bonnie, Joanie, and Barb. For the next four days no one was a stranger.

Everyone was so friendly. Even the key note speakers and instructors treated us lowly “occasional” bloggers like we were just as famous as they. Each of them said that they started where we are and hit the big time, some sooner, some later.

I was impressed and encouraged by Ilene Beckerman who wrote her first book at 60. Her talk gave me hope that even though I’m now classified as “mature,” I still have a chance to be published. Seeing a few other gray heads there was also comforting.

Since I’m basically a beginner even though I’ve written for newspapers and magazines, I stuck to the basic classes:

The Power of Erma – Nancy Berk
Hypnotic Recall Fills the Creative Well – Suzette Martinez Standring
The Six Million Dollar Humor Column: How to write bigger, funnier and faster – Tracy Beckerman
Be Funny, Make Money – Michele (Wojo) Wojciechowski
If You Blog It, They Will Come: How to Blog Your Own Field of Dreams – Nettie Reynolds
Finding the Authority to Write – Kyran Pittman

Each class and keynote speaker gave me knowledge, hope and motivation to keep trying and to push harder to get published. Even the amateur stand-up comics motivated me, that is when I wasn’t laughing too hard to think. If they can do it, so can I — maybe in 2014.

I must give three Huzzahs and a huge thank you to Suzette Martinez Standring. Since my son passed in December my body and soul had been torn into pieces. I was unable to gather myself enough to write. Even ordinary tasks seemed daunting. We were seated in rock hard, lecture hall seats made for skinny students. When Standring announced she was going to lead us in a meditation, I thought, “That will be useless. I’ll never get comfortable enough to meditate.”

After just a few minutes I was off in some other place. My guides showed me a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread. What kind of motivation is that? I don’t like grape jelly. I don’t like peanut butter and jelly together. And I seldom eat whole wheat bread. Soon we were all back in the room and other students began sharing their insights. I kept my mouth shut. Wouldn’t you?

For the next couple days I pondered this peculiar imagery. On Sunday morning I saw Standring in the lobby as we were all preparing to leave. I worked up the courage to ask for a moment of her time, then asked what she thought it meant. As all good teachers, she threw the question back to me. I told her that the message seemed to tell me I should try new ideas and experiences and new combinations of old ideas and experiences. Just because they didn’t work before, it doesn’t mean they won’t work now. She responded, “That’s exactly what that image means.”

However, the most powerful moment in Standring’s class came when she brought us back to the lecture hall. All my body and soul bits were once again back with me. I was whole again. I didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the workshop. I’m still grinning because I’m whole.

All too soon our time in Dayton was finished. After exchanging hugs, business cards and promised to meet again in 2014, I loaded my luggage and began the six-hour drive to West Virginia where My Spring Vacation – part 3 takes place.

© by Sharon D. Dillon, May 2, 2012