My few years in the Thursday evening “Women at Work” in the early 2000’s deeply nourished my willingness to define myself as a writer and storyteller, but no single event more than the retreat in Todos Santos, Baja. Yoga in the morning, a stretch to poetry — so foreign to me before! — in the late morning, and playtime with short fiction, essays in the afternoon. My resulting courage yielded my first publication, a personal essay/memoir, “The Raven,” in a University of Texas Press anthology of women writers on the natural environment, What Wildness is This! Months later, my one act play, Those Hopscotch People, was produced in my local community college festival. My partners in the Thursday group gave me inspiration and courage in a steady dose, every week. And they grew me and my voice as a writer. Bigger than my writing, a true life turning-point. Thank you, Terry and WAW!!
Writers At Work 