Tag: Patricia Charpentier

Port of Call: Labadee, Haiti

Port of Call: Labadee, Haiti

Our first stop after a full day of writing at sea on the Writing the Waves cruise is the exclusive island of Labadee, Haiti. Labadee is located on the north side of Hispaniola and offers pristine beaches, plenty of activities and local flair. The warm, clear waters are a perfect match for aquatic activities. You can rent personal watercrafts or…

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Bringing Your Ancestors to Life

Bringing Your Ancestors to Life

In the last month, I’ve had the great pleasure of spending time with genealogists in Flagler County, The Villages, and Sarasota. Many of them have been researching family history for thirty years or more; one woman dedicated much of the last sixty years to discovering branches of her family tree. That’s a lot of names, dates, and places, but it…

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Norma Beasley is cruisin’ with us

Norma Beasley is cruisin’ with us

I am a West Virginia native, the great granddaughter of a slave and a Cherokee Indian. Having lost both parents by the age of three, my grandparents raised me. There are no siblings. After earning an M.F.A. in art from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, my career transitioned into textbook publishing, then continued into the digital publishing environment. I’m an avid sports fan (basketball…

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Photo memories

Photo memories

Call to mind a photograph of you as a child that is familiar to you. It may be one that hung on the wall of your home throughout your growing up years or possibly, an image of your young self you’ve recently seen for the first time. How old are you in the photograph?  What are you doing?  Who else…

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Editing: Make Your Stories Shine Workshop

Editing: Make Your Stories Shine Workshop

Good writing requires good editing, and putting pen to paper is just the beginning. It’s time to take your writing from promising to polished! Editing: Make Your Stories Shine Workshop March 16, 2013 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Lake Fairview, Orlando, FL You have a heap of stories in front of you. You’ve worked long and hard to get them…

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Lesson in love

Lesson in love

Today, let’s write about love. Who is it or was it in your life who taught you the most about love?  What did they teach you?  How did they teach you about love?  Pay attention to the first name or image that pops into your mind. It might not be who you expect, but don’t immediately push it away. Consider…

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The Villages Genealogical Society

The Villages Genealogical Society

Thank you so much for the warm welcome to The Villages Genealogical Society. I was quite impressed  with your group and the quality of writing in the few exercises we read. I’m sure yours was wonderful, too. Here’s a link to a copy of the poem I read, “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon and some of the responses written…

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Raising the Dead – Writing about Your Ancestors!

Raising the Dead – Writing about Your Ancestors!

You’ve been looking at those boxes of information, the binders of data you’ve so painstakingly assembled  over the years of researching your family history. You wonder if your children or grandchildren will treasure all the copies and photographs and documents as much as you do. Unfortunately, they probably won’t. That’s why it’s so important to take the information you have…

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Sense Memory

Sense Memory

We rely on our senses—sound, sight, touch, smell and taste—every minute of every day to navigate our lives, but those senses can also be a vehicle that takes us back to long ago times and places. Think about the “taste” of your childhood. What were the foods that defined your early years? What were the non-foods that also ended up…

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