So what do you think happened?

You’ll never believe it!

What do you think she said?

Fascinating! Then what happened?

You have a story to tell. You’ve wanted to tell it for years, decades maybe! Or you have a manuscript tucked away in the back of a drawer. Or a journal.

Or perhaps your children or best friends tell you: “You should write about that!” when you come up with personal or family stories.

You must get your story out.

You can make the start you’ve been promising yourself to make right now. Come to the Festival of the Arts on Saturday October 26.

Is it about about Adventure? Abuse? Addiction? Boating, caregiving or cats? Coming of age, cooking or your secret life of crime? Divorce, dreams or dogs?

Is it about faith, family or friendships? Loss, grief or healing? Love or marriage? Maternity or paternity? Migration? Mental health, meditation or a mystery you have never been able to explain? Overcoming adversity? Parenting or grandparenting?

Perhaps it’s about reminiscence, romance or relocation? Sailing, spirituality, sports or survival? Travel, therapy or your life as a whistle-blower?

Or perhaps you just want to tell the story of your family so that all the others, all your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren know who you – and they — are. Where and what they came from, so that they can carry the pride and pleasure of knowing in their hearts.

Maybe your idea hasn’t yet matured into words. Your writing dream lies silent inside a great big book of family photographs or worse — in a jumble of photos that you still have to rummage through.

Now is your chance to brush up your memoirs!

Be courageous! Don’t put it off any longer!

You’ll get the support and ideas you need from two experienced memoir writers.

Cynthia Reyes came to memoir-writing from an award-winning career at CBC Television, where she worked across Canada and Europe, and led the Canadian team working with South African journalists at the end of apartheid.

Cynthia has written three bestselling memoirs. A Good Home chronicles relationships and life events in the homes where she lived. An Honest House focuses on the results of a specific event in her life. Twigs in My Hair delves into the humour, joy and trials of gardening and gardeners. 

Cynthia teaches memoir writing at the Bowmanville Older Adult Association. She believes anyone can write their story, and she rejoices when participants complete their books.

Ronald Mackay has also published three memoirs. Each covers a critical time in his life. Just a year or two.

At 18, Ronald found himself penniless in the Canary Islands. He was working his way from Scotland to Argentina. The people of a 15^th century village offered him work in the banana plantations and taught him Spanish. The challenge and the care were precisely what he needed.

Years later he wrote two memoirs about that critical time in his life, one in English, one in Spanish. The memoirs were his way of saying Thank you! for the kindness shown to him. A reminder to his own family how advantage can arise from adversity, and how life can be an adventure.

Later, he spent two years behind the Iron Curtain as a visiting professor at Bucharest University. Under the brutal government of Nicolae Ceaușescu, he lived, worked and travelled throughout Romania. His memoir was a way of remembering the height of the Cold War.

Click here to register or to learn more about the 2-hour interactive workshops at the Festival of the Arts in Cobourg.