Come Geeking

I wouldn’t say I was a geek. But when I heard about an English literary event only a couple of hours from home, I was like a dog when its master holds up its lead and says, ‘Walkies!’

A writing workshop?

At a château?

In the Dordogne?

Wagging my (figurative) tail, I signed up for an afternoon focussing on memoir. And that’s how I found myself, on April Fool’s Day, at the beautiful Saint-Germain-des-Prés château, writing my life story alongside 15 other geeks writers.

The event was a collaboration between Manor & Maker, the business name chosen by château owners Sara and Stephen Cole, and an experienced memoir workshop leader called Catharine.

And the good news is that it’s not a one-off event.

The idea behind the Manor & Maker retreats is to provide a safe space where people can enjoy doing their favourite creative activity with like-minded people. As Stephen says: ‘If you geek out about something, come and geek with us.’

Our hosts welcomed us into their home with tea, coffee and biscuits, giving us the necessary sustenance for two hours of writing under Catharine’s guidance.

The 19th century château is charming, not just from the outside, but also in terms of the interior decoration with its wooden panelling and period furniture.

We were even invited to climb up the inside of the 16th century tower.

The top room was closed, a home for bats while it awaits renovation, but I preferred to imagine a young princess imprisoned inside, poised to let down her hair.

Fifteen of us sat around the dining table for the workshop. It was lovely to see familiar faces but also to meet lots of people with fascinating life stories to write.

Through a series of exercises, debriefs and discussions, Catharine whetted our appetites to continue meeting and sharing work.

After a pause, during which Sara and Stephen treated us to delicious nibbles and wine while we got to know each other, we were regaled with readings from memoir authors.

Susie Kelly read a moving extract from I wish I could say I was Sorry and a light-hearted flying anecdote from It’s a Mad World. Jackie Skingley read from High Heels and Beetle Crushers and gave us a sneak preview of the sequel, Burnt Eggs and Caviar. And Patrick Doherty read from his Irish memoir I am Patrick.

It was a convivial afternoon in a setting that’s perfectly adapted for group events. Sara and Stephen’s attention brought a warmth we wouldn’t have had in a village hall.

Given the excellent attendance at the workshop, Catharine is hoping to make it a monthly event, so if you live near Excideuil and are interested in writing your memoir, contact Manor & Maker.

I caught Sara and Stephen as they mingled, checking that everyone had everything they needed, and asked them a few questions about the inspiration behind their business and their decision to leave Canada and buy a castle in France.

Stephen is a painter and designer, while Sara is a historical clothes maker. Here’s a photo of them, costumed, in Venice (photo courtesy of Stephen Cole).

The couple have many artistic friends and loved the idea of bringing people together so they could comfortably be their best selves with others sharing the same passion.

But why France? Why a château?

‘It’s my parents’ fault,’ says Sara. ‘They were a pilot and flight attendant, which meant we travelled a lot. When I was 15, we stayed in a Loire château and I was impressed when the marquis swept into the castle wearing his cape. That moment stayed with me.’

Although they love Canada, they’d been talking about living in Europe for a decade. ‘In Toronto, it felt as if I was living to work,’ says Stephen. ‘The attitude in Europe is more about working to live. Also, we both love art and history. We wanted to be surrounded by them.’

They almost moved to the UK, but the idea of being able to drive to another country in the space of a few hours tipped them towards mainland Europe. ‘In Canada, you can drive 24 hours and still be in the same province,’ says Stephen.

Having searched the Limousin and Creuse for Sara’s dream castle, they found it in the Dordogne in 2020. ‘As soon as we opened the front door, we fell in love,’ says Stephen. By August 2021 they were living there – though Sara’s marquis hasn’t swept into the château yet.

Perhaps the marquis led to the idea of their inaugural Belle Epoch retreat, to be held in May. This will bring together costumers and artists for a weekend, the idea being that the artists paint costumed models while they stroll around the château grounds. Does this raise geek reactions in you? If so, contact Manor & Maker.

‘When designing clothes, it’s important to have the right garments for the right periods,’ says Stephen. ‘Clothes speak strongly about cultural differences throughout history. They’re a way to time travel.’

Costuming isn’t the only creative activity you’ll find at the château. Forthcoming retreats in 2023 include encaustic painting (painting with beeswax – a technique used by the ancient Egyptians); a Gourmet retreat with a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef from Paris; a poetry course with talented poet Kate Rose; and an open writing residency, fondly referred to by Sara as ‘Ditch the Distractions’.

If you’re interested in participating in any of these – or if you have ideas for other creative retreats you’d like to see there, Sara and Stephen would be happy to hear from you on their Manor & Maker website or youtube channel, where they vlog regularly about life in their château.

But of course you need to be a geek to participate. And none of us are that, are we?

Behind the Women’s Voices

Every now and again, a dynamic person makes a gift of their time and energy to the writing community.

Such is the case for Sally Palmer, the driving force behind the Women’s Voices anthology of poetry, prose and artwork.

The aim of this initiative is to give a voice to women writing in south west France, no matter where they are on their writing journey. 

As soon as I heard about this inclusive concept, I fell in love with it. This wasn’t about judging the literary merit of a writer. It didn’t require writers to sell their souls to gain a publishing deal. It was about giving all writers the chance to say what they wanted to say.

The first anthology, entitled I’ve Got Something To Say, was published on 8 March 2020, coinciding with International Women’s Day.

The second anthology – I’ve Got Something MORE To Say – was launched on 26 June 2022 and was celebrated with a live event of drama, author readings from the anthology, music and art displays.

As I have a story in this second edition (Sketches), I decided it was the ideal opportunity to meet up with the friendly community of writers in France.

I hadn’t seen most of them for over two years and was desperate to return to this source of literary inspiration.

So I bought my train ticket, hitched a lift with the lovely Kate Rose and headed down to deepest Gers, where Sally kindly accommodated us (as well as poet Amanda Speed, another contributor) for the weekend.

Before the launch took place, Sally had already received over 150 pre-orders for the anthology, which is also available to buy on Amazon.

And what a display they made in the village hall of Ponsan-Soubiran, the venue for the afternoon event.

Instead of sharing a write-up of the launch, I thought you might prefer to hear Sally’s story about the Women’s Voices initiative. She answered my questions as we sat in her Gers home overlooking the misty Pyrenees mountains.

Q1: What inspired you to publish the first Women’s Voices collection?

I retired from my academic career in Early Childhood Studies in 2016 and started to spend more time in France. This meant a change from active engagement in my profession to being a ‘lady of leisure’. I worried that I would become one of those women who have nothing to say, that I’d become a voiceless woman. 

I was discussing this with my friend Ellen Rugen in a coffee shop one day in 2018. Ellen had already written and published several books. Our discussion led to the idea of us publishing a creative writing collection as a way of continuing to make our voices heard. This was a challenge for me, because although I’ve had many articles published in professional journals, I’m a novice in creative writing.  

We decided to offer this channel of communication to other women around us who might feel the same way. We set up a steering group of four women and on 8 March 2020 we succeeded in launching I’ve Got Something To Say. It took us about a year to produce and contained 20 contributors.

Q2: How did the second edition come about?

I only really wanted to do one book. But the result was a success and we considered continuing with a second edition.

There was no theme for the first edition. It focused on people’s personal experiences, which was fine, but if we were going to do a second edition, we wanted it to be different, more imaginative. Although I was concerned that having a theme might put people off, we came up with a bank of ideas. I liked the idea of synchronicity but we eventually voted for transition.

The theme must have been inspiring because we attracted 32 authors for the second edition, as well as work from artists. The artwork is important because it breaks up the poetry and prose – and of course the artists also have something to say.

Q3: I love the inclusive element of the anthology but it must have been hard to manage. How did you organise the project and produce work of such a high standard?

It was really important that we didn’t reject anyone’s work. The collection is about giving people a chance to say something, so if we’d rejected their work it would have been invalidating their voice. Instead, we gave editorial advice to make sure their words communicated what they wanted to say in the best possible way. 

Our steering group contained three women: myself, Anne Dickens and Molly Brotherton. We split the contributions into three groups to edit, and we also asked women outside the group to help with the proofreading.

In terms of communication, we used word of mouth and our Facebook group. The last launch included a choir as well as readings and it attracted 100 people. This time, we wanted a simple picnic and readings to reduce the organisational aspect. But the event grew and in the end we had theatrical representations, art displays, bookstalls and the singers Double G&T as well as author readings.

Q4: How did you choose the order of work in the anthology?

In the interest of equality, we used alphabetic order by author name in the first edition. For the second edition we used the titles to class the work in alphabetical order. 

Q5: What part did you find the hardest?

For me, the most worrying things are the errors. Despite all the proofreading, errors inevitably creep in. It’s heart-wrenching to hear that we’ve made a mistake in an author’s name, for example.

Q6: Will there be a third edition?

We’ve had some lovely feedback from people who were glad for the opportunity to express themselves. But I feel we’ve achieved what we wanted. I’m not planning to publish a third edition.

If someone else wants to publish a collection, that would be great. But they must do their own thing, in their own way, using their own voice. 

***

Many thanks to Sally and her team for creating the publication and organising the launch.

It was fantastic to see familiar faces again, to meet new people, to be entertained by music, art and drama (and to see people buying my books!). 

A special thanks to David, Sally’s husband, for the cooking, and to Kate, Amanda and Ellen for their inspiring company.

Both the first and second anthologies are available to buy on Amazon. Happy reading!

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Biography: Sally Palmer

Sally has been visiting France for the last thirty-seven years and has a house in the Gers. Since retiring from academia she has set up the Women’s Voices writing group to promote and share the writing talents of women living in south west France. Her own journey into the creative genre of writing is just beginning and she values time spent with her local writing group which has provided challenges and inspiration. She recently completed a Creative Writing Course and a Master Class on Storytelling. She avidly believes that all women have something to say and actively promotes this philosophy.

A Date with Kate

Today’s question is: do writing workshops qualify as procrastination?

You have 4 hours to answer. Sorry, I’m in exam mode (and I recently discovered the strikeout button on WordPress. It’s even more fun than brackets, which were my previous faves).

Yes, I’m in exam mode. Not for myself, but for my daughter: someone has to think about the Big Bac. All she seems to say is, “T’inquiète,” (don’t worry) as she heads off to another overnight party.

Meanwhile, I’m studying. Which is interesting, actually. I’m studying what I’m going to be teaching / have been teaching this year in the various workshops I’ve been invited to lead.

“What? Shouldn’t you know it all if you’re teaching it?”

(Someone always asks an awkward question)

Early on in my part-time work as an English TEFL teacher, I realised that teaching is all about learning. At work, I know what the correct answer is. But as a teacher you have to explain why it’s the correct answer. So I spent my early teaching years studying the rules of English while simultaneously teaching it – and repeating, “I’m not sure why that’s the right answer, but I’ll find out and get back to you.”

Writing is similar: you read a story and know it is good. If you’ve got oodles of raw talent, you may even write a good story. But why does a particular story work? What techniques has the writer used? That’s where writing craft guides, workshops and courses can help.

I spent years poring over writing books and experimenting with techniques, often with my amazing writing group of the early 2000s, Lumineuse. For the last few years I’ve been concentrating on writing novels, so it wasn’t until I was asked to lead a workshop last year that I returned to my creative writing guides.

Once I opened them, the memories surged back. I rediscovered concepts I’d struggled to understand before. This time, with ten more years’ writing experience, they made much more sense. I could think of my own examples to the models they presented.

I bought a couple more guides – just in case a modern technique had been discovered.

I read them. (It hadn’t).

I re-read my old guides. I took notes. I put on my wetsuit and surfed writing blogs such as Emma Darwin’s excellent This Itch of Writing.

Writing? Ha, who needs to make the effort of writing when you can spend your time learning about how you should be writing instead? It’s much less painful. More inspiring. And, yes, it makes sense. If you read enough about the craft, surely you’ll absorb the information and the literary bestseller will flow from your keyboard?

Procrastination warning bells jangled.

I sighed, closed my guides and went back to the blank screen and the infinite possibilities of the keyboard.

Then, a few weeks ago, my date with Kate appeared on the “God, it’s in 3 weeks’ time” horizon.

Kate is on the far left. You might also spot Kate Mosse, Isabel Ashdown, Jacqui Lofthouse, Elizabeth Haynes, Alison Morton and Christine Colette.

Kate Rose – co-founder of the Charroux literary festival, workshop leader, Bookish Lunches organiser and poet extraordinaire – had invited me to do a session as part of her Meraki writing business. She holds monthly writing events so that us poor English writers in France aren’t so isolated.

I’d chosen to talk about how to take a character and write a story based on him/her. I wanted to explore this because I regularly see beautiful writing and great characters, but it’s much more unusual to see a story that works well.

I looked at my pile of writing guides and my pages of notes.

I looked at the document on my computer: the final scene of my current novel…

A week later, I guzzled a glass of champagne to celebrate the end of my first draft, and set to work preparing the workshop ‘From Character to Story’.

When I go to a workshop, I like the leader to present some kind of theory, and then for us to do exercises based on that theory. So this is what I planned.

I soon discovered that preparing a workshop is like editing a novel draft. I had to cut, cut, cut. There was so much I could do, but I wanted the participants to take away a concept that would make them think about how to approach a story.

My final plan was ambitious. I know from giving talks about writing and from my English teaching lessons that you always need more time than you think. I was in danger of rushing through the concepts. I would have to be strict with timing. I would have to take a whip and punish anyone who asked too many questions.

(I love strikethrough)

The day of the workshop arrived.

I wasn’t ill. My car started. No aliens whisked me away to another planet during my journey to Champagne-Mouton.

There was no escape.

I switched from writer to teacher mode, and the workshop began.

It was fun to meet everyone, hear about their writing projects and listen to their story scenes. Many thanks to Kate, who was a brilliant host and kept participants supplied with drinks and a delicious lunch – as well as following the workshop. The attendees were generous with their feedback, so I hope everyone learnt something useful.

Oh, and in answer to the exam question: workshops are not only a great place to learn about writing, they’re also an ideal opportunity to chat with other writers and shape your work. That’s certainly not procrastination, is it?

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Kate Rose
Kate is a writer, poet and creative writing coach. She lives and works in South West France. She is co founder of the bi-annual Charroux Literary Festival, attracting international bestselling authors and poets. She has been published in a range of magazines and anthologies. Through her business, Meraki, she offers one to one coaching and writers workshops.

She would love to hear from you and can be contacted at:

katerosewriting@gmail   @katerosewriting
Www.facebook.com/meraki      Www.charrouxlitfest.com