If you missed the launch of Becoming, and would like to get the flavo(u)r, and hear a reading, check our YouTube posting: Shall We Dance? :-)

You can also taste a little bit of the Launch itself.

Soon the book will be available on Amazon, but for now, please go to The Write Room and order there.

Also, psssst, tell your friends!

Telling our Stories Part 2

If you'd like to order Becoming now, just go to The Write Room New Titles. You won't regret it!

Telling our stories: Part 2

We are continually choosing filters and frames for our lives, whether we know and acknowledge it or not.

Don’t make the mistake of underestimating or minimizing the power of stories: they resonate throughout our whole being. A story is something active, even if it is unconscious. It works in and on us. The way we frame our life--the stories we tell--affect the way we hold our past, how we live the present, how we respond in the future.

And our stories themselves provide a vehicle that can help us appreciate and learn from our part in the flow of life. Telling them can shed light on times, places and events that perhaps existed only vaguely, shrouded in the mists of our memories. They can provide insights, epiphanies, evoke laughter and tears. They can give meaning and allow us to put our lives into radically new and unexpected perspectives.

By reflecting on who we were, we begin a process of discovering who we have become through our life experiences. We can move toward presence and authenticity in part by becoming cognizant of our stories, the filters and frames we use to tell them, by learning from them and beginning to detach from them. We can let go of the accounts per se, because we have been able to extract the nutrients, and we can let them nourish us today, now, here, in present time on our own personal journey.

In Becoming: Journeying Toward Authenticity, you will find 40 some life stories, about a variety of unisersal, human themes. Each essay contains related readings and questions for reflection to invite you into your own stories.

Reflections: Tell your life story, highlighting key segments, in the form of two separate tales, one with your glass ‘half full,’ the other where your glass is seen as ‘half empty.’ What feelings do you have, what happens inside your body as you feel into each piece? What experiences have you digested and which ones are still in process? What stands out that you might like to explore more deeply?

Find out more about Becoming on the ChangeEverything website. Order your copy at http://www.thewriteroom.net/newtitles.html

Related reading:
Almaas, A. H. (1988). The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of personality into Being: An object relations approach. Berkeley: Diamond Books
Baldwin, Christina (1991). Life’s Companion: Journal writing as a spiritual quest. NY: Bantam Books
Davis, John (1999). The Diamond Approach: An introduction to the teachings of A. H. Almaas. Boston: Shambhala
King, Stephen (2000). On Writing: A memoir of the craft. NY: Simon & Schuster
Remen, Rachel Naomi (2006). Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that heal. NY: Penguin Books

Telling our stories: why and how it matters

“Words are how we think: story is how we link.

Memory is the story of what happened and is where the meaning resides.

Story is a map: the map that got one person through gets the next person through." (Christina Baldwin)

We are continually choosing filters and frames for our lives, whether we know and acknowledge it or not. These then become our life stories, and we have the option, if we are conscious, to choose filters that contribute to our growth and maturation.

Becoming: Journeying Toward Authenticity, contains some 40 some life stories, about a variety of unisersal, human themes. Each essay contains related readings and questions for reflection to invite you into your own stories.

Order Becoming now: http://www.thewriteroom.net/newtitles.html

Here is what several authors say about the potential in stories:

Christina Baldwin, author of Storycatcher: Making Sense of our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story writes

“Through story, we learn from each other’s experiences and pass along huge amounts of common wisdom…. Story is the heart of language. Story emotionally moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond the borders of our individuality to imagine realities of other people, times, and places. Storytelling -- both oral tradition and written word -- is the foundation of being human."

Check out Storycatcher and join the Storycatcher Network at http://www.storycatcher.net/storycatcher_book.html

Carla Rieger, author of the spellbinding new book, The Change Artist writes,

“It's healing for people to lose themselves in a good story. There is evidence that retelling a story can help people reflect and extract lessons from those situations, which allows their "back brain" to release the trauma and thus integrate the learning. If you don't integrate the learning, you can tend to circle around and repeat your mistakes.” Review and order The Change Artist at http://www.thechangeartistbook.com/

Gary Harper, fellow traveler and author of The Joy of Conflict Resolution http://www.joyofconflict.com/ Reviewers write about his book:

“With the creative use of story and metaphor, the book lays out the changing roles of victim, villain, and hero, and how identification of these roles leads to conflict resolution. … In an accessible, engaging and light-hearted style that uses stories and humor to explore potentially emotionally charged situations, it provides proven and practical skills to move beyond confrontation to resolve conflicts collaboratively.”

Resolving conflict collaboratively can change our stories dramatically!

About the launch and Becoming:

It was great to have the opportunity to witness the launch of your book. I enjoyed every moment of it.   

I wanted to tell you how lovely the book launch was. You did a marvellous job. I really enjoyed everyone who spoke and was deeply touched by both you and your brother. There was much 'authenticity' in how everyone spoke.

Fantastic event yesterday, Jill.

Thank you so much for a really touching afternoon. When you read your chapter I realized how my perception of life is exactly like yours was: life is a struggle. It was the same "aha" moment for me. I will try to dance with life and let life dance me! Thank you for that. I am looking forward to more new insights with each chapter.

 

Jill, what a wonderful, heart-filled book launch, and what a lovely book. I came home last night intending to go to an old friend's 60th birthday party and ended up sinking into your book instead. I'm reading it slowly, but am already a third of the way through and shall be savouring it  over the next days and weeks. Just wanted to let you know how much I'm enjoying it. The candour and humour are truly engaging, the rhythm lively, and the stories make me want more! Congratulations again!

TO ORDER BECOMING: contact me directly or go to http://www.thewriteroom.net/newtitles.html to order on line with PayPal.

LOCAL NEW INDEPENDENT PRESS LAUNCHES FIRST TITLE

The Write Room Press, a local independent and non-fiction publishing press will launch its first title this Saturday, May 9, at 4:00 p.m. at the YWCA Hotel downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver resident Jill Schroder is the author of the Write Room Press’ first title, Becoming. John Davis, Professor at Naropa University says, 
"This book gleans nuggets from many teachings and makes them personally accessible. This is benefit enough to recommend it. More than this, though, it invites us into our own experiences. And after all, it is here – in the intimacy of our own experience – that these stories come true and unfold. These stories are doorways, opening us to our own journeys. This is a book to read over and over."

The book launch will feature speakers, readings by the author, book signing, and ample opportunity to speak with the author as well as Press representatives. The event is free and open to the public. Becoming is available at Vancouver’s independent bookstore Duthie Books, and online at http://www.thewriteroom.net/newtitles.html.

An offshoot of a writing and editing company, the Write Room, the Write Room Press publishes non-fiction and academic manuscripts for specialized audiences, as well as manuscripts that challenge popular norms or ideas. In short, the new independent publisher publishes works that may not be interesting or profitable enough for large corporate publishers.