According to Merriam-Webster dictionary . . . Memorial Day : the last Monday in May that is a national holiday in the U.S. honoring members of the armed forces who died in wars. Originally held (1868) in commemoration of soldiers killed in the American Civil War, its observance later extended to all U.S. war dead.

Writing Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan applauds writers and readers for honoring peace and Memorial Day every day and every way. Thank you, everyone!

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Teresa LeYung-Ryan thanks immigrant and award-winning author and illustrator Yuyi Morales for honoring the immigrant experience through children’s stories AND Women’s National Book Association/San Francisco Chapter officers and board members for their vital role in this event.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014  
San Francisco Main Library, Civic Center
Reception, 5 – 6 pm in the Children’s Center, 2^nd Floor
Lecture, 6 – 8 pm in the Koret Auditorium, Lower Level
Free and open to the public! Guest Lecturer: Yuyi Morales

Join the Fisher Children’s Center, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, and the Women’s National Book Association/San Francisco Chapter, as they present special guest lecturer, award-winning author and illustrator Yuyi Morales, who will deliver the 18th annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture in Children’s Literature.  The theme of Yuyi Morales’s talk will be “Creating Children’s Books: An Immigrant’s Story”

As a Spanish-speaking immigrant and new mother who migrated to the U.S. from Mexico, Yuyi struggled with English and adapting to a new home. She found support in neighborhood libraries, where she and her son practiced English by reading children’s books. There she found her life passion writing and illustrating children’s stories, such as Just a Minute; A Trickster Tale and Counting Book; Little Night / Nochecita; Just in Case, and the 2013 Niño Wrestles the World. She is the first children’s book illustrator of Mexican descent to reach the New York Times Best Sellers List.

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What else is WNBA-SF Chapter doing? 

This year the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter, sponsored a Book Drive to benefit the Living Room, Santa Rosa, CA  -  a daytime drop-in center that provides a safe haven to ease the adversity of homelessness for women. In January 2014, WNBA-SF launched an early literacy activity at the Living Room, using donated books for picture book storytelling—part of the Living Room’s Mother and Child program.  Cheers to WNBA fellow-members!

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June 7-14, 2014 Meet California Writers Club members and have fun at the San Mateo County Fair’s Literary Arts Stage (in Fine Arts Galleria) created by Bardi Rosman Koodrin and Boris Koodrin. Cheers to CWC fellow-members!  Events on Literary Arts Stage are free and open to the public; fees to enter the fair; June 10 Seniors n for free; parking fee is separate.

June 10, 2014, 4:00-5:00pm California – Teresa LeYung-Ryan will read her latest monologue from her “Talking to My Dead Mom” series at  “3 Short Plays and 3 Interviews hosted by Darlene Frank” at the San Mateo County Fair’s Literary Arts Stage.

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Saturday, June 21, 2014  22-Day Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan presents “Build/Fortify Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase” at California Writers Club – Tri-Valley Branch in Pleasanton, California.

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 Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan is on the “My Writing Process” Blog Tour.

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Project Read San Francisco

Through Project Read, the adult literacy program of the San Francisco Public Library, professionally trained volunteer tutors provide free one-on-one tutoring to English-speaking adults who want to improve their basic reading and writing skills. Activities for enrolled adult learners with young children are offered through the Project Read Families for Literacy Program.

Links for other programs http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000027301

Look for Project Read/Public Library programs in your cities.

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Also at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library – The Daniel E. Koshland San Francisco History Center

This tremendous resource contains a research collection of books, newspapers and magazines, photographs, maps, posters, archives and manuscript collections, and ephemera, documenting all aspects of San Francisco life and history. The Center is also the archives for the City and County of San Francisco.

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Honoring peace and Memorial Day every day and every way through literacy!

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan is the author of Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW. Click here for print edition. Click here for Kindle edition. “Reach out, not stress out.”

Teresa’s novel Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby is used in college courses and archived at the San Francisco History Center.

Subscribe to  “Coach Teresa’s blog” Click here to start.

Thank you, writer and poet Michelle Wing, for inviting me to the “My Writing Process” blog tour. Hearty congratulations to you and your collection of poetry, Body on the Wall, debuted just yesterday on May 15, 2014!  Everyone, please check out Michelle’s blog www.thepoemwhisperer.com  (about finding the words!), and http://michellewing.com/ . And, here’s her post http://thepoemwhisperer.com/my-writing-process-blog-tour/

Michelle Wing

Author & 22-Day Writing Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan says: "Work on your craft and build your name at the same time, with ease."--photo by author Lynn Scott

I am delighted to be on this blog tour. My turn to answer the 4 questions about my writing process.

1)      “What are you working on?” 

Teresa LeYung-Ryan:   I’m smiling as I answer this question.  I am working on two projects.  A prescriptive nonfiction project – Build Your Writing Life In 22 Days (the second workbook in my 22-Day series); and a narrative nonfiction project – I’m actually writing my first memoir.  No more hiding behind the protagonist in my first novel Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby.  By the way . . . the working title of my memoir is Moon Crone Driving Without a Steering Wheel: How this Writer Journeyed Through Early Menopause, Depression, and Love.

Looking at my own blog posts, I see that the muse for my memoir first appeared in October 2012:

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/coach-teresa-says-please-do-not-give-up-on-yourself-and-your-writing/

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/authorwriting-coach-teresa-leyung-ryan-says-talking-about-depression-and-mental-illness-does-not-scare-me-anymore/

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/author-teresa-leyung-ryan-says-transforming-depression-into-my-writers-muse/

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/helpful-websites-resources-for-mental-health-mental-illness-depression/

2)      How does your work differ from others of its genre? 

Teresa LeYung-Ryan:   There must be other authors who have written/are writing about being a writer, surviving menopause, and living with depression. Probably my work carries a distinctive voice because I am a female Chinese-American immigrant from Hong Kong with these experiences  – lived with a beautiful mother who suffered mental illness and the cruel stigmas; escaped from violence when I was a young woman; worked in a government agency, a public agency, as well as in the private sector; blessed with a caring community of extended family members, colleagues and friends; use all my literary works (fiction and nonfiction) to inspire adult-children of mentally-ill parents to speak openly about the stigmas and find resources for their loved ones AND to speak out against injustice and violent behavior.

3)      Why do you write the subject matters you write about? 

Teresa LeYung-Ryan:   How can I not write about mental illness, stigmas, rejection, joys and sorrows, the immigrant experience, poverty, and saying NO to everyday meanness, injustice, and violence?  The act of writing is the way I express my memories, observations and intentions.  An artist might employ paint, canvas, wood, and metal to do her/his work. I am a writer; therefore I employ words (choice and placement of words) to do mine.

4) What is your writing process? 

Teresa LeYung-Ryan:   As I tell my friends . . . I am pregnant with a memoir.  I write every day.  At bus stops, on public transportation, in waiting rooms (including jury assembly room). I journal to track authentic details, sometimes at the beginning of the day, sometimes at the end.  With the help of Martha Alderson and her Blockbuster Plots and Plot Whisperer books, I am replotting my story. I’ve begun writing scenes and rereading memoirs (including Woven of Water by Luisa Adams)  [ A note to self and all memoirists:  when writing nonfiction, we cannot change the sequence of events for dramatic effect; we cannot embellish or diminish the details; if we do not follow these rules, then we cannot label our work nonfiction. ]

Also, I write editorial memos for manuscript clients and coaching notes for my fanbase-building clients.  I blog as the 22-Day Writing and Platform and Fanbase-Building Coach Teresa. http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/  I love the act of composing/rewriting/restructuring/more rewriting –  these practices help me to really “reach out, not stress out.”  http://writingcoachTeresa.com

And, I rewrite/update my presentations.  For example, on June 10, 2014, 4:00-5:00om I’ll be in California at the San Mateo County Fair’s Literary Arts Stage  as a feature guest on “3 Short Plays with 3 Playwrights hosted by Darlene Frank” with the other two feature guests Ollie Mae Trost Welch and David Hirzel. I’ll be performing “What Am I Going to Do Now?” which is a new monologue for my “Talking to My Dead Mom” series.

Then on Saturday, June 21, 2014  I morph into Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan when I present “Build/Fortify Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase” at California Writers Club – Tri-Valley Branch in Pleasanton, California.

Soon, I shall be working on presentations for the San Francisco Writers Conference!

Please click here for more info about my events. Please click here for resources for writers – including links to California Writers Club and Women’s National Book Association.

My darling friends/colleagues give me writing retreats – I get so much done when I’m with dear hearts, especially the past two years with Elisa Sasa Southard, Margie Yee Webb, Vicki Weiland, Mary E. Knippel, and Lynn Scott. Thank you writing-sisters!

Also, in June, I’ll be with California Writers’ Club colleagues/mentors including Winifred McCaffrey, Margaret Davis, Diane Warner, Darlene Frank, Bardi Rosman Koodrin, Laurel Anne Hill, Christopher Wachlin (president of SF Peninsula Branch), Mary E. Knippel, and thirty other talented writers. Click here for schedule of literary events with CWC members at the San Mateo County Fair.

Click here for a list of my appearances/workshops (including June 10, 2014 at San Mateo County Fair’s Literary Arts Stage;  June 21, 2014 at California Writers’ Club Tri-Valley Branch in Pleasanton, CA)

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Now I pass the torch to two fabulous colleagues – Mary E. Knippel and Yolande Barial – who will be on the “My Writing Process” blog tour, so, please visit them at their blogs on and after Friday, May 23, 2014.

Yolande Barial

Yolande Barial is the proud mother of three remarkable children. She is known as the sensually spiritual poet/writer/blogger and columnist, and, has performed spoken word in venues (including Starbucks) throughout the SF-Oakland Bay Area from 2003 to present. Yolande is a contributing author in 3 anthologies – If Women Ruled the World; Oakland’s Neighborhoods; More of Life’s Spices: Seasoned Sistahs Keepin’ It Real.  Also, she is playwright and director of “Images of the King: A Child’s Dream” (a children’s play), a Red Room author, and contributor to the “Stockton Motherhood” column for Examiner.com. Yolande’s column “Mothers Corner” appears monthly in the Tracy Press newspaper. Visit Yolande Barial’s blog http://just-a-mom.us/

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Mary E. Knippel

Mary E. Knippel, author, speaker and writing mentor, is fiercely committed to guiding aspiring authors and entrepreneurs to polish their words so that they sparkle and shine; her clients come to her to get help when they feel paralyzed about where to begin, what to say, and how to make sense of the life-changing messages. A journal writer since the age of eleven, Mary knows the enormous power of the written word. As a two-time breast cancer survivor, she herself relied on writing in her own recovery. Her upcoming book, The Secret Artist: Give Yourself Permission to Let Your Creativity Shine, chronicles the healing results. Check out her online writing classes, writing tips, workshops, upcoming book, and blog http://yourwritingmentor.com

Sincerely,

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan is the author of Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW. Click here for print edition. Click here for Kindle edition. “Reach out, not stress out.”

Teresa’s novel Love Made of Heart: a Mother’s Mental Illness Forges Forgiveness in Daughter Ruby is used in college courses and archived at the San Francisco History Center.

Subscribe to  “Coach Teresa’s blog” Click here to start.