Bragging Rights!

Family!

Sometimes it feels right to brag on yourself, or your kids or grandkids (all the time), or about a small group of beloved writer friends known as the River Writers! So, here goes.

B.C. (before COVID), I offered a writing spiritual memoir course at Flagler College's Lifelong Learning. Three people signed up. The administration, not seeing any money in it for themselves, called to say the course did not fill and therefore would be cancelled. I asked for the roster. Much to my surprise two men had signed up. Mind you after offering this course in other venues for a decade, I knew that the ratio of two men to one woman was an anomaly. The administrator wasn't as blown away by this, but I knew something different was happening so I went to his office to make my case. He agreed to run the course, this time. Great!

"I will be forever grateful for this", said Roger, one of the two men who faithfully attended the summer program. He said this five years after that summer. By then, the four of us plus one who joined later, had been writing together on a monthly basis.

Our unique combination of would-be authors met at my house to share our works in progress. We were serious about our writing and about our evolving relationship. Hardly a month went by when all of us were not sitting in my living room, or on the screened porch overlooking the San Sebastian River. One evening, a tad late to the meeting, Roger poked his head inside, asking: "Are there any River Writers in here"? The name stuck!

Our stories grew as did the solidarity between us. Our "critiques" were given gently. We knew each other's touch points, and tiptoed toward those rather than around them to offer some help. Care was the watchword by which we wrote and told our deeply personal life stories. We laughed a lot. We made a few out-of-town retreats together. During one such time, Mike had a breakthrough that changed everything going forward in his writing. We honored that moment in silence because everyone knew it was a turning point for the writing and for the soul. The group's bond and total trust allowed for such a moment. We had become a family in the true sense of the word: "the people who support and love you, and the people you can confide in and trust".

These River Writer friends of mine matter more than words on the page, although they were instrumental in helping me to finish my second book, Return from Exile*

Speaking of books!

Congratulations to Mike on the launch of his first: https://www.amazon.com/Afterlifes-Door-Dark-Particle-Saga-ebook/dp/B0FF3MJ6QB?ref_=ast_author_mpb

And, drum roll please:

The second St. Augustine Poet Laureate, is none other than our very own River Writer, Ann Browning Masters! https://annbrowningmasters.com/

"I will be forever grateful", sums it up. The following semesters, the course filled but never again would there be anything like the River Writers! Meet the River Writers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe5STechJEc&list=PLgEkQClCVY7uyKWLiO-_V1PK2vLaCxx22&index=2

*https://www.amazon.com/Return-Exile-Revelations-Anchoress-Augustine/dp/1666707635#:~:text=A%20true%20story%20of%20two,during%20the%20Black%20Death%20plague.