Open the door to your own unique voice and vision! Whether you are working on a current project, want to start your first story or poem, or are experiencing writer's block, this course is for anyone who enjoys writing. Through journaling, freewriting, in-class and take-home writing exercises, and sharing your work with your classmates, you will join a community of writers, explore and find new topics to write about, and get the creative juices flowing to stretch yourself as a writer. Tap into your own creativity in a supportive environment. Genres include fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 5 and 10 class sessions), 1-day workshop, or a weekend retreat (3 days). All include detailed critiques by Paula (for 1-day and weekend retreats, 1 fiction or non-fiction piece (up to 10 pages) or up to 2 poems). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
The Story of Your Life: Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography
This course is for anyone who enjoys writing and would like to find deeper meanings in your life's journey. Based on the methods of Dan Wakefield (a former teacher of Paula's), you will join a group of writers as you explore your past and become aware of your journey, which will in turn help you to understand your present. Through in-class and take-home writing exercises and sharing your work with your classmates in a supportive enviornment, you will tap into your own creativity as you also tap into your own spiritual being.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 6 class sessions), 1-day workshop, or a weekend retreat (3 days). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Introduction to the Short Story Workshop
Open the door to your own unique style and voice! This intense 4-week course will introduce you to the principles and techniques of writing the short story. Through understanding elements such as language, structure, characterization, and setting and description, you will strengthen your skills and learn to read short stories like a writer. As you share your work with your classmates, you will join a community of writers, explore and find new topics to write about, and get the creative juices flowing to stretch yourself as a writer. Tap into your own creativity in a supportive environment.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 4 class sessions). Includes detailed critiques by Paula. Also offered online. Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Advanced Short Story Workshop
Open the door to your own unique style and voice as you improve your writing and editing skills and increase your self-confidence as a writer. This intense 4-week course is designed for those with intermediate to advanced writing skills and an understanding of the short story as a genre. Weekly topics include editing and rewriting, theme and imagery, structure and form, and short story sub-genres. As you share your work with your classmates, you will join a community of writers, explore and find new topics to write about, and get the creative juices flowing to stretch yourself as a writer. Tap into your own creativity in a supportive environment.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 4 class sessions). Includes detailed critiques by Paula. Also offered online. Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Weekend Retreats
We offer 3-day (Friday evening through Sunday evening) writing retreats in El Paso, Arkansas, at the Deer Meadow home and guest house.
Deer Meadow is a guest house tucked in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is located at 161 Pleasant Ridge Road, just 35 miles from Downtown Little Rock. Located 1/4 mile off Arkansas Highway 5 between Cabot and Heber Springs, Deer Meadow is only 22 miles from Conway, Arkansas and 15 miles from Bebe Arkansas. The airport serving this area, Little Rock National (LIT), is 45 minutes from Deer Meadow by car. LIT is served by several major airlines including Southwest, Northwest, Delta, and U. S. Air. LIT also has car rental available from most major rental agencies.
Visitors to Deer Meadow will find a comfortable, home environment for creative pursuits. The owners, Steve and Elaine Corum, live at Deer Meadow and have decorated their house with art and furnishings from their travels around the world. The house is open to guests for special events and workshops only.
During your stay, lounge on the screened-in back porch in the swinging bed, sit quietly on the front porch for a spectacular sunset, or sit in the community room by the fire in the winter. Steve and Elaine built Deer Meadow as a place where they and their guests can find a peaceful place to live, work, and create in casual but elegant comfort.
Deer Meadow consists of 5 guest bedrooms and 3 baths. Elaine's Room has one queen and one king size bed. This room is a visual delight decorated with the art of Elaine's friends and family. The Rose Room has one antique double sleigh bed and French Country decor along with photos and a painting by local artists. Granny's Room is filled with family mementos of Elaine's family and had two twin beds. Steve's Game Room had two single futon beds. It is decorated with art and souvenirs based in the history of Steve's native Texas. The Office downstairs is full of things to read and study and has one very comfortable futon bed. This room reflects Steve's 25- year career in the oil business and is conveniently located downstairs near the meeting space. One large bath upstairs and two baths downstairs are shared by the bedrooms.
All meals are provided for our Weekend Retreats at Deer Meadow and are catered by Chef Jason. Chef Jason is a native of California who has family roots in Arkansas. Jason has his AS in Culinary Arts, and he has been in the restaurant and catering business for over 20 years. His background includes such acclaimed restaurants as Commander's Palace (New Orleans), The Boca Raton Resort and Club (Florida), and Sonny Williams' Steak Room (Arkansas). The food, beautifully prepared and served, provides one more touch of comfort for your stay at Deer Meadow.
Steve and Elaine and their dogs, Kelly and Bao, and 2 cats, Lila and B.H., live permanently in a suite downstairs at Deer Meadow. They know that Deer Meadow will be a place where you can learn and create in peace.
**Smokers may smoke on the screened porch on the back of the house or on the front porch.
with Jan Dean, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and certified life coach.
Jan has studied & taught Iyengar-style yoga for over 15 years. She can be reached at 663-6894 or yogajan@netzero.net
Give breath to your creativity as you open to the flow of your inner voice. Combining yoga with writing to merge your inner imagination, emotions, and intellect with your outer body, this course is for anyone who wants to transform and deepen your writing experience. You don't have to be an experienced yogi; participants range from first-timers to those who have been practicing for years. Every class is unique; we will center our class around a theme that we work with for both the yoga and the writing. Invoke the inspiration and protection of the Muses as you tap into your own creativity in a supportive environment.
Offered as a 2 hour class, a 4 1/2 hour mini-retreat (includes lunch), or a weekend retreat (3 days). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Begin a complex journey that focuses on who you are and what you've become. Whether you are writing a memoir for personal exploration or for future reference by family and/or friends, come explore this popular form of non-fiction in a group setting. Begin to create your memoirs as we work through exercises and share your work with your classmates in a supportive environment.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 5 class sessions). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Merging Deborah Koff-Chapin's incredible Touch Drawing, a simple yet profound process of creating drawings with your fingertips, with intuitive and creative writing, this is a class for anyone who seeks a visual and written record of your inner process. You don't have to be an experienced artist; participants range from first-timers to those who have been painting for years. Invoke the inspiration and protection of the Muses as you tap into your own creativity in a supportive environment.
Touch Drawing is a simple yet profound process. All you do is touch paper that has been placed over a surface of paint. The resulting impressions are seen on the other side of the page. Lines flow directly from your fingertips! No artistic experience is necessary. All materials provided. For additional information and slideshows see:
Offered as a 3 hour class, a 4 1/2 hour mini-retreat (includes lunch), or a weekend retreat (3 days). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Have you often wondered if your children will remember the stories you've shared with them over the years? Are there people in your family who you want your grandchildren or their children to know about? Stop worrying about who will pass these stories on to future generations. Write the stories yourself in the 5 session workshop aimed at getting you started on the road to writing and organizing your favorite family stories.
In this workshop, we will learn what makes a good story and how to write that story in a format so that it will be preserved for future generations. Participants will write and read their own family stories, build a notebook of stories and ideas, learn to use photographs to illustrate their stories, and get ideas for their own stories from others in the workshop.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 5 class sessions). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Invoking the Gifts: Writing About Spiritual Gifts
Utilizing Allison McNeill's The Book of Gifts, Invoking the Gifts is a creative writing course that helps you explore your own spiritual gifts through art and writing. As you tap into the deepest parts of yourself, you gain insight into who you are and where you are through your own unique truths. Each week we explore one of the Gifts through meditation, art, writing, and sharing, and your artwork and writings are kept together in the beautiful Student Workbook.
Connect to your spiritual heart and soul and discover these Gifts that await you.
Offered as a weekly workshop (2 hours/class, 12 or 6 class sessions). Please see our Calendar for current offerings and registration information.
Invoking the Gifts Facilitator Guidebook is also available for those of you interested in teaching this course yourselves: www.invokingthegifts.com
