Amazing what kids can do

I am continuously delighted by my girls. It's amazing what they can do when they put their minds to it.

As a Venture Scouts project, Younger Daughter was required to pull together a meeting that reflected a hobby. She decided to put on a writer's workshop since she has a passionate interest in writing.

All by herself she contacted the Idaho Writer's League and presented her idea, and asked if anyone was willing to donate their time to this project. The IWL chapter president kindly passed this request on to the members, and Younger Daughter was blitzed with offers from writers generously willing to participate by giving a workshop.

She contacted the Coeur d'Alene public library about a meeting room, set a date, signed the required contracts (which I co-signed since she's a minor) and even paid the cleaning fee out of her own pocket, as was required by contract since she offered refreshments. The library's meeting room is only available for four hours on Saturdays, so Younger Daughter had to limit the number of workshop to three. In order to present as broad a spectrum of subjects as possible, she selected three writers (myself included) to give seminars on freelance writing, self-publishing, and fiction writing.

She kept in touch with her speakers and, as the day grew closer, she pulled together an advertisement (which I mocked up for her). She then sent this to local colleges, vocational schools, high schools, coffee shops, and placed the information in the Coeur d'Alene Press.

Attendance was modest (five people), but all five people were eager to learn, attentive to the speakers, full of excellent questions, and went home very very satisfied.

Younger Daughter welcomed the attendees to the workshop, introduced each speaker, thanked both the attendees and the speakers afterward, and followed up with thank-you notes to those who had helped her out.

This project was on par with Older Daughter's Venture Scouts project last November, which was to put on a music recital in a nursing care facility.

I'm so proud of my girls for having the gumption to pull together these kinds of activities.

Writing workshop

A few months ago, I was called and asked to give a four-hour workshop for members of the Idaho Writer's League in Coeur d'Alene. I would cover the subjects of freelance writing, query letter writing, and blogging. While I'm not a member of this group, I've worked with them quite a bit in the past and I was honored to be asked.

Last Thursday was the big day. In preparation, I decided it was high time to do something I'd been meaning to do anyway: print out an archive of all my WorldNetDaily columns. My goodness, it took hours. I'd forgotten how many I'd written so far -- 165 to date.

The workshop was held at a place called The Jewett House, right on the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene. It's one of those magnificent turn-of-the-century houses that is now rented out for various functions.

View of the lake from the porch:

It was a freezing cold day (hey, early June in north Idaho isn't always warm!) and the lake was choppy.

The inside of the house is gorgeous. Here's the kitchen, for example -- reminiscent of the days of yore when such homes had servants. On the far right you can just see a glimpse of the butler's pantry.

My setup was modest. (The gray plastic crate was to serve as a lectern, but I later removed it and just sat at the table.)

Disappointingly only four people showed up. But oh my we had the best time. I talked for four hours straight and only managed to cover the subjects of freelance writing and blogging. (With our time getting limited, they asked me to do the query letter writing workshop last if there was time left over. There wasn't.) With such a small number of people, it was a charming intimate gathering, and I was assured by the attendees that they got a lot out of it.

Thank you, IWL, for asking me to lead a workshop!

(By the way...this is the home located immediately next door to the Jewett House. I have no idea what lucky soul owns this place, but it's magnificent beyond all description. Wow.)