Storytime

I recently ran a writing memoir workshop and once again I was amazed at so many people who thought 'who would be interested in my life.' Everyone has a story to tell. Every one. Yes, not all of them are going to be award winning best sellers, but even if you are leaving your story for your children or grand-children or great-grand-children, then it's worth it. In this workshop were people who grew up in Collingwood in the forties...folks who had been born in India and came to the cultural difference of Australia in the sixties....people who had left the inner city at 18 to work on a cattle station in central Queensland. There were reminisces of the ice man deliveries, of the local bookie and his 'cocky' or lookout (policeman's son), of being evicted and coming home from school to find all the furniture out in the street. Some of these stories were powerful, full of pain and even anger after a lot of years. But our pasts are what has created us. ...