By Martha Tallent

The February meeting of the Orange County Christian Writer’s Guild was devoted to participating in fun writing exercises, saying goodbye to friends who are moving, and making plans for upcoming spring activities.

Author Sarah Johnson will be teaching a final seminar before she moves away. This free to the public event, Expanding Your Market: Exploring eBook and Audiobook Formats, will be held on February 18, 2017, from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the City of Orange Public Library. Due to limited seating, pre-registration is requested. Please pre-register at SarahJohnsonBooks.com/events.

The guild will also participate in Orange’s annual Art in the Park to be held April 8. We invite everyone to come by our booth to check us out.

Guild President, Karen Stevens, handed out a few writing exercises to all attending the meeting. One of the exercises was, “I Remember” where we were asked to start a paragraph with “I remember…” and then to just let our memories dictate what we wrote.

One guild author, Dr. Charlie Starr, volunteered to have his remembrance published for this article. We found it entertaining and hope you do, also.

“I remember sitting in an audience of teachers listening to Ray Bradbury give a speech about his own memories. He said he had perfect recall back to his birth. I am not kidding. In the most nonchalant way possible, Bradbury said he remembered being born.

Now having seen the birth of my own children, I have to say that I’m glad I don’t remember being born. I remember their births with fondness, but only if I move certain images from those events to a liminal space where memory clouds things over for the sake of avoiding a gag reflex – like those blurry lines they put over naked people in National Geographic documentaries. Apart from that, the memories are quite pleasant. Bradbury didn’t seem to be traumatized by the memory of his birth, but it makes me wonder if the experience didn’t somehow contribute to his prolific output of fantastic stories and his stubborn refusal to die at a decent age.”

All Christian writers, bloggers, and authors (published and non-published) are invited to join us monthly for these and other such exercises as well as encouragement and support on our writing journeys. The Orange County Christian Writer’s Guild meets the second Tuesday of the month from 6-7 pm at the Brown Hearing Center, 105 Camellia in Orange (behind the Dairy Queen).

Our next meeting will be March 14, 2017. If you have any questions or want to join this free guild, please contact Karen Stevens at Karen.stevens@coldwellbanker.com.