The Golden Gates of Lakeside

Update: I am happy to introduce you to two wonderful  writers, beautiful women, that I met at Lakeside. Each of them has also written a post about Lakeside, that I want to share with you. I am blessed to know Beth and Amanda, and I have Lakeside to thank for connecting us.

Beth Chiles has a lovely website, itsjustlife.me. She writes about teapots, books, travel, writing and she emphasizes good causes. I met her through a mutual friend on Twitter. Beth had won a book giveaway and I contacted her to get her address. In the course of emailing each other we worked through our degrees of separation. We started out with her in North Carolina and me in Ohio. Beth had an Ohio connection, New Concord where she lived as a youth, and she still had relatives in the northern Ohio area. I told her that I spent the summers near the Lake Erie Islands. That did it! In her next email, she replied that she had just finished her yearly vacation at…Lakeside! She has written several posts about Lakeside, with beautiful photos that you will enjoy. Here is one of them.

I met Amanda last year at a writing and publishing workshop I lead at the arts center at Lakeside. She and I connected and had fun relating our “war stories” as new authors. She shared her winning book pitch with me- it was great! Amanda lives in the “Believeland” area where I am from and we keep in touch through the year and share our problems and praises. She is an upbeat and creative writer with two books coming to you soon! Here is her post about Lakeside. 

And here is my post:

A minister, an attorney, and a college student all meet in heaven. No, this is not the start of a joke but they really did meet in heaven, at a Victorian-style vacation destination on Lake Erie. For more than 140 years, Lakeside Chautauqua has welcomed families to the Lake Erie shore to take part in a summer Chautauqua experience dedicated to nurturing mind, body and spirit. Lakeside invites us to join the fun! Many visitors call this beautiful place “heaven on earth” and they return year after year.

What’s there to do at Lakeside? Everything- from relaxing (napping) on your front porch while you feel the lake breeze and hear the water lap and sputter on the rocks, to the full palette of outdoor summer sports. You can swim, fish, sail, stand up paddle board, play miniature golf, pickle ball, basketball, tennis, and shuffleboard. But wait there’s more- there are hundreds of activities for your education, artistic and spiritual development. Here is a lovely word and photo essay about Lakeside from blogger Beth Ann Chiles.

One of my favorite places at Lakeside is a welcoming green building, with a friendly front porch- The Rhein Center.  Each week of the season, volunteers provide classes in fine arts, practical arts and creative crafts for students of all ages.You can learn about glass, pottery, literature, dance, painting, music, photography, fiber arts, paper crafts and more.

What kind of art classes can you take? How about chair caning, recycling CD mandalas, beginning boomerang building, scroll saw, Chinese lanterns, and even rock painting. Each week there are about 147 classes scheduled, presented by 41 instructors. And I am one of them!

My workshop is for everyone who has ever said, “I’ve always wanted to write a book!” or “I’ve written half my book and I don’t know how to finish it, or even “I have written my first draft, now what do I do?” I tell my fellow writers, “The world needs your nice book. I want to walk with you on your writing journey to a published book.”

Each week we look at the writing process from start to finish, including how to:

• Write- at the first seminar, my writing friends wondered how long a book should be, how to make time to write each, how to handle pacing, character development, dialogue, continuity.

• Edit- we discuss the various types of editing services: developmental, line, copy, proof reading.

• Publish – What’s the difference between self, indie and traditional publishing.

• Market – I am quite keen on marketing and social media right now. So we discuss how to build your platform, and how to make social media, websites, blogs, and videos effective tools for writers.

At my first class, we had two college students, a marketing pro, a singer, a businessman and several retirees. If the classes continue to be similar to last year, I expect to see many attorneys, ministers and retirees. Popular writing genres will include fantasy, dystopia, and memoirs.

So, what about my “joke” characters I mentioned at the start of this post? One of the college students self-published her first fantasy novel on Kindle Direct Publishing when she was fifteen. An attorney who retired from corporate life is now busy making money by writing newsletters for companies and non-profits. The Minister is writing his memoirs and we kidded him that he probably has a raft of amazing stories to tell about the human condition. An experienced writer shared the stress and grief she felt writing a creative on-ficiton work about a heinous crime. As you can see, I may be the instructor, but there is plenty for me to learn from all the writers who will come and “re-create” with me this summer.