SCGS Writers Interest Group

Meets: Tuesdays & Sundays of each months (check calendar)
Hours: Weekdays 12-2 p.m. and Sundays 1-3pm.
Location: 417 Irving Drive, Burbank, CA 91504
Southern California Genealogy Society building
Contact: Jean Snow

Jean Snow is a teacher, freelance writer and lecturer with editorial experience in newsletters and quarterlies. She has found the perfect niche at SCGS as columnist for the Searcher and facilitator of the Writers Group, combining her passion for genealogy with writing and teaching. She earned her BA and MA in French and English from New York State College for Teachers (now SUNY, Albany) and has additional credits from New York and Southampton Universities, AdelphiSuffolk Community College (New York), Amherst College (Massachusetts), and Tacoma Community College (Washington). She translated A History of Medieval Latin Literature by Maurice Hélin (New York, William Salloch, 1948), was a columnist for Chapman Family Association Quarterly. Her articles have been published in Heritage Quest, American Astrology, Doll World, Crone Chronicles, The Mountain Astrologer, the online Sapphire Magazine, and various newspapers, and has won several prizes for poetry.

The Writers Group meets twice monthly. Any member of SCGS is welcome to join. Please e-mail Jean Snow, group leader, to confirm the scheduled date or time (which occasionally must be changed).

In the Writers Group you'll learn how to find and weave into your tales historical events and social customs to enliven the dry names and dates of your ancestors. Specifically, you'll learn how to:

publish

Raymonde Motil, a member of our group, describes our Group as follows:

writer's group
sometimes there are three of us, sometimes twenty
we come to sit at our writer's table in a corner of the library
we come to tell our stories, all that we remember
we talk about our childhood, our parents, our relatives

we reach far into the past and bring it into the now
we listen to the telling and we impress each other and say wow

sometimes things get out of hand,
one talks too much too long and reminiscing can be tedious…

sometimes the genealogist in all of us gets tangled in family trees
the techie puts forth heaps of how-to's and do's, dont's and " did you ever try this''?

often we tell about first times, births, deaths, celebrations, school days, family homes ,
farms, beloved pets, and cities near and far away

always we come back to writing: how to write, what to write, why to write.
the grandparents, the sisters and brothers, the soldier uncle, the spinster aunt,
the beautiful mother, the funny cousin all come tumbling from our pages

always, a narrative touches our heart or our funny bone
forgotten thoughts are awakened
and our own journeys are brought to mind

we return to the writer's table because we need to tell our stories to other storytellers
we return because we need to hear a good tale
because we know our people wanted us to remember
because we want our children to know and remember

in the end we have a good time
we get inspired
we have writing to do

- Raymonde