Mission Accomplished - jk cosmos (excerpt- upcoming novel)

 

Mission Accomplished

 

Sitting in the back row of class, knitting to stay awake, she couldn't quite believe the long days and nights. Law School and the dense readings, monotone lecturers, droning on about the law and their heydays. Night school.  Why?  Because, tuition is only one part of the equation, there’s living...yup, rent and food and getting around. Filling the gas tank and keeping up insurance & car payments. So, why law?  Why not! 

            That’s the thread of the life of a girl, in the back row, knitting and listening and thinking that she will actually effectuate positive change.  It’s the glue for the belief, however, pollyanna, that she will make a difference.  The ticket is the law degree and passing the Bar.  Ahhh, passing the bar.  What can that do in the long run?  It’s too early to think too hard on that piece.

            She had a date with a Greek guy, that her father had fixed her up with. Again, that ethnic bit despite living in Cambridge, away from her folks.  She agreed, to please her dad, thinking as she put away her knitting and books in the various bags that perhaps she’d been too agreeable. She was a bit tired, crammed in with over fifty students in a hot room, above a retail space on Newbury Street, which was the good news, being in the city and not isolated in some suburban campus.

Memoir- Teaching - Taught - & Thinking about...in these harsh days of Global Pandemic!

 

Memoir Writing – Jeanne K. Cosmos, JD, MFA

What is Memoir?

How is Memoir different than Autobiography?

Where does one start?  At the beginning?  Somewhere that is a transformational moment?

Prompts and support in writing from memory to create an engaging narrative is an ongoing process.

 

Series One Writers’ Workshops

“Memoir – Writing with a Perspective that is Introspective & Engaging”

 

Memoir Workshops are designed for the development of a narrative of self that is meaningful and introspective.  The work also focusses on engagement with audience.

This work is practical, concrete, and definitively transformative.

Workshops are writing and reading intensive. Creating language and narrative with words that communicate in tone and purpose is a major component of the series.

All of this can be engaged at personal levels of development and commitment.

The workshop is individualized from beginners to expert writers; allowing for variance of experience among participants. It is your passion for and commitment to writing that is important

Experimental, collaborative, and collage writing will be explored and encouraged. So, bring it.

The peer editing piece is crucial to the process of writing, as is the writing prompts during the group meetings.

Instructor: Jeanne K. Cosmos

Juris Doctor, Masters in Fine Arts-Creative Writing

Course Dates/Time

 

 

Writing Prompt - & this is what I got...Time restricted...

 

February 24, 2005

Three Characters from your past – come to you & say they want you to write about them.  Who are they & why do they want you to write about them?

-In the 3^rd grade, the class of Mary Lyons Elementary School was tested for a new accelerated education Program, in the city of Boston.  Eddie Madden was in my class.  He had blond curly hair, blue eyes and a very engaging smile.  Everyone liked him.

He was one of the students chosen for the 25 selected to learn @ the accelerated pace.  He participated & kept up with the class from 4^th to 6^th grade.  The class went on through 8^th grade; but Eddie dropped out at 6^th.  He was a gentle, kind boy.  He asked m to write about him – his kindness and potential – his friendly & open demeanor – because I knew him, then.  I knew the boy.

Eddie asked me to write about him – as he sits in MCI-Walpole – now known as MCI Cedar Junction. He sits there- for the rest of his productive life & will remain incarcerated – with little hope of accomplishing the potential of the boy.  Eddie asked me to write about him; as a remembrance of lost innocence, of positive energy and of the people that had hopes for his success & for his happiness.

 

My maternal grandmother asked me to write about her – as she believed in a community; where both men and women could succeed & surpass the generation before them.  She wants me to write about her to honor her support of her son and daughters, grandchildren and great-grand-children, having none herself.

She encourages her children, to read, to excel at school and to do their best.