Note: It’s time to sign up for Julie Gammack’s Okoboji Writers and Songwriters Retreat! It will be held September 27-30 at Lake Okoboji, Iowa.
It’s a special event for writers and readers. You don’t have to be a writer to attend; you just have to appreciate the power of words and song. Some of the very best writers, filmmakers, and songwriters in the Middle West and beyond attend, as well as agents and publishers from across the country. Please join us. Your life will never be the same. There are no stuffy lectures, and there are people there whose mission is to empower you to be the best writer/reader you can be. If you are a writer, filmmaker, or songwriter, we are there to open doors for you, based on our collective hundreds of years of experience beating down those doors, some of which many writers don’t even know exist. Let us help you be the best you can be, and I assure you we will learn from you as well. There is no hierarchy—we are all students of the written world. The most common question asked is, “What do YOU write?”
This event powers me—gives me strength to write in these troubled times because I know I am part of a supportive community that really cares. Friendships are made, and lives change.
I love this event so much that in the few days following every retreat, I write a love letter to Julie Gammack, thanking her for the remarkable gifts she shares with us all.
Here is my letter from last year. Read it, and I think you will have some idea of the magic of the Okoboji Writers and Songwriters Retreat.
Please consider joining us!
Thanks to everyone who tuned into Kit’s and my video yesterday. I had fun talking with her about people who work in retail and listening to some of the stories she shared. Kit writes what I call “sticky” stories at The Voice of the Front Line. Sticky stories are stories that once you read or hear them, you want to tell them to others, again and again.
For example, I loved “Everyone Cries in the Fitting Room – What Torrid’s 200 Store Closures Really Cost: Is this an end to a fiercely supportive frontline community?
Kit’s 20+ years of experience in retail informs every story she tells. In anthropology and sociology, this is called participant observation, where the researcher becomes one of the people she studies. The insights gathered are important to understanding how human systems work from the perspective of an insider. A researcher from the outside would likely not gain the insights Kit does.
I hope you enjoy our discussion!
My column will always be free, but please consider upgrading to paid if you can afford it.
I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our recent work here. I also publish Cedar Creek Nature Notes, about Violet the Dog and my adventures on our morning walks at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area in Mahaska County, Iowa.
And I’m now on TikTok, believe it or not. Here you go.
