Parenting Archives - Julie Hartley

A Participant Perspective: Our Writing Retreat
A Participant Perspective: Our Writing Retreat

Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting

A Participant Perspective: Our Writing Retreat

The following article was sent to us by L.S., a participant on our recent family/solo writing tour to Costa Rica. She attended the retreat with her teenage daughters, who had previously also attended our arts programs at Centauri Summer Camp. A fortuitous conversation four years ago my daughters at a uniquely special camp called Centauri. The positive impact of Centauri has been vastly disproportionate to the time they’ve spent there which speaks volumes to its ability to affect young people. How two short weeks within an entire year can hold so much meaning is quite remarkable. I’ve never asked what the word Centauri means, allowing me to create my own encompassing definition: A place where kids can find their own rhythm, their own voice, a [...]

juliehartley2016-02-05T15:27:29-04:00February 5, 2016|Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting|

Costa Rica Writing Retreat
Costa Rica Writing Retreat

Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!

Costa Rica Writing Retreat

My first family/solo adult writing retreat to Costa Rica has now concluded – and what a wonderful week it was! Our group stayed at Finca Luna Nueva, a gorgeous bio-dynamic farm and lodge in the heart of the rain forest, where sloths lazed outside our windows and hummingbirds flitted past the pool. To kick start the week, I gave a reading – from The Finding Place, and from two new novels, one written (Beyond Chaos) and another in progress (The Hibernators). There followed six mornings of writing workshops – an hour long for the younger participants, and two hours for the adult writers. We explored surrealist writing prompts, looked at structure (and planned a novel!), discovered how fiction is inspired by life experience, tried out [...]

juliehartley2016-02-01T19:37:52-04:00February 1, 2016|Home Page, Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Why I Love to Write for Children

When my daughter was about six or so, we were walking in a forest. It was mid morning. She paused, looked up through the trees and saw the faint outline of a moon in the sky. She turned to me, wary and suspicious. “That should not be there,” she said. I was reminded of a similar feeling I had had at about the same age. I was walking home from school on my own, because that was still something six year olds could do, back then. Cutting across a park, I saw what was probably a carpet of mist and dew caused by English fog. I was certain, however, that it was an endless network of spider-like webs, suffocating the world. I ran home as [...]

juliehartley2015-11-04T16:28:25-04:00November 4, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Writing Beyond the First Draft

When I was a teenager, I didn’t know anyone else who wanted to write. I felt lonely and different, sitting in my bedroom, tapping out novels on my manual typewriter, while other teenage girls I knew spent their weekends hanging out in each other’s houses, talking about music and boys. I grew up in the North of England in a working class steel town where most kids saw me as fairly bizarre. The experience was profound, because without it, I wouldn’t have worked so hard to create communities for artistic kids. I wouldn’t have known how important it was that such places existed. But there is danger in thinking you are the only one. I didn’t know anyone else who wanted to be writers, so [...]

juliehartley2015-10-26T15:21:22-04:00October 26, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Young Writers!|

Why Do Some Young People NEED to Write?

Sometimes, parents of our campers tell us they are at a loss to understand their child. Brothers, sisters and cousins play hockey and soccer. They go to the same camps their parents went to as children. Then, there’s the young arts enthusiast. The child who wants to play music, act, make films, paint… or write. For some parents, this son or daughter may be tougher to understand. What drives them? Why do they need to do what they do? For these kids – the ones who stand out as being different in a family – going to an arts camp or taking creative workshops in the evenings after school can be life changing. It’s not only a way to develop their interests and talents. It’s [...]

juliehartley2015-09-17T13:33:52-04:00September 17, 2015|On Writing, Parenting, Young Writers!|

The Finding Place – Eight Days To Go!

Adopted from China: What does this mean? Kelly, the main character in The Finding Place, was adopted from China as a baby. While this is just one part of the mosaic that makes up her identity, when her father leaves the family, Kelly begins to question what it means to belong. Who were her birth parents? Why did she spend the first few months of her life in an orphanage? What does the Chinese part of herself truly mean? What is China even like? In the past 18 years, more than 100,000 children – mostly girls – have found their way from orphanages in China, into forever families all over the world. Why? Well, in many cases, their birth parents were unable to raise them [...]

juliehartley2015-09-07T15:20:49-04:00September 7, 2015|Parenting, The Finding Place, Uncategorized|

The Finding Place – Front Cover!
The Finding Place – Front Cover!

Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Uncategorized, Young Writers!

The Finding Place – Front Cover!

What a thrilling moment, to see the front cover of your novel for the very first time! And here it is. The background shows the Karst Peaks around Yangshuo, a magical landscape that features prominently in the novel.

juliehartley2015-05-15T16:10:45-04:00May 15, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, The Finding Place, Uncategorized, Young Writers!|

Creative Writing: Unplugging to Recharge

I have just finished reading Michael Harris’ wonderful and thought-provoking book, The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection. Harris encourages us to take a close look at what we might be losing, as all things technological and wired encroach upon our daily lives. He argues that we are moving toward knowledge and away from wisdom, that ‘manic disruption’ and the type of multitasking our wired lives encourage can lead to incredible stress. Having worked with thousands of teens over the years I would also argue that it leads to anxiety, depression, social insecurity and a host of other problems. I was thinking about Harris’ book as my writing students walked the labyrinth in High Park on Monday evening, [...]

juliehartley2015-05-07T02:16:28-04:00May 7, 2015|Life at Centauri, On Writing, Parenting, Young Writers!|

Creative Writing: It All Begins with the Daydream
Creative Writing: It All Begins with the Daydream

Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, Young Writers!

Creative Writing: It All Begins with the Daydream

Do we day dream enough these days? Do we tell ourselves stories in our heads for our own entertainment? See something unusual and ask ourselves, what if? Perhaps not. Ten years ago, perhaps twenty, we all had so-called dead time in our days. The walk to work or school. The moments spent relaxing in a bath. Time on public transit. Time spent waiting. And none of it was wasted. We day dreamed. Made plans. Formulated possible futures in our heads to see what they might look like. We imagined, and out of those imaginings ideas were born – some big, some to be discarded or smiled at, all of them worthwhile. These days, dead time has been killed. We fill it with texting, checking emails, [...]

juliehartley2015-05-05T01:32:26-04:00May 5, 2015|Home Page, On Writing, Parenting, Young Writers!|

10 Ways to Raise Great Readers

1. Read aloud together. Tell stories. Share stories. Make this a family activity. Relaxing, stillness, contemplation and shared experiences are essential in today’s hectic world. Families and communities have shared stories for thousands of years. Stories swapped, shared and discussed have always been an essential cultural pursuit. There are so many other demands on our time these days – but stories are as essential to the passing on wisdom – and the cementing of attachments – today as they have always been. 2. Make quiet time for reading. TV, MSN, surfing the web, texting, social media, video games… these activities often require less mental energy than reading a book. Set aside quiet time each day for reading and discussing… TV off, phones on silent. Start [...]

juliehartley2015-04-24T01:39:13-04:00April 24, 2015|Parenting|