Los Angeles Area

Len Wayne
Newport Beach
E-mail: Len Wayne

A writer with extensive experience in advertising and marketing, Len Wayne is also a comedy writer who combines many interests in his lifewriting programs. An adept interviewer and profiler, he offers full biography services from first interview to final production for individuals, families and businesses.

Libby Atwater
Choose Your Words
Ventura
E-mail: Libby Atwater


Libby Atwater is a journalist, teacher, and personal historian who has extensive experience writing for nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, magazines, community newspapers, and businesses.

She began recording life stories in 1997 and added life writing classes to her repertoire in 2001. She wrote the books If You Don't Try, You Don't Get and Still Serving and is currently writing Before I Forget and her own memoir, Silver Lining.

Pat Cuellar
Auburn
E-mail: Pat Cuellar
Pat Cuellar is a freelance writer who holds a BA in journalism. She offers workshops on the topic of entrepreneurship as well as Turning Memories^® programs in the Sacramento area.

"Each of us has a story to tell," writes Lisa Lehr Dodd. "However ordinary they may seem to us, each life is unique and unrepeatable. I believe that someday someone will want to read about you!"

Lisa has diverse interest in her local community--she's an art docent at a local school and an instructor in a therapeutic horsebackriding program and volunteers with an oral history group at Empire Mine State Park.

Though she has a university degree in science, she has been an active writer since adolescence. Her credits include nearly every genre--novel, essays, stories and magazine articles.

She views her work with seniors to support the collection of their lifestories and the satisfying work of crafting well-written memoirs as an extension of her lifelong interests in writing and teaching.

Mary Hurst
Nevada City
E-mail: Mary Hurst

Mary Hurst has had an exciting life and has done a lot of journaling, dreamwork and writing about it, so leading others through the processes of lifewriting in Turnig Memories^® workshops is a natural extension. A social services worker for many years, Mary has lead seminars, groups and classes on a variety of topics.

Today she works as a writer, co-authoring personal histories for individuals and editing articles, especially for therapists and healers sharing information about their work. She is curretly writing the story of her husband's terminal illness and their journey through his death at home three years ago.

Larry Sherman
Citrus Heights
E-mail: Larry Sherman

Larry Sherman has extensive experience in the classroom, teaching elementary, secondary and college level writing and composition. He feels a deep satisfaction in helping students to value their thoughts and experiences and to find a voice to express themselves. In leading lifewriting workshops with a variety of age groups, he seeks to provide a solid foundation in the technical tools of writing while creating a supportive and attentive atmosphere that promotes reflection and expression.

A resident of the Sacramento area for 25 years, he is currently at work on a collection of his own lifestories written in letter format. Incorporating memories, hopes, frustrations and joys, A Heart Full of Love: Letters Without Postmarks chronicles a tumultuous and life-changing period in his parenting years.

San Diego Area

Jo'el Roth
LifeWriters
San Diego
E-mail: Jo'el Roth

Jo'el is a freelance journalist whose articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines for over a decade. She is a certified Turning Memories affiliate, and offers Lifewriting workshops, seminars, coaching, and editing.

Jo'el enjoys helping people tell their stories. She believes that everybody travels a unique and meaningful journey that should be shared. "By using Denis Ledoux' unique Turning Memories into Memoirs^® Curriculum, it is easy for anybody to write their memoirs. It is important work: I have seen wonderful things happen during the process. It mines deep meaning from our lives, and provides healing for each family member."

Jo'el has been working as a Sales Engineer in the technical world of electronics, while at the same time working in the creative world of journalism. She is currently a regular columnist for The San Diego Downtown News. Her monthly column, "Downtown Walkaround," is focused on the working people of San Diego.

"I interview the waiters and waitresses, the car valets and hotel front desk clerks. Aside from the prominant 'Captains of Industry,' these are the people who keep the town vibrant, who do the real work of making the city what it is. Everybody, truly, has a fascinating story to tell." She also writes personality profiles for San Diego Senior Lifestyles Newspaper, as well as travel articles for The La Jolla Village News. Her business and technical articles have also appeared regularly in many national trade publications.

Her sales assignments have taken her from South America and Europe to Japan. She continues to perfect her Spanish and Japanese language skills in order to better embrace the unique wisdom of every culture and language.

San Francisco Area

Marilyn Geary
Circle of Life Stories
Mill Valley
E-mail: Marilyn Geary

Marilyn Geary discovered at a young age that writing is a creative and enormously rewarding activity. A UC Berkeley graduate with creative writing and oral history specialties, she conducted her first lifestory project with Sicilian-American fishermen on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.

Since then she has produced many oral histories for a diverse series of clients and projects. As an instructional designer with a Master's Degree in Educational Technologies, Marilyn is adept at tailoring materials and presentations in a variety of media to individual needs.

She is especially interested in cross-generational writing projects and has been strongly influenced by the work of C.G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Clara Pinkola Estes.

Marilyn Geary offers a wide variety of personal history services in addition to Turning Memories workshops and seminars.

---

Pat Milton
San Leandro
E-mail: Pat Milton

Pat Milton began her writing career as a photojournalist in the U.S. Coast Guard. She has been awarded both the prestigious Alex Haley Award and the Thomas Jefferson Award for excellence in photo-journalism. More recently, Pat's personal essays have appeared in the San Jose Mercury News and on KQED-FM's "Perspective" series.

Pat conducts 8-week classes and one-day workshops throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and invites you to call for a schedule.
She offers private editing and memoir coaching sessions, too.

---

Linda Joy Myers
Richmond
E-mail: Linda Joy Myers


Linda Joy Myers, MFA, Ph.D., is a licensed therapist in Berkeley. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Her book, Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story was on the Marin Bestseller's list in 2003. Vignettes from her memoir, Don't Call Me Mother, have won multiple prizes, including first prize in the 2004 Jack London Writing Conference contest and Honorable Mention in a Writers Digest Contest, 2004.

Linda combines art, clinical work and lifestory writing in the workshops and programs she offers.

" I invite writers to explore their lives in terms of meaning, healing, and expressing the forbidden stories within. Learning how to write with punch and accuracy of phrase is also important. I encourage all writers to freewrite regularly in order to speed past the inner critic and write the scary, tough stories. These are invaluable in the writer's healing process, and often very meaningful ones to share with others who are looking for permission and encouragement to write their own truths."

Linda's workshops are fully described on her website, memoriesandmemoirs.com.

---

Hawaii | Los Angeles | Sacramento |San Diego | San Francisco

---

return to TOP | USA Affiliates by Region | Teacher Training & Certification | Bookstore

Professional Editing Services | Turning Memories MAIN page