Memoir Body, Healing Story with Janelle Hardy

As if that's not enough, they founded The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic in 2016, where they teach creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales.

Click, click, click. As usual, I found Sara and Brittany because I'm insatiably curious and am also deeply devoted to procrastination and avoidance of whatever I 'should' be doing by doing 'research' instead.

This 'research' looks like virtuous 'prep' for programs that are already set up. So, confession over, I simply enjoy exploring ideas and people out there in the world, and the internet makes it outrageously easy to waste time indulging in my curiosity.

In this case, I'm grateful. Sara and Brittany are fellow story-lovers and kindred spirits, and as eclectically curious and entrepreneurial as me. Here's a little more about them and their school:

They both earned their PhDs in English and Folklore from The Ohio State University in 2018 and their MAs from George Mason University in 2012, two of the best folklore programs in the US, and together they have a combined 26 years in higher education and over three dozen publications.

In 2019, The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic received the Dorothy Howard Prize from the Folklore and Education Section of the American Folklore Society, an award that honors those who "us[e] folklore in educational settings in rich and meaningful ways […] both within and outside the classroom" - they praised Carterhaugh as "a folk school for the digital age." An online center for classes on topics like fairy tales, legends, and more, Carterhaugh is also a community of people who love the magic of folklore.

Together, Sara and Brittany have authored over three dozen publications - non-fiction, fiction, and poetry - in such venues as Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, Gramarye, Uncanny Magazine, Enchanted Living, Mythic Delirium, and many more.

They're also devoted cat minions, gif masters, obsessed with chai, and 100% B.F.F.s of more than a decade. They love red lipstick, decadent Gothic novels, and totally crush "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at karaoke.

It was so lovely to connect with Sara and Brittany, and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy listening in.

• Website: http://www.carterhaughschool.com
• Freebie: https://carterhaughschool.com/carterhaugh-folk-magic/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/carterhaughschool

In this brief episode, I offer you a body-based writing prompt that sources from your brain teeth. You know, that part of you that 'chews on words'.

Take in the exploration, then set and timer and flow write for somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes. See what arises. Enjoy!

And then, for more guidance on somatic body writing, personal transformation and memoir-writing, go to my website, janellehardy.com to get started.

And since it's one that's often chosen, I'm reading this classic version, but if the story resonates with you, I really encourage you to read and listen to a few different versions, and make the story your own.

I had fond memories of watching this story come to life on the stage of my daughter's Grade 8 class. Each of her classmates stepped into their role, and my daughter relished the wildly wicked and lascivious version of the Wolf.

What a delight to watch, a young woman getting a chance to step into the theatrical shoes of a predator, a 'bad guy', rather than be the prey (although, of course, someone else was in the role of prey, of Little Red).

Stick around after the story for some guidance on working with tales like this, and your personal stories, and then, to start your own personal mythmaking go to my website at www.janellehardy.com to get started with my free on-demand workshop, Outline Your Memoir Using Fairy Tale and Myth as Your Guide.

I'm truly excited to share this conversation with Molly because she is, hands down, one of the most incredible writers I know, and I can't wait for her to get her memoir published so I can read it and share it with as many people as possible.

She's also a phenomenal astrologer, deep thinker, and someone who delights in learning.

In fact, Molly is also an alumni of my transformational memoir-writing course, The Art of Personal Mythmaking. She's taken it twice, and we talk some about her experiences in my course and how it's supported her memoir writing but also her healing path.

But first, a little more about Molly. And, soak it up. It's her bio, written by herself, so although I'm reading it, it's all Molly's wordplay…

Molly always wanted to be a writer and she suspects she was a real one long before she dared admit to it. As a child, she fell in love with books and reading. She wanted to know the true personality of every member of the alphabet and contemplate why and how a good pun could shimmer.

Eventually, she became a writer by trade, and brazenly enjoyed her skilled affront to all things literary as she composed zip-tinsel copy for products she could never care about while churning out listicles, sometimes for the more futile periodicals slumming in the back corners of the internet.

She has worked in most of the ways a keyed-up logophile will: editor, essayist, joke writer, ghost writer, speech writer, copywriter, caption writer, content writer, in sum, as a Freelance Writer. "Freelance" does originate as an adjective (reliant on a pen = sword metaphor) to describe marauding soldiers-for-hire beholden to no one, except themselves.

Pennington wields her "lance" with rowdy elegance and surefire handicraft on projects to which she is under contract as well as when she is free.

She is at work on her memoir, Mad River: Autopsy of Father/Daughter Love & Hate, that chronicles how she discovered her father's 38 page suicide diary that recounts a performance of death and confession—after which she's plunged into an odyssey where she uncovers the mysteries of the father she never knew and could never have imagined. A disturbing, illuminative, and finally, transformative process.

She received a PhD in Critical and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh where she taught courses in English, Film, and Visual Culture for 13 years. She's won several writing awards (prestigious and obscure) and is eschewing here the convention of listing them out.)

Recently, she experienced a fusion between her prior academic obsessions and her study of ancient astrology. Both interests in structural archetypes found a kindred alignment with her joy in articulating experience as lyrical and poetic.

She is a lifelong theorist around the ways we make meaning-- around the ways puns and similar word plays and metaphors, can shimmer. You can find her astrological chart consultations at Baroque Moon Astrology and her writing life at Molly Pennington.

It was so lovely to connect with Molly, and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy listening in.

• Writer site: www.mollypennington.com
• Astrology site: www.baroquemoonastrology.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baroque_moon/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/baroque_moon

In this brief episode, I offer you a body-based writing prompt that sources from your hair.

Take in the exploration, then set and timer and flow write for somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes. See what arises. Enjoy!

Stick around after the story for some guidance on working with tales like this, and your personal stories, and then, to start your own personal mythmaking go to my website at www.janellehardy.com to get started with my free on-demand workshop, Outline Your Memoir Using Fairy Tale and Myth as Your Guide.

Her short fiction and poetry have been published in multiple journals and anthologies including Into the Forest, Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, Arterial Bloom, Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, Weird Dream Society, Hath No Fury, and the HWA Poetry Showcase (Vol. V, VI, and VIII).

She has also written stories set in shared worlds for RPGs at Green Ronin Publishing and Onyx Path Publishing. In addition to writing, she has edited several projects; the most recent is in the role as co-editor for Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas.

As an educator, Carina has taught at Pikes Peak Community College, Glendale Community College, and Arizona State University. She also participated in the Colorado Writing Project and works with educators to develop writing instruction in college and secondary school classrooms.

She currently offers workshops focused on story generation at The Storied Imaginarium.

Her fiction has been nominated for the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award and was a finalist for the Ron L. Hubbard Writers of the Future Awards. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award. In her editorial capacity, she's received recognition as a Finalist at the Colorado Book Awards 2022 (Anthology) and as a Finalist in the Fiction: Anthologies category of the 2022 International Book Awards.

It was so lovely to connect with Carina, and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy listening in.

So here we go!

Take in the exploration, then set and timer and flow write for somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes. See what arises. Enjoy!

For more offerings like this, go to my website, janellehardy.com.

Sit back and enjoy having a story told to you.

Let your body and your soul soak up the essence of the story magic and medicine.

Stick around after the story for some guidance on working with tales like this, and your personal stories, and then, to start your own personal mythmaking go to my website at www.janellehardy.com to get started with my free on-demand workshop, Outline Your Memoir Using Fairy Tale and Myth as Your Guide.

The way I met Heidi is another delightful story of people following their interests through clicks until, eventually, the connection point happens.

In 2018, I was a guest on Amber Magnolia Hill's podcast, Medicine Stories. Heidi listened to our conversation, then looked me up and subscribed to my newsletter list. I had no idea.

She stayed on my newsletter list, and then, last year, just after I'd discovered a delightfully genuine quilter named Zak Foster on Instagram and started following him, I saw a post he shared about a collaboration he does with Heidi. So i clicked through and though, oooo, another neat textile artist.

Then, I sent out a newsletter story about a program I offer called Blood Mending. The referrence to hand sewing and mending caught Heidi's attention and she replied to the e-mail to share her response. And then, we slowly became friends and collaborators.

So of course, I want to have her on the podcast, because we're kindred spirits and more importantly, she does things that have to do with the themes of this podcast and my work – working with personal stories through art – in Heidi's case, quilts – and an interest in healing, the body and story. Here's a little more about her before we jump into the conversation…

Before Heidi Parkes was born in Chicago, IL in 1982, her grandmother organized a collaborative family quilt to commemorate her birth. This set the tone for a life centered on the handmade- raised in a home where sewing, mending, cooking, canning, woodworking, photography, ceramics, painting, and plasterwork were the norm.

Now based in Milwaukee, her quilting and mending celebrate the hand, and her works tug at memories and shared experience. Often using specific textiles, like an heirloom tablecloth, bed sheet, or cloth teabag, Heidi adds subtle meaning and material memory from the start.

Ever curious, she works with a variety of quilting techniques including visible hand piecing and knots, improvisation, patchwork, and applique.

Heidi pursues her passion for teaching by lecturing and leading workshops, and shares her creative process with thousands on Instagram. Heidi has exhibited in art and textile museums across the country and was an Artist in Residence at Milwaukee's Lake Park through the ARTservancy with Gallery 224 in fall 2020-21.

Additionally, Heidi lives a handmade lifestyle, sewing her own clothes, fermenting, eating from pottery she made a decade ago, and practicing hand yoga, which she shares with other creatives on her YouTube channel.

It was so lovely to connect with Heidi, and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy listening in.

Website: www.heidiparkes.com