Better Than Fiction: Writing Your Memoir With Flair @ the WMML
Presented by the Inlandia Institute with Instructor Marj Charlier

Join us for Better Than Fiction: Writing Your Memoir With Flair @ the WMML, presented by the Inlandia Institute with instructor Marj Charlier.  This is the fifth part of a series of five memoir writing workshops (ending November 30th) offered for FREE to the public (advanced sign-up is requested). The workshops will be from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. in the Cornelia White Community Room at the Welwood Murray Memorial Library (WMML) located at 100 S. Palm Canyon Dr., in downtown Palm Springs. To sign-up, email your information to inlandiamemoir@gmail.com or register directly online.

Session 5, November 30th: Self-editing and Publishing Your Memoir—What Are Your Options? a

We’ll try some editing exercises and discuss your options for hiring editors and taking your memoir to print. 

Memoirs don’t have to read like diaries or timelines. The best ones are written like good novels—with the same literary trappings that make great romances and mysteries come alive. This seminar will help memoir writers turn their memoirs into compelling stories, with the same dialogue, description, pacing and narration that make fictional protagonists jump off the page. This five-session hands-on workshop will feature in-class exercises and real-time, constructive feedback for both those who’ve started their memoir and those who want to get started.

Bring your laptop or your notebook, and join the fun in this free workshop series offered by the Inlandia Institute.

Marj Charlier received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State University (Phi Beta Kappa) and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She worked at small and mid-sized dailies before joining the Wall Street Journal as a staff reporter. After twenty years in journalism, she received an MBA from Regis University and began a second career in corporate finance. As a VP of investor relations, she coordinated financial reporting for public companies, wrote executive speeches, and did competitive and financial analysis.  

She published her first novel Putt for Show in 2013 as she was retiring from business. She then wrote the sequel Drive for Dough and three other novels about women facing major career and life changes: Hacienda: A South American Romance, Professional Lies and Thwack! She wrote two romance novels under the pseudonym Marjorie Pinkerton Miller: One Way to Succeed and No Way to Win (Boutique Hotels of Palm Springs Romances). More recently, she published the first two novels in her Johnson Station series about a small town in Iowa rescued by a group of retired women: Gracie’s Revolution and Jackie’s Campaign. She is currently writing the third Johnson Station novel, is working on a memoir and owns a small, hybrid publishing company.

Marj was born in Iowa, has lived in eight states as an adult, and now resides in Palm Springs, CA with her husband. She has attended the Iowa Writers Workshop’s summer intensive novel-writing program and currently serves on the boards of the Palm Springs branch of the National League of American Pen Women and the Diamond Valley Writers Guild. She also serves on the publication board for Inlandia Institute and leads workshops for the organization in Palm Springs.