Dillon Beach, California and my first experience conducting a Writing Workshop by Juliana Aragón Fatula

/in /by
My Chicana Garden of Eden 2018

Dear Reader.

I have an update on the post I wrote in 2016. My favorite cousin, my sister, my friend, Aimee Medina Carr, was my first attempt at helping another writer break into the world of publishing. It was at Dillon Beach, California that we worked on her first novel and dreamed of someday getting it published. I’m proud to announce that on September 24, 2019 her first book, River of Love will be released by Homebound Publications.

Aimee’s blog page can be found at the following link:

aimeemedinacarr.com

Juliana and Aimee at Dillon Beach, CA


The week we spent writing at the beach has come full circle and now she can add her name to the long list of Chicana writers. Her novel is a coming of age about two young Chicana’s growing up in Southern Colorado. It’s not memoir but the characters are eerily similar to me and Aimee

So please check out her website and her publisher and watch for updates to her release. I will keep you posted to her journey as a first time writer. 

Dillon Beach is a hideaway that sits along
the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco. It is one of my favorite places in the
world. It was at Dillon Beach that I held my first writing workshop. My sister, Aimée, listened to
an interview by Sandra Cisneros on NPR and called me from her home in
California very excited. She wasn’t making sense. She threw out words like
writing on the beach, workshop, Sandra, me, her, the Pacific Highway,
Airstream, seals, fishermen, Bodega Bay, and the River of Love.

She invited me to visit her in California
for a couple of weeks. Relatives and fish stink after three days, but we were
more than family, we were best friends for 45 years. She kept the notes from
high school that I wrote to her and we had a grand time laughing about how
silly we were in the 1970’s. Apparently, I was a writer even back then, I had
no idea I would become a member of the Sandra Cisneros Macondo Writers Workshop
or that Sandra would become my mentor and friend. I told my husband, “I’m going
to a writing retreat in California and if you know what’s good for you – help
me pack.” He was happy to send me away. Two weeks of eating out and watching
sports and hunting shows on TV for him and a wife coming home rested, grateful,
and happy.

I enjoyed my train ride across the west
and wrote about what I viewed out the window. The Rocky Mountains past Denver,
the Utah Canyons, the wild Mustangs, the rural train stops in small towns. 

We drove to Dillon Beach along the Pacific
Coast highway. It was July and the eucalyptus trees gave off a magical scent.
The sand between my toes, walking on the beach in sunrise and sunset hours,
visiting small towns on the coast for shopping and dining out, sharing stories,
listening to our favorite Neil Young songs, dancing in the moonlight. It was a
transcendent awakening.

I worked on my manuscript, Gathering
Momentum: A Spiritual Memoir. I read poetry and meditated. I walked alone on
the beach and watched baby seals swimming out to sea.

At night, the solar panels would shut down
the electricity and we switched to lanterns and candles. It was sublime. Our time was spent enjoying the fresh sea air, and the
sky full of birds. I learned how to coach someone writing their first novel,
she learned how hard it is to write well. I shared Sandra’s writing wisdom: “If
you’re going to write, don’t be good, be great.” We set our expectations high.

At the end of the two weeks I rode the
train home to Colorado and relived the experience as I wrote in my journal. It
was the happiest two weeks I’d had in a long time. To be with someone you love,
with the freedom to write or read all day long uninterrupted, to walk the
beach, collect sea stones and starfish, to read poetry and meditate, to be free to be a writer; it was the
perfect atmosphere and we worked our asses off.  

Aimée finished her manuscript, River of Love and began submitting short
stories on my recommendation. You’ll never get published if you don’t submit.
She has helped more than she
knows. She gave me confidence when I had none. She encouraged me with her words
and wisdom and gave me a room of my own in Dillon Beach and I will forever be
grateful.  
I have other news about my work. The poet laureate of Colorado, Joseph Hutchinson, invited me to submit work for a project he created for educators K-12. It is a colorado encyclopedia with search words for teachers and students to find poetry by local poets in Colorado. I am proud to be part of this great program. I have added a link to the site. I hope you will take a peek at what I’ve been up to with my writing.


 https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/juliana-aragón-fatula
Juliana Aragón Fatula is a member of the
Macondo Writers’ Workshop, founded by Sandra Cisneros, which is a group of
dedicated and compassionate writers who view their work and talents as part of
a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change. Crazy Chicana in Catholic City  and  Red Canyon Falling on Churches, was published
by Conundrum Press, Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press published her chapbook, The Road I Ride Bleeds. Her poetry has
appeared in Open Windows III, El Tecolote and Pilgrimage; she is currently
writing a mystery.