The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

Presentations: Anne Webster

MY SISTER'S REFLECTION

I keep a picture of my sister beside my computer, her eyes trained on me, as though to see that I’m working. And if anyone could provoke an attack of conscience at whiling away time, it’s Rosemary Daniell.

Rosemary, who has published eight books including Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (And Sisterhood) Can Change Women’s Lives, conducts her Zona Rosa writing workshops all over this country and in Europe. The Atlanta chapter meets at my house, where Rosemary occupies the guest room. She generally arrives one day early and immediately goes to work reading participants’ manuscripts. Though her guidelines say that she will critique only ten pages, she often becomes caught up in someone’s story and reads far more. After dinner she puts aside the writing samples and goes to bed early, so that she can get up and begin again. As much as I like to chat with her when she’s here, I hesitate to interrupt her concentration as she reads and marks pages non-stop.

When the members arrive that evening for Zona Rosa, she’s had a nap, put on fresh makeup and pretty high heels. Not a trace of her labor shows while she seemingly without effort leads the group for the next four to five hours. Only I know the work she puts into her Zona Rosa preparations, the phone calls she makes to check on members, and the hours she spends answering e-mails. If that were not enough to devote to her students, she must also forego writing projects of her own.

So those days when I might prefer to lie about and read a good book or go shopping or out to lunch, I sit down at my computer and get to work on whatever essay, poem, or memoir is my current project. The example Rosemary has set inspires me to do the best work I’m capable of. Without the image of Rosemary typing away on her laptop or scribbling in purple ink always in my mind as I work, I would never have accomplished the writing publications that comprise my résumé. I will forever be grateful to my sister for her demonstration of the writer’s life and the dedication it requires.