Resource Tips · Speakers · Writing Tips

A HISTORY OF ME

Led by David Burton, MU Extension community development specialist, the program uses a guided journal to prompt memories and conversation about childhood, family, school, work, relationships, important milestones, life lessons and the wisdom we hope to pass along to others.

Participants don’t need to consider themselves writers. The goal isn’t to produce a polished autobiography. Instead, A History of Me provides questions and prompts that help people remember, reflect, talk and begin preserving the stories that might otherwise be lost.

The program also creates opportunities for participants to share memories with one another. Those conversations can strengthen relationships, build community and remind us that seemingly ordinary experiences often become some of our most meaningful stories.

Participants receive a complimentary A History of Me booklet to continue recording memories after the program.

Your life is history. Your memories are stories. And your story is worth preserving.


David Burton will present this workshop October 24, 2026, at the Schweitzer-Brentwood Library in Springfield, MO, at 11:30 a.m.

Resource Tips

Historical Fiction

Click on the book to order or click on the author’s name to go to their website. Young adult historical fiction is listed at the bottom.

J.C. Perry
Nicolas Weyland
Nicolas Weyland
Resource Tips

Romance

Western Romance by Sonny D. Stone
Sweet Romance by Dorothy Davidson, and Judy Tarbox

Sweet Romance by Marilyn K. Smith
Mafia and Inconvenient Romance by Savanna Golden

Romantic Comedy by Ann Stang
Sweet Romance by Shirley McCann

Western Romance by Sharon Kizziah-Holmes

SLOW BURN /COMING OF AGE by Dana Pitchford (D.L. Pitchford)

Resource Tips

Author Expo Day -April 29, 2025

Each year, the Christian County Library in Nixa presents an Author Expo Day featuring local authors. Many of the Springfield Writers’ Guild members attended and showcased their books.

Shown l-r:

Susan Keene, Sharon Kizziah-Holmes, Paula Moore, Michelle Underwood, JJ Renek, LaDonna Greiner, Linda Harper, Jan Bailey, Jaime Cole, Shirley McCann, Chuck Robertson, Lynn Combs.

Resource Tips

Plotting: Knowing Which Scenes to Include

writing in notebookHow do writers know which scenes to include and which ones to summarize?

Jody Hedlund, best-selling author of over a dozen YA medieval novels, offers a few great tips on writing scenes.  She says:

“Obviously we can’t write every scene that takes place over the time period of our books which usually spans weeks or months. We have to narrow down how much of our story and character’s lives we reveal on the page. That means we often have to summarize events or leave them out entirely with the assumption that our readers will piece everything together without having to know every detail.

There’s not a hard, fast rule or formula for which scenes to write out in detail and which ones to summarize, but there are a few principles we can keep in mind when choosing scenes to include in our books… 

Read more

Source: jodyhedlund.blogspot.com