"When we are young, what happens is not nearly as important as what we think happens. Perhaps that is true even when we are not so young." - from Robert Ebert's 1995 review of the film "Hope and Glory"
storytelling, southern storytelling, southern memoir, creative memoir, ouachita, louisiana stories, family dysfunction, west monroe, louisiana, childhood memories, 50's stories, 1950's, humor, southern humor, public reading
You Go Girl
Linda Rae & her sisters, August, 1957
FAMILY PHOTO
2007 PERFORMANCES
Guest Speaker, National League of American Pen Women -
Chesapeake Bay Branch "Finding Your Voice in Writing"
March 10
Reading at VCU School of Nursing Administrators Retreat Richmond, VA
July 19
Linda Rae's 2nd CD - Ouachita Girl, Volume 2 Fall of 2007
Ms. Johnson credits her first summer in 1997 at the Nimrod Writers Retreat in Bath County, Virginia (and instructor Charlotte Morgan) where she wrote "Monopoly at Twelve," the first vignette of "Ouachita Girl." She continues to write and is now working on vignette # 23.
Two of her stories have been published in the Allegheny/Bath County literary journal, "Lumina." Her writings and performances have been covered in Richmond Magazine, Style Weekly and Punchline.
Past Performances Include:
2006
Linda Rae returns to Nimrod Writers Retreat August 6-12
Reading Café Gutenburg Cafe Richmond, VA
March 29, 7:30PM
Red Hat Society Meeting January 2
2005
Reading for MCV Surgery Department Administrators December 6
Speaker "Finding Your Voice" at Chesapeake Bay Writers Club
Yorktown, VA
September 21
Private Party August 8
Linda Rae attends West Virginia Writers Workshop WVU
Morgantown
July 20-24
Reading at Maggie's Matthews, VA
June 12
Reading at Beth Shalom Gardens April 10
2004
Reading Heritage Green November 10
Reading Main Library West Monroe, LA.
October 7
2PM
Interview with Adam Giblin on KDAQ-NPR Station
Shreveport, LA
October 6
Reading Ouachita Parish Main Library,
Monroe, LA.
October 5
7PM
Interview with Sunny Meriwether on KEDM-NPR Station
Monroe, LA.
October 3
In July of 1997 at a family get-together, my three sisters and I got into a lively, heated and humorous discussion about our childhood on the Ouachita River in northeast Louisiana. We laughed about the craziness of it all, recalling incidences that had buried themselves in the subconscious of our minds. In that evening of discussion, we came back to the one argument that had been going on for years, "Who really cheated at Monopoly?"
There we were, grown women in our forties still defending our innocence and as always, trying to pull Mama into it, appealing to her to be the arbitrator. She has refused in our adult life to play that role.
That evening I returned home and wrote "Monopoly at Twelve," the beginning of "Ouachita Girl." From the first word, I became Linda Rae again and knew I had discovered a voice within myself that had something to say. As I slowly embarked on recreating those days in Lousiana filled with humor, spirit and dark tones of what I refer to as "Southern Discomfort" the voice became a part of me. In the editing process, as I read and re-read each story aloud, I realized I had reconnected to that child within myself.
My hope is that Linda Rae will touch that child within you, recalling some of your own childhood memories with fondness. I celebrate the child within us all because it gives us hope, belief in ourselves and keeps us forever young.
E-mail Linda Rae at: rae_writer@msn.com
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