Elaine Ambrose

Bestselling Author, Ventriloquist, & Humorist

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Writing Workshop for Losers

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Writing Workshop for Losers
(Who Can Become Winners)

Do you feel like a failure? You’re not alone. Hundreds of writers have received caustic rejection letters, nasty reviews, and public insults, and some of those came from their family members. However, many people overcome the disappointment to achieve recognition and gather rewards for their talents.

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION.

Losers who want to become winners are invited to attend a productive, empowering workshop on October 4-5, 2019, facilitated by bestselling author Elaine Ambrose in the Saloon near Spurwing in Meridian, Idaho. Through interactive sessions with professional survivors of rejection, participants will discover how to cope with failure and change negative energy into optimistic achievement The cost is only $125, and the agenda includes a Friday night informal reception with area writers, all Saturday sessions, all materials, lunch, snacks, and assignments. The address to the Saloon will be emailed after entrance fee is paid. This workshop is open to beginning and intermediate writers. Space is limited. No refunds after October 1.

The Saloon at Spurwing. Photo by David Day

Friday, October 4
An informal evening reception will include area writers and members of the Idaho Writers Guild.

Saturday, October 5 – Speakers and Workshop Facilitators

Jennifer Basye Sander

New York Times bestselling author, book packager of more than 50 titles, and literary talent Jennifer Basye Sander will describe how her failures led to magnificent success stories. As an acquisitions editor, Jennifer turned down the first book proposal for the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Subsequently, the series sold more than 500 million books. Using creative exercises, Jennifer will lead participants through a cathartic bonfire to purge past failures and emerge energized for future accomplishments. Participants will perform a rejection ritual and toss their fears and rejections into the firepit while imagining the creation of a better, tastier chicken soup for their souls. Jennifer is a former editor for Random House and teaches at the UC Davis Creative Writing Program. She lives in Sacramento, California. View her author page here.

Donna Beckman Tagliaferri
Donna Beckman Tagliaferri writes a popular blog titled My Life from the Bleachers and is the voice of compassion and reason in a vitriolic world of social media. She writes about having great expectations and what to do when hopes and dreams don’t occur or turn out differently. She’ll discuss how we use our challenges, trails, and tests to help and encourage each other and do our most creative work. Her workshop will focus on finding the sunflowers because they face the sun but on cloudy days, they turn toward each other to share energy. Donna lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Click here to find her online blog.

Elaine Ambrose
Elaine Ambrose’s recent bestselling memoir Frozen Dinners describes how she survived a challenging childhood and became a humor writer. To conclude the retreat, she will provide a “Music as Muse” exercise so writers can focus on their negative emotions to produce positive feelings. Follow Elaine on her website.

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION.

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The Saloon at Spurwing. Photo by David Day.

U of I Hosts Ambrose Storytelling Workshop

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Elaine Ambrose speaks at the U of I Storytelling Workshop

MOSCOW, Idaho — April 24, 2019 — Storytelling through film is the focus of the University of Idaho’s second annual Ambrose Storytelling Workshop, to be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in the Idaho Commons Whitewater Room.

The free community workshop will introduce participants to visual storytelling and demonstrate how filmmakers can use tools at their disposal to make high-quality films.

“This year’s Ambrose Storytelling Workshop will be a fun event highlighting the power of story through film. Participants will learn directly from award-winning filmmakers and go home with usable skills,” said Benjamin James, a clinical assistant professor who teaches screenwriting in U of I’s Department of English. James is the recipient of the inaugural Ambrose Storytelling Endowment faculty research award.

James will be joined at the workshop by Palouse filmmakers Martin McGreevy and Jace Wrigley.

Following the workshop, participants will have 48 hours to submit their own short film utilizing the skills and techniques taught in the workshop. U of I seniors taking part in the workshop will compete for the Ambrose Senior Award and $1,500 prize.

The Ambrose Storytelling Workshop was started in 2018 thanks to a donation by bestselling author and U of I College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences alumna Elaine Ambrose. She created the Ambrose Storytelling Endowment to share her gift of storytelling and to honor her late brother George, a U of I alumnus.

“My entire career has been writing and telling stories,” Ambrose said. “I wanted to give back to the university to encourage more storytelling. We live in an age of sentences through Twitter and instant messaging that don’t quite communicate a story the same way a rich paragraph or dialogue does.”

More information on the workshop, including registration information, is available at uidaho.edu/ambrose.

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Media Contact
Benjamin James
Clinical Assistant Professor
Department of English
[email protected]

Free Workshop: How to Write a Children’s Book

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The Hungry Giant stars in one story in “Gators & Taters”

Free Workshop Thursday, April 18

Do you have a splendid idea for a children’s book but don’t know how to write and publish a book? Bestselling author Elaine Ambrose will present a free workshop Thursday, April 18 at Collister Library from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. She will discuss the tools you need to create the book. Topics will include story, characters, illustrations, cover design, and publication. Free Workshop Thursday, April 18

Ambrose has written ten books, including two award-winning children’s books featuring her home state of Idaho. Gators & Taters – A Week of Bedtime Stories won a writing award from the Independent Press Award Program. The stories are designed to be read aloud to children. Illustrations for both books were created by Boise artist Patrick Bochnak.

The Magic Potato – La Papa Mágica is a storybook written in English and Spanish and features a fun story of children flying around Idaho of a potato. The text includes key words, phrases, colors, numbers, days of the week, and locations in English and Spanish. The book has won several awards, including the 2018 Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for children’s literature. The State Board of Education adopted the book for the Idaho statewide curriculum.

Read more about Ambrose’s books, blogs, and events at www.ElaineAmbrose.com.

Sample page in “The Magic Potato” written in English and Spanish.

“Frozen Dinners” Sells 873 eBooks During March

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Ambrose Trucking, 1952
873 eBooks Sold in March

Frozen Dinners – A Memoir of a Fractured Family sold more than 28 eBooks every day during the month of March for a delightful total of 873. The memoir was published in November 2018 by Brown Books Publishing . Hardback books are selling well across the country, and the eBooks started to gain traction in February. The 873 eBooks sold were on Amazon Kindle, and additional eBooks were sold on Barnes & Noble Nook, KOBO, and Apple iTunes. During March, the eBook sold well in several foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, India, Canada, and Australia.

The eBook ranked #7 in a memoir category on Amazon. According to Just Publishing Advice, there are more than 4.8 million eBooks on Amazon Kindle.

Ambrose Trucking, 1954

The memoir describes the author’s childhood in the Idaho village of Wendell, Idaho, and explains how her father rose from poverty to build a multi-million-dollar trucking empire hauling frozen food throughout the Northwest. After his untimely death, his survivors implode in a maelstrom of brutal courtroom drama, illness, and dementia. The author spends half a century searching for love and warmth beyond the contaminated legacy of her fractured family. Now the author’s parents and brothers have died, and the family and the fortune are all gone.

The author discussed her memoir in a podcast for “Magnificent Midlife Woman” with Sheree Clark. Listen to the interview here.

Books are available from local bookstores and online. EBooks are on Amazon Kindle, KOBO, iTunes, and Nook. The audio version will be available in the summer.

“Frozen Dinners” Premiere Party is Nov. 8 at Telaya Winery

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Please join the celebration at the premiere party for Frozen Dinners – A Memoir of a Fractured Family.

Details and ticket prices are listed here.

Bestselling author Elaine Ambrose departs from her award-winning humor to describe her childhood in the village of Wendell, Idaho. Her father, an intense entrepreneur, created a trucking company in 1952 to haul frozen food throughout the Northwest. His businesses grew into a multi-million-dollar empire. After his untimely death, his survivors imploded in a maelstrom of brutal courtroom drama, heartbreak, and dementia. In this new memoir, Ambrose chronicles her 50-year-search for warmth beyond the family legacy of frozen dinners.

Ambrose Trucking, 1952

Guest options include autographed books, glasses of Telaya wine, delicious “TV Dinner” appetizers, custom cedar bookmarks, live music, free prizes, and a short reading. Additional books by the author will be available for purchase for holiday and Christmas gifting.

To balance the serious memoir, Elaine will have copies of “Laugh Out Loud” – an anthology featuring 40 of the best humor writers from the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. Elaine’s short story is titled “The Music and Motors of My Life” and includes the tale of an unfortunate incident in a cattle truck.

Frozen Dinners is published by Brown Books Publishing Group of Dallas, Texas. For information about Elaine’s books, blogs, and events, see ElaineAmbrose.com.

Memoir Reviewed by Acclaimed Idaho Author

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My memoir Frozen Dinners is available on Amazon for pre-order. Brown Books Publishing has announced a release date for November 2018 to secure holiday promotion and purchases. Watch for the local premiere party, complete with TV dinners!

I appreciate this review from Kim Barnes, author of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist Memoir: In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country

“Full of luscious details, clear-eyed compassion, and enduring joy, Ambrose’s memoir gives us an insider’s view of one family’s rocky pursuit of the American Dream. Even when she is relating personal stories of conflict, loss, and grief, Ambrose does so with a survivor’s voice made strong by experience, stubbornness, humor, and love.”

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I worked on the manuscript for 20 years. My mother’s death in 2014, followed last year by the death of my younger brother George, convinced me to complete the book. The memoir tells the story of my father Neal Ambrose, born in Wendell, Idaho, as he climbed out of poverty and created an extensive fortune through trucking and farming enterprises. In the early 1950s, he established one of the first trucking companies in the country to haul frozen TV dinners, and during the 1960s, his farming operations introduced the first pivot sprinklers in southern Idaho. The pivots allow sprinkler pipes to rotate around a center pump to water crops.

However, the family lived in a state of emotional paralysis, and after my father’s death, everything was destroyed as the assets were squandered, the companies closed, and hundreds of employees lost their jobs. A chapter titled “Judgement Day” describes a brutal courtroom scene where a ruthless Boise attorney badgered my 77-year-old mother until she wet her pants. Another chapter devoted to her is titled “The Book of Leona.” The memoir concludes with my half-century journey to find warmth beyond the contaminated legacy of frozen dinners.

While ripping open the scars to write the book, I covered the wounds with healing humor and wrote Menopause Sucks, Midlife Cabernet, and Midlife Happy Hour.  I’m eager to return to writing humor.

Click this link for pre-ordering details about the hard cover edition: Frozen Dinners