Longtime volunteer publishes second volume of stories by the women of Maya’s Place

Stepping Stones, Volume II: The Women of Maya’s Place is a special collection of stories written by Maya’s Place clients in a weekly creative writing workshop taught by Sharon Rhutasel-Jones.

A retired Menaul School teacher and published author, Sharon has shared her talents teaching the creative writing workshop at Maya’s Place for the past several years. “As soon as the first book was published on Amazon I started working on Volume II,” says Jones. “I already have 25 pages for Volume III.”

“Like its companion volume, this is a book to keep and re-read for its lessons in honesty, forbearance and understanding of the other. These voices carry and transport the reader to a singular spiritual place. The climb has been steep, rugged, and authentic. But the view they offer is as full of hope as audacity. It’s quite an achievement.”

Byron Lindsey, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico on Stepping Stones, Volume II

In Volume II, over 20 women share their stories in varying forms of prose from poetry to personal narrative. Sharon says at the beginning of her class, most women say they hate to write.

She recalls one of the first Maya’s women she taught coming into the workshop and saying without hesitation “I don’t write.” It turned out that she would be the one to say “don’t argue just do what she tells you” when new ladies would join the class.

“As long as the ladies like the idea that they’re going to see their work in print we’ll keep going.”

Sharon Rhutasel-Jones

“Most of all, I have to keep reminding them this is not an English class, this is not school,” says Sharon. “You don’t have to worry about spelling or punctuation we just want to get your wonderful ideas down and figure out what to do with them.”

Sharon says, “As long as the ladies like the idea that they’re going to see their work in print we’ll keep going.”

Buy Stepping Stones, Volume II on AmazonSmile