A DECADE+ OF STORYTELLING POWERED BY THE BEST WRITERS ON THE PLANET

BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Writing Is A Safe Place

Writing is a safe place to go.  You can say and do things that you may never do in life.  You can be a starship captain on a mission to Mars.  You can go back in time and march with Caesar crossing the Rubicon.  You can stand on a hill with the architect that built the pyramids.  If you can imagine it you can do it. You can be an introvert, a hermit living in a small cottage deep in the forest, or an extrovert leading a Fortune 500 Company to Dynamic Change.

As a writer, you can do this from a safe place, a room with a leather chair and your favorite authors’ books lining the shelves of your writing room.  When we write we do things without limitations.  It is like stepping through a door into a realm where the impossible becomes possible.

Often we write about our journey in life, where we have been and our lessons learned, or where we are now.  We may see into the future and claim the vision as our own.  We can speculate or reflect upon life without fear.  We can write about things that have nothing to do with us other than to amaze and enchant us.

From a safe place, we can write of love and the kindness of others.  We can walk through the garden gate and smell the jasmine in bloom.  We may be a lonely wayfarer walking down a railroad track or sitting atop an Aztec temple hidden in the deepest jungles.  We can sit beside Caesar as he plans to go to Egypt to meet Cleopatra or the Saxons attacking a shield wall in the heat of battle.

Yes, we can write about anything that we can imagine.  The possibilities are as vast as the spiraling universe or as close as the rose blooming beside the garden bench.  We can do that and more on this small page.  We can expand it or make it small.  We can add spectacular verbal images or make it dark and desolate.  We can hear waves crashing upon the shore or the whirling of the desert sand hiding the ancient secrets and lost civilizations.

We can be bold, courageous and dragon slayers.  Ah! …. but can we do this from our safe place?  Perhaps we must put down our pen and leave our safe place behind venturing forth into the unknown to touch what we have only imagined.

Point Of View

We write from what we imagine and yet we write from what we have experienced.  The story must contain both the imagined and the experienced.  It is about where we have been and where we hope to go.  Lastly, we should never let where we have been limit our imagination.  We must believe there is more to learn and unleash our imagination to go where it may.

Larry Tyler
Larry Tyler
Awaken the possibilities … then unleash them. After 55 years of successful retail management, I have returned to my passion of writing. I write Poetry, Storytelling, and Short Stories. As a child, I grew up on front porch storytelling. I would sit and listen to my Dad and his brothers tell these great stories that were captivating, and I always wanted to hear more. I wanted to experience the things they talked about. I started writing at a young age and reading everything I could get my hands on. At twelve years old I started a storytelling group and several of my friends became writers or poets. At 16 I hopped box cars and worked the tobacco fields, orange groves, picked cotton, and spent many nights around a campfire listing to life stories. Someone once asked me why I wrote. It consumes an amazing amount of time and I assure you it is not going to make me rich. I write so that my children can touch and feel my words telling of the ones that came before us and the stories they told me. These are the chronicles of our family and even though they come from my childhood memories and are deeply rooted in a child’s remembrance at least they may feel what it was like in the time before them and cherish the things the elders left behind. I am a Columnist & Featured Contributor, BIZCATALYST360 and I have The Writers Café, a group on LinkedIn that features Poets, Writers, Artists, Photographers, and Musicians . On Facebook I have two groups and one page; Dirt Road Storytelling, From Abandoned To Rescue Dogs And Cats, and About Life, Love And Living. As writers, it is true that we honestly do not know what we hold within us until we unleash it. When our words inspire others only then will inspiration return to the writer. I will spend my twilight years in search of the next story, the next poem, and the next image. I will take the time to enjoy my Wife, our Dogs, and Cats, and our amazing new home and I will always find the time to walk down a dirt road I truly hope is that I never have to read another book on Leadership, be on a conference call or see another plan o gram as these were the tool for what I did in life and not about who I am.

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


14 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Excellent post, Larry! You have a way of making the reading a safe place as well. Equally important. I love this forum at BIZCATALYST360 that allows this corner of sharing experiences in a safe way to exist. You are a great example of mixing the ambition, imagination and reality. If we can imagine more we can extend our reality. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

  2. Brilliant said, and all so true – thank you Larry.

    I am not a writer, but I do like share my feelings, thoughts and some experiences, as it sometimes eases seeing the suffering (in all ways), the struggles, tragedies, tears, smiles, confusion, love, care, talk, silence, peace, chaos, and amidst all of that, see the rays of joy, simple happiness, faith and hope – simple lessons, it is also my way of reaffirming my own existence.

    Chuck Palahniuk once said, “That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can’t control life, at least you can control your version.”

  3. What a beautiful essay. You’ve captured the essence of why I love to write. Many writers agonize about their writing and this is the medicine they need. I also loved getting such a passionate glimpse of your creative imagination. You have a gift for presenting mental images that bring your writing to life in the mind’s eye. You also made me want to go to all these places. (Well, for the part about the Saxons attacking a shield wall in the heat of battle . . . I confess I don’t want to be present in the battle, but reading about it from the safety of my reading nook would be thrilling. Which is the perfect complement to your main point!)

  4. I throughly enjoyed the article as it is of interest simply “I love to write”!. It is true that I can put my thoughts which I feel on paper, not knowing if anyone would really be interested in what I have to say, but it is somewhat therapy, speaking and saying on paper what perhaps would not be appreciated speaking out loud. I have been writing since I was sixteen, accumulation of over 30 journals. I teach Classical Writing encouraging my students to write. Thank you

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