Invitation to writers - Open House at City Lights Bookstore

We hope you will join us at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC for this event. I look forward to seeing old friends, my readers, and those who want to know more about NCWN West, our regional chapter of North Carolina Writers' Network, the state literary organization.

NETWEST OPEN HOUSE AT CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE and Cafe, NOV. 10, 1:00-4:30 p.m.

We welcome all Netwest members, as well as wannabe members, to a friendly literary gathering on November 10. 

We will begin the reception upstairs in the Regional Room, with finger foods and other assorted goodies, as well as coffee, tea, cider, and wine. We'll have Echoes Across the Blue Ridge prominently displayed, along with books by individual Netwest members. 

If you want to have your book available at the open house, call City Lights with details, so that the store can enter it into their system beforehand. 

Singer-songwriter Angela Faye Martin and guitarist Paul Schofield will provide music for us.

Shortly after 2:00, we will go downstairs to the Cafe, where our three featured writers will read. An open mic. will follow. The sign-up sheet will be upstairs, so please sign up when you arrive, if you wish to read. We will set a time limit depending on how many members have signed on to read. 

Visit us at Festival on the Square July 13 - 14

This afternoon we loaded up my car with a canopy, tables and chairs from my studio and other things to take to the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC, a lovely little town in the mountains of western NC. This event is held each year by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council. 

Saturday is the opening day and we will man our booth from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. We are sponsored by NCWN West. We will once again have our beautiful anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, for sale, discounted, along with books by Bob Grove, Maren Mitchell, Paul Schofield, Janice Moore, Wayne Newton, and others. 

Anthologies are popular because they include short stories, poetry and short non-fiction that makes it easy to pick up and read without getting bogged down in a full size novel.

Women's Places - Women's Spaces edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham will be on the table as well as a highly popular book, On Our Own, Widowhood for Smarties, Silver Boomer books. 

We will give away a free book each day, so we hope folks will come by and sign up for the drawing. 

Look for us right next door to the historic courthouse as you stroll through the shade and check out the 50 arts and crafts booths. We will be there all through the weekend until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

If you are a writer or want to be a writer, pick up a brochure at our table. See how you can become a part of a large and growing literary community. 

Where have our bookstores gone? Will we save those that are left?

Yesterday I visited two bookstores in our area. The one closest to home, Phillips and Lloyd books on the square in Hayesville, NC is closing its doors at the end of this month. I am personally saddened by this because Elizabeth and her husband, Joe, have been, not only good people to have in our community, but good for our town. They   organized and formed a merchants association and made Hayesville a better place to visit any time of the year. 

They say they are ready to retire. I think they have struggled like all  independent book stores with the rise of Amazon and the difficulty for small stores to compete. We the buyers are the losers when we buy from Amazon and ignore our own local bookstores. 

Later in the afternoon, I dropped in to see Linda Ray, owner of Curiosity Shop Bookstore in Murphy, located at 46 Valley River Ave. where you will find the Shoppes of Murphy. Linda says her shelves hold half the books she had last year. She can order books she doesn't have in stock. Her distributors don't handle as many books as they once did.

Linda, like Elizabeth at Phillips and Lloyd, has been supportive of our local writers. She stocks well-written books by people who write about western North Carolina. Tourists come in and want books with local color. She is not too fond of run of the mill memoirs. They must have something special about them to grace the shelves of Curiosity Shop Books. 

What many people don't know is that they can order books online from Linda and she can get them quickly. Visit her website and see what she has to offer. I was pleased to see that she has Anne Lamott's new book, Help, Thanks, Wow at a discounted price. I am reading one of Lamott's books I received for Chrismas.

I hope readers in our area will do all they can to support Linda's bookstore. She has gift items available. She carries the NCWN West anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and has recently come upon a few copies of the first Netwest anthology, Lights in the Mountains. This is a rare opportunity to buy this book which is out of print. 

My book signing at Phillips and Lloyd

Both Phillips and Lloyd and Curiosity Shop Books are precious to us who live here and love to browse a good bookstore. Phillips and Lloyd hosted our first Coffee with the Poets events in the warm dessertery where we feasted upon delectable pastries and tasty teas and coffee. They sold many poetry books by local poets. 

Poets gather at Phillips and Lloyd with Elizabeth on far right.

Curiosity Shop Books hosted our writers on many occasions and has held numerous book signings for local writers and those not so local. I hope that my readers will stop in and thank Linda Ray for supporting all of us these many years. And stop in to Phillips and Lloyd on the square in Hayesville, for a good buy right now. Everything in the store is on sale. Thank Elizabeth for all she has done for writers in western North Carolina. We will miss that bookstore more than we can ever imagine.

Poets and Writers and Poets

This post was written after the weekend at Festival on the Square.

After a weekend of promoting Writers Circle, NCWN West and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, I dragged myself home, took a shower and a nap. Hot weather saps my energy and yesterday was hot and humid, but we had a successful event.

In one of the anthologies on our table was my story, An Angel Named Amos. The theme is horses. That book was popular. So was the anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge. 

Poetry was not popular with people at this festival. Does that mean that we didn't have a literary crowd? Or is it true that only poets buy poetry books? I did not buy one of Robert S. King's poetry books. I already have The Gravedigger's Roots and The Haunted River, both excellent collections.

Clarence Newton, poet and writer

I bought a book by my good friend, Clarence Newton. For years I have begged him to put together a book of his poems because I wanted to have them available to read often.

Like many who have lived a long life, this astute gentleman's words of wisdom in verse and his clever, tongue in cheek poems that make me laugh out loud will be cherished and kept on my book shelf.

He gave me permission to publish some poems from his book, Short Glances Forward and A Long Look Back.

Cycling

Nobody dies anymore.

Some pass on, others pass away.

Some go to heaven, others reincarnate.

Some go to hell.

A few spirits hang around as ghosts.

Some are convinced that this

matter of which we are made

is in a constant mode

of earth attachment and recycling.

Born of the cosmos, matter spun and whirled,

made to reason, wonder, laugh and cry,

guided by circumstances, seeds sown to wind,

we dance upon the crest of life's bell curve,

embrace hope, faith and serenity,

relishing fleeting moments of lust and love

thinking only of the present;

finally to metamorphose into particles of dust

and subatomic energy where goes body and soul

carried by whirlwinds of the ethereal universe,

from whence we came and so shall return.

A merry-go-round, this mysterious life

of consciousness, matter and will

where passions flare and time flies.

Clarence then writes this one:

Froggy

Three hopping friends

sat upon two logs

searching with buggy eyes

for a breakfast of flies

One had two and two had three.

then saluted with high fives

saying ain't life fun

when we're having flies? 

WNC WOMAN REVIEWS ECHOES ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE

We are very happy to read the review of Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, essays, stories and poems by writers living in and inspired by the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Book Review

WNC Woman


People whose voices still echo across these Blue Ridge Mountains.
www.wncwoman.com/2011/12/01/book-review-3/
 
Many of my writing friends have work in this book, and the compliments continue to pour in. As marketing director for Netwest, I have worked hard for two years in an attempt to get this book on the shelves of book stores, gift shops, and any place where the book might be appreciated by those who shop there. Representatives from all over the nine counties west of Asheville have done a tremendous job of distributing the books.

One of my best customers in Towns County, Georgia is Mary's Southern Grill. Mary's gift shop continues to order and sell this beautiful book. If any of my readers know of a retail store that carries books that appeal to tourists or good regional books, please let me know. We are in our second and probably last printing of the book, so when we sell out of our inventory, there will be no more.

The book reviewer for WNC Women, Mary Ickes, liked Echoes, edited by Nancy Simpson, and mentions many of the contributors and their work.

Correction to the review: The writers says the book includes only Netwest members. The submission call went out to all writers in the region served by NCWN West and writers who are not members are also included.

Give books for Christmas this year and include some of our regional writers.

Owens' Review on our mountain writers

I am always impressed with Scott Owens' reviews on his blog, Musings. He has done the best with this review. Please read what he has to say about Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, edited by Nancy Simpson. He also includes poetry by some of my good friends and fellow writers.

He published, in this issue of Wild Goose Poetry Review, a poem I wrote after my husband Barry passed away.

I hope you will read it and leave me a comment. I know that many of you have felt the same way.

RICHARD ARGO'S WRITINGS

I want to share a poem written by my friend, Richard Argo, who is having some health problems at this time. I love this poem which was published on the Netwest Writers site in 2008. It was a winning poem in a contest held by the Senior Games, I believe. Tell me how you like it and I'll be sure Richard sees your comments.



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Richard Argo's winning poem

Ode to Rock and Roll

On a cool morning I helped my friend Bob collect rocks for his garden. We drove his pick-up to a rain-rutted road off the highway and rode a quarter mile, sheer wall on one side, sheer drop on the other, to the top of a mountain.

First we huffed and hefted, stumbled and cursed the two-man rocks. Then we hugged the one-man rocks to our chests like teddy bears. Finally, we filled the gaps with one-hand rocks until the bed sagged as if the truck would tip up on its tailgate.

No room to turn around, Bob, eyes flitting side-mirror to side-mirror, backed the truck down that rutted road. The radio blared rock-and-roll, blared the Rolling Stones. Oh, children. It’s just a kiss away, kiss away, kiss away.

I knew what the song said. The precipice is a kiss away. Death is a kiss away. It’s always just a kiss away. In the seat, eyes closed, dust and sweat coated my arms and chest, seatbelt flapped against my shoulder, I smiled. Oh, children. I was not afraid.

Richard Argo has a story in the latest edition of Moonshine Review.
He facilitated the Netwest Prose Critique group for many years. Look for his story, Apple Man, in the forthcoming anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.