Never too late - Make your change today!

In May 1995, Barry and I moved to Hayesville, NC having no idea how our lives would change.

A few months later, I would meet Nancy Simpson on the phone after I registered for membership in the North Carolina Writers' Network. She invited me to take the poetry class she taught at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

I had not planned to take a writing class, especially not poetry, but had hoped I could learn more about writing in North Carolina from the quarterly newsletter mailed to me by NC Writers' Network. I knew nothing about the folk school which was only a twenty-minute drive from my new home in the mountains.

Although I had been writing most of my life starting with stories in high school and a poem or two in class. My English teacher liked a poem I turned in for an assignment, and told me I should submit it to a magazine. That was all I was told and since I had no idea what magazine might accept my poem, I did nothing with it and was pleased she thought I had written something worthy of publication.

I had not shared my writing with anyone and did not know if I could write or not.

But Nancy talked me into taking her class. "It's free," she said. "I'm offering you a scholarship." Nancy had seen my name on a list of new members of  NCWN-West, a program she headed and helped create in the far western part of the state.

How could I possibly turn down such an invitation? Nervous and self-conscious, I attended the first class. It was taught in the Orchard House, one of the old farmhouses on the campus that served as a dormitory for students and also classrooms for writers and photographers. I fell in love with the living room right away. We sat on a sofa and overstuffed chairs as well as plain wood straight chairs. I immediately felt at home.

That day, that class, that place, and Nancy Simpson changed my life completely.

That was my first writing class but not my last. I registered for many classes at the folk school with great teachers who came from other places in North Carolina and from other states. Nancy knew so many writers and she invited them to come to John C. Campbell Folk School to teach.

Because I was a local resident and didn't require sleeping quarters, my tuition was discounted. That was the reason I could afford to take classes there. I began publishing my work the next year after taking classes and joining the network. As years passed, I began teaching beginning writers sharing what I had learned.

Nancy Simpson was the Writer in Residence at the folk school. She called me one day and asked if I would teach a weekend class. The original instructor had to cancel.

The day I turned the lock and walked into a classroom to teach for the first time at the folk school, I almost wept with gratitude. I will always remember the students who came and who were disappointed that the instructor who was originally listed for that weekend, was not coming. 

But the evaluation sheets handed in after class gave me high praise for knowing my subject well and all seemed very satisfied with my class. I knew another door had been opened for me. Soon I was teaching a weeklong class every year at JCCFS and teaching adult education for writers in the local junior college.

My first weeklong class taught at John C. Campbell Folk School

If you like to write and want to further your education in writing poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, I urge you to start with classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School.  You will never regret it.

See this information from the folk school website:

https://www.folkschool.org/find-a-class/writing/

Local Discount Program Information

For Our Neighbors:

The Folk School is proud to offer 25% off tuition and a guaranteed spot upon registration to people living in the following counties:

North Carolina: Cherokee, Clay, Macon, Swain, and Graham
Georgia: Fannin, Towns, Union
Tennessee: Polk

Those looking to receive this benefit are required to present one of the following, showing proof of local address: a valid driver’s license, voter registration card, tax bill, or utility bill.

Self doubt and second guessing

I am sharing an email conversation from years ago. Nancy  P. is no longer with us and I miss her. 

Glenda,

I received the notification for a workshop at Warren Wilson in late July
with the fiction workshop being taught by Tommy Hays. I want to go but
I'm truly lacking in confidence. I'm always afraid my work won't match
up with the other writers and so I hold back. I know Tommy Hays is good
and he's pretty sharp. Do you HONESTLY think I would do alright there? I
do have to submit a short story or the first chapter of my novella that
I'm working on as part of a collection. I guess I'm just asking you for
a pep talk. What do you think? Will he be way over my head?

Nancy P.


Glenda Beall wrote:
 Nancy, you don't have any reason to be afraid. Your writing is
 excellent and you have had many stories published. I was afraid the
 first time I signed on for a master class at NCWN Fall conference with
 Kay Byer. But when I got there, I found most of the writers were no
 better than I was.
And I can tell you Tommy Hays is just another writer with the same fears
and worries all writers have about their work. Don't hold back, Nancy.
I know you will do well and you'll enjoy it. That is the most important part - you'll enjoy it.

 If you spend time comparing yourself to other writers or worrying
 about what they think of your work, you'll do yourself a disservice by
 not taking the opportunity to study with this writer. I am so glad I
 took the master class with Kay Byer. Now that I know her so well, I
 realize she, like you and me, is not always confident and
 self-assured. I'm sure Tommy Hays is the same.
Go for it, Girl! You will be fine.

 I want to hear all about the workshop.
 Glenda

Thank you, Glenda. 

You are so right. I just put myself into a worry pot when I should realize 

most everyone has these same doubts and fears. I guess it comes from 

the sequestering of the writer within four walls for long periods of time. 

I will send in my registration and do what you recommend: Enjoy the journey.
Sincere thanks,
Nancy P.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nancy P. was a very good writer, but as you can see, like all of us, she had doubts. We are quick to second guess ourselves. Do you do that? Have you ever missed a great opportunity because you lacked the confidence to take a chance?

I almost did back in 1995 when I first moved to the mountains. Nancy Simpson (not the Nancy in my post) called me and asked if I wanted a scholarship for her week-long poetry class at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

It was free to me. I was brand new to the area and did not know any writers. The idea of taking a class with poets absolutely scared me to death. I had to make a big decision. I almost turned her down, but I pushed myself to overcome my fear and that decision changed my life.

What about you? What is your story? Did you overcome a fear or self-doubt to accomplish something important in your life?

Do you often second guess your decisions? 

Leave a comment or email me at gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com  

Stop The Trees From Growing published by Your Daily Poem

Stop the Trees from Growing

by

Glenda Council Beall 

Thomas Wolfe said you can’t go home again,
But I came here today, to where Mother nurtured
my spirit and where Daddy kept the roof over my head;
where the fire warmed my bed at night when winter winds
howled ‘round the corners of the old frame house –
when this flat farm with ponds and pines was home.

The road that once the school bus traveled
taking me to spend the day
with someone who was not my mother,
looks like a highway to a place I’ve never been.

It’s not the buildings all torn down, the homes of friends
that now hold dreams of families I don’t know –
It is the trees.
Nothing stopped the trees from growing, growing ever taller,
till they dwarfed the house, the barn, the backyard –
now a tiny garden towered over by a lilac tree,
an oak, and one longleaf pine.

I traveled from what is and has been home for fifteen years,
to visit that which was but is not my home anymore.
Like you, Thomas Wolfe, I can’t go home again.
I can’t go home because that place I once called home is gone.

Forever gone, except in memories that linger like lazy chimney smoke
spiraling through my mind, thoughts that surge a yearning deep within
to hear the laughing voices, see the kindly eyes – stilled voices, loving eyes,
closed under sod upon a quiet hill.


This poem was published in 2019 by Jayne Jaudon Ferrer who is the owner of Your Daily Poem. 

She has published six of my poems and if you want to read the others, go to her website and look for my name.

You can subscribe and she will send you a poem every day in your Inbox.  Some poems are new and some are old. Her goal is to prove that all poetry is NOT dull or boring. She wants to bring poetry to the folks who don't think they like poetry.
Jayne does a great job, too. 

Virtual Writing Workshop Tuesday, March 22, 7:00 - 9:00 EST

Glenda Council Beall

Glenda Beall will lead a virtual writing workshop titled, "Inform, Enlighten and Entertain with Your True Life Stories" on Tuesday, March 22, from 7:00-9:00 pm ET.

This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels and is a fun way to find inspiration from a new prompt or revise current work. It is hosted by the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara and will use Zoom for the virtual connection. Click on this link to register for the FREE workship.

A link will be sent to participants by 2:00 pm on the day of the program. Please check your junk/spam emails if you don't receive it.

Each of us has a unique life story. While our children and grandchildren show little interest now in our past, there will come a time when they will be thankful we wrote down and preserved our history. Many times we hear someone, after losing a father or mother, say, "I wish I had asked more questions. I wish I knew more about my parents' lives." We will discuss how to decide what to write and how to write it so it will be read and appreciated.

Glenda Council Beall, a Georgia native, lives in Hayesville, NC, where she is the owner and director of 'Writers Circle Around the Table', a studio that provides education for writers. She also taught writing in the continuing education department at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. and presently teaches online for the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris College, Young Harris, Georgia.

She became interested in Genealogy in the early nineties and compiled a family history book, Profiles and Pedigrees, The Descendants of Thomas Charles Council (1858-1911) which chronicles the lives of her grandfather and his ten children who were born in the late 19th century.

Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Wild Goose Poetry Review, Appalachian Heritage, Main Street Rag, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Red Owl Magazine and in the anthologies, Kakalak – Anthology of Carolina Poets, 2009, 2011 Poetry Hickory, Future Cycle, Lights in the Mountains, Women’s Places Women’s Spaces, On Our Own, Widowhood for Smarties, From Freckles to Wrinkles, and Reach of Song published by the Georgia Poetry Society. Her poetry chapbook Now Might as Well be Then, published by Finishing Line Press, is available at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC. In 2018, she co-authored a collection of short stories, poems, articles and photos in Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins; Family Pets and God's Other Creatures available at the following places: City Lights Books in Sylva, NC, Tiger's in Hayesville, NC and on Amazon in the Kindle store.

Her short stories and personal essays have been published in the online journals, Muscadine Lines; A Southern Journal, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and 234journal, and in the anthologies, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge and Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers. Several of her poems and essays have appeared in Living with Loss Magazine, Breath and Shadow, and Reunions Magazine.

She is a member of the NC Writers Network, the Georgia Poetry Society, The Byron Herbert Reece Society, and the North Carolina Poetry Society. Read more about Glenda on her two personal blogs, Writing Life Stories with Glenda Beall, Writers Circle Around the Table, http://www.glendacouncilbeall.com/ and on Blue Heaven Press.

Friends, please share this announcement with your contact list. Thank you so much.  Glenda

ill lead a virtual writing workshop titled, "Inform, Enlighten and Entertain wh e Life Stories" on Tuesday, March 22, from 7:00-9:00 pm ET.

Now Might as Well be Then

My poetry book Now Might as Well be Then, was published by Finishing Line Press. 

I was honored when poet, Scott Owens, wrote a review of my book. I was thrilled because Scott is a poet whose work I greatly admire. I have almost all of his books and a CD with his poems. 

I am publishing his review here because Amazon is not selling my book anymore and many folks think the book is out of print.

Read the review, please, and if you would like this book, you can order it from me or from Finishing Line Press for $12.00. If you order from the publisher, I do not receive any payment. 

If you order from me, I make a small profit.  The book makes a lovely gift and I will be glad to sign it for you.  I will also send you a free copy of another poetry book. Please share this post with others. 

Posted By Scott Owens to Musings at 3/10/2010 02:31:00 PM

There are no surprises in Glenda Beall’s new book of poems Now Might As Well Be Then. The title gives it all away. These are poems about timelessness, specifically about the timelessness of human experience. There are no surprises, but there is great joy. Not that every poem tells a joyful story. Quite the contrary, some of the best poems here are the most tragic. But even in these poems, there is great poignancy, and in that poignancy the joy of recollecting, of being reminded of how it feels to be human, of having, in fact, those feelings cathartically intensified through the poems.

Beall begins the collection with a love poem that celebrates the timelessness of a relationship. The speaker in the title poems says, “You brought me spring in winter // youth when I was old, / you found my childhood self.” If not for the dedication of the poem which announces who is intended by the indefinite second person pronoun, one could easily read this as a celebration of many things--god, nature, the mountains of North Carolina—and interestingly, any of these meanings would fit for the poems that follow as these poems celebrate the presence and influence of all of these elements.

One suspects, in fact, that the relationship between speaker and mate in “Now Might As Well Be Then” is inseparable from that between speaker and place. That suspicion is supported by the next poem, “Mountain Seagull,” in which “Lake Chatuge wraps the mountains, / lapping love,” and the speaker says “My spirit soars above the scene / a seagull far from home, / But yearning to embrace / and build a nest.” Four poems later in “In the Dark,” the theme of timelessness in this relationship appears again, as does the title of the collection and the first poem: “Here I am years later, listening to your soft breath / and feeling your warm smooth skin. / In the dark, now might as well be then.”

The timelessness Beall reveals to the reader is not the magical, mysterious, miraculous sort of timelessness that remains inexplicable and unearned. 

Beall, instead, makes clear in poems like “Woman in the Mirror” that the timelessness she speaks of is fostered through the vital effort of memory: “What happened to those days / I ask the woman in the mirror. / Gone, she says, all gone, unless / you can remember.” The final line break of that poem becomes an impressively empowering device, creating both an imperative and a confirmation for the reader to carry into his or her own life.

To show us how this creation of timelessness is to be done, Beall practices her own imperative throughout the poems in this book. She remembers the sound of rain in “Listening for the Rain” and is reminded of her father:
Too late for the corn, my father says,
across the bridge of time.
Maybe it will save the pasture,
give us one more haying
before summer ends.

She goes on, then, to recall other events from her childhood, the tragic story of “Roosevelt” (perhaps my favorite poem in the book), the story of her “Father’s Horse,” another story of tragic loss in “Clearing New Ground,” and finally, the beautiful and touching concluding poem “Blue Moon Every Twenty Years,” which successfully reminds the reader of all of Beall’s themes by tracing the singing of a particular song every twenty years, the last time when the singer was somewhere around 70 years old and still proclaiming, “I’ll sing your song for you again / in twenty years.” Just so, these poems will sing to the reader, again and again, reminding us to embrace life through our relationships with people and places and to make those relationships timeless through the vital habit of memory.

--Please leave a comment. It will not appear immediately, but I will read it and respond to it. Thank you.

Write Your Memories into Family Stories

Write Your Memories into Family Stories

with Glenda Beall

Online with Zoom 

To register, contact the Institute of Continuing Learning

 

See the calendar for the winter session Here.

Tuesdays    1:30 pm – 3:30 pm      January 26 – March 2

 (6 Sessions - $20)

Remember: You must be registered for a class 5 days prior to the class starting in order for the ICL office to process your registration and invite you to the meeting

Voter suppression is alive and well

Roger Carlton

  Roger Carlton writes about a subject on the minds of all of us at this time. He is columnist for the Graham Star Newspaper in Robbinsville, NC

The right to vote is so important that it appears in Article 1 of the Constitution. Responsibility for keeping the voting process fair was granted to the legislatures in 1787. The goal of suppressing votes began in earnest nearly immediately.

African American men were not granted the right to vote until 1870. The southern Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and literacy requirements, took that right away. 

Women were not granted the right to vote until 1920. Young people 18-20 could not vote until 1971. Prior to the amendments to the Constitution that removed these impediments to voting, millions of folks were kept from the polls due to race, gender or youth.

The effort by the Postmaster General to make the Post Office more "efficient" is putting lipstick on the pig of voter suppression especially given the inevitable disruptions impacting timely delivery of millions of additional mail-in/absentee ballots caused by COVID 19 fears. In the 2016 election, 20,000 military ballots were rejected mostly due to late delivery. There were more than 550,000 ballots rejected in the 2016 primaries for a variety of reasons.

Mass purges of "inactive" voters are a form of voter suppression. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 16 million voters were purged from 2014-16. That's a lot of purging given that 137 million voted in the 2016 election. In the recent close Governor election in Georgia, 70 percent of the purged voters were Black. Suppose you show up at the polls and are told you have been purged. States have removed the "same day" ability to register to suppress the purged voters from regaining their right to vote.

Requiring voters to vote at their home poll is a form of voter suppression. It is tough for hourly workers to leave their jobs early to vote so they should be able to vote at a poll near their work site. Reducing the number of days of early voting, eliminating polling places and not removing physical barriers to access are methods to suppress voters.

The White House has been casting unfounded aspersions for months on the security of the upcoming election. The remedy proposed a few days ago was to place police and sheriff deputies at the polling places to ensure security. What a smart way to keep people of color away from the polls. Even worse, police presence at the polls is a first sign of a totalitarian state.

The Tennessee legislature just passed a bill signed by the Governor that makes protesters camping on State land felons subject to six months in jail if convicted. Being a convicted felon eliminates your right to vote in Tennessee. The British Magna Carta granted the right to seek redress from government in 1215. The First Amendment of the Constitution grants the right to petition without fear of reprisals or punishment. It won't be long till the new Tennessee form of voter suppression is tossed by the courts.

To ensure that the feared problem of millions of absentee ballots clogging the Post Office is minimized, our local Elections Board should make a loud and clear statement that their staff will do everything legally possible to mail ballots early and go to the Post Office frequently as deadlines approach to pick up ballots. The Elections Board should hold its canvassing (validating and rejecting ballots process) open to the media and public in a large, open and socially distanced room. Shedding some light on the criteria adopted by the State Elections Board for rejecting ballots would be informative to any doubters of their fairness.

To close, blaming foreign intervention, creating fear of vaporous threats, failed efforts to limit the capabilities of the Post Office and a plethora of voter suppression techniques will not keep Americans from protecting their right to vote by the simple act of voting. The real threat is lethargy and procrastination. 

Request your absentee ballot early and submit it with plenty of time to be delivered. Saving our right to vote in a fair and honestly managed election is our own responsibility and there is no excuse for failure. 

Viral and veracity are very different words.

This post by Roger Carlton, columnist for the Graham Star newspaper in Robbinsville, NC. 

Don't get your dander up. This column is about the Roe in Roe v. Wade who recently passed away. 

The column does not take a position on the issue. That is for each of us to decide and for the courts to resolve in a civilized society that believes in the Rule of Law. What this column is about is the manner in which advocacy groups use and abuse the power of traditional and social media to make their case. 

Jane Roe's real name was Norma McCorvey. She was an abused child who spent years in a Texas reform school.  Her first child was born out of wedlock and raised upon court order by her mother. She wanted to terminate her second pregnancy. Rather than go to an abortion mill, she told her doctor that she had been raped in an attempt to have an abortion in Texas where the procedure was illegal. She was denied.

Two young lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, took up her cause. They chose her to make the test case because she could not afford to travel to a state where the procedure was legal and because of her very difficult and sympathetic personal history. The Wade in Roe v. Wade was Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade. 

Norma signed the affidavit to file the case in March 1970 more than 50 years ago. The U.S. Supreme Court found in her favor in 1973 which was long after the baby was born and given up for adoption. So the plaintiff in this case never had the abortion she sought.

Many years later, Norma McCorvey went public in a giant media splash and said that she no longer believed that a woman should have the right to choose. She became the poster child for the Reverend Randall Terry and his Operation Rescue. She was their Oscar winning spokesperson. Norma knew she was being used and was a willing player because she was paid $456,911 as documented in IRS required annual reports for non-profits. These payments are called benevolence gifts.

The pro-choice movement was devastated. They had largely deserted Norma after the case was resolved because she wasn't pretty enough, said what she thought sometimes profanely and had a sordid reputation. Actresses and other spokespeople just played better in the court of public opinion and in the eyes of the media. Norma really resented this.

No story is over till its over. Nearing death, Norma recanted. She said that her change of mind was not what she truly believed. She said "Sometimes women just make mistakes." The media splash this time was not nearly as great, most likely due to the focus on Covid 19 and embarrassment over being duped.  She really believed that reversing Roe v. Wade would cause unthinkable chaos. That conclusion will become clearer as the many state Supreme Court cases are joined and wend their way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  

Karen Paul Holmes on video

I am sharing this video of Karen Paul Holmes reading poetry from her most recent book. I have watched it several times and I hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM_5klDJEpw

I found this reading comforting to me at this time, but there is no mention of COVID 19. The book was written before we ever heard of this deadly virus
I like Karen's voice and she is such a lovely person inside and out. 

"Karen Paul Holmes lifts up the extraordinary found in the everyday. Here are poems that brim with finely-crafted detail, anchored to place while at the same time embracing change and impermanence." -- Poet Nancy Chen Long

Help us Help Others

From now until June 1, Estelle Rice and I are offering our proceeds from the sale of Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins to the Clay County Food Pantry when you order from City Lights Books in Sylva, NC.  This volunteer organization feeds many people and the need is large right not.

City Lights is offering a reduced price for shipping as their way of donating.

Send a book to a friend who is staying home for protection from COVID-19.

Signing books last December - It is a great gift to have on hand for those random times you need one.

Remember a birthday coming up and send this delightful book of stories and poems about domestic pets, dogs, cats, horses and birds.

This is what author Lisa Turner said about our book:

 Evokes those special memories and relationships with our animal friends

"The emotional experiences with our beloved pets are captured in poetic detail and images in these wonderful stories in Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins. Our human lives are so enriched by the special relationships we have with all creatures large and small, and these stories capture this delicate and powerful drama so much that we will enjoy reading them again and again. Highly recommend."

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2020

Our Broken Health Care System has Proven Inadequate

As we all continue to distance ourselves from other people and sanitize everything we touch or that comes into our houses, I can't help but worry about all the older and chronically ill people who have been exposed to the COVID-19, and the families of those who have died. 

I can't help but wonder how many would have been saved had we begun fighting this months ago. I can't help but think that what I've said for many years, we have a broken health care system, has proven to be so true, and now we hear that from many people who didn't make much noise in the past.

I knew our health care system was not the best in the world when my family members (four or more) died from medical mistakes. It became horribly evident to me when the best health care system failed my husband. 

His care was a grotesque medley of mistakes from the wrong diagnosis in the beginning to the end of his life after a team of doctors in Emory Hospital incorrectly diagnosed him with an infectious disease. They filled him with antibiotics, even after they were told he was fighting cancer. I knew the cancer had come roaring back, but those smart physicians refused to contact his cancer doctor in Blairsville. Hospitals and physician practices are in competition. I didn’t know that, but learned the hard way.

I wish it had not taken a pandemic to prove my words. Our hospitals, poorly prepared, with insufficient supplies and far too few nurses, evidently had made no preparation for the day when a health crisis would explode this country. From what I have read and heard these past weeks, scientists and smart medical people who tried to warn us were ignored. In 2015, Bill Gates said we were not prepared for a deadly virus that would be coming.

 Our pompous leaders fell way behind on preparing us, and we the people buried our heads in the sand, not wanting to believe we were not the best. We have heard and preached to ourselves that we are the best until we believed it. Or, we did believe it until a few weeks ago.

I am sympathetic to Senator Sanders who has proclaimed for years that we need a new method of health care. We need a central system where all people can be fairly treated. But that is not the basics of this problem to me. 

My husband and I had insurance and could see doctors, but the administrators are more dollar-minded than healing-minded. Even now hospitals have been fighting over who will get the supplies needed in this crisis. With no federal oversight, it has come down to governors trying to purchase the needed supplies. Hospitals in NYC are overrun with sick people while some hospitals, where there are fewer patients, still have masks and gowns. The governors in those states hold on to them because they fear what will be coming. It makes for states competing with each other and our citizens paying the price.

I imagine some hospitals hoarded their ventilators because of what they expect will happen in their area soon. Small hospitals like Phoebe Putney in Albany, Georgia, were swamped with coronavirus patients and were not prepared at all. Not enough nursing help, not nearly enough ventilators, and not enough protection for the medical staff. Where could they go for help? We had no plan in place for such a disaster. 

This deadly virus will kill thousands of people and I think many could be saved if only we had proactive people in leadership. But, I was told by a city government employee, government is always reactive. That is why two or three people have to die at an intersection before a stop light is installed or any effort is made to prevent what might happen next.

I have been accused of over-reacting, but I would rather over-react by taking precautions than wait and and see. By then it is often too late.  

We need more people in leadership who look for approaching problems and prepare for them, not wait until they have to react, as we are doing now.

What do you think? Are you one to act on your concerns before they become major? Do you think our leaders in this pandemic acted soon enough? 

NCWN West Presents These Events for 2020

Winter is a time we writers often hunker down, spend more time writing, submitting our work and planning for the coming year. In our area, we resume several of our writing events in March when the weather is more predictable. The critique groups continue year round, but it is not fair to a writer to have them plan for a reading or for teaching a class when the unpredictable weather might prevent anyone from attending.  

As Program Coordinator, I and volunteers work on a schedule of writers and poets for our Literary Hour at the John C. Campbell Folk School. This year from April to October, the NC Writers' Network West brings two of its more than 100 members in western NC and North Georgia to the stage at the Keith House Community Room. Students and faculty of the school and local community residents attend these programs. We feature published writers and poets as well as newer writers who enjoy the warm welcome of the folk school audiences. We include the audience by having them introduce themselves or by having them participate with questions for the writers.

Also beginning in March is Coffee with the Poets and Writers held monthly at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. We began this event in 2007 at Phillips and Lloyd Bookshop, and it is still a favorite. The attendance continues to grow. The Open Mic portion each month is open to anyone who wants to bring a poem or short prose piece. Featured are members of NC Writers' Network.

Nearly a decade ago, Karen Holmes who lives in Hiawassee and in Atlanta, attended a Writers Workshop in Blairsville, GA, sponsored by NCWN-West. She was impressed and became a member. After attending critique groups and readings for awhile, Karen created Writers' Night Out, a monthly gathering of writers set in north Georgia. She invited outstanding authors and poets from Atlanta and paired them with local writers each month. Many of those who traveled up from the city, stayed over and taught classes at Writers Circle around the Table. We were given the chance to meet and study with Robert Brewer, poetry editor of Writers' Digest and Michael Diebert, poetry editor of the Chattahoochee Review. Because of this event hosted by Karen Holmes, award winning poet, local writers met, learned and networked with people of influence in the literary world.

All of these events are sponsored by NCWN-West, a program of the state organization for the mountain community of western North Carolina and north Georgia. Since 1990 the writing community in the mountains has grown and NCWN-West now has a membership of 130.  The state organization receives support from the NC Arts Council and is a non-profit organization, therefore, we as a program, are also non-profit.

In the past two decades we have published anthologies, Lights in the Mountains and Echoes across the Blue Ridge, with work by mountain writers, held annual conferences and appointed representatives for NCWN-West who hold meetings for writers in counties from Henderson to Cherokee and in Towns and Union Counties in Georgia.

Over the years, small, individual groups of writers were spawned from the NCWN West monthly free events, but most professional writers become members of NCWN and therefore, NCWN-West. Members will tell you how helpful it has been to their success to be a part of the organization. From connections to top editors as well as contests for poetry and prose writers,        membership has something for all writers.

Writing is a solitary art, but when we come together in our writing community we don't feel alone and we learn from each other. 

PAT ZICK WORKSHOP, THE ROAD TO PUBLISHING, IS SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, 9/28/19

Saturday, September 28, at Mountain Regional Library in Young Harris, Georgia, Patricia Zick, well-published writer who now lives in Murphy, NC will teach a workshop from 10:15 - 1:15.
NC Writers' Network-West is sponsoring this valuable experience for local writers. We appreciate the Mountain Regional Library hosting this event.

Patricia who writes under the pseudonym of P. C. Zick, will discuss the use of the Internet for self-publishing. 

The Road to Publishing

Author and editor, Patricia Zick, will present The Road to Publishing, a writing workshop on Saturday, September 28, 10:15 - 1:15, at Mountain Regional Library in Young Harris, GA. The library is located at 698 Miller Street

Young Harris, GA  30582. Phone: 706-379-3732

The workshop will explore the different choices for publishing a book, but the main focus will be on the steps involved in self-publishing a work of nonfiction or fiction using Amazon’s publishing platform.  Zick, the author of twenty-five published books in a variety of genres, will demonstrate how to prepare a manuscript, define publishing concepts, and walk through the step-by-step process for uploading a book for both Kindle and paperback publication to the online retail site.

 Zick’s writing career began in 1998 with the publication of her first novel by a small publisher. She used a traditional publisher for her next two novels and worked with an agent for several years. However, when the Independent (Indie) publishing movement began gaining momentum in 2010, she was ready to try something different where she had more control over the process, the work itself, and the payments for that work. Patricia Zick has also worked as a reporter, editor, and publisher of a small newspaper in north Florida. The skills learned in those jobs helped with her venture into the world of an Indie author.

She is a freelance editor who has helped more than a dozen writers go from a rough draft manuscript to a final published author via Amazon.

The three-hour workshop will showcase what it takes to publish independently. It may not be the road for everyone, but at the end of this class, attendees will have a good idea of what route will work for them.
Attendees may bring a sandwich or snack and a drink. We will take a short break near noon. No kitchen facilities are available.

Zick lives in Cherokee County, NC with her husband, Robert, during the spring and summer. They spend the cooler months in Tallahassee, Florida. In both of their homes, they share a love of the outdoors. They kayak, hike, garden, and play golf. While her husband tends the garden, she can be found at her laptop pounding out her next novel or preparing manuscripts for publication.

Published as P.C. Zick, she’s in the process of completing a seven-book series of sweet contemporary romances set in Chicago. Her Smoky Mountain Romances, set in Cherokee County, chronicle the stories of a small community of people who drawn by love, come together, as family. She also edits books for others in her spare time.

Zick is a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West which sponsors this event. To register, send a check or money order for $40.00 to NCWN-West, % Glenda Beall,  581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904. Registration must be made in advance.

Please refrain from wearing perfume, cologne or any scented products. They can make some of us very ill. Thanks for your consideration.

Can you sell your short stories? How much do you charge for speaking engagements?

In my newsletter today from Tara Lynne Groth, I found this link to one of her posts. 

https://writenaked.net/2015/06/18/short-story-marketing/

She writes short stories and is a freelance writer among other things. She has completed a short story collection and her work has won awards.

Many who write short stories could benefit from Short Story Marketing. Publications vary in what they pay and it can be frustrating trying to earn money from writing

At Tara Lynne's site, www.writenaked.net we find many past articles on writing. Today in her newsletter she addressed the question, How Much Should I Charge for a Speaking Engagement? She gives an answer and tells what she charges. She also tells what to charge for travel costs by car. Tara Lynne is a fount of information. I suggest that writers subscribe to her newsletter and read her blog posts. She doesn't fill your Inbox all the time, but when she sends out her news, it is filled with useful information.

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