What I am doing during the lull

During this lull in teaching, I am taking online classes and organizing manuscripts of poetry and prose. 

I have enough poems to make a collection, but I think I will do a couple of chapbooks. They are less expensive to publish and cost the reader less than a collection.

Some of my favorite poems have not been published and I want them to be read. Most of my prose pieces, my memoir, personal essays, and short stories, have not been published. I am determined to publish them soon.

I am not as concerned with how they are published as I am with how well they are published. An editor says my short stories will appeal to readers who like to read clean stories, and in today's world, where will I find them?

I am not someone who would avoid using blue language in a fictional piece if they were the words of a character. We must stay true to the character's use of language, his upbringing, and his lifestyle and I have done that with some stories I have written. But I was brought up around people who did not curse or use obscenities around me. Even my husband toned down his rhetoric in my presence. I am not above using a little bad language when I get upset or angry, but I limit myself to damn (the verb, damn means to criticize or to condemn as bad), hell, or SOB. 

I am not overly religious or judgemental but I just prefer not to use the filthy, vulgar language I hear in movies and on TV today. I find it offensive and used more than necessary just for the shock effect. But I can turn it off and find something more to my liking. 

Lexie dressed in her halter and ready for the dog park

Meanwhile, between eating out with my sister, taking Lexie to the dog park, and sleeping a lot, I continue to work for Netwest, prepare my writing for publishing and go to doctor appointments. 

When I am back in Hayesville soon, I will be having a book signing at the charming new bookstore in Blairsville, GA. Book Bound Books will host Carroll Taylor and me on Friday afternoon, October 28, from 3:00 - 6:00 PM at the store on 35 Blue Ridge Street, Blairsville, GA 30512.

If you are in the area, please come by and see us. You will want to check out this terrific bookstore and see the books by Carroll and me. Carroll has a beautiful children's book and two great YA novels. I will have three of my books there.

Hope to see you then.

Virtual writing classes end for now.

The writing class I am teaching on Zoom each Tuesday evening for the past six weeks will end tomorrow. 

It has been a joy to meet the students in this class. None of them are from my local area, but from the writing they have done, I can see some of them grew up in the same kind of environment I did. 

I felt the love between Kim and his grandparents who helped raise him. They lived a simple rural life much like my parents on the farm. Other writers shared their cast of characters, family members, in short memoirs each week. 

One student wrote about her beloved grandmother. I could see the woman who kept safety pins attached to the front of her dress just in case they were needed. I could picture her helping the elderly lady who was sick and getting her ready to go to a nursing home. This grandmother was a person who taught life lessons by the way she lived. The writer used all the senses to make the reader feel present. 

One of the students lives in southern California and she didn't relate to the rural life stories, but she had her own interesting personal essays that informed and entertained as well as enlightened us. She said she liked the stories about rural living in the last century.

I am always pleased when more experienced writers take my classes. We enjoyed Celia Miles, author of many good mystery novels, taking part in the classes. She has a new book out now: The Secret at the Little Lost Mill. She is wonderful for other students because she comments on their work in a helpful manner. She has learned to be open and free to write the real stories of her life and her family. Writing memoir is different from writing fiction, and Celia is learning how to do that.

Abbie Taylor

We also had Abbie Taylor, author of several books, in this class. She lives in Wyoming. Abbie is a delightful person and she has been a blogger friend for many years. You can find her online at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AbbieTaylor

She is well-published and knows how to promote her writing. That is often the biggest hurdle a writer must overcome. She is helpful to the other students in the class. I think she takes my classes because she has to write something new every week.  I like to take classes to get motivated and often find I have done my best writing in a class. 

Three of my students have visual disabilities, but that did not slow them down. Each week they sent me their work usually based on a prompt I gave them. They taught me so very much. Some of their stories I will keep and read again after the class closes. I hope I gave them as much as they gave me in the past six weeks. 

Teaching virtually is not something many teachers and students enjoy. 

They prefer face-to-face meetings, but for now, I will only teach online and I am delighted that my students from all over the country seem to enjoy what we do. 

Even though many of us want to think the virus is gone away, I learn every day about someone else who has been infected with COVID. Tonight I learned that a member of my church who was at the service on Sunday has come down with fever and tested positive for this awful virus. The use of masks in public has lessened and I think that might be a problem. 

With all my latest health issues, I still wear a mask when I am out in public.

I will continue to wear one. I have realized that I am suffering from long-haul symptoms of the virus which I had in January. I have lost my sense of smell and taste. It is said it could go on for 12 - 18 months and it might never come back. 

Now I am trying to retrain my olfactory system to smell again. 

Eighty percent of what we taste comes from smelling first. Only five tastes come from the tongue. Sweet, salt, bitter, sour, and savory.  Those are the only things I can taste now. 

I wish I had started earlier working on this retraining. Doctors say that the sooner you begin the treatment, the better your chance of gaining it back.

Well, I hope you, my readers stay well and hope you are enjoying your precious life. I love to hear from you so leave a comment or email me. I will respond.

Poetry Month and my poetry here

I have decided to share more of my poetry on my blog. We always feel we must not share a poem online because then the poetry journals won't accept it. But, I have many that have already been published and I am happy for other eyes to see them.

So many of you emailed me about the poem, Stop the Trees from Growing, and how you related to it.

You might like this one, too. I wrote it about six years after Barry died.  Forgive the spacing. I know better but my computer is acting up tonight.

Shot into the Future, Clutching the Past

 Sometimes I forget the years before spiraling

darkness took its toll. Now aging wraps me in

silken threads, squeezes me into a box.


I forget until a whirlwind, half my age,

delves into my life. Her purpose, unclutter

my house, my life, set me free of the past.


I forget until she tells me 2005 was long ago.

It’s yesterday to me. She brands my computer

an antique, like me, I suppose.


Floppy disks? Does anybody still use them?

She tosses them in the trash. What can she know

of such things? I saved precious words on those disks.


I am saddened by the pain she has yet to face.

Her biggest loss so far – a breakup with her boyfriend.

Six years gone now, I kept his voice on the answering machine.

                        By Glenda Council Beall

Published:  - Main Street Rag,  Volume 21, Summer 2016 issue

The biggest reason people don't write?

Feb 2020, my backyard. Has nothing to do with this blog post, but we do expect snow tomorrow.

What keeps people from writing? Fear.

For many, putting our thoughts and words on paper is terrifying. It is like pulling your heart out of your chest, handing it over to someone, and saying, “Do whatever you want with it. Smash it in the ground if you want. Throw it in the trash, chop it into little pieces and throw it away. But I hope you will love it and treat it with tenderness.”

Writing is a personal experience and not everyone can do it. Fear of what others might say about us and our writing is one of the largest challenges we face. We also have doubts about ourselves. I can’t really write. I’m not that good. Who am I to think I can write anything others would want to read?

I am sure that everyone who has written and shared what they wrote, had those self-doubts. We all second-guess ourselves. I know I have, and I still do at times. I have a short story I wrote 25 years ago, printed it out, edited it to death, and only let one person read it. I thought it was pretty good. But the one person who read it, when asked what she thought, said, “It was interesting, but I knew who was going to be the guilty one before you ever got to that last part.”

Why did that bring up all my self-doubts? Why did I put that story away with the promise that one day I would revise it and submit it? As writers we pour our hearts and souls into each poem, short story, non-fiction, or novel, and we never feel quite sure it will be accepted by readers.

Years ago, Kathryn Stripling Byer, the first female poet laureate of North Carolina, who had published many poetry books, won all kinds of awards, told me something I have remembered till this day. “No matter how many books I have published,” she said. “Each new manuscript I send to LSU Press (her press for many years) makes me as nervous as the first one I submitted. There is no guarantee they will like this one. There is no guarantee that it won’t be rejected.”

I was dumbfounded. I thought with her reputation and all the praise and outpouring of respect and love for her, she would be completely confident that anything she submitted would be grabbed up with joy. But, in the long run, no matter how famous, how many laurels one wins, we all still put on our pants one leg at the time the same as everyone else.

The words she confided in me made a huge difference in my thinking about what success is in the writing world. Although that short story I wrote twenty-five years ago has not seen the light of day, I am going to include it in my short story collection that I hope to submit or have published this year. In fact, I am digging back into my early writing and finding poems that I feared were not good enough to submit and including them in my next chapbook.

We must put fear behind us and realize that rejections are not personal indictments against us or our writing.

Editors have many reasons why they choose what they will publish. One of my poems, The Peach, was chosen for a literary journal simply because it brought back a memory to the editor. He said when he read it, he remembered how his mother would whip him with a peach tree switch when he was a little boy. He did not say the poem was good and he did not choose it because of its literary merit. He chose it because it brought back a memory from his childhood.

I learned not to count my rejections. Why should I? I count only the acceptances of my work. We don’t need or want to crow about our latest rejection, do we? But we shout out loud about the latest poem, short story or book acceptance. And we should.

We talked today on Mountain Wordsmiths about how we can promote our work during this pandemic. Book signings are scary for me, although some authors are out there meeting the people face to face. I am delighted that we have Zoom and can meet new people, share our work, and sell our books even though it is much harder to sell a book online.

I think we must stop counting the number of books sold at an event, and look at marketing our name, our faces and personalities online. I am not a huge social media person. I don’t have a smart phone welded to my hand and am annoyed by those who do. But, as a writer in today’s world, you must have a social media identity either on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or others. I use Facebook as my social media outlet. I tried others, but just don’t want to take the time to scroll through them all the time.

Did you know that scrolling is now considered as addictive as smoking once was? Someone dear to me admitted recently that she was afraid she was addicted to scrolling. What is it that hooks folks?

Anyway, if it helps promote your writing, you must take time for social media marketing every day. I post on three blogs and that has built me an audience in three countries – not big, but enough it satisfies me. I adore my blogger friends who always leave comments on my posts. I do the same for them.

The point of it all is we need and want to connect with others. When we share our writing, we feel a need to have someone validate us, read, and give us feedback that will encourage us without putting us down. We need to know where we could improve our work, but we don’t need someone insinuating we have no hope. Encourage and critique with kindness is the best way to help a writer. I know that because my mentor and teachers, Nancy Simpson and Carol Crawford did that for me.

In our discussion today on Zoom, the majority of us agreed that if only one person has benefited from our writing, we are a success. That is why our readers can make us very happy if they email or call as someone did today to tell me how much she has enjoyed Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins; Family Pets and God’s other Creatures. I don’t know if she bought it on Kindle, as a used book at the library, or purchased a brand-new paperback from Tigers in Hayesville, she made my day.

 

Why Do You Write?

Bobbie Christmas, editor and writer, published this article on LinkedIn. 

Why Do You Write? is a good question to ask yourself. Bobbie answers this question and tells us what we should do according to who we write for, who we want to read our words, where we hope to publish, and what we want to do if we publish a book.

Students gather around the table for a class in my studio before COVID

I have scheduled my next writing class for September 27 - November 1, Mondays 2:30 - 4:30 PM.

The classes will be on Zoom as my last several classes have been. The Institute for Continuing Learning will sponsor the class. Visit  www.iclyhc.org to see when registration begins for this class. 

Check the calendar for all 2021 fall classes. No matter where you live if you can get Internet coverage and can connect with Zoom.com, you are welcome to join locals in my region of the Appalachian Mountains in my class. 

Last Class for Now

Tuesday will be the last of a series of classes I have been teaching for the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris College, Young Harris, Georgia.

I hope to teach again in the fall and I hope to teach online. This has been a very good experience for me and for my students, some who live long distances from here. It is very satisfying to see my students grow in their writing and enjoy it as well. This group has been the most dedicated class of the three I taught this year. 

I saw a conversation between Dr. Fauci who is 80 years old and Jane Brody, a woman his age who works in public health. They both said they have no plans to retire and enjoy what they do. Dr. Fauci said he takes long walks every day and eats properly to stay in shape. He said at one point last year he was only getting about four hours of sleep at night, but his wife reminded him that this pandemic was like a marathon and will be going on a while, so he had to take care of himself.

Many men and women who are way past retirement age still go to work every day and do a great job. I wish the media would concentrate on their stories. 

We should not write off a person once he is past retirement age because most of the older generation I know are leading active lives. Dr. Fauci said when he does retire, he plans to write a memoir and also articles. I look forward to his memoir where he can tell what really happened during 2020.

So many people are writing their stories now. Memoirs are the top sellers after romance novels. 

I'd better get busy with my own book. And I hope my students will continue to write all summer and join me again in class next fall.

Can I Prompt You to Write?

How many times have you felt you just could not write, could not think of a topic or get motivated to begin?

Well, we all  have those moments, but those of us who are not working on a particular manuscript or subject we want to explore, often come up empty when we have the time and want to write.

I like prompts to help me jog my writing mind. I often just need one line or one suggestion to get the juices flowing and then can't stop until I finish my story or essay or poem. Some of my best poetry is the result of prompts in writing classes. 

Also, I think writing in more than one genre is helpful. I might get an idea that works great in a poem, but would not do well as a fiction piece or personal essay. It is fun and interesting to write a poem and then write a story from the poem. Writing poetry forces the writer to search for the very best words, and helps keep the fiction from running on with too many adverbs and adjectives. 

Writer's Digest has an article filled with a variety of prompts. Check them out and let me know if you found something here that awakes your muse.

https://www.writersdigest.com/prompts

Brian A. Klems is the online editor of Writer’s Digest and author of the popular gift book Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl: A Dad’s Survival Guide to Raising Daughters.

Meet C. Hope Clark, Mystery Writer

Write short pieces to sell your long pieces.  
That is a good marketing plan and one C. Hope Clark discusses in her guest  post on www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com  this week. An author who writes books can build her name by writing articles and doing interviews published in newspapers, magazines, online and ezines. Hope Clark is proof that her system works. She is author of two award-winning mystery series.

If you don't know C. Hope Clark's work, be sure you learn about her. Her website has been chosen as one of the top 101 best websites for writers by the Writer's Digest for the past 18 years. She is all about writing, helping writers and publishing her highly popular Funds for Writers.

Read the post here.

WRITERS' NIGHT OUT-- APRIL 12 -- CHECK OUT THIS YEAR'S SCHEDULE

Thanks to Karen Paul Holmes, we can look forward to a night of listening to poems and prose by our best writers. 

https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/2019/03/2019-writers-night-out-blairsville.html

We have such a good time at Writers Night Out in Blairsville, GA. 

Karen always creates an excellent schedule of prose writers and poets and still has time for Open Mic.

For those of us who live in Union, Towns, Clay and Cherokee Counties, this is a perfect way to spend a Friday evening - have dinner, meet with our writing friends, hear a couple of excellent writers and read a poem or short piece of prose.

I am happy that Michelle Keller and I will be featured readers May 10, 7:00 p.m. 
Mary Mike, my friend, writes poetry that is memorable and shows her knowledge of what makes a good poem.
She is one of the busiest people I know, and one of the most knowledgeable people I know. No matter what I need she can tell me what to do or she can come over and take care of it. But she is a dear friend who is always there for me as I am for her.

Here is the complete 2019 schedule for Writers' Night Out

• April 12:           Chelsea Rathburn & James May
• May 10:            Glenda Beall & Mary Mike Keller
• June 14             James Davis & Dan Veach
• July 12:             Victoria Barken & Ryvers Stewart
• August 9:          Mary Ricketson & Loren Leith
• September 13:  Kathy Nelson & Karen Paul Holmes
• October 11:       Linda Jones & Alan Cone
• November 8:     Rosemary Royston & TBA

Writing about Your Life classes in April, May and June

Plans are being made for my two writing classes that will begin in April and go on through June. I will teach a class for the Institute of Continuing Learning on Tuesday afternoons beginning April 30, 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM, and ending May 21.

For class description click here.

This class will be taught at my studio in Hayesville, NC instead of on the Young Harris College campus. To register for this class, contact ICL at www.iclyhc.org

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Beginning June 4, a new Writers Circle Studio course is scheduled. 
Instructor: Glenda Beall - 

Use registration form at top of page.




June 4, Tuesday 2:00 – 4:30 pm
June 11, Tuesday 2:00 – 4:30 pm
June 18, Tuesday 2:00 – 4:00 pm
June 25, Tuesday 2:00 – 4:30 pm 

Read description of this class here.

Lyn Hawks wrote about the pitfalls with agents coming and going.

Thanks to Tara Lynne Groth, I read this article that I must share with other writers.
https://lynhawks.com/dont-despair/

Finding an agent you like and can work with is difficult. One writer says she wasted a year with an agent who she finally realized was not that interested in her books.

Some people find the perfect agent and give that person accolades for all the help given to the author. In the above post by Lyn Hawks, writers can see the journey toward the published book is not straight and easy. Perseverance seems to be the most important virtue of the author who has books on the shelves in Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. How about receiving over 100 rejections? Would you stay with it that long?

Setting Writers on the Right Track

Anne Bowman, Terri Thrower, Carol Gladders, Caroll Taylor, Nancy Meyers Lisa Long
Back: Richard Cary and Don Long
Sitting in front, instructor: Glenda beall
TCCC Publishing and Marketing Class August 11, 2018


Carol Crawford presented a power point program on what a writer needs to know when preparing a manuscript for publication.
Glenda Beall discussed the importance of marketing before publishing, places to submit poetry and prose as well as online methods of marketing.

 

These writers came to Carol Crawford's workshop today

Photo by Carol Crawford

It is a joy to take a class with Carol Crawford and to have her come to my studio is even better. The photo above was taken today, Saturday, at Writers Circle around the Table.
 From left is Anne Bowman, Carol Gladders, Me, Diane Payne on the far end, Jerry Stripling, Nancy Meyers and Ayer Gresham. All of these people have taken my classes at my studio. They said they enjoy coming and getting to know other writers as well as learning.

Carol's workshop was fun and full of good information. She gave us writing assignments to do in class that helped us get away from the cliché and made us think of the best way to describe someone without the every day "drivers license" description--five feet, two inches tall, with black hair.

photo by Glenda Beall
Carol is standing at the far end of the table by the board. 

The writing assignment spurred me on to write about a family member. This often happens in workshops. We find that we become motivated to write, to get those words on paper now. Some of my best poems have come to light in a poetry class.

Isn't that what we want, to be inspired to write? 
 
 

 NEW CLASS COMING UP

 

I decided I could work in another six week course at the studio beginning on August 14. We will meet Tuesday afternoons, 2 - 5 PM. This creative writing course is 18 hours of class time. We write something fresh and new each week and we share it with our classmates. We are taking registration now.

 

Contact me at gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com if you want to register and I will give you information for sending a check.

 

Visit www.glendacouncilbeall.com and click on the Studio Schedule page for a class description.

 

Article by Lucy Gratton - Rice and Beall read at JCCFS

JOHN CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

              On Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 7:00 PM, John Campbell Folk School and N.C. Writers Network West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading held at Keith House on the JCFS campus. This is being held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise notified.  The reading is free of charge and open to the public.  Writers Estelle Rice and Glenda Beall will be the featured readers, both of whom are well established poets in the mountain area. 

    

ESTELLE RICE

Estelle Rice, author of Quiet Times, a book of poetry, is a well-published writer whose short stories have appeared in The Appalachian Heritage Journal, the Journal of Kentucky Studies, and in anthologies and magazines, including Lights in the Mountains and Echoes Across the Blue Ridge.

She is a native North Carolinian, born in Rock y Mount and raised in Charlotte. She now lives in Marble, NC. Estelle received her BA in psychology from Queens University in Charlotte and a MA in counseling from the University of South Alabama. She is a retired Licensed Professional Counselor. Although she is a full-time caregiver for her husband now, she still attends writing workshops and continues to create poems and stories. Her poetry has been published in The Back Porch, the Freeing Jonah series and others.

Estelle has been a member of  the North Carolina Writers’ Network West for many years and has endeared herself to her friends and co-writers alike.

GLENDA BEALL

Glenda Beall’s poems, essays and short stories have been published in numerous literary journals and magazines including, Reunions Magazine, Main Street Rag, Appalachian Heritage, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Dead Mule, School of Southern Literature and Wild Goose Poetry Review. Her poems have been anthologized in Lights in the Mountains, The Best of Poetry Hickory Series, 2011, Kakalak: North Carolina Poets of 2009, and Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places, among others.

Glenda enjoys writing articles for newspapers on subjects that are important to her such as indoor air pollution and spaying and neutering pets. She supports animal rescue shelters with her articles. She  taught memoir writing at John C. Campbell Folk School for several years. She also teaches writing at Tri-County Community College.

Glenda served as program director of North Carolina Writers’ Network West in 2007 and 2008, and is now Clay County Representative for NCWN West.  Glenda is author of  NOW MIGHT AS WELL BE THEN, poetry published by Finishing Line Press, and she compiled a family history,  PROFILES AND PEDIGREES, THOMAS CHARLES COUNCIL AND HIS DESCENDANTS, published by Genealogy Publishing Company.

Glenda is Owner/Director of Writers Circle where she invites those interested in writing poetry or prose to her home studio for classes taught by some of the best poets and writers in the area.  Find her online at www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com and www.profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com

Write these dates on your calendar

It is not too soon. Write these dates on your calendar - March 5 - April 9.

Glenda Beall teaches at Tri-County Community College between Hayesville and  Murphy, NC. Call and register now.

Call Lisa at (828) 835-4313

http://www.tricountycc.edu/uploads/Schedule/Spring%202013%20Schedule.pd

Write Your Life Stories for Your Children and 

Grandchildren: 

Maybe your grandchildren live miles
away and you see them once or twice a year. Maybe
your children or grandchildren are just too busy to
listen to stories about your childhood, growing up
in the last half of the twentieth century. Have you
always planned to write about your life for your
children and grandchildren? In this class you will learn
how to write your stories so they will be interesting,
enlightening and entertaining. That will be the most
valuable and long-lasting possession you can give to
them.
Instructor: Glenda Beall                    Minimum students: 6
Tuesday afternoons - March 5 - April 9       for 6 wks
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.