Maureen Ryan Griffin featured Glenda in her WordZine today

I am delighted today that Maureen Ryan Griffin, poet, writer, writing instructor and owner of WordPlay, featured me, Glenda C. Beall, on her WordZine.

Maureen has been a friend of mine since I first met her at the John C. Campbell Folk School after signing up for one of her writing classes. She has set so many would be writers and poets on the path to publishing and I am one of them.
Check Maureen's Facebook page where you can read the article about me, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins and some words about my co-writer, Estelle Rice.

https://www.facebook.com/WordPlayNow/

Thanks Maureen for all your support.

Writers Circle will Continue into November

Carol Crawford

We had a week full of good instruction for writers at Writers Circle around the Table. Carol Crawford, poet, writer and editor had us writing and creating an essay that we hope to have ready for submitting this coming Thursday when she will hold the second session of this workshop.

Carol has taught writing for years and is a favorite instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School and here at Writers Circle. Carol has been coordinating the annual Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blue Ridge Georgia for many years. It has become one of the best conferences and I was thrilled to be on the faculty last year. 

Scott Owens, who teaches every year at Writers Circle, was one of the instructors at the Blue Ridge conference a couple of years ago. His poetry workshop Saturday here at my studio inspired seven poets who, I'm sure, went home filled with more ideas for poems than they could have imagined if they had not been present.

Scott Owens, poet

Several poets, as they were leaving, praised Scott and said this was one of the best workshops they have attended. After five years, I am fortunate to have been able to interest good writers like Scott and Carol in coming to Writers Circle. And our local attendees have expressed their gratitude to me for bringing in high caliber artists and for keeping the fees reasonable. As long as I can make enough to keep the lights on and keep the doors open as well as pay our instructors a decent honorarium for their work, I will continue as we have been doing. 

I owe much of the  success of Writers Circle to my volunteer work with NCWN West. For several years I wrote articles about writers for the newspapers as part of my publicity duties.  I met many peopole around our region just by talking to them on the  phone. In 2007 I  became the Program Coordinator for Netwest. I attended the Spring and Fall Conferences and met members of the literary community from all across the state. I began the Netwest Writers blog in 2007 which enlarged our circle even more. 

My husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, and I had to  curtail my duties with Netwest. When he died in 2009, I resigned. Overcome with grief and exhaustion of care-giving, I knew it would be impossible for me to continue to do what needed to be done as program coordinator. 

In 2010, needing to do something useful and helpful to others, I started Writers Circle downstairs in my house. We had outstanding writers like Maureen Ryan Griffin stay overnight in my guest room and teach a Saturday morning class. Maureen's successful WordPlay classes are well-known, and she teaches at John C. Campbell Folk School in their writing program each year. She gave me advice and was willing to help me get my business off the ground. I am forever indebted to her. 

The past five years have been filled with writing time, classes in writing, discussions with authors and enjoyment of having friends feel at home sitting around the table in my studio. I am never happier than being with writers and talking about writing. 

Although I usually close the studio in October, this year we have a class in November also. Elizabeth Hunter who writes for Blue Ridge Country magazine will be here October 25 and delightful Dana Wildsmith will teach in November. See the Schedule page for information on the two classes.

MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN and SCOTT OWENS teach in October

October is chock full of writing events, that's for sure. We have two major events scheduled for Writers Circle and you don't want to miss either of them.
From Charlotte, NC, Maureen Ryan Griffin, poet, writer, teacher and owner/director of WordPlay ( See her website here) will stop by and give a three hour workshop on Saturday, October 29. If you haven't had the experience of taking Maureen's classes, don't miss this opportunity. The theme for the day? FOOD!! How much can you write on that subject? Anthologies have been published on just that theme.
If you are a beginning writer or an experienced writer you will learn and have fun in this class.
As you know we have limited space, so don't wait to register. Send a check  ($22.50) to Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC.28904

Also in October, Scott Owens, poet, editor, teacher and more, from Hickory NC, will spend the weekend with us. That is October 15 and 16.
He will read at Writers Night Out in Hiawassee, GA on Friday evening. But he will teach at Writers Circle on Saturday, October 15. His class is not only for poets, but for fiction and non-fiction writers as well.
Come to the Netwest Picnic on Sunday, October 16,  and hear him talk about his favorite subject writing and publishing.

See Schedule at the top of this blog for time and other information.

Maureen Ryan Griffin's Motherwords

A few days ago, I attended a band concert at the school of my smart and athletic nephew, Will. I am completely impressed with the music made by those children. Will is 12 now and he plays trombone. He is in the advanced band. But there were two other groups, the beginning and the intermediate band. As I sat and listened I watched the proud parents with phone cameras held out in front of them hoping to capture the faces of their children and the sound of music. I hope some of them also kept a written record of this evening.


Will's family celebrated this special night together at a nearby restaurant and it was such fun to see the big smile on his face when we told him, truthfully, how proud of him we are. He wore his tuxedo shirt and tie, and looked handsome, but still boyish.

Maureen Ryan Griffin, writer and teacher from Charlotte, NC holds a workshop called Motherwords. She teaches mothers and grandmothers to write and save in notebooks, the important things and the not so important things that happen in the lives of their children. See the link for Empowered Mommies on the sidebar and read a recommendation for Maureen's workshop.

Anyone who has children, young or adult, might want to use this method of saving those special moments in your childrens' lives.