Politics, Property and Political Correctness

Closing out the year with some humor by Roger Carlton

If I learned one thing from more than 50 years of public service, it is that the most intractable problems are often solved with humor. 

Today we are very polarized. People are addicted to using electronic devices and social networks to yell at each other. After all, such means of making a point does not require facing your opponent and looking them in the eye.

Here are a few thoughts meant to be humorous at the end of this very polarized year.
1. A conservative believes that “What is mine is mine and what is yours we can negotiate or take.”
2. A liberal believes that “What is mine is mine and what is yours belongs to everyone.

3. An independent believes that “What is mine is mine and and give me some time to think about yours.”

The Founders believed in certain inalienable rights unless you were a slave or a woman. It took four score and seven years for President Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation and an additional two score and 17 years for women to be granted the right to vote. That is 87 and 57 years for those who don’t count in scores.

The prehistoric cave dwellers communicated with grunts and pictures on cave walls. As technology progressed, native people used drums and smoke signals. Some people think the smoke is still used. 

Early technology included the Pony Express, telegraph, hard line phones, television, newspapers and magazines. Once our Tennessee neighbor, Al Gore, invented the Internet, Facebook and Twitter soon followed.

Frankly, this columnist thinks tweeting is for the birds. When people tweet, it is an insult to our avian friends except perhaps the goony bird. That noble American bald eagle doesn’t tweet. He hunts with the goal of feeding his family and he mates for life.

So my friends, we come to the end of a “year of discontent.” Here are a few suggested New Year resolutions. 

Turn off all communication devices at dinner. It breaks my heart to see parents and children having dinner at a restaurant while all are clacking away  on some device. 

Second, ban all family responses that use the word “whatever.” The word defines disrespect and not caring.

Finally, if you must tweet, the victims of the tweet should be allowed to finish their sentences before the send button is mashed.

My best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.

Why social media for authors? Tara Lynne Groth explains.

Tara Lynne Groth

Tara Lynne Groth

Saturday, August 6
10- 1:00 p.m.
Writers Circle around the Table
Hayesville, NC 28904 

Social Media for Authors

How can authors consistently maintain a presence on popular social media sites? Learn if the demographics of your readers are on Facebook, Twitter, or other services, how to plan relevant social content based on analytics, and if automated services are right for you.

We'll also break down the mystery of blogging and help writers make smart decisions about their online social presence.

Tara Lynne knows her stuff and is happy to share her knowledge and skills with others. She's very talented and a great teacher! -Beth B.

Tara Lynne Groth (www.taralynnegroth.com) is a writer in North Carolina. Before writing full-time she was a marketing manager, and before that, a public relations director. She instructs classes on book marketing, author marketing, freelance writing, as well as creative writing workshops. As a blogger and content creator she also handles content marketing and manages social media for clients. As a journalist, her bylines have appeared  in Blue Ridge Outdoors, Chapel Hill News, Draft, and dozens more. 

Tara Lynne received a scholarship in 2009 to attend the Southampton Writers Conference for fiction, her poetry has appeared in multiple journals and anthologies, she received honorable mention in fiction in the 2015 Carolina Woman Writing Contest, and was a semifinalist for the 2015 James Applewhite Poetry Prize. In 2014, her poetry was selected as part of a community art project in Winston-Salem and was used to inspire two sculptures. She has published three poetry books.

She is also the founder and organizer of Triangle Writers and Asheville Writers, two groups with more than 1,000 members collectively. In 2011 she launched her blog WriteNaked.net, which has grown into a popular destination for individuals interested in making their living from writing. On the blog she breaks down misconceptions people have about freelance life, includes interviews with publishers, provides behind-the-scenes scoop on writers conferences, and has nearly 1,000 subscribers - and she pays guest bloggers. 

Fee: $45

Registration: Complete Registration form at top of page, send with check for $45 to Glenda Beall, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904. We also accept PayPal. See sidebar on blog.

Call 828-389-4441 or email: glendabeall@msn.com for more information. 

Deadline for registration: July 23. Hurry so we can be sure this class makes.

Snow all day kept me home and busy.

On a cold snowy day like today, I get so much done at home. Today I went down to my studio in my basement and turned on my old desktop computer. That is where many photos and older files are found. I had Bob, my computer guru, clean up that old dinosaur.

View from my deck looking off into the woods and the snow covered mountains

 Now it is quick and I enjoy it more than my fancy new desktop in my office. I am still struggling with learning Windows 8, Microsoft Office Word 2010, and I get frustrated when I have to search for all the new ways of doing things.

I have learned that not all young people know more about computers than I do. In fact, I find that most of them know how to use their smart phones, but when it comes to what I need to learn, they tell me they don't know anything about computers.

The next time someone tells me to just ask a twelve year old how to hook up my computer or use a program that is new to me, I will tell them that I don't have time to teach a kid or have the patience to try to get him/her off their cell phone. 

I hope that Ronda Birtha's class on using Social Media for marketing your writing will make. I look forward to learning how to do that properly and how to be safe on Facebook and Twitter. I see people giving out their home addresses on FB, and putting their young children's pictures online and I wonder if that is safe. I know I wouldn't give out my home address on Facebook. But Ronda is an expert in all this and I'm sure she can tell us what to do and what is not safe to do. 
Mainly, I hope she will help our writers see how they can promote their writing and reach a larger audience.

I hope all of you are warm tonight. I think about my parents and grand parents on cold nights like this. They couldn't go in and flip the thermostat higher to take the chill off.
Even when I was a small child we had only one heater in the house. Mother would warm a blanket and wrap up our feet when we climbed into the cold bed. Then she would pile quilts on us and we slept warm, my little sister and me, cuddled up together.

Hottest Promotional Tool Today

At Ronda Birtha's workshop Saturday, May 14, 10:30 AM
Ronda will teach writers and poets the best way to promote themselves and their writing with social media, the hottest promotional tool available today. Using Facebook and Twitter and blogging to stay in touch with family is completely different from using these forms to market our work.

"I have all these boxes of books in my basement. What should I do next?"


One of the biggest mistakes writers make is waiting until they have published a book to begin building their online platform.
Whatever you write, having an online presence is important. Editors go online and check out writers. What will they see when they look for you?


Why Ronda Birtha
We invited Ronda Birtha to teach at Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC after hearing of her qualifications. She is a folklife documentarian and freelance new media artist residing in Marble, North Carolina. She is a photography and videography instructor with the Community Folklife Documentation Institute sponsored by the NC Arts Council, and the Project Manager for Mountain Work: A Social Commentary – a documentary partially funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council that is being developed with Tri-County College in Murphy, North Carolina.
She is also a partner in the publishing companies, Galactic Publishers and Writers’ Hub of the Mountains. She teaches a number of writing courses and provides consultation for independent authors who are seeking to self-publish. In the five or ten minutes that she has for herself in the course of a day, she continues to work on her first novel – Solace.
Samples of her photography and videography can be seen at http://www.rondabirtha.com/.


Send email to nightwriter0302@yahoo.com or call Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441 to register. Fee is $30.00

Social Media? Who Needs It?

Ronda Birtha talks about her upcoming class on Social Media to be held at Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, in Hayesville, NC 28904

A pre-class prep talk to ease the nerves of non-tech-savvy attendees. This is not a technology class!
Overview: 3 hours.
1. Introduction to Social Media for marketing (1 hr)
Why Social Media is Necessary for your Marketing Strategy?
What do you mean, ‘be social’?
2. What you need to Start and Maintain a Blog (1hr)
3. Getting started with Facebook (1hr)

What kind of writer are you? Is your satisfaction complete when you pen your last word, or make your final edit? Are you the kind of writer that is completely satisfied with having friends and family read your manuscript? Or do you want more? Do you want people to talk about your book (favorably, of course)? Word of mouth has always been a powerful tool, but let’s consider how it works today.
When someone has some juicy information, a valuable recommendation, meaningful insight (or, not so meaningful), even a scathing review, it is talked about, not just in someone’s ear, but online, in the powerful and pervasive social media context. If you want people to talk about your book then that is where you have to get the conversation going: in the social media pool.
If you are concerned about getting started because of having limited computer knowledge or experience, rest assured, the most difficult part of engaging in social media is the commitment you will need to stick with it. The first word in Social Media Marketing, is, indeed, Social, and that is where our classroom conversation will begin.
What does it mean to be social, how does one become social? The answers to these often-neglected, yet highly important questions, will help fortify your nerve and strengthen your resolve to stick with your social media marketing efforts.
Technologically speaking, what do you need at minimum to start?
Access to a computer that has an internet connection (preferably more than dial-up). Computer access will not be needed for this class, however, so breathe easy (at least for now).
I don’t want to oversimplify the process or the methods, especially since many aspects of social media marketing are still very much an art form and not a science (like medicine), and are prone to surprise and confound us. But if we remember that many things in life surprise and confound us, we will not inflate our expectations. There is no magic button that will set everything up for us. There is no secret preference that we have to click on to make people visit our site, comment on our blog, respond to our Facebook status updates. It takes work, and effort … like most worthwhile things.
So bring a positive attitude and a pen to take notes.


Ronda L. Birtha is a freelance photographer, writer and social media consultant. She can be contacted at rbirtha@rondabirtha.com. Her photography can be viewed at www.rondabirtha.com

The class on Social Media will be held May 14. 10:30 - 1:30 PM.
E-mail Glenda Beall for registration information: glendabeall@msn.com

How Indie Authors Use Social Media with Ronda Birtha

How Indie Authors Use Social Media as a Promotional Tool Picture the scenario: you’ve written an incredible novel, memoir, biography; you’ve labored through the steps to get it published (traditionally, or self-published), you sit back and wait for the royalties to flood in. The problem? Only your mother, and closest friends are aware of your masterpiece.

Discover how the wealth of free and low cost resources can help promote your efforts to advertise and market your book. (And you thought your work was done when you finished writing. You’ve only just begun.) Ronda Birtha is a folklife documentarian and freelance new media artist residing in Marble, North Carolina. She is a photography and videography instructor with the Community Folklife Documentation Institute sponsored by the NC Arts Council, and the Project Manager for Mountain Work: A Social Commentary – a documentary partially funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council that is being developed with Tri-County College in Murphy, North Carolina. She is also a partner in the publishing companies, Galactic Publishers and Writers’ Hub of the Mountains. She teaches a number of writing courses and provides consultation for independent authors who are seeking to self-publish. In the five or ten minutes that she has for herself in the course of a day, she continues to work on her first novel – Solace. Samples of her photography and videography can be seen at http://www.rondabirtha.com/.

See an interview with Ronda Birtha here.

Ronda Birtha's class will be taught Saturdays, 10:30 - 1:30 PM, May 14, June 11 and July 23. Registration fee of $30 for one class should be mailed to Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC, 28904 no later than one week before class begins.

Call 828-389-4441 or email Glenda Beall at nightwriter0302@yahoo.com for more information about this class.

Registration begins February 1 for Spring Writers Circle Classes

Estelle Rice - March 12 at Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC

We have several instructors lined up for Spring Classes at Writers Circle in Hayesville, NC.

March 12, at 10:30 a.m. Estelle Rice will kick off our second season at Writers Circle. Estelle’s classes are such fun because she digs deep to find new and exciting things to bring to her students. Registration begins February 1. contact: nightwriter0302@yahoo.com


Karen Holmes will teach two Sunday afternoons, the 19th and 26th of March. She will instruct us in Reading Out Loud. Writers often present their work at public readings. Part of Karen’s course includes videoing each student’s performance.
Glenda Beall will lead a six week course beginning 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, March 23 with following classes March 30, April 6, April 20, April 27 and May 4. Want to write memoir or family stories? Write for your grandchildren; write for a newsletter, stories to share at family reunions, or any place you want to share your writing. Prompts, tips and detail instruction on making your work grab the reader on the first page.

On April 31, we have a new instructor, JoAnn LoVerde-Dropp, who recently received her MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. She teaches ESL classes in Cobb County, Georgia and is the poetry workshop facilitator for the Georgia Writers Association in Kennesaw, Georgia. She will teach poetry memoir. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

In May, Ronda Birtha will begin a series of three Saturday classes on Using Social Media to Promote Your Writing.
On May 4, Saturday, Rosemary Royston will hold a poetry class. More information later.
Michelle Keller will teach three classes on Wednesdays, June 15, 22, 29. She brings her knowledge of genealogy and writing to the students who want to write true stories about their ancestors.

Paul Donovan plans more Spiritual Writing classes to be held at Writers Circle. More information forthcoming when the schedule is complete.

Email Glenda Beall @ nightwriter0302@yahoo.com for registration information.