We begin Coffee with the Poets and Writers March 16

Coffee with the Poets and Writers

Hayesville, NC

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 10:00 a.m.

MOSS MEMORIAL LIBRARY

Our first meeting this year of Coffee with the Poets and Writers will feature two members of the North Carolina Writers’ Network West.

Joan Howard, well-published poet from Hiawassee, Georgia will share her poetry with us.  Her poems have been published in the Aurorean, Miller's Pond, The Road Not Taken:The Journal of Formal Poetry, Lucid Rhythms, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Eclectic Muse, Victorian Violet, the Deronda Review, Our Pipe Dreams, The Lyric, GPS The Reach of Song, a chapbook, Red Fox Run, and POEM. 

From Hendersonville, NC, we welcome Miriam Jones Bradley, author of a children’s book series, The Double Cousins Mysteries, a memoir, All I Have Needed-A Legacy for Life, and You Ain’t From Here, Are Ya, Reflections on Southern Culture from an Outsider. The latter is a collection of articles by Bradley, from a South Carolina newspaper. She will read and speak about her writing experience.

Glenda Beall, a Clay County Representative for NCWN West, facilitates this monthly event each year from March – December.

Everyone is invited. You can meet other writers, learn about writing events in the area and read a short prose piece or a couple of poems during Open Mic. There is no charge.

Join us for lunch after the meeting at Angelo’s on the square.

We appreciate the Moss Library providing a room for us. Coffee with the Poets and Writers is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West which is a program of the NorthCarolina Writers’ Network.

For more information contact Glenda Beall, 828-389-4441.

Need an agent? Look here.

If  you  have written a book and are looking for an agent, visit this site to see agents seeking authors.

https://medium.com/@ericaverr/7-established-agents-looking-for-writers-e558c25f207f#.ktyp24pol

Even self published authors can find agents that will help them out.

Poetry Class for Beginning Poets and Intermediate Poets

It has been requested that we hold a basic poetry class at Writers Circle.

With enough interest, we will hold a series of poetry classes for beginning and intermediate poets. We will meet for three two-hour sessions over three weeks.
Fees: $25.00 for six hours of class time. Date and time to be announced when we have enough interest. 

In this class we will discuss free verse, other forms of poetry, what a poem needs to get the editor's attention, how to find a poem, prompts from everyday items in your life and much more.

You will learn how to submit poetry for publication and how to search for the best places to send your poetry.

You will have access to books on writing poetry that you may check out.

If you want to write poetry or if you already write poetry but have not taken classes before, this course of study will be beneficial.

Our Studio is located in Hayesville, NC convenient to Hiawassee, GA, Blairsville, GA, Young Harris, GA, and Murphy, NC.

Writers Circle around the table for one of our many classes

Photographs - wonderful prompts for writing

Helen Beall

 The above photograph was taken on a trip from California to Georgia in the early sixties. The woman in the picture is Helen  Beall, mother of the man I would later marry. Several things about this photo provoke memories for stories. She had flown out to San francisco where her son had been living. He was about 25 at the time. When she and Barry decided to come back to Georgia, they climbed into his little MG.  The two of them rode across country in the winter time in a two-seater convertible in which the heater quit working. Somewhere in Texas they encountered a blizzard. I can go on and write the entire story, but I won't do that here.

Barry Beall at my parent's home in Georgia

I was not a fan of the tiny sports car, but Barry loved it. 

Often in my classes I will ask my students to make a list of all the cars they have owned. Our automobiles are like family, close friends, and we often name them. A car is such a personal attachment they live on in our memories long after they are gone. 

The photos above bring to mind a significant time in my life. Barry, my husband, loved convertibles and he loved small sports cars like this Austin Healey. Before we met, he and I had just bought new cars. The white Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible I bought with my own money. As a first year teacher, I splurged and purchased the car of my dreams, a car no one ever thought I would drive. 

When it became obvious we could not afford two car payments, he traded down to the used Austin Healey. I don't think he felt a loss because he still turned heads when he passed, and he loved the thrill of shifting  gears and speeding down country roads. 

Anytime I feel I need to motivate myself to write, I only have to look through my old photograph albums. They hold the key to hundreds, maybe thousands, of stories and poems. 

Have you used pictures to jump-start your writing?

OMP calls for submissions for new anthology

Tom Davis of Old Mountain Press has called his former contributors to submit to a new anthology. You can view the submissions of those who have already been accepted. Be sure to visit the website for Old Mountain Press.

Old Mountain Press (OMP) is accepting submissions for 

Wish You Were Here from PREVIOUS CONTRIBUTORS ONLY OR SOMEONE RECOMMENDED BY A PREVIOUS CONTRIBUTOR. Each contributor whose work will appear in this anthology can recommend ONE person to submit to this anthology. Someone whose work you would like to see included with yours–maybe right beside yours:-).

See  http://www.oldmp.com/anthology/wishyouwerehere.htm here you will also find guidelines and the link to an online submission form.

View camera ready copy of all submissions accepted so far at http://www.oldmp.com/anthology/review/wishyouwerehere.pdf

NOTE: As always this anthology may fill up before the close out date so don’t procrastinate.

Wish You Were Here’s THEME is ANYTHING RELATING  TO TRAVELING TO PLACES YOU HAVE BEEN OR WOULD LIKE TO GO: THE PLACE, THE PEOPLE, THE FOOD, ETC.
NOTE: The theme is NOT missing someone or something.

I will accept submissions until 12:00, 6 March OR when I have at least 90 to 100 pages (includes table of content and authors’ bios 75 words or preferably less please) or 70 contributors of quality poems and short shorts WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. If you wish to be considered for inclusion in this anthology, do not procrastinate. Get your work in now! Since this is a very wide topic, I expect the anthology to fill up well before the close out date.

There is no reading fee, no entry fee, and no requirement for a contributor to purchase this anthology.
As always, contributors will be able to purchase copies at a reduced rate.

Lumberton, a Novel by William Council

Genealogy is like a disease that those of us who come down with it can't seem to get over, even after twenty years. 

My curiosity about everything underlies most of my writing as well as my interest in the family tree. I recently found and ordered a book by William Council. The title is Lumberton and the main character is Mary Polly Council, a real person who lived in Robeson County, NC. The book is written as ficton. The author has used facts he found in his genealogical research, wills, census records and vital records, court records and other writings about Robeson County residents. Mary Polly was a direct descendant of John Council, the first Council to arrive in Virginia, Isle of Wight County in the sixteen hundreds. 

William Council is a descendant of that line of Councils. I believe I am also a descendant of the first John Council. The families that migrated to Robeson County and surrounding counties from Virginia in the 1700s included members of the Council family. 

My great grandfather was John Cecil Council. Oral history has his family living in the area of North Carolina where they sold "naval stores", products produced from the sap of the pine tree. Pitch, turpentine and tar are naval stores. They were used by carpenters to caulk the seams of wooden ships. The present products of pine tree sap – turpentine and rosin – are still known by that name. 

In 1998 I published a family history book about my grandfather, Tom Council and his ten children. In this book I also included all of Tom's descendants which meant gathering hundreds of names and vital information. This book is written with all the facts known by me and my cousins and other family. 

To write a novel based on truth makes for more interesting reading, I think. Lumberton is a page turner and I only wish the author had hired a professional editor before he published this book. My pet peeve is authors who are in too much of a hurry to see their manuscript in print or don't think they need a professional editor to help them polish and perfect the book before letting it see the light of day.

As a writer, I am stopped each time I see a typo, misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, and in general a book with sloppy text. This is a good story, poorly edited. 

Mary Polly marries the older rich man although she loves the sheriff. Their love story mingled with the history of the era, and knowing she was a real person, perhaps a distant relative, adds to the tension in the book.

I have readers who are family or are researching the same lines that are in my family history book. If you are part of the Council family, I suggest you read William Council's book about Mary Polly Council. 

Lumberton, a novel by William Council  ISBBN 978-1-60743-346-0 (PBK), published by Financial Quest, LLC

Take Advantage of this Excellent Writers' Conference

I think the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference is one of the best events an author can attend. Carol Crawford and her staff work all year to bring in the best presenters, and they try to have something for everyone. 

Visit the website and see who is on the program this year. This is a small conference where the writers have an opportunity to talk with authors, agents, editors and to ask questions. 

19 th ANNUAL BLUE RIDGE WRITERS’ CONFERENCE 

April 8 & 9, 2016 

The Mission of the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference is to educate, inform, and inspire writers. No matter the level of expertise, the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference provides a venue for professional writers, editors and agents to provide honest and accurate feedback to the aspiring writer in how to sell a magazine article, finish a novel, or do historical research. 

Other previous keynote speakers include a number of well-known writers such as novelist Claire Cook, Terry Kay, mystery writers Patricia Sprinkle, Joshilyn Jackson and Sharyn McCrumb, essayists James Kilgo and Steven Harvey, suspense writer Karin Slaughter, and former Georgia poet laureate, David Bottoms. 

Saturday, April 9th begins with light breakfast fare and our keynote speech. The 2016 keynote speaker will be Stephanie Fretwell-Hill. Stephanie is an editor at Peachtree Publishers, an independently owned trade book publisher, specializing in quality children's books, from picture books to young adult fiction and nonfiction; consumer references in health, education, and parenting; and regional guide books about the American South. 

Peachtree Publisher's mission is to create books that captivate and educate young and old readers alike, with well-crafted words and pictures. The day continues with concurrent workshops on everything from Children’s Literature to assembling a book of poetry to marketing a manuscript. 

Our 2016 speakers include a wide variety of poets, fiction, non-fiction writers, and much more. Conference attendees appreciate the chance to network with other writers and speakers during the day and the opportunity to submit their work for critique by one of the conference speakers. High school students from area counties are invited to attend and the Art Center offers scholarships to make this more affordable. 

This year’s Writers’ Conference will also offer a four-hour Workshop Intensive on Friday, April 8th. For an additional fee, the Workshop Intensive, presented by Jennifer Jabaley and Kristin Tubb, titled “Show, Don’t Tell: Yes, Yes, But What Does It MEAN?!”, will discuss show, don’t tell techniques for multiple aspects of your story: wordbuilding, characterization, narrative, and dialogue. 

Writers will leave with a solid understanding of the importance of show, don’t tell and the tools to revise their own manuscripts for more showing, less telling. A great workshop for both fiction and nonfiction writers. 

If you are an author and have registered for the conference, you may sign up with the Art Center to have your books for sale on Friday evening during the reception and on Saturday afternoon during the conference until 3:00pm. 

Please email the Art Center no later than March 3rd at blueridgearts@gmail.com to pre-register for a space. Please limit your book sales to no more than (5) titles with a total of (10) books per title. All books for sale must be delivered to the Art Center no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, April 7th. 

The Art Center will sell books in the Mahan Gallery & Art Supply Station for a 10% commission.

Old Mountain Press anthologies for sale on Kindle @2.99

Old Mountain Press has been publishing anthologies of poetry and short prose for years now. Today all of those anthologies are for sale on Kindle for $2.99. 

These anthologies contain work by some of our best western NC writers and poets. One of my poems was published in the OMP book, A Funny Thing, a poetry and prose anthology. This is a book of humorous writing. Our NC Poet Laureate, Shelby Stephenson has a poem in this collection of funny pieces. 

Years ago OMP published one of my poems in the anthology, InThe Yard which is a poetry anthology. Glenda Barrett, a friend and local poet, was also published in this anthology. This book is available on Kindle.

Tom Davis of Old Mountain Press produces books for those who want to self-publish. On his website he tells the reader all she needs to know about how to self-publish and the costs that will be incurred. Visit his website:
www.oldmp.com