The Sound of One Voice

Watch and hear this song sung by the USAF Band.  It made me weep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q41ctPLDHvU

The following is a comment about this beautiful song. I think we all agree that union and harmony is what is needed in our country today.

Chris M. said:

"USAF Band, you make this retired Airman proud...thank you! And your voices and your instruments make a wonderful sound that reminds us all that in America's great diversity, there is real beauty in unison and even more in harmony, but not in discord. Aim high always--God bless you."

End of Year Promote Your Book Party

https://charlesfrenchonwordsreadingandwriting.wordpress.com/2018/12/29/end-of-the-year-promote-your-book-party/

Charles French is helping writers to promote their books here at the end of the year.
Visit the link above and leave your book info in a comment. He asks that you then reblog his post on your blog or website.
This is a good way for us writers to help each other get the word out about our books.
Thanks, Charles French. And thanks to Abbie Johnson who posted this on her blog.

Some photos I like

The last photo of Barry and me, 2008, taken for my poetry book, Now Might as Well be Then, published in 2009

Winter at my house a few years ago. 

Winter in my woods

Brasstown Bald, highest peak in Georgia with dusting of snow.
Photo taken from my deck.

We walked this long road up to Connemara, home of poet Carl Sandburg, a few years ago. We spent the day there. I toured the home and learned much about this fascinating man. His wife raised champion goats. 

I am sick with a cold and not up to writing a post today. So I decided to post some photos I like.

Sailboat on the bay in Nova Scotia. I liked the cleanliness and fresh air. I could live there except I don't want to be so far from my family.

Bison graze at Yellowstone in 2003. This trip motivated me to write a number of poems. I will always remember the wildlife and the wonders of Yellowstone Park. I hope we will always have our national parks and national monuments.

Scene from Yellowstone’s Valiant Wild

By Glenda Council Beall

A young male strode down the mountainside,

crossed the road, strutted into shallow waters

of the Gallatin river. He stalked the old bull elk

grazing alone on the other side.

The herd master ignored the gauntlet for a while,

then quick like a rattler striking, charged from the bank. 

The clash of antlers cracked like breaking pines

in an ice storm, rolling sound upstream and down.

On land once more, the battle halted

while both tried to maneuver bony-branched horns

between the lodge pole pines. A minute’s rest--

then back into the current.

Strong hind quarters, taunt neck muscles, bunched

like iron cables, pushed, retreated, up and down

the icy stream. The match wore on for more

than twenty minutes.

Heads low, antlers commingled like old bones

collected in a basket, until the young stud forced

his aging foe beneath the water’s surface, held him there.

The veteran of a life of valiant clashes at last broke free.

He crashed and splashed downstream, the loser,

bleating like a lamb who's lost his mother.

Posing for cameras on the roadside,

the victor, centered in the roaring river,

raised his head and shook his massive rack.

He bugled his triumphant call to his new harem

The Best Way to Hold a Critique Group

I attended the NCWN-West prose group at Tri-County Community College for the first time in quite a few months. This group meets monthly and has a good group of writers participating. Bob Grove is the facilitator. Some of those present were former students at Writers Circle Around the Table or my ICL classes. I love it when I see how much they have progressed. 

One of my writing classes

I also like the way those present encouraged each other. Compliments flew around the table and it was obvious that this group of seven not only gave constructive criticism, but gave each other positive ideas and suggestions. 
"This is the best thing you have written," one person told another.
Having heard and read each other's work for some time, it doesn't surprise me that they see improvement. The best part is that everyone is accepting critique and ways to improve.

I usually write memoir, but tonight I took a short story I had written a long time ago. I am not famous for my fiction, but have had some success in publishing a story or two. When I began seriously writing when I was in my twenties, I took a course in writing fiction. I never shared the story I wrote in that class with anyone other than my instructor. Now, I have the bug to write more short stories, and I will take them to this group for their helpful input. 

No matter how long and how often we write, it helps to have others read our work. They see what we can't see in our writing. To be a part of a critique group, one must be prepared to hear what others think and see in his work. 

I do wish this group was reminded of the manner in which critique works best. I, and others who were in this group twenty years ago, learned from Nancy Simpson the best way and the way many graduate studies teach critique. 

The facilitator tells the group that they must first go around the table and say what they like about the prose they just heard. Then they talk about what might make the story better, what they didn't understand or wanted to know more about.

In this manner of critique which is best, the reader stays completely quiet. He just listens to what the others say until everyone has spoken. At that time, the facilitator asks the reader if he wants to say anything. When critique is done this way, no one speaks directly to the reader. The reader doesn't become defensive or feel he has to explain himself.

An example of the wrong way:
The reader finishes his story and waits for the critique to begin. The first thing he hears is a direct criticism. "You changed point of view a couple of times," said someone in the group. She spoke to the reader directly instead of speaking to the group in general.

Immediately the reader feels he must say something, defend his work or explain his writing. 
He says something back and the room grows quiet. The atmosphere changes. Tension grows. 

The best way is to never say, YOU should do this or YOU did that. Beginning a sentence with you is often the way to turn someone completely off.

If the critique was done correctly, the first thing he would have heard is, "I like his characterization in this piece." Later he might hear, "He changed point of view a couple of times."  Then the reader would not become defensive. He would not have to defend himself since the words were not directed toward him.

After everyone has spoken about this story, the person in charge would say, "Do you have anything you want to say about what you heard?"
At that point the reader can speak or not. It is up to him.

It is a great way to critique and it never made anyone uncomfortable. When I was new to NCWN-West, I was scared to death to let anyone see my work. But Nancy Simpson, our facilitator of poetry and Richard Argo, who led the prose group, Carol Crawford and later Janice Moore kept to those rules of critique, and I never had my feelings hurt or felt attacked by someone telling me I must do that or I had done something wrong.  

When the critique was done, I felt gratitude for those who spoke about my work. I made notes as they talked and later I might change or revise using the suggestions I had heard. 

The leader of the group can make this work well. 

If several members of the group say to a reader "You need to do this or I don't understand what you are saying" the poor reader feels he has to defend himself and feels he is being attacked. That should never happen in a good critique group. It slows down the progress of the critique and doesn't really accomplish much.  

I want to attend this prose group again and I hope the suggestions I made here can be put in place for future meetings. 

What do you think about attending a critique group?

Doing Nothing? Can you?

In the busiest time of the year, how often do we set aside time to do nothing? We need to set aside time to work and time to play, but also time to just do nothing.

Those around you may not approve of or understand your short bursts of enjoyable-yet-restorative-sloth. They may mistakenly think you have time to spare and try to elbow in on this time. Hi-ya! you will say. “This is my time." After all, as time management expert Craig Jarrow writes, “Your time is your most valuable resource. You cannot get more time. Don’t let others waste or steal it.” Your precious time to do nothing is when you are refilling your cup so that you can be there for other people in just a little while. It’s not only okay but necessary to hit the pause button.  

                                         from: Spirituality and Health magazine.

Barry and Glenda Beall on top of Chimney Rock North Carolina

One of the things I most admired about my late husband, Barry, was his ability to sit on our deck, high amidst the tree tops, the wild birds and to do nothing. I often asked how he could do this. If I sat with him, I had to be talking, reading, writing or making my to-do lists.

He had no answer except he enjoyed it. My father often sat early in the morning and just stared into space. He said he was planning his day or thinking about what he needed to do. I'm not sure that was "doing nothing." He seemed to be working. I have no idea what Barry thought about while he sat on the deck, but I imagine he reflected on how happy he was and how grateful he was to be where he was and to have had the life he did.

One day, after he was diagnosed with cancer and while he was still at home, Barry asked me, "Don't you think we have had a good marriage? We have been happy, haven't we?"

I think he was asking me if I had been happy for the forty-four years we had been married. I thought he knew, but I have always been moody and had my ups and downs. I am a worrier and "borrowed trouble" as my mother used to say. I can go from being exhilarated to being low as a toad. My family has always known that about me.

Strangely enough, I am more balanced now with my emotions. Perhaps it is age, but who knows? Maybe it was other things including my environment, where I lived and who was in my circle of friends and family. I still find it hard to do nothing although I think it is very important. I find my mind going to the past, to missing those I love, and to worrying about the future. I can take a nap, read, or fish but doing nothing at all - well, time is so precious, and I have so much I want to do!

So, I try to meditate or just "do nothing" but it is not easy. How about you, my dear readers? Can you do nothing, hit the pause button, refill your cup so you can be there for others?

Meet Children's author, Carroll S. Taylor

Today I want to introduce you to an author, Carroll  S.Taylor, who writes books for children.

Carroll moved to the mountains of north Georgia from southwest Georgia, near Columbus. She and I have much in common besides the proximity of where we grew up. I relate to the title of her first book, Chinaberry Summer. The little girl in this book, Sissie, likes to climb up in a chinaberry tree as I did when I was a kid. The birds light near her and pay no attention to her.

I had that experience in my chinaberry tree which grew in my back yard. I remember so well the exhilaration of having a bird sit within reach and sing his song. I believed he sang just to me. Of course I didn't move a muscle, hardly took a breath, because I didn't want to scare the bird. I can still feel the wind blowing my hair. I can see the vast space of green pastures and pine trees in the distance. I had my spiral notebook with me and I wrote stories and poems while up there with the birds.

The second book in Carroll's series is Chinaberry Summer: The Other Side. It takes place in 1960 when the two main characters are in sixth grade. On Carroll's website you can read her About page to learn about her background. I recommend reading the Journal pages, where you will find more about her thoughts and ideas, learn about her obsession for creepy crawly things and why she cannot understand why human beings want to kill them.

Carroll says, "Sometimes my inspiration comes to me on two, four, six, or eight legs. With my mind still in the teaching world, I can't pass up a chance to blend the best of two passions -- reading and learning about nature. I want my readers to enjoy the adventures of my characters, Sissie Stevenson and Spud McKenna, in rural Georgia and appreciate their love for reptiles, amphibians, and spiders."

See her website here.
Purchase her books https://tinyurl.com/yd4r7f9g

What do you think? Nancy Simpson on punctuation in poetry

I learned to write poetry from Nancy Simpson, wonderful poet and teacher, who lived here in the town where I live. She taught writing at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC and because of her we have more poets than prose writers in our area.

I am going to re-blog a post about Nancy that was published years ago on www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com . I think we can still learn from Nancy although she is no longer with us. Her words, her poetry can help us all who want to be poets.

https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/2013/12/poets-what-do-you-think.html

Nancy Simpson, poet

Read more on what Nancy taught us at the link below.
https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/2011/12/writing-free-verse-some-questions-and.html

Stowaway - New romantic suspense novel from Darcy Flynn (Joy Griffin Dent)

If you are a reader of romance novels, clean, fun, sweet ones, you will like the newest book from Darcy Flynn. Read more about it when you click this link: https://joygriffindent.wordpress.com/

You might remember my interview with Darcy Flynn (Joy Griffin Dent) a few months ago.

This author is prolific and readers enjoy her stories. This book, Stowaway, is going to be very popular. It is a romantic suspense novel. You can read an excerpt on her blog .

Darcy says:I’m thrilled to announce the release of my first romantic suspense, Stowaway!
It still has all the elements you’ve come to expect from a sweet, fun, Darcy Flynn Romance!

Joy Griffin Dent (Darcy Flynn)

If you read romance novels, have you read any Darcy Flynn books?