Finding a Safe Vacation House is not Easy

I am down to the last two days of a vacation - a quiet one with only my sister and brother-in-law with me. Well, I did take Lexie with me. She loves to travel in a car. 

I have to face facts -- taking a trip today is much harder than when I was younger. I had more physical strength and less need for medications and other things that help me sleep, help we walk, help me ride long distances in a car. 

On this trip, I missed Barry. He would have had me laughing more, relaxed more, and we all would have had more fun. I realize that I cannot capture what we had, the four of us, and trips long or short are never going to be the same. Now Gay and Stu help me with luggage and then handle their own. Gay is protective of me. "Don't go up and down those stairs so much," she said. "I'll take these things." The steps were wet and with my bad knee, it was difficult to manage them. 

But we still enjoyed being together. They brought their dogs along so we had lots of dog-walking time. 

The rental house had no Internet service so Stu and I had to go into town a few times to get our email. We found that McDonald's was our best bet until we found a small coffee house with free WiFi. The daily rain altered some of our plans, but we did take a walk on the road to nowhere. Gay and Stu took several walks with their dogs. 

I slept really well in the rental house even though my room was too warm. I opened almost every window in the place because housekeeping didn't honor my request to have a clean place with no sprays or chemicals that would trigger my MCS. When in the house, I felt awful, but if I went outside or stayed in a room with all windows open I felt much better.

 

. 

We were awakened each morning by wild turkeys grazing on the lawn. They were perfectly silent, but Lexie knew they were there, and she woke me with her growling. The setting for our  vacation was in the midst of farm land. Horses were pastured on one side and cows on another. It was quite pretty around us. If only the housekeeper had done what I asked, I would have really liked this farm house with three bedrooms. But, the house is toxic to me. As days passed, I grew worse until we decided we must leave and find another safer house for me. I can't live all the time with a charcoal lined mask over my face

We hope to fill the next two days having a good time even though rain is likely to try to spoil our fun. I enjoy my sister and brother-in-law so much, it doesn't bother me if it rains. I feel such contentment today, relaxed, and happy.


We are taking book orders for Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins. This book is a great Christmas gift.
Visit www.riceandbeall.blogspot.com for more information.

Joan and Paula get out the news

I am behind in my blog posts, but I invite my readers to check out these articles you will find online.

Thanks to Joan Gage for this post on Netwest Writers blog.
https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/2017/08/coffee-with-poets-writers-features.html

A big thank you to Paula Canup for this article in our local newspapers.
https://www.cherokeescout.com/news-subscribers/local-author-glenda-beall-collaborates-new-book

 

This is Estelle Rice co-author of this book.

Deadline to order at discount price of $14.00 plus $3.00 S&H is September 20.
Regular retail price is $16.00 plus $3.00 S&H
This book will make great Christmas gifts for anyone who has a pet, who loves animals, who used to have a beloved pet.

To order: Make check or money order to Estelle Rice or Glenda Beall.
 Mail to Blue Heaven Press, PO Box 843, Hayesville, NC 28904

 

The genealogy behind our family stories

I am excited about taking a class with highly knowledgeable genealogist, Larry Van Horn. We are fortunate to have him here in our area. I have been a genealogy enthusiast for forty years and published a family history book, Profiles and Pedigrees, Descendants of Thomas Charles Council(1858 - 1911). I spent hours and hours of my time in south Georgia and north Florida, where my ancestors settled after leaving Virginia and North Carolina, searching through old newspapers and walking through old cemeteries.


John Cecil Council 1833 - 1910
My great grandfather

I poured over books in a Baptist church in Early county, Georgia and perused records in Tallahassee, Florida. Finally I had over a thousand family members documented in my Personal Ancestry computer program distributed by the Church of Latter Day Saints. In fact, I taught this program to members of the church in Albany, Georgia where I lived. But as time has gone by, my computer program has become obsolete. I was told to move my files to Legacy, the most popular program today.


However, I seem to have a problem. I can't get my files into Legacy. So I have signed up for a class with Larry and I do hope I can learn how to transfer my files. I want to continue with my genealogy on my computer. With all these classes listed below, I can see myself spending my fall and winter months "digging up bones" again.

Legacy Genealogy Software for Beginners:

You can do genealogy on paper. That is how it was done until only a few decades ago. However if you are researching your family history and not using genealogy software, why? This genealogy class is an introductory course teaching the fundamentals of Legacy 9, the gold standard of genealogy computer software. It will include instruction on the program menus, basic data entry, importing and exporting projects, SourceWriter, hashtags and other features available in Legacy 9. This course is a prerequisite to take any of the advanced Legacy courses offered at TCCC. 15 hrs.

Instructor: Van Horn                    Min: 8

August 28 – September 25           T

6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.                   $45

(**Since postponing for one week, class will meet on two nights during one week of class in order to finish prior to Advanced class.**)

 

NEW Advanced Legacy Genealogy Software:

This genealogy computer class will explore some of the advanced feature sets and research tools available in the world-class genealogy software package. Completion of the Legacy Genealogy Software for Beginners is required to take this class. 17.5 hrs.

Instructor: Van Horn                   Min: 8

October 2 – November 15            T

6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.                   $55

 

Searching for Your Ancestors:

Who am I and where did I come from? That intriguing question has made genealogy research one of America's most popular hobbies. However, where does one begin such research? What resources exist? How can you prove that what you find is true and valid? How do you go beyond America's borders to find roots in other English speaking nations? Searching for your Ancestors offers the beginner and even experienced genealogists alike a fresh approach to genealogy research. Subjects cover the full gambit from organizing your research to exploring your family history using traditional and electronic research, social media, and the newest genealogy tool – DNA testing. Whether you are new to genealogy or have been family hunting since microfilm days, this course will assist you in researching your family in the 21st century. This course is a prerequisite for many of the advanced genealogy courses offered at TCCC.  32.5 hrs.

Instructor: Van Horn                   Min: 10

August 23 – November 15           TH

6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.                   $80

Lisa Long at TCCC says: Also!  We hope this will be of interest to genealogists and others. We are offering:

 

Photo Editing and Restoration: Keep your old photo!  Learn the best scanning and transfer methods to save images digitally.  Preserve the photos for generations to enjoy as you learn easy photo restoration methods to restore your faded and torn pictures.  Learn about various free programs for editing your photographic images. Class will include instruction on how to resize photos for email, printing, and professional editing. (Please note this class does not cover Adobe Photoshop.)  12 hrs.

Instructor: Harris                                  Min: 6

October 15 - November 5                    M

6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.                          $65

I hope to take this photo editing class as well. I have many old photos and although I have done my best to save them, I know there are new and better methods available. I might see some of you there.

Now Taking Registration

 

Writing Classes at Writers Circle around the Table

Hayesville, NC

 

Don't wait until the last minute to register for a class. If we don't have a minimum five days before the start of the class, we cancel the workshop.

To Register for classes, Email or call Glenda Beall. gcbmountaingirl@gmail or 828-389-4441. You may also pay online with PayPal for this class.

 Writing Classes at the studio with Glenda Beall 

Tuesdays, 2 - 5 p.m.  Six weeks of classes in comfortable setting, casual and fun. We welcome beginners and those who feel they still need some instruction to help them be the best they can be.

June 5 - June 26  and July 10 and 17
Fee: $48.00                Limit 10 students

Creative Writing for Fiction and Nonfiction 

Creative Writing for beginning writers and intermediate writers who want motivation and inspiration. We share our work and gain feedback from other students.

• Prompts are offered but no one is required to follow them. 
• Students are asked to write a short piece each week and bring copies to share. 
• Receive instruction in dialogue, content and copy editing, transitions and basic writing tips to make your work polished and ready for submission.
  

Glenda Beall is a published writer and poet. She is a seasoned teacher of writing memoir, short stories, personal essays and poetry. Glenda has taught for the EAGLE program in Sautee, GA; the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC; Tri-County Community college, Murphy, NC and the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris College, Young Harris, Georgia. Her students have gone on to publish books and to publish poetry and creative nonfiction in magazines and journals. See testimonials

Institute for Continuing Learning - Young Harris College, Young Harris, Georgia

If you can, please join me when I teach a weekly class May 3 through May 24, 3:15 - 5:45 p.m.for the Institute of Continuing Learning.

Young Harris College, Young Harris, GA

4 Sessions, Thursdays

May 3 through May 24,

3:15 - 5:45 p.m.

Cost $18

www.iclyhc.org  Visit this site to register for this class.

 Classes will be held at the Towns County Fire Station 6,

 441 Sunnyside RD, Hiawassee, GA

Entertain and Enlighten your Readers with your Life Stories

How do we begin to write about our lives? Can we use dialogue, stories passed down from parents, and do we have to prove they are true? In today’s world where family members often live long distances from each other, it is difficult to share the interesting lives we have lived. There seems to be no time to sit on the porch and talk about the past. But we can still share our life experiences with our children, grandchildren and future generations by writing them now. In this class we will write entertaining as well as enlightening short pieces and receive feedback from our classmates.  

Contact ICL for registration information

What is our Mission at Writers Circle Around the Table?

Book Launch party for Nadine Justice, author of I'm a Coal Miner's Daughter, But I Cain't Sang

Writers Circle’s mission is to bring beginning writers, accomplished writers, and anyone who enjoys writing stories, essays, poems and/or articles together around the table where we make the effort to enlighten, empower and to provide opportunities to discover the path to reach their writing goals.

A class at Writers Circle studio in 2010. Comfortable and casual, fun and filled with interesting information on writing. 

Online advice and aid for writers from some of my favorites

I subscribe to a few blogs and newsletters by excellent writers and editors. 

I like reading the latest posts by these knowledgeable people.  

I receive in my email a digest from Jane Friedman with several of the articles that appear on her blog. This one about how important book reviews are to writers is one I want to share with you.

A weekly digest of blog posts from JaneFriedman.com 

Book reviews build symbolic capital

New authors—certainly self-published authors—have no symbolic capital. They are not (yet) known for producing quality books that seduce readers to the degree that they are willing to part with some of their disposable income, not to mention time. Is it possible for self-publishing authors to create symbolic capital? Absolutely yes, and many have.

Read more here...


I have subscribed to C. Hope Clark for many years and have never been disappointed in what she sends me. www.FundsforWriters.com

Hope receives letters and emails every day thanking her for all she does for writers. I know she has helped me. I subscribe to her newsletter and it comes in my Inbox. I always learn something from it. She writes exciting mysteries and has a big following. Look at some of her books and give one a read. You will come back for more.


I subscribe to a newsletter by Bobbie Christmas, a successful editor and writer who lives in the Atlanta region. http://www.zebraeditor.com/

I use her tips and advice in teaching my adult writing students, and I own her book, Purge Your Prose of Problems, an excellent guide for anyone who has questions about grammar, punctuation, proper format, and all those little issues that come up that no one remembers. She updates this book periodically to make sure her readers don't get left behind.

Another site any writer will like, I think, is Writer Unboxed. 
http://writerunboxed.com/   They use a wide range of writers for their articles that help us continue on this journey we love.


I read others but will mention those later. Do you have favorite blogs or websites by writers that you read regularly? Tell us about them. We writers should help each other when we can.

Managing Chronic Pain without Pills

I, like many people, deal with chronic pain. To wake up in pain every day is not the norm for most people I know and I am glad. But since the early nineties, I have learned how to deal with chronic pain.

I made a friend when I moved to Hayesville, NC in 1995. She was a member of our writing group and an excellent writer. Her name is Maren O. Mitchell. One day she shared a manuscript she had written and planned to publish.

Maren had a terrible physical condition that required a major surgery and provoked much suffering. A tumor gone wild in her spine. Doctors had little to offer but addictive pain medicines, so Maren made a tremendous effort to find non-medical methods to face the pain she endured every single day and night.

In her book Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider's Guide, we see how she taught herself to use what she could do herself to mask the pain and continue with her life.

She writes this: September, 1987: The back pain increased; the numbness and skin pain increased. MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) revealed an intramedullary tumor, a tumor within the spinal cord, five vertebrae in length with cysts top and bottom, most likely an ependymoma or astrocytoma, unclear whether benign or malignant. The neurologist advised me to wait for surgery until either my walking, bladder, or bowels failed. He thought that immediate spinal cord surgery would be more damaging than the loss of one of these functions.

Before the spinal surgery, Maren would undergo removal of her ovaries and Fallopian tube. That eased some of the abdominal pain.

On December 8, 1987, she endured a seven hour spinal cord operation involving a thoracic laminectomy from T4 to T9. The placement of the tumor was unusual. It was inside the spinal cord. The surgery affected both the spinal cord and the nerves that enter and exit the spine.

Much of my own pain is nerve pain and I know what that is like. Awful and very hard to contain.

Maren had to relearn to walk and spent six weeks in inpatient rehabilitation. She found that touch was painful, and everyday activities like talking on the phone, driving, swimming, laughing and sleeping can intensify the pain.

When I think of the pain of fibromyalgia, neuropathy, trigimenal neuralgia, pinched nerves in the back causing sharp and constant pain in the legs and feet, I know what it is like, but still can't imagine pain so bad that my clothes hurt me when they touch my body. Maren has pain when her bedclothes touch her, when she tries to sleep. She learned to cut the toes out of tights and to wear one leg of tights because she needs the close touch at night. Soft touch can be more painful than firm touch for her.

Maren's book is about what she discovered, on her own, she must do to live with chronic pain. We can't depend on pain medications all the time. They create havoc on our kidneys and liver and often patients become addicted to them. Over time, the patient wants more and more of them until nothing helps the pain anymore.

I have read this book more than once. I decided to write about it again because I think the everyone should know about it and read it. If you are lucky and don't have chronic pain, read it to understand those who do deal with this every day of their lives. Often chronic pain is an invisible illness and even family doesn't realize what the patient goes through.

You would not expect Maren to have a great sense of humor, but she does. She is a highly published, intelligent poet and writing is one of the methods that she uses to deal with pain. If you write seriously, you know how you can be transported from your normal life into a story or poem or some other kind of writing, and you forget yourself completely. I have done that.

Another way she coped was to remove her mind from her pain by helping to reduce the pain of others. She found that victims of stroke or accidents who had similar permanent changes in their lives joked and laughed, shared information with each other while beginning their new lives.

Maren and other patients at the hospital where she had surgery were warned by nurses at the hospital about laughing too much. They were told they should realize their situation was serious. But, laughing was also a way to deal with the fear of the unknown future. I know that laughter helps my pain and helps all kinds of healing.

Maren learned that when she was with others, it helped her chronic pain. I have found that to be important for me. I can be in pain and thinking I just can't leave home today, but when I force myself to socialize with friends, to attend classes or invite someone to meet me for lunch, I lose myself in the joy of talking, laughing and just being with another human being. I get lost in teaching writing to adults, and for a short time my pain is pushed way back.

"One must be distracted from pain instead of pain distracting you." Maren says thi, and I know it is true.

Pain drains us of energy so we must carefully plan our activities so we don't over do. I am a list maker. I make a list almost every day of what I hope to accomplish tomorrow. What Maren learned, and I have learned, is that it is Okay if I don't accomplish everything on that list. If I go to the grocery store and it takes me over an hour, I should go home and not run other errands. Trying to do too much on one trip is not the best thing for me. Even though I have five things on my to-do list, I have become accustomed to doing one or two and letting the others wait until later.

Maren says that having animals in her life and nature, gardening, even caring for one plant, helps her deal with the pain. She has a terrific chapter on sleep and what she has learned helps with getting good sleep, so important when dealing with pain. Another chapter is on music and how that aids living with pain. "Music is one of the best medicines from the Gods," she says. I agree with her. I enjoy music and often get up from my computer, tired and hurting. I put on music I love and I will dance. Dancing is good exercise and helps me emotionally and physically.

What I have learned about pain and living with pain the past twenty years or more is that no one can fix it for me. I have to make the decision to get out of the house no matter how bad I feel at the time. I have to stop the pity party before it creeps in. I accept my pain and I accept that I am the one who must deal with it. Maren's book has been helpful to me. I practice many of the methods she uses. I get regular massages to help the muscle spasms. I see my chiropractor on a twice a month basis to relieve the pinched nerves that inhibit my ability to walk, sit or stand to do normal activities. I reach out to others and try to help those I can. I make appointments with friends and family members so I can laugh and enjoy being with them. I make an effort to avoid stress, to eat correctly, to see my medical practitioners on a regular basis, and, most of all, I make a big effort to get plenty of sleep. My friends know I am not an early riser and sometimes when I awake early, I go back to sleep for an hour or two. I am not lazy, but I listen to my body and if it tells me I need a little more sleep, I go back to bed.

I don't make resolutions each year, but I promise myself to see my loved ones, family and friends, more often and spend quality time with them.Throughout Maren's book are her poems which, alone, would make this book worthy of your time, but they add the necessary spice to the recipe for dealing with chronic pain.

Visit Maren's website: http://www.lineofsightpress.com/blog/

Read the many reviews on Amazon.com

I know some of you, my readers, live with pain. How do you manage it and live a normal life?





Bio for Maren Mitchell



A North Carolina native, in her childhood Maren O. Mitchell lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany, attending local schools and learning French and German. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., she now lives with her husband on the edge of a national forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.

Mitchell has worked in a variety of jobs, from proof reader to miller. She taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. For over thirty years, across five southeastern states, she has taught origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Due to spinal cord surgery when forty, she spent many years learning how to live well in spite of chronic pain.

Mitchell’s poems appear in POEM, The Comstock Review, Slant, A Journal of Poetry, The Pedestal Magazine, Tar River Poetry, Poetry East, Hotel Amerika, Chiron Review, Iodine Poetry Journal, Appalachian Heritage, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, The Lake (UK), Skive (AU), The Classical Outlook, Town Creek Poetry, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Appalachian Journal, The Arts Journal and Red Clay Reader #4.

Her work is included in The Crafty Poet II: a Portable Workshop; The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins; The Southern Poetry Anthologies, V & VII; Stone, River, Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poems; Sunrise from Blue Thunder; Nurturing Paws; and Echoes across the Blue Ridge.

Poems are forthcoming in Tar River Poetry, Slant: A Journal of Poetry, Poetry East, Chiron Review and Hotel Amerika. Two poems, “X Is a Kiss on Paper” and “T, Totally Balanced,” have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes by contributing editors of Pushcart. In 2012 she received 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society. Her nonfiction book, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide, (Line of Sight Press, 2012) www.lineofsightpress.com is on Amazon. Interconnecting with writers throughout mountain towns in northern Georgia, she participates in monthly critique groups and public reading venues.

POETRY COMPETITION THROUGH MARCH 15

In an effort to  keep my readers updated on opportunities for writers and poets, I am sharing an email I received today. Check out the website to learn more.

"I found your email on the NC Writer's Network website and in an effort to expand our competition this year, wanted to let all interested groups know about the Lanier Library's 10th Annual Sidney Lanier Poetry Competition.  We are accepting submissions through March 15, 2018 with prizes awarded April 28, 2018 at the library in Tryon, NC.  

Adult and Student categories are available with prizes from $500 (Adult) and $100 (Student).

Please visit our website for more information: www.thelanierlibrary.org"

Thank you,

Amber Keeran, Director

The Lanier Library

72 Chestnut St., Tryon, NC 28782

828-859-9535

www.lanierlib.org

thelanierlibrary@gmail.com

Saying Goodbye to a friend I never met, but who inspired me

I am saddened over the  passing of a dear friend I  never met in person. Joan Cannon and I have been friends since 2007 when I became Program Coordinator for Netwest (NCWN-West) the first time. In the fall of that year, I attended the North Carolina Writers' Network Fall Conference. At that conference, I was fortunate to hear three bloggers tell about how they created free blogs through Blogger.com and how those blog sites changed their writing lives.

I came home and created www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com so that our mountain writers could connect to each other online and to the world beyond the mountains.

Joan  L. Cannon, author who inspired me

Joan Cannon, a writer who lived in Morganton, NC saw that blog and wrote to me. She wanted to  know if  she lived in the region of NCWN-West. I hated to tell her she did not.
She was a member of NCWN, but was looking for writers near her. She had written a book and, being older and living in a retirement area, she had difficulty finding and  meeting other writers. In other words, she was looking for connections.

I put Joan on my email list and she received most of the information I sent to our local members. She subscribed to our blog and read it regularly. She left comments and felt she knew our members from reading about them online.

I bought her novel, Settling, and shared it with my friends. We agreed Joan was a very good writer. I had found a website edited and written by writers of a  certain age. The site is www.SeniorWomen.com The women who founded this site deliberately set it up for older women writers and women readers. They publish thoughtful and insightful articles on many subjects and the writing is top-notch.

I suggested to Joan Cannon that she contact the editors and apply for a  job writing for them. They were delighted to have her intelligent well-written essays. Soon the woman who felt isolated in Morganton, NC was being read around the world. She never stopped thanking me for recommending she contact them.


I wrote to the editors of Senior Women:

Dear Editor,
I really enjoyed Joan Cannon's article, Relativity. I am pleased because I sent the Senior Women site to Joan and now she is here. Great. Your site is just the best and the writing you present is outstanding. The writers and the writing is more relevant to me than anything I read — print or online.

Thank you so much for having this site for older women. Here we are not ever invisible.
Glenda in North Carolina

When my husband, Barry, died in 2009, I resigned my job as PC for NCWN-West, but continued administering the blog. I also continued my friendship with Joan.  We often said we wished we could meet one day, but we never did. Joan lost her husband after a long marriage and she grieved as I did. She wrote a touching and lovely book of poetry, My Mind  is Made of Crumbs, that I treasure.

We both became active on Facebook and instead of emails, we kept up with each other there. On April 10, 2008, Joan began her blog, Hilltop Notes. Overtime, some of  our Netwest writers and others left comments. Nancy Simpson and Shirley Uphouse visited Hilltop Notes. Maureen Ryan Griffin and Tipper Pressley also commented as Joan reached out with questions about publishing as she approached eighty years of age.

I don't think blogging was her favorite thing to do, but I found her posts interesting. She was honest and open and that is important for a blogger. She could not believe that anyone read her posts so she felt it was a futile effort, but I assured her that when she submitted her short stories or manuscripts, editors googled her name and found she had an online presence.

On her author page on Amazon.com we can go to Joan's blog post after five years of absence. She had her problems with technology and gave up blogging for a long time. However, she did not give up writing. We can also see her books on her author page and order them from Amazon. I was inspired by Joan and admired her determination to write and publish her work when most people her age would likely not have the energy to  persevere.

After a few years, Joan let us know that she would be moving away from North Carolina where she had lived for more than a decade. She moved to Connecticut to  be close to  her family. Although we never met person to person, Joan and I were friends who knew each other in ways some friends I see often don't know me.  Her granddaughter Taylor told me that Joan was diagnosed with cancer.

This is what Taylor wrote: My grandmother passed away peacefully on October 11, 2017. As you may already know, she had been suffering from cancer and enduring chemo for about a year, but when the treatments began making her ill and generally miserable, she opted to stop them. She stopped eating and drinking at the beginning of October and was moved into the hospice ward at Noble Horizons in Salisbury, CT. I came home to Connecticut to see her just days before she passed, and she seemed relatively comfortable and quite at peace with her situation. It was such a gift to be able to say goodbye to her.

I am not surprised to learn that Joan decided what she wanted for her end of life. She chose to stop chemo and she chose to die with dignity. Good for her.

The following is from the Senior Women website:

Joan L. Cannon liked to use her middle initial because so few of her maiden namesakes are left anywhere (Huguenot LaPrades). She was retired teacher, retail manager and author of three novels in paperback, Settling and Maiden Run, a collection of short stories called Peripheral Vision and her latest, a collection of poetry, My Mind Is Made of Crumbs, all available from Amazon and on order from independent booksellers.

Joan's most recent novel is Second Growth and can be purchased through Amazon. From childhood, there have been toss-ups for her avocations among reading, riding horses, painting, local flora and fauna and writing.
Editor's note: We were gifted by Joan's vibrant, inspired, writing for the website and plan to revisit her essays often.

The Literary Hour at John C. Campbell Folk School - News Release

On Thursday evening, August 17, 2017 at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and North Carolina Writers Network West are sponsoring The Literary Hour, an hour of poetry and prose reading in the library of Keith House. This event is held on the third Thursday of the month, unless otherwise indicated.  It is free of charge and open to the public.  Glenda Beall, poet Glenda Barrett, and prose writer Jo Carolyn Beebe will be the featured readers. This month is unique in that we have three members of NCWN West entertaining during The Literary Hour.

Glenda Council Beall

Glenda Beall’s writing has been published in numerous literary journals including, Reunions Magazine, Main Street Rag Poetry Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Journal of Kentucky Studies and online, Your Daily Poem, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and Wild Goose Poetry Review. Robert Brewer, editor at Writers Digest published one of her essays on his blog. She read her work with Carol Crawford on the Writer's Radio Program in Chattanooga, TN. 


Beall's poems have been anthologized in The Southern Poetry anthology: Volume VII: North Carolina 2014,  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. Her poems have won awards in the James Still Poetry Contest and the Clay County NC Poetry Contest. She serves as Program Coordinator of North Carolina Writers’ Network West and is also a Clay County Representative for NCWN West. In that capacity she hosts Coffee with the Poets and Writers once each month.


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 North Carolina and Georgia.  Find her online at www.glendacouncilbeall.com and www.profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com 

 Glenda Barrett

Glenda Barrett, a native of Hiawassee, Georgia is an artist, poet and a visual writer.  Her work has been widely published in magazines, anthologies and journals.  These include Country Women, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Farm and Ranch Living, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Deep South Magazine, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Woman’s World, Greensilk Journal and others.  Her Appalachian artwork is for sale on fineartamerica.com and her poetry chapbook was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008.  She now has a full-length poetry book titled, “The Beauty of Silence,” that was published in July of this year by Aldrich Press on Amazon.com.

Jo Carolyn Beebe      

Jo Carolyn Beebe is a native of Mississippi. Many of her poems and stories are based on her recollections of conversations with her grandparents. Her Grandmother Anderson said, "The Bartletts are kin to Daniel Boone. They came through the Cumberland Gap with him." Great-grandfather Ricks showed her a greasy circle in his front yard where no grass would grow. "This is where the Indians cooked their food," he told her. 


She also has her own memories of life in a small, rural town. Her story, "The Way You Hypnotize a Chicken," really happened when she and a friend hypnotized one of Grandmother's hens. And where else but in a small town could two little girls play in the funeral home and pick out their everyday casket and their Sunday casket?


Jo Carolyn has been published in Main Street Rag, Clothes Lines, Women's Spaces Women's Places, Lonzie's Fried Chicken, Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge and by Abingdon Press. She has been most gratified with her family history book The Beekeepers and Sons of Ander.

She is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford and has been a resident of Towns County for 21 years.