To see some of her work and see the way she thinks as a writer, visit her blog site:
So not only did you teach me about writing memoir, you also taught me about reading and thinking about how others write memoir. Thank you so much! Rebecca
Accepting what is to come
You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Words Are All We Have - Dana Wildsmith
Dana Wildsmith will be teaching Words are all we Have at Writers Circle around the Table on Saturday, April 25. Mark that date on your calendar now.
River - what does it bring to mind?
In my
classes I often give my students prompts or something in the way of a word or
phrase to jog their minds so they think of a subject to write about.
Over the years, I have found prompts to be excellent starters for poems
or stories.
I am going to be giving prompts on Writers Circle once or twice a
week. If you like, take the prompt and see where it takes your thoughts, what images come to mind. Write a poem or prose piece. If you’d like, you
can send it to me, gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com
and I will read it. I might share it on this blog.
Today’s
prompt is the word: river
River
immediately sends me back to the days when I rode a big yellow school bus. To
get to my fourth grade school, I had to cross the big, muddy Flint River. I can
still feel my fear and excitement when I looked way down from the bridge and saw the swirling
water moving under the bridge. My fear of bridges over rivers haunts me to this day.
When I think of river, I also remember the time my husband and I joined a group of friends who took boats down the Flint River and across Lake Seminole, through the locks and ended our trip at Applachicola Bay. The warm sun on our backs and the musty smells of the dank grasses and bushes along the banks created a perfect environment for total relaxation.
A river of
tears ran down her cheeks. There were song lyrics, “I cried a river over you.” The
boxes on the conveyer belt moved like a fast flowing river, never stopping.
What do you
see in your mind when you say or read the word – river?
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Beginning in March, Glenda Beall teaches writing class at TCCC
Glenda Beall teaches at TCCC in March
Title: Write Your Life Stories for Your Family or for Publishing
Location: Tri-County Community College, in Murphy, NC.
The dates:Tuesday afternoons, 6 - 8 p.m. March 24, 31 and April 7 and 14.
The dates:Tuesday afternoons, 6 - 8 p.m. March 24, 31 and April 7 and 14.
I have taught adults to write stories about their lives for
a number of years. The stories are often written for grandchildren or other
family because the writer wants to leave a legacy of what life
was like before cell phones, before computers and video games, before families
were too busy and before they were scattered all over the country and around
the world. The writer might want to tell about his family history for generations before him.
Each of us has a unique story, and in this class the student will learn
- where
to begin
- how
to begin
- how
to organize your work
- what
to write and what not to write
- how
to write so that your audience will want to read your stories
Each student will have several stories completed and written
by the end of the course in an entertaining and interesting form. Each student
will carry home a number of tools he/she can use in the future. If you have studied with me in the past, you will not be bored. We will have new exercises and new topics to explore.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
What the New Year Brings
January 1, 2015
This year has begun with a brighter day than most we’ve had
in December. The sun is shining and that makes me smile.
The first day of a new year is like opening a new writing
journal for me. I have a clean slate on which to begin. It is mine to
do what I will every day, make it mundane or exciting. On my Gratitude List today, number one is: I
am here in this lovely place which inspires me to write and to share with other
writers.
Last May, as I started up my stairs, I had a sudden muscle
strain in my left hip, fell and for two months, as I visited one doctor and
another, I worried that I might have to stop holding classes in my studio,
Writers Circle around the Table. I could not walk up and down stairs for three
months without extreme pain. Prescription drugs became a way of life for me.
Depression set in as I visualized myself moving to be near family, leaving this
place I love so much.
I am not a city girl.
The first time I lived in town, I shared an apartment with two girls after
college. The girls were great, but I missed my privacy and the open green space
of my rural home. When my husband and I
married we lived in a furnished apartment for less than a year. Our poodle,
Brandy, soon made it obvious that he was not a city dog. He chewed everything
in the place and shredded the sofa cushions. We had to move to a place with a
yard.
That was when we claimed our five acres of my father’s farm.
My husband delighted in living in the woods and Brandy spent all day outside.
For thirty years we lived there and when we moved to the
mountains of North Carolina, we found a house surrounded by trees, very private
but only five miles from our small town. After my husband died, I remodeled my
downstairs for my studio. Already, I have excellent instructors lined up to
teach classes in 2015. (see Schedule page)
Thankfully, the stairs hold no challenge for me now. With
the help of my orthopedic massage therapist and an acupuncturist who introduced
me to Pete Egoscue’s book, Pain Free, A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain, the pain in my hip is gone.
I do one simple exercise every day. It is called Static Back. The book has many
of these e-cises and I also do many of them, but Static Back is the one that
fixed my hip problem.
So on my Gratitude List today are two very wonderful young
men, Jay Gibson and Chris Bassett, and a young woman
massage therapist, April Stewart.
With massage, acupuncture, and the dedication of these therapists, I feel
better than I have in a long, long time. Seldom do I need any pain medicine,
and when I do, it is over the counter, not prescription.
We have to manage our own health, learn all we can about our
problems, and follow our gut instincts. I was told I needed to see a back
surgeon. I was told that all of us live with pain and I could expect to deal
with it the rest of my life. I would not accept that.
When Chris Bassett told
me I didn't have to live in pain. I could work on my posture, aligning my body by lying on the floor twenty
minutes a day with my legs on a chair, I wanted to cry with joy. He took time
to show me how I walked, what I was doing that aggravated my muscular problems,
and gave me the hope I needed to go to work on myself. Simple stretches every day will keep our muscles from atrophying. The acupuncture helped with the pain, as did
the massage therapy, but I had to continue treatment on myself so that I was
not re-injuring myself.
Yes, this New Year has dawned bright and beautiful and full
of prospects for challenges and successes.
I hope all of you, my readers, will have much to be thankful for
in 2015, and I hope you will start your own gratitude journal today. Write five
things each day for which you are thankful. This stimulates the positive in
your life instead of the negative.
I might write “I am thankful for the butterfly flitting
around on my flowers.” I might also write, “I am grateful today for the good
test result for my friend.” This is your
journal and no one needs to see it.
Although we hear all the horrible things on the news that
make us feel that our world is coming apart, our words, deeds, and ideas can
help to make a better world. They really do matter.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Shelby Dean Stephenson - new Poet Laureate of NC
News in the literary world of North Carolina
Shelby Dean Stephenson has been selected the new Poet Laureate of North Carolina and will be installed in February, 2015.
Read more here.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Why Count our rejections?
I am always surprised when I read that a writer knows
exactly how many rejections he has received. I wonder why one would want to rub
salt in the wound that occurs when the rejections arrive. I make note that the
journal has rejected my work, and then put the info away in my files. I have
two files in the drawer. One has all my acceptances and the other has
rejections. Those that come now by email get filed in my documents. I have no
idea how many times my work has been rejected.
Once a poem has been turned down a couple of times, I revise
it and send it out again to different publications. I have an idea of the number of publications I have because I list them on my
blog, but I have never counted them to make me feel good or bad. If I counted all
the rejections , I am sure I’d be unpleasantly surprised. Since I have no idea
of their number, I never think about it.
Part of my approach to life is making sure I don’t poke
sticks in my eyes anymore. Why torture myself when it is unnecessary and does
no one any good? Why would I lash myself with a big whip?
Instead of thinking of the negative, I glory in my acceptances
when they come and share them with friends that I know care about me. I think
it is best to celebrate our greatness every chance we get.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Classes for 2015
We are happy to have Paula
Canup, former English teacher, writer and journalist, join our faculty in 2015. She will teach a
workshop in March. The date and time will be announced later.
We can always use a brush up on
our basic skills and new writers often have forgotten those details of grammar
that we learn in high school and college. I see many problems with new students
such as when to use ellipses, where to place quotation marks in dialogue, what
is an em dash and where to use it. How often can we use an exclamation point or
when should we use it?
Put it on your calendar now to
sign up for Paula’s class at Writers Circle next March.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Glenda Beall teaches at TCCC in March
I will be teaching in
March at Tri-County Community College. The dates are: March 24, 31 and April 7
and 14. Time for all classes is 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. The title of the class is
Write Your Life Stories for Your Family or for Publishing.
I have taught adults to write stories about their lives for
a number of years. The stories are often written for grandchildren or other
family because the writer wants to leave a legacy of what life
was like before cell phones, before computers and video games, before families
were too busy and before they were scattered all over the country and around
the world.
Each of us has a unique story, and in this class you learn
- where
to begin
- how
to begin
- how
to organize your work
- what
to write and what not to write
- how
to write so that your audience will want to read your stories
Each student will have several stories completed and written
by the end of the course in an entertaining and interesting form. Each student
will carry home a number of tools he/she can use in the future.
Classes for 2015
We are happy to have Paula
Canup, former English teacher, writer and journalist, join our faculty in 2015. She will teach a
workshop in March. The date and time will be announced later.
We can always use a brush up on
our basic skills and new writers often have forgotten those details of grammar
that we learn in high school and college. I see many problems with new students
such as when to use ellipses, where to place quotation marks in dialogue, what
is an em dash and where to use it. How often can we use an exclamation point or
when should we use it?
Put it on your calendar now to
sign up for Paula’s class at Writers Circle next March.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Glenda Beall teaches at TCCC in March
I will be teaching in
March at Tri-County Community College. The dates are: March 24, 31 and April 7
and 14. Time for all classes is 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. The title of the class is
Write Your Life Stories for Your Family or for Publishing.
I have taught adults to write stories about their lives for
a number of years. The stories are often written for grandchildren or other
family because the writer wants to leave a legacy of what life
was like before cell phones, before computers and video games, before families
were too busy and before they were scattered all over the country and around
the world.
Each of us has a unique story, and in this class you learn
- where
to begin
- how
to begin
- how
to organize your work
- what
to write and what not to write
- how
to write so that your audience will want to read your stories
Each student will have several stories completed and written
by the end of the course in an entertaining and interesting form. Each student
will carry home a number of tools he/she can use in the future.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
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