Writers and poets in the far western mountain area of North Carolina and bordering counties of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee post announcements, original work and articles on the craft of writing.
Monday, January 22, 2024
MaryJo Dyre is a Mississippi native, an author with an interesting story
MJD: I grew up Mississippi rural in the 50s. When I was not yet a year old, my family moved from the Poplar Creek Nations area to Gore Springs, another small, rural gathering of families near Grenada. My father initially managed a dairy farm. My fondest memories involve endless play in the great outdoors. Screen time did not enter my world until I was eight. Imagination was my constant companion. Kingdoms created under pine trees, mudpies decorated with wildflowers, hot summer afternoons cooled with play in nearby creeks were enjoyed barefooted with hands and clothing stained from blackberry or muscadine juice.
MJD: In 1983, I founded a private school that became, in 1997, one of North Carolina’s first 33 charter schools. Except for a short year-and-a-half period in the early 1990s, I directed the school until 2019. I remained the Executive Director for another year as I trained and worked with my replacement. I continued to serve the school through May 2022, to find answers for the increased need for expanded and renovated facilities for the growing population of learners we attracted annually.
MJD: Yes, I read all my brother’s books before his death. I eventually read them countless times after I said yes to finishing the unfinished manuscript he left behind.
MJD: Yes, I had reservations. Perhaps the strongest hesitation was the desire to make sure I remained true to how he would have “told the story.” At the same time, I knew that it was essential for me to have my own emotional connection to his plot and characters. When Arnold’s nephew sent the partial manuscript, I knew I had to feel the first read in my core. No question, I felt it and knew I could take on the project.
MJD: I often answer this question of how I continued with Arnold’s same imagined characters in this simplistic way: I crawled into my brother’s imagination. The process of tapping into that sacred place began with re-reading the three published novels in his series, carefully creating character sketches and timelines of each. I researched and interviewed people that I felt certain were captured within his layers of fictional disguise. Patterns of awareness began to emerge. I more readily saw the development and growth of my brother’s writing. I became aware of topics being explored in the third novel that he seemed hesitant to include in his earlier writing. The unfinished manuscript convinced me that the horizons of his writing were broadening to yet more topics not yet explored. He had gone bolder with both characters and plot. No question I had to sustain the reach he seemed to prioritize in the fourth book.
MJD: I took on the completion of Dark Spot when I was still a full-time executive director in the field of education. Delay or hesitation was not in my vocabulary. When the voice in the mind refuses to go silent, the writer in me knows it’s time to write. My brother had a reading audience that was waiting for his next novel and many, many loved ones who were not ready for his voice to end.
MJD: Dark Spot, A Jake Baker Mystery by Arnold Dyre and Mary Jo Dyre
MJD: A major influencer in Springheads is a specific peninsula of land that I know very intimately in real life. This setting becomes a sense of place, a driving force in the unfolding of the plot line. I strongly felt the need to balance the inexplicable introduction of time travel with characters within a real community. Indeed, the people and places that make up the fabric of my life provided a rich pallet of possible characters and settings. Fortunately, fiction allows hand-picking characteristics and combining them in creative ways to ultimately bring to life the strong characters who drive the Springheads’ story. One of my favorite combinations, Miss Sadie, the midwife/healer full of sage wisdom and visionary thinking, is created with character traits found in three women whose skills, physical appearance, and intuitive genius have spilled into my real life.
GCB: Are there other writers in your family?
MJD: Dark Spot was published in 2019. Springheads was published in July 2023. With the publication of Dark Spot, the marketing plan grew in momentum around a strong Mississippi reading audience already created by my brother. He had an established presence with several small Mississippi newspapers. I picked up his by-monthly publications with these papers. Invitations to do book events came as a result. Additionally, I created my website: www.maryjodyre.com inclusive of a blog and increased social media presence.
GCB: Your novel is published by Red Hawk Publications. How are they helping with marketing your book?
Friday, October 13, 2023
Mary Jo Dyre featured guest reader at Oct. 26 Mountain Wordsmiths
Author Mary Jo Dyre will be the featured reader for this month’s gathering of Mountain Wordsmiths on Thursday, October 26, at 10:30 a.m. via Zoom. The monthly event is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.
Dyre, a talented author based in Western North Carolina, is a former educator, now working in insurance. She first finished and published her deceased brother Arnold Dyre’s half-completed manuscript of "Dark Spot," the fourth book in the Jake Baker series.
Mary Jo Dyre |
Dyre's novel takes readers on a journey through time and space, from Mississippi to Arizona, and even South America, as the protagonist, Sarah Baker Bryant, discovers herself through connections to land and water that cradle home and deep-running family roots. Vivid descriptions transport readers to the westernmost mountains of North Carolina and a special piece of river property that holds great power and significance. Sense of place becomes a compelling character in its own right.
Dyre says, "Dreams from real life inspired the writing of this particular book. These sequel dreams, so-called visions of the night, produced the creative, intriguing flow of tales mixed and connected through time in the plot of 'Springheads.' My characters revealed lives of their own making throughout the writing process, discovered only as I listened intently enough to bring them to the page through my words."
NCWN-West is continuing to stay in touch by using technology to share our writing. We offer writing events and writing classes both online and in person. Writers are enjoying the convenience and flexibility of Zoom meetings because they can join our gatherings from other locations across America. Attendees are welcome to bring a poem or short prose piece to read during Open Mic. Please limit the reading to 3-5 minutes.
Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com or ncwngeorgiarep@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. Mountain Wordsmiths is informal, and welcomes anyone who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing. All who attend are encouraged to enjoy their morning cup of coffee or tea as the group shares thoughts about writing.
Monday, August 14, 2023
Dyre and Mitchell to Read at Literary Hour Aug. 17
Author Mary Jo Dyre of Murphy and Poet Maren Mitchell will read from their work at the Literary Hour Thursday, Aug. 17, at 7 pm in the Keith House Living Room of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and is free and open to everyone.
Mary Jo Dyre |
Her novel combines multiple genres of historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure, and fantasy to create a compelling story mixing broad sweeps of history gleaned from the Appalachian mountains, rural Mississippi, the wild west days of Arizona, and the continent of South America. Dyre is also known in the area for founding a school serving families and students in Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties, and serving as its executive director from 2000-2021.
Maren O. Mitchell’s poems have appeared in regional, national, and international publications including “Appalachian Heritage,” “The South Carolina Review,” “Southern Humanities Review,” “Appalachian Journal,” and several anthologies. Three of her poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and she received a 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society.
Maren O. Mitchell |
The John C. Campbell Folk School offers classes in folk arts and crafts and storytelling. For information about the school, you can find its webpage and contact information at https://www.folkschool.org/. Students and faculty of the school are welcome to attend the readings.
The Literary Hour at the folk school started in 1995 and is offered every third Thursday of the month through November, according to Glenda Beall, NCWN-West coordinator. “Our goals for the Literary Hour at the folk school are to bring local writers and any member of NCWN who is in the area to the campus to share their work,” she said.
Saturday, February 15, 2020
A Literary Trail: stories and poems from Mississippi to North Carolina, author readings by Mary Ricketson & Mary Jo Dyre, Murphy Art Center, Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Meet the authors for selected readings, book signing, and reception:
Murphy Art Center, 33 Valley River Ave, Murphy NC 28906
Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 5 PM
Written in a personal manner, these poems engage an audience by speaking to diversity, understanding, and trust in context of the lives of people who were less aware than many of us today.
Living near Murphy NC, Ricketson is inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor, Her poetry published in journals and her books: Disorgananza, private publication 2000, chapbook, I Hear the River Call my Name, and three full length collections, Hanging Dog Creek, Shade and Shelter, and Mississippi: The Story of Luke and Marian.
Ricketson writes a monthly column, Women to Women, for The Cherokee Scout. She is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor in private practice, and an organic vegetable, herb, and blueberry farmer.
Mary Jo Dyre native Mississipian, living in the Murphy area of North Carolina since 1979, officially entered the arena as a writer as she finished and published DARK SPOT from a partial manuscript left by her brother, Arnold Dyre, at his death in 2017. DARK SPOT is the fourth book in the Jake Baker Mystery Series.
Long before picking of the pen of fiction writing, Dyre taught 10th and 11th English in the Marks, MS, then World Literature, Writing and Art Appreciation at Tri-County Community College. She now has a far-reaching reputation in education with the founding of The Learning Center, first as a private school in 1983 and then with its conversion to a North Carolina Charter School in 1997.
Dyre is currently developing a strategic facility project for the school, writes monthly columns for two Mississippi newspapers, The Grenada Star and The Coffeeville Courier, and is working on her next novel SPRINGHEADS. The work is a blend of history and mystery that promises to intrigue her growing base of both Mississippi and North Carolina fans
This event is sponsored by Cherokee County Arts Council and the Jackie Ward Foundation, supporters of the arts in far western North Carolina.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Learning Center Kids in Bay Leaves
In the Charlotte Young Contest for Elementary School Students Eli Sellers won third place and Jade Shelton received an honorable mention. The other contest was called “Carol Bessent Hayman Contest for Middle School Students” and Sam Davidson received honorable mention for his poem.
The names of the poems are:
Eli Sellers- “Dragon!”
Jade Shelton- “Fat Boy”
Samuel Davidson- “WAR”
The Learning Center in Murphy, NC is a charter school headed by Netwest member, Mary Jo Dyre.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Candy Maier Scholarship Fund
Recently Gwendie Camp and Cheryl Dietrich drove down to join Mary Jo Dyre who acts as a liaison for the Candy Fund, and her guests, Mary Ricketson and Glenda Beall to discuss the future of the new non-profit charity over lunch at Shoebooties' restaurant in Murphy. In the three years this fund has been active, they have raised $11,000 and given out 50 scholarships totaling $8, 000.
They are ready now to develop a website, send out a newsletter and hold a series of fundraisers. Gwendie says they have volunteer positions available on the Board of Directors and for regional coordinators to reach out beyond the boundaries of Asheville to women south and north of Buncombe county.
We offered our support from Netwest because we believe this to be a needed organization. The Candy Maier Fund provided scholarships to several of our members in the past couple of years. The Fund is seeking donations to help meet the growing need for Candy Fund scholarships. Donations, any amount is appreciated, are tax-exempt.The Candy Fund is the only scholarship program of its type in this area.
You can reach the Candy Maier Scholarship Fund for Women Writers by email: thecandyfund@yahoo.com or by snail mail: 4B Long shoals Road #164, Arden, North Carolina, 28704-7781.