Trip to Winston-Salem

Normally I wouldn't have gone to this conference since it was such a long distance, over six hour drive, but I felt, as the Netwest Program Coordinator I should attend. I'm very glad I did. Much was accomplished for our group, I think, and I'm confident the Network is doing well and on the right track.

Friday afternoon, I met Mary Jo Dyre from Murphy and hooked her up with another western NC native, Pat Davis who lives in Pennsylvania now. Both these ladies were there to pitch their novels. And this was the place to do it. So many publishers, agents and programs for meeting the people authors need to know.

I met Debbie McGill, Literary Director of the NC Arts Council as soon as I entered the registration area. Debbie is a long time friend of Netwest and attended our Lights in the Mountains Conference when it was held in Hayesville. She was interested to hear all that is going on with our group. I had a few of our online newsletters, The Netwest News, with me and I gave her one. Nicki Leone, president of NCWN arrived and I made arrangements to meet with her and Al Manning on Saturday to go over our revised guidelines and mission statement.

Sara Claytor, a member of the NC Poetry Society stood near the NCPS table. She was excited to have her first poetry book published. I meant to buy one later, but never got back to pick it up. We talked about the possibility of "swapping writers" from her area in Raleigh to our area in western NC for readings, workshops, and other events. She said the poetry society talked about our "Coffee with the Poets" at one of their meetings and they would like to look into doing the same thing in their area. Ed Cockrell, publisher of the NCPC Correspondent, included an article on CWP this year.

I had invited Netwest folks attending the conference to join Barry and me Friday night for dinner. I was delighted to have Ken Kinnett and Lana Hendershott of Henderson County, Mary Jo, and Nancy Cash, author of Ritual River, join us along with our new friend Pat Davis. Although Nancy lives in Asheville, she is a native of Murphy, NC. Mary Jo and Pat seemed delighted to have Nancy tell them of her experiences in the publishing world.

After dinner, Jill McCorkle gave the keynote speech and entertained us all with her humor and insight into making your charactors believeable, even if you have to use some bad language to do it.

Jill is one of our outstanding southern writers who hails from Lumberton, NC.

As I left the jam-packed hall after Jill's speech, I was tired but exhilerated from so much creative energy in that room.