Our weekend at the Festival on the Square was delightful except for the high temperatures on Saturday. Deanna Klingel and Miriam Bradley drove down to Hayesville from Sapphire and from Hendersonville, NC. Both write books for children but have non-fiction books for adults as well. See their websites for more of their books.
We all promote reading for children and it was heart-warming to see the kids visit Deanna and Miriam with their parents and then come back later with cash in hand to purchase the mystery series books from Miriam’s table or the Avery books from Deanna.
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| Deanna Klingel |
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| Miriam Jones Bradley |
Our many volunteers this year made it possible to have a booth at the Festival on the Square sponsored by the Clay County Historical and Arts Council. Deanna and Joan Gage carried tables and chairs and boxes as we loaded up Rob’s truck on Friday afternoon and set up our tent. I counted on Joan all weekend to help me and to be there when I could not. She also presented her books of inspirational and motivating poetry for women. Water Running Down Hill, Empowering Your Inner Cheerleader and her most recent, A Redhead Looks at 60.
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| Joan Ellen Gage |
Karen Holmes and Carole Thompson volunteered so that on Saturday and on Sunday we had someone at the main table to give out brochures, answer questions about NCWN and NCWN West, discuss writing with visitors and give them information about local literary events and places where they can receive instruction.
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| Carole Thompson author of Enough |
Valeria Nieman visited with us Sunday afternoon with her new poetry book, Hotel Worthy and her very interesting novel, Blood Clay. We are always happy to see Val here in our neck of the woods.
I want to thank Don and Marti Long for their help on Sunday afternoon. Although we were tired by Sunday afternoon, I had fun with my two guests, Deanna and Miriam at my house for the weekend. It is always great to see so many local friends at the festival on a typical summer weekend in a small mountain town in the beautiful western NC mountains.
