Bob Grove is the featured guest for Mountain Wordsmiths Thursday morning, April 22, 10:30 AM.

Bob Grove

Mark your calendars! Mountain Wordsmiths will be gathering Thursday, April 22, at 10:30 a.m. on Zoom. The event is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West.

Our featured reader this month will be Bob Grove. You don’t want to miss his stories.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob now lives in the mountains of North Carolina. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Kent State University and his Master of Science at Florida Atlantic University. He has taught courses in English, journalism, and creative writing as well as the sciences and psychology.

Bob was formerly an ABC-TV public affairs director and program host, the funder and publisher of Monitoring Times magazine, and is now a popular reader of his works. A member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network and an officer with the Ridgeline Literary Alliance, he is the facilitator for the Cherokee County prose critique group.

Bob has published twenty books and hundreds of articles in sixteen magazines. Most recently, he has written a mystery novella (Secrets of Magnolia Manor), his memoir (Misadventures of an Only Child), a collection of children’s stories (Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy), some flash fiction including the gold medal award-winning entry in the 2013 Silver Arts literature competition (The Visitor), and a little poetry.

Here’s a refresher on what we’re doing in Mountain Wordsmiths:

Meeting Date and Time: The fourth Thursday of every month, 10:30-12:00 noon

Contact Carroll Taylor for an invitation to this meeting. vibiaperpetua@gmail.com 

Hosted by: Carroll Taylor

The featured reader will share for approximately 20-25 minutes, and Open Mic participants will read afterward. There’s no need to sign up for Open Mic in advance. You can do that when you enter the Zoom meeting. Open Mic readings should be no longer than five minutes. We welcome all writing genres. We also welcome those who just want to listen!

Special thanks to Kanute Rarey for being our technical Zoom guru!

Happy writing!

Carroll Taylor

(706) 464-0819

Live on Facebook, Bob Grove presents A Christmas Carol

For at least the last twenty years, Bob Grove has given a live presentation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol at John C. Campbell Folk School.

 It is a one-hour presentation done in costume and British accent. Bob says it is exhausting, but he loves doing it.

This year, for community health reasons, he will be doing it live on Facebook. You can watch it this coming Wednesday, December 16, at 5:00 p.m. 

On Facebook, in the little "Search facebook" bubble, type "John C. Campbell Folk School." 

Bob's live presentation is a treat you don't want to miss. 

Come see Bob Grove perform A Christmas Carol, tonight, at the John C. Campbell Folk School at 7:00 PM, Keith House Community Room, Brasstown, NC

December 11, 2019

Time: Admission:

7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Free

Location:  Community Room, Keith House

A Christmas Carol

In period costume, Bob Grove will present a dramatic reading of the classic tale, including character voices. In the familiar story, miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future who, in the course of a night, convince him to abandon his "bah, humbug" ways.

https://www.folkschool.org/event.php?event_type_id=15

The Literary Hour at JCCFS, Brasstown, NC, to feature Joan Ellen Gage, Bob Grove, and Carroll S. Taylor on Wednesday, April 17, 2019

On Wednesday, April 17, 2019, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary Hour. At this event, NCWN-West members will read at the Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. The Literary Hour is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. This reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be Joan Ellen Gage, Bob Grove, and Carroll S. Taylor. For more information on this event, please contact Mary Ricketson at: maryricketson311@hotmail.com.

Joan Ellen Gage is an author of humor and inspiration written from her own unique perspective. Her recipe for her writing focuses on staying upbeat and laughing at her own foibles. Gage’s photos are the spice in the mix that serve to punctuate the writing and add that special garnish to her creations. 

Joan has written and published five books, Water Running Downhill, Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader, A Redhead Looks At 60, Trinity's Adventures in Imagination, and a special edition of Water Running Downhill! the Rose Edition, as a tribute to her friend Rose Macedo Kull. All of the books are available on Amazon. Currently, Gage is working on a new book entitled: Words of Defiance and Empowerment.

Gage is a former administrator for the NCWN-West blog. Additionally, Ms. Gage has two blogs, Traveling at the Speed of Now, www.joanellengage.com,and A Redhead Blogs at 60, https://joans-zone.com/.

Bob Grove: Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kent State University and a Master of Science degree from Florida Atlantic University. His diversified curriculum qualified him to teach high school courses in biology, anatomy and physiology, earth and space science, astronomy and space science, psychology, English, journalism, and creative writing.  

 Bob was an ABC-TV public affairs director and on-air program host, and founder and publisher of Monitoring Times Magazine. He has published 19 books and hundreds of articles in 23 magazines. Additionally, he has published a mystery novella, Secrets of Magnolia Manor, his memoir, Misadventures of an Only Child, a collection of children’s stories: Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy, and many flash fiction stories as well as some poetry. Grove’s books can be found on Amazon.

Grove is prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers Network and a co-facilitator of the Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

Carroll S. Taylor grew up in rural West Central Georgia. A graduate of Tift College (Mercer University) with a BA in French, she holds graduate degrees in French and English as well as an EdS in Educational Leadership. An educator for forty-three years, Taylor taught French, English, Journalism, Creative Writing, and ESL, and advised students to create and publish school newspapers and yearbooks. After retirement, she moved on to her second career as a part-time instructor at Columbus State University, teaching freshman composition. 

Taylor is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side. She is currently writing the third novel in the series, Chinaberry Summer: Down by the Water. Her books emphasize generational storytelling and respect for the valuable role of reptiles and amphibians in our ecosystem. One of the personal highlights of publishing her novels was her book reading held in the childhood home of Carson McCullers. 

Readers may find her journal blog at chinaberrysummer.com, and  follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/ChinaberrySummer/. .

Carroll is a member of North Carolina Writers’ Network, North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, and the Georgia Poetry Society.

Rarey and Grove are featured at Coffee with the Poets and Writers March 20

On Wednesday, March 20, at 10:30 AM, Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature storyteller Knute Rarey and writer Bob Grove. 

The event will be held at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC, and is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow the presentation. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West (NCWN-W).  

        Kanute Rarey is a local storyteller. He told his first "official" story in 2015 atJohn C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, and later at the Swapping Ground at the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Since then he has also told stories at the Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival, the Big Fibbers Festival, the Texas Storytelling Festival, the Moth Story Slam in Asheville, and the Stone Soup Festival.

       Born on a family farm in Ohio, he began visiting the North Georgia mountains regularly about forty years ago and fell in love with the people, their stories, the wild rivers, beautiful lakes, and mountains. He moved to Hayesville in 1990 and lived here for ten years. Work then took him away. Four years ago he retired back to Hayesville full-time.

       Rarey is a traveler, teacher, grandfather, and lifelong learner. Stories are from his personal life, from growing up on a farm in the Western Carolina mountains, from listening to family tales at breakfast gatherings and holiday meals, from the "characters" that make up his family, and from living with children and grandchildren. Some of his stories are established fables that hold life lessons that have been told over and over for many years. Other stories are works of his imagination.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob Grove lives with his wife Judy and their adorable Sheltie in a 55-acre woodland atop a mountain of North Carolina.  His diversified college curriculum led him to teach high school courses in science, psychology, English, and creative writing. Grove served as an ABC public affairs host, interviewing many newsworthy notables. He has been a featured speaker at 14 national conventions and a U.S. Congressional committee. 

His interests have led him to treasure hunting in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, exploring in Alaska, roaming through old, abandoned houses, and sightseeing the beautiful Grand Canyon of the Pacific on the island of Kauai.   

Now retired and a prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers Network-West and the Ridgeline Literary Alliance, he has published 19 books and hundreds of articles in 23 magazines. 

With more time to write, Grove varies his topical genres from humor to drama, and even dabbles in occasional poetry. He is a popular performance reader, evidenced by his well-attended annual reading, in costume and British dialect, of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown. 

    For more information about this event, please contact Glenda Beall at: glendabeall@msn.com.

FLASH FICTION CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Pat Meece Davis, NC Writers Network West member from Brevard has announced the winners of the Flash Fiction Contest for NCWN West members only.

Our winners:

    1. "The Gift" by Lorraine Bennett

Lorraine Bennett

Lorraine grew up in Murphy, NC, graduated with her high school class journalism medal and received a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill.

   Her career began on the Atlanta Journal where she covered news and met her husband. His job took them west. She was hired by the Los Angeles Times and became the newspaper’s first woman to head a domestic bureau.

   The Bennetts returned to Atlanta and she joined fledgling CNN as a news writer. She became copy editor, producer and editorial manager before ending her career at CNN International.

   She retired in 2006 and built a farmhouse on Martins Creek family land. She still practices her craft by covering county government and copy editing for the Clay County Progress weekly.

   She is trying to leap from journalist to novelist and finished her first book, a psychological thriller, last year. She is writing a sequel and seeking an agent.

 

    2. "Show Me the Cache" by Bob Grove

Bob Grove

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob Grove earned his Bachelor’s degree at Kent State University and his Master’s degree at Florida Atlantic University. During his 17-year public school career, he taught courses in English, science, and psychology. He has published 19 books and hundreds of articles in 24 magazines, including his own, Monitoring Times. His writings have earned several gold medals in the North Carolina Silver Arts literature competition. 
 As a public affairs director for an ABC-TV station, he hosted numerous programs. Now retired, he is a prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers Network and an officer for the Ridgeline Literary Alliance. Bob’s public readings are popular as a performance art form, typified by his well-attended annual reading, in costume and multiple character dialects, of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.  

 

     3. "Mother-Daughter Act" by Nancy Swanson

Nancy Swanson

Nancy Swanson is a retired educator living just outside of Brevard. She was a winner of the 2003 South Carolina Fiction Project, and her poetry has been published in English Journal, South Carolina Review, and Chattahoochee Review, among others. This year she won the Sidney Lanier Poetry Award for poetry. She and her husband, Ben, share four children, one grandchild, and a love for mountain trails. She thanks her writing mentors, Nancy Purcell and Darlene O'Dell, as well as her writing groups for their encouragement and support.

 

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all who entered the contest.

A special thanks to Pat Davis who has facilitated this contest for the second time and to the judges who are not members of NCWN West, but are experienced and well published writers. 
 

 Pat Meese Davis, author of books for children

 

Reading Your Writing to an Audience is Performance Reading

THE ART OF PERFORMANCE READING

By Bob Grove 

           Whether you are competing in a speech contest or reading to a public audience, the rules are the same. The contents should be well organized, and the delivery done convincingly enough to evoke appreciative audience response.
            Anyone can read a printed page, but performance reading is an oral presentation enhanced by gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, costume, voices and dialects, music, sound effects, props and audience interaction. In other words, you’re an actor.
            Performers don’t merely read lines, they make them sound fresh, like they are being uttered for the first time. Charisma and relevance are two essential traits for effective delivery. An audience is more responsive if they feel involved and can identify with characters. Performance art makes such identification easier: “Joan was a delightful guest – giddy and charming, a pleasure to be with. Her bright eyes sparkled as she asked seductively, ‘Would any of you gentlemen care to dance with me?’
            I’m sure you’ve endured church sermons that drone on: “In the Apocrypha and outlined in the Pentateuch, especially the synoptic gospels of John 21:14, Luke 8:16, Mark 11:9 and Matthew 21:7….” Maybe this is why some clergymen have to shout and rant to keep the attention of their audience, or to wake up the parishioners who are nearly comatose in the rearmost pews.
            We’ve all had the experience of straining to listen to a reader who mumbles or reads so fast that you can’t keep up. Read at a normal rate as if you were talking to someone; in fact, you are. Your audience came to hear what you have to say, not how fast you can say it. You don’t have to shout, but articulate loudly enough to be heard in the back row.

            Readers are entertainers. Your audience expects us to take them away from the humdrum and cares of every day. But performance reading should not be excessively exaggerated unless it’s comedy or if you’re narrating a cartoon. You don’t have to scream, flail your arms or stomp to make a point. Realism is the key. Sometimes it’s difficult, for example when a deep-throated man is quoting a young child or a female character. But it can be done:

            Johnny looked up at his father and asked, “When is mommy coming home?”
            "Not for a while, son.”
             Mrs. Higgins chided her husband for his bad manners: “Charles, put that napkin on your lap.” The character change in vocalization makes its point.

             One of the trickiest deliveries is with dialects and foreign accents. The Englishman may say, Good morning, Dear, a German may ask, Was ist los? and a Frenchman may greet you with, Bon jour. But if you can’t imitate the dialect, don’t try to; there’s no substitute for reality.


Bob Grove is a member of NCWN-West.

 Now retired after 35 years as founder of Grove Enterprises, an international supplier of radio communications equipment, Bob has more time to write. Most recently, he has published a mystery novella (Secrets of Magnolia Manor), his memoir (Misadventures of an Only Child), a collection of children’s stories (Adventures of Kaylie and Jimmy), and has written several flash fiction stories as well as some forgettable poetry. He has been awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in the Silver Arts literature competition.

 Bob’s public readings are popular as a performance art form, typified by his annual December reading, in costume and dialect, of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the John C. Campbell Folk School.  Visit his website: http://bobgrove.org/

Writers Bob Grove and Deanna K. Klingel to read at The Literary Hour at John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC, Thursday, March 15, 2018, at 7:00 PM

On Thursday, March 15, 2018, at 7:00 PM, John C. Campbell Folk School and NC Writers' Network-West will sponsor The Literary Hour, an hour of writers reading, is held at Keith House on the JCCFS campus, in Brasstown, NC. This event is held on the third Thursday of the month unless otherwise indicated. The reading is free of charge and open to the public. This month's featured readers will be Bob Grove and Deanna K. Klingel.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob now lives in the mountains of North Carolina. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at Kent State University and his Master of Science at Florida Atlantic University. His diversified curriculum enabled him to teach courses in English, journalism, creative writing, physics, chemistry, biology and psychology.

Bob has been an ABC-TV public affairs director, an on-air personality, and the founder and publisher of Monitoring Times magazine. A prose critique facilitator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network and an officer with the Ridgeline Literary Alliance, he has published seventeen books and hundreds of articles in sixteen national magazines. All Grove’s publications are available on Amazon Kindle, and he can be found online at www.bobgrove.org . Bob's readings entertain, and his audience laughs with delight at his humor.

Deanna Klingel calls Sapphire Valley NC home. She was born and raised in Michigan, left MSU with her husband Dave and lived in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Raleigh, NC, Maryland, Atlanta and finally retired to the mountains.  A compulsive writer all her life, she never sought publication until their seven children were grown and gone from home.

Klingel writes primarily, not exclusively, for young adult readers. She has thirteen books published and others in the que. In addition, one of the picture books is also in Spanish, and there are teacher/classroom study guides for two historical fictions. Many of the books have received recognitions and awards. Two of her short stories were contest winners. She's a member of SCBWI, ACFW, Catholic Writers Guild, and NCWN. She blogs twice a week at booksbydeanna.com, and travels with her books across the South and beyond, appearing at schools, museums, and events. Her books are widely distributed and are available wherever books are sold. Klingel’s  website is: www.BooksByDeanna.com.

For more information, please call  the John C. Campbell Folk School at: 828-837-2775, or Mary Ricketson at: 828-361-0721.