Sweet Fruit by Karen Jackson

 Karen Jackson sent this news.

My short story "Sweet Fruit" about blackberry picking in South Georgia appeared today in the online journal Reckon Review.   Meagan Lucas, founder and editor, does a wonderful job featuring a different story each week, either fiction or creative nonfiction. If you have a "gritty" story about the South, you might want to check out the journal and consider submitting.

Here's a link to my story.  http://reckonreview.com/sweet-fruit/

I certainly related to Karen's story because I am a South Georgia native and picked many blackberries on the farm. GCB

KAREN LUKE JACKSON featured on Writers' Night Out

Join us Friday evening, 7:00 PM, January 8 online for Writer's Night Out. While you are home all comfy and warm, click on Zoom and meet Karen, a writer of prose and poetry. Her work has been widely published.

She did not let the pandemic slow her down. Karen has made appearances online all over the state of North Carolina. She read on Six Minute Stories a podcast with Randell Jones. 

Karen Luke Jackson is the author of Grit a poetry book that tells the story of her sister's life as Clancy the Clown. Two worlds coexist in GRIT, a poetry chapbook with photographs chronicling the life of Janis Luke Roberts and her alter ego, Clancey the Clown. From imaginary friends and childhood fantasies to fans grieving at her funeral, these poems explore how courage and imagination helped one woman overcome dyslexia and depression to become an award-winning performer.

An oral history tradition, contemplative practices, and clown escapades provide scaffolding for Karen Luke Jackson’s work. Whether crafting a poem, teaching a class, or serving as an Anam Cara, Karen searches for life-giving “role/soul” connections and helps others do the same. Stories, she says, provide an opening. They allow us to explore the core of our human experience and capture snippets of sacred mystery in everyday life.

Being a grandmother and living in a cottage adjoining a goat pasture in Western North Carolina are two of Karen’s greatest joys. When she’s not writing or companioning people on their spiritual journeys, she enjoys sitting on a porch nestled between pines and listening to bird song.

Read an award-winning poem by Karen Jackson here. https://www.karenlukejackson.com/a-triptych-on-the-first-anniversary

Join us on Zoom. All members of Netwest will receive an invitation. To read at Open Mic, email glendabeall@msn.com and you will be put on the list. Include a sentence about yourself or your writing for your introduction.

If you are not a member of NCWN, email me and introduce yourself if you want to attend WNO.

Book by Glenda C. Beall review in Clay County Progress

 Marcia Hawley Barnes writes reviews for the Clay County Progress Newspaper. Recently she has been reading and writing books by local writers. 

I was delighted when she chose my poetry book, Now Might as Well be Then, published by Finishing Line Press for her October choice. Thanks to Marcia for this wonderful review.

I want to thank those who wrote such nice reviews on Finishing Line site for my poetry book. This book was available on Amazon.com but is no longer available there. The book can be ordered from Finishing Line Press or from me, Glenda Beall.

PANDEMIC DISCOUNT FOR dialogue class on Zoom with CAROL CRAWFORD

Fee is only $25 for two hour workshop with poet, writer and editor, Carol Crawford. No matter where you live, you can attend because this is a Zoom meeting.

What text on the page do readers never skip? Dialogue. The conversation between characters catches the eye even when the reader is scanning the page. 

CAROL CRAWFORD

On Thursday, September 24, 2 - 4 PM, Carol Crawford, published writer and editor, will teach a class via Zoom for those who want to improve their writing of dialogue.

Bring your characters to life with dialogue that is authentic, clear, and compelling. Capture the flavor of personality and culture through speech that sounds real. In-class exercises will cover word choice, tone, action beats, what to leave out, and format in this interactive workshop.
Register no later than September 19. 
Email gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com to receive instructions for registration.
Fee - $25
Sponsored by NCWN-West

Carol Crawford and Glenda Beall hold a conversation at Writers' Night Out August 14

NCWN-West sponsors Writers' Night Out Friday evening, August 14, 7:00 PM. 

Carol Crawford

We will meet on Zoom for this reading and conversation with a published writer, a poet and editor, Carol Childers Crawford. Our guest lives in Blue Ridge, Georgia where she runs her own business. 

More about Carol:
Carol Crawford is the owner of Carol Crawford Editing and author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers.

Carol has led workshops and taught creative writing for the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Dahlonega Literary Festival, The Red Clay Writers’ Conference, Writers Circle Around the Table, the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Carrollton Writers’ Club. She has been a volunteer with the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since it began more than twenty years ago.

Carol's essays and poetry have been published in the Southern Humanities Review, the Chattahoochee Review, and the Journal of Kentucky Studies among others. Originally from Texas, she holds a journalism and English degree from Baylor University. She loves to help people tell their stories.
She spends her free time doing needlepoint and badgering county commissioners about library funding.

Carol and Glenda will talk about editing and other things. Carol will read a couple of her personal essays. 

 Open microphone will follow for those who’d like to read their own poetry or prose with a time limit of three minutes.

Those wishing to participate in the open mic can sign up to read  by emailing Glenda Beall, glendabeall@msn.com.

Zoom invitations will be sent out again to NCWN-West members the week before the event. 

  For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com or contact Glenda Beall.

Writers' Night Out is Zooming on July 10

We are delighted to have Carroll S. Taylor, award-winning poet and author of three books, as our guest for Writers' Night Out Friday, July 10 at 7:00 PM.

 We will once again hold a Zoom event. I will send out the invitation to our members on July 5 or 6.
The event will include an Open Mic session. 

Glenda Beall teaches class for ICL in July

Glenda Beall will teach an online Zoom writing class for the Institute of Continuing Learning beginning Monday, July 13, 1:30 - 3:30 and ending Monday August 3rd. It will be a two hour class running for four weeks.
Fee for this class is only $10.00 with membership.

Glenda recently taught a Zoom class with four students. It was a new experience for everyone.

This is what one student said about the class:

Despite the challenges of ZOOM, my recent Creative Writing class with Glenda Beall proved valuable.
Motivation, learning new things and excellent peer review far outweighed the perceived difficulties of distance learning. Hopefully, Zoom classes won’t be the new norm, but if so, know that Glenda and the students handled the shortcomings well. Class notes were emailed and students shared work and suggestions via email and Zoom.
I couldn’t ask for a better outcome despite my technical aversions. M.C. Brooks


Title: ENTERTAIN AND ENLIGHTEN YOUR READERS WITH YOUR LIFE STORIES

Description: How do we begin to write about our lives? Can we use dialogue, stories passed down from parents, and do we have to prove they are true? In today’s world where family members often live long distances from each other, it is difficult to share the interesting lives we have lived. There seems to be no time to sit on the porch and talk about the past. But we can still share our life experiences with our children, grandchildren, and future generations by writing them now. In this class we will learn how to make our stories entertaining as well as enlightening. We will also learn by receiving feedback from our classmates.

ICL is taking registration. Visit the website here. Membership is required. Number of students is limited.

Zick is instructor for The Road to Publishing June 25 on Zoom

Thursday, June 25, 1:30 - 4:30 PM
June 25 - Patricia Zick

Patricia Zick's workshop, "The Road to Publishing" will explore the different choices for publishing a book. Then she will delve into the step-by-step process for self-publishing a work of nonfiction or fiction using Amazon’s publishing platform. Ms. Zick, the author of twenty-five published books in a variety of genres, will demonstrate how to prepare a manuscript, provide definitions for publishing jargon, and walk through the process for uploading a book for both Kindle and paperback publication to the online retail site. Fee: $40

Send check made to NCWN-West to Glenda Beall, P O Box 843, Hayesville, NC, 28904

Check out Ms. Zick's new book: https://pczick.com/2020/05/05/the-authors-journey-newrelease/

Patricia Zick

Registration now open: Carol Crawford writing class March 26, Moss Memorial Library

Where: Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

Sponsored by NC Writers Network West 

Instructor: Carol Crawford

Fee: $40.00 

Time: 1:30 - 4:30 Thursday - March 26

He Said, She Said:  Tackling Dialogue in Prose

This interactive workshop will help you bring your characters to life with dialogue that is authentic, clear, and compelling. Capture the flavor of personality, place, and culture through speech that sounds real. In-class exercises will cover word choice, tone, action beats, what to leave out, and format.

Carol Childers Crawford is the owner of Carol Crawford Editing and author of The Habit of Mercy, Poems about Daughters and Mothers.
Carol has led workshops and taught creative writing for the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Dahlonega Literary Festival, The Red Clay Writers’ Conference, The Writers’ Circle, the North Carolina Writers’ Network, and the Carrollton Writers’ Club. She has been a volunteer with the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference since it began more than twenty years ago.

She has been published in the Southern Humanities Review, the Chattahoochee Review, and the Journal of Kentucky Studies among others. Originally from Texas, she holds a journalism and English degree from Baylor University.

Through teaching and editing, Carol finds joy in helping people tell their stories.

She spends her free time doing needlepoint and badgering county commissioners about library funding. 

Contact Glenda Beall - glendabeall@msn.com for registration information

Writing Classes in Clay and Cherokee County NC - Register now

Tri-County Community College
Register with Lisa Long, Director of Community Outreach, by calling 828-835-4241 or email her: LLong@tricountycc.edu

Creative Writing with Glenda Beall

Students in a TCCC class

A class at John C. Campbell Folk School before writing classes were held
at Orchard House

John C. Campbell Folk School Classes at Orchard House in Brasstown, NC

www.folkschool.org 

Mining the Mother Lode - Making the Most of Your Material

Date: Sunday, Mar 1 - Friday, Mar 6, 2020 Subject: Writing Instructor: Darnell Arnoult Share: One of the great lessons we learn as writers is that we almost always write about the same things over and over. Characters, places, and plots may appear different, but we are driven by the same passions, questions, and obsessions - the same vein of ore. Use exercises and assignments to dig deep into personal experiences, curiosities, and knowledge to strengthen your writing. This class is beneficial to beginning and experienced writers of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction.  To register for this class, please call 1-800-365-5724.

Vicki Lane 

A Practical Guide to Writing Popular Fiction

Sunday, June 7 - Saturday, Jun 13, 2020

Moss Memorial Library - Hayesville, NC  

March - August, 2020 - once each month on
4th Thursday afternoons - 1:30 - 4:30
Contact: Glenda Beall - glendabeall@msn.com

March 26 - Carol Crawford - instructor

He Said, She Said:  Tackling Dialogue in Prose

This interactive workshop will help you bring your characters to life with dialogue that is authentic, clear, and compelling.  Capture the flavor of personality, place, and culture through speech that sounds real.  In-class exercises will cover word choice, tone, action beats, what to leave out, and format.

April 23 - Catherine Carter

Description:

Bracket and Hinge: Strengthening Poems’ Sonic Level. In this 2-hour lecture/workshop, Catherine Carter will use contemporary poems to discuss a few of the ways in which a poem can be built around the sounds of single words, model one possible process for revising a poem in this way, and encourage participants to do this with their own works. Participants should bring hard copy of one or two of their own short poems to work on.

June 25 - Patricia Zick

Patricia Zick's workshop, "The Road to Publishing" will explore the different choices for publishing a book. Then she will delve into the step-by-step process for self-publishing a work of nonfiction or fiction using Amazon’s publishing platform. Ms. Zick, the author of twenty-five published books in a variety of genres, will demonstrate how to prepare a manuscript, provide definitions for publishing jargon, and walk through the process for uploading a book for both Kindle and paperback publication to the online retail site. 

BOOKMOBILES STILL SERVE RURAL COMMUNITIES

Earlier this year I wrote an article for the NCWN Newsletter that featured libraries. I was asked to write about bookmobiles. I wondered if we still have bookmobiles. I well remember the bookmobile that came to our farm in the summer. I loaded up on books to read until the bookmobile came again.

Bookmobiles Then and Now

As a little girl, I loved books. In the summer, on the farm, I had no books to read until the big yellow bookmobile pulled into our yard. It was my lifeline to the outside world. Mother called out, bookmobile is here. My little sister and I scrambled out the door and ran to the vehicle that looked like a van. Inside was a small library, its shelves lined with books for all ages. 

I remember the smell as I climbed the three steps up into the truck, a mix of polished wood and books. The front and back doors were opened wide to let in light. My eyes went straight to the books about horses.

We loaded our arms with as many as we could carry. Mother said, “Now, remember there are other children who want to read some of these books. You can’t take all of them.”

I never thought about where the bookmobile came from or where it went when it left our house. I devoured the books, and I could hardly wait for its return.

The bookmobile served rural areas as early as 1904. The People’s Free Library of Chester County, South Carolina provided a mule-drawn wagon that carried wooden boxes filled with books. In those days, bookmobiles were known as book wagons.

A pioneering public librarian drove a Ford Model T packed with books to rural areas in New Jersey as early as 1920. 

In 1923, it was the Hennepin County Public Library of Minneapolis that followed with bookmobile services. In the 1930s and the 1940s, in Kentucky and in Appalachia books were taken to those who were unable to make it to a library. However, the real boom for bookmobiles was throughout the 1950s when I was a child.

In 1950, North Carolina had the highest number of bookmobiles—87. Thanks to the Library Services Act of 1965, the bookmobile services rapidly spread and reportedly reached more than 30 million people across diverse rural communities. In 1970 bookmobiles in this country numbered two thousand, but in 2012 there were only eight hundred bookmobiles left in this country. Part of the decline was due to high cost of fuel. 

The Nantahala Regional Library Bookmobile serves Clay county.

Early bookmobile in Kentucky

Trudy Morrow and Debbie Whitener, librarians on wheels

Recently I talked with Trudy Morrow and Debbie Whitener, who drive a bookmobile in three counties taking books to those who have no other way to get them. Debbie said she has been doing this for seventeen years.

I told them how much the bookmobile meant to me when I was a kid. They were happy to take me inside and show me the newer version. Their route includes Clay, Cherokee and Graham Counties in rural western North Carolina. This bookmobile is based out of the Nantahala Regional Library, located at 11 Blumenthal St. Murphy, NC. Another bookmobile serves Jackson, Swain, and Macon counties as well as the Qualla Boundary.

The bookmobile has a monthly schedule. The drivers go where they are asked to visit—public, private and home schools, day care centers, nursing homes, and personal homes where people are not able to visit a public library. It takes four weeks to complete the route. The bookmobile maintains contact with the home office at the Regional Library Headquarters via cell phone while out in the service area.

Friday is the bookmobile’s day off, but the drivers/librarians are at the library and on call for anyone wishing to be put on the schedule.

As I stepped up into the mobile library, Trudy showed me the children’s books to the left. Picture books lined the bottom shelf. In the next section were books for older children, both fiction and nonfiction. On the opposite side, on light colored shelves, were the western novels like my father read, Louis Lamour, Zane Gray, Luke Short and books my mother would have checked out. Magazines are available, also. The overhead lights brightened the interior making it easy to read the titles on the covers unlike the dark walls and shelves of my youth. It seemed much smaller than the bookmobile that came to my house. But I was much smaller then.

Here in western North Carolina there is still a need for the mobile library.  I know the joy felt when the bookmobile arrives at someone’s home, whether that person is an adult who can’t go to the downtown library, or a child who has no access to a library. Books can carry that disabled person out into a world he will never see, and it offers dreams for children who might someday have the opportunity to make them come true.

See more photos of early bookmobiles at https://www.boredpanda.com/bookmobile-library-on-wheels/?utm_source=search.myway&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic

 

Don't Be Gullible and Fall for a Scam

I receive emails every day from people I do not know. Usually they want me to make public their website, their services, their pitch to you, writers, who might fall for their scams.

Writer Beware is a site we should all have bookmarked and check it often, especially if we are approached by anyone who wants us to pay them for publishing our book.

I am not speaking of a company that offers their service to help you self-publish your book. I am talking about a company that offers to publish your book for thousands of dollars. Some are even part of a well-known traditional publisher.

Often they will make an offer and ask for a small amount. But as you begin to work with them, they will offer more help, marketing packages, etc., and want more and more money. Before long you have spent far more money than you can ever replace with sales of your book. And you won't get all that is promised.

You can always go to Writer Beware and learn if they have any information about a publisher.

I learned recently that most self-published books sell no more than 150 copies. I am afraid that most of us feel that once our book is out there, on the market, it will sell with little effort on our part. That is not true. We hate the marketing part, so if an unscrupulous company promises to sell our book and earn us thousands of dollars, we often fall for that promise, even without investigating the folks making the offer.

One of the reasons to belong to an organization like NCWN is having people to turn to when we have questions. With so many members who have been in the business for many years, you can often find free and good advice. Attending a conference like NCWN Fall Writing Conference in Asheville is helpful. You can meet editors, publishers, agents, and other writers who are often very generous with their advice and their knowledge.

"I'm guessing that at least a few of my readers will be thinking "Well, if someone is that naive/ignorant/unwary, they deserve what they get." Believe me, I get frustrated too with writers' gullibility, and in particular with how many writers fail to educate themselves about publishing and self-publishing before trying to publish. But no one, no matter what, deserves to be deceived and ripped off by a pack of con artists."  from article on Writer Beware.

I do my best to check out anyone or any company before I post it or send out emails to our NCWN-West members. But you should also check them out. It is all up to the writer to be sure, to be educated about who he is dealing with in order to self-publish his book.

ATTENTION POETS:

CROSSWINDS POETRY IS CALLING FOR SUBMISSIONS

Crosswinds is pleased to announce that Richard Blanco, Presidential Inaugural Poet and recipient of several notable literary awards,

will judge this year's contest.

Grand Prize - $ 1,000.00

Second Prize - $  250.00

Third Prize -  $    100.00

All winners will be announced in Poets & Writers Magazine, on our web-site, and in other announcements.

As a reminder, all poems will be considered for publication. A minimum of one hundred poems to be published in our Spring edition. 

For guidelines, sample copies

or to pre-order the upcoming issue

www.crosswindspoetry.com

Netwest at the Coffee House in Hayesville - a writer's evening, for sure.

We had a great time at The Corner Coffee and Wine Shop in Hayesville, NC last evening. In spite of a concert on the square, Brent Martin NCWN-West Rep from Franklin, NC and Ben Cutler, NCWN-West Rep from Swain County impressed a room full of writers and story-tellers with their poems and essays. We all enjoyed getting to know both of these fine, award-winning writers.

An Open Mic session was held and five people read poems, stories, or told a story.

We gave away two door prizes which we do also at Coffee with the Poets and Writers. None of the winners were members. We hope they will come back to other events held by NCWN-West.

Glenda Beall, Brent Martin and Ben Cutler

Joan Howard reads a poem at the Corner Coffee Shop where NCWN-West held a reading on Friday night, July 26. In front row are Mary Ricketson, Bob Grove and Don Long, members of NCWN-West. 

This was a well-received event and I hope, if we do this again in this venue, we will have more members participate. Wine and Coffee are available for purchase here. We can bring in food if we want. I like this venue and so do others I have heard from. 

Email from Charley of Mountain Writers in Waynesville, NC

 Bob Freye & Polly Davis will be leading our discussion this month, when we meet on Tuesday, May 14, at Panacea in Waynesville (room on the right). Bob provided us the following announcement:

Where the Crawdads Sing

At our next meeting, we’ll take a look at Delia Owens’ best-selling novel, Where the Crawdads Sing. Delia has an interesting life story and a fascinating style. I think you’ll enjoy hearing excerpts from the book. We’ll also look for ways her work connects with the stories and poetry that we are writing, so come out, bring your copy of the book if you have one, and discover something interesting at the next meeting of the Mountain Writers of North Carolina.

Also:

I'll be talking about writing medical thriller Scourge twice this month. Glenda Beall invited me down to Hayesville on Wednesday, May 15 for their 10:30 a.m. meeting at the Moss Memorial Library. (Coffee with the Poets and Writers)

And the Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) invited me to speak on the same subject on Saturday, May 25, 2-4 p.m at their Waynesville center on Main Street. Fun!

Cya!

- Charley

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."

- Cicero

www.charleypearson.com

Charley didn't say in his email, but the meeting at Panacea restaurant is at noon. Some people eat during the program so they can get back to work.