Lorraine Bennett Book Signing is June 3 at Clay County Progress

Lorraine Bennett

           Lorraine Bennett’s first novel, a psychological thriller titled "Cat on a Black Moon," has been published by Austin Macauley (London, Cambridge, New York) and is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kindle.  She will be selling and signing copies of her book in Hayesville at the Clay County Progress from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 3.

          The 236-page novel revolves around protagonist Garner Olsen, Atlanta’s number one television anchorwoman who becomes the target of brilliant and deranged ex-flower child Darla Dare when the anchorwoman’s husband, a federal prosecutor, prepares to take Darla’s lover to trial for drug trafficking.

           When the anchorwoman’s life is upended by vandalism, stalking, kidnapping and murder, she vows to track down the responsible party.

            Bennett drew on her years in television to create protagonist Garner Olsen.  Her time as a print reporter was helpful in the development of antagonist Darla Dare. Also useful was the time she resided in Atlanta during the early years of the counter-culture takeover of parts of Peachtree Street.

        The genesis of the story is a piece of jewelry Bennett purchased at an auction house in Atlanta. In the book, the jewelry plays a major role.

  

Literary Hour at John Campbell Folk School September 15

The North Carolina Writers’ Network-West’s Literary Hour will be held at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Thursday, September 15, 2022, at 7 p.m. The event will be held in the Open House. The Literary Hour is free and open to the public.

The featured writers for September are Karen Paul Holmes and Lorraine Bennett.

 

Karen Paul Holmes has published two poetry books, No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin, 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich, 2014). Her poems have been featured on The Writer's Almanac and The Slowdown. Publications include Diode, Valparaiso Review, Verse Daily, and Prairie Schooner. Holmes founded the Side Door Poets in Atlanta, which she still hosts. She also started Writers' Night Out for the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, which is now in its twelfth year. Held via Zoom on the second Friday of the month, Writers’ Night Out is hosted by Holmes and Glenda Beall. She also teaches periodically at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She will read mostly new poems at the Literary Hour as well as a short selection from No Such Thing as Distance.

 

Lorraine Martin Bennett is a print, web, and broadcast journalist who grew up in Murphy, North Carolina. She graduated from Murphy High School and UNC Chapel Hill. She has been a journalist with the Atlanta Journal where she met her late husband, Tom, a columnist for the Cherokee Scout. She also wrote for the Los Angeles Times and became the newspaper’s first woman to head a domestic bureau. She joined fledgling CNN as a news writer, becoming copy editor, producer, and editorial manager before ending her television career at CNN International. In retirement, she writes essays, short stories, flash fiction, poetry and still practices her craft by copy editing and occasionally writing articles for the Clay County Progress. Her essays have appeared in the Personal Story Publishing Project (Daniel Boone Footsteps, Winston-Salem) for the past two years, with another coming out soon. Her first novel, Cat on a Black Moon, a psychological thriller, will be published by Austin Macauley (London, Cambridge, New York) later this year. She will read the first two chapters from her new book.

 

The Literary Hour will be held on the third Thursday of the month through November at John C. Campbell Folk School in the roofed and open pavilion of the Open House. From Clays Corner in Brasstown turn onto Brasstown Road, then turn left on Scoggins Road then left again to pass Davidson Hall. Or coming from Marsh Creek, turn right onto Davidson Road and follow around to Open House. Parking is in front near the vegetable gardens.

 Anyone with a love of the written word will be transported by the talent of the featured writers. Contact Patricia Zick at pczick23@gmail.com for further information

SATURDAY AT THE FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE

Saturday morning staff: Lorraine Bennett, Carroll Taylor,
Marcia Barnes. We were happy to meet many new writers in the area who want to
become members of NCWN-West.

FESTIVAL ON THE SQUARE 2022

Glenda Beall with Gene Vickers, author of several books you can find in local bookstores.
Gene lives in Young Harris, Georgia. This was his first Festival on the Square.


We will have more photos to share from this day and Sunday at the Festival. 

 

CWPW special guest is Lorraine Bennett July 13

 

Lorraine Bennett

 Coffee with the Poets and Writers (CWPW) will feature journalist and writer Lorraine Martin Bennett on Wednesday, July 13, at 10:30 A.M. at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, N.C.

 

The event is free and open to the public. An open mic will follow presentation. Bring a poem or short prose piece (two to three minutes) to participate. CWPW is sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network West (NCWN-West), which also includes writers in Towns, Union, Fannin, and Rabun Counties in Georgia.

 

Lorraine Martin Bennett is a professional print, web and broadcast journalist and copy editor who grew up in Murphy, North Carolina, graduated with her high school class journalism medal and received a scholarship to UNC Chapel Hill where she earned her degree.

 

Her career began on the Atlanta Journal where she wrote features, covered news, including the state legislature, and met her husband. She was hired by the Los Angeles Times and became the newspaper’s first woman to head a domestic bureau. She joined Ted Turner’s fledgling CNN as a news writer, becoming copy editor, producer and editorial manager before ending her career at CNN International.

 

She retired to Murphy in 2006 and, with her late husband Tom, built a farmhouse on her family’s land. She writes poetry, flash fiction, essays and still practices her craft by copy editing and writing occasional articles for the Clay County Progress. Her first novel, a psychological thriller titled Cat on a Black Moon, will be published by Austin Macauley Publishers later this year.

 

Coffee with the Poets and Writers will meet every second Wednesday from July until December 2022. Masks are optional.  Please do not park in the Library Store parking lot.

 

For more information, contact joanhoward121@gmail.com.

 

Love in the Time of Corona by Lorraine Bennett

 

Lorraine Bennett lost both her mother and her husband last year.

Lorraine says, “The essay, Love in the Time of Corona is about visiting my ailing mother through a closed window at her nursing home.  It has been published in the Daniel Boone Footsteps Personal Story Publishing Project’s Spring 2021 edition.”

Lorraine’s essay first was submitted in the 2020 Senior Games Silver Arts Essay Category and won the first-place gold medal for Cherokee and Clay counties in June. It took the silver medal in the statewide competition in October.

We congratulate Lorraine and send our sympathy and compassion for her as she travels the journey of grief at this time.

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