Glenda Council Beall's poem, "The Ice House Job," published in the anthology LITERATURE TODAY; 2nd poem accepted by MAIN STREET RAG for later publication date.

Glenda Council Beall’s poem, The Ice House Job, was recently published in the anthology, LITERATURE TODAY (Vol. 4); the theme of this issue is Love. The book is edited by Dr. Deepak Chaswal and Dr. Pradeep Chaswal. The book can be purchased on Amazon and on Kindle.

Beall's poem, Shot into the Future, Clutching the Past, was accepted by "Main Street Rag" for publication at a later date.

Glenda Beall has been publishing her poetry for twenty years in journals, magazines, E-zines and in anthologies. She teaches Creative Writing at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC, and administers two blogs: Writing Life Stories and Writers Circle around the Table. She is the owner/director of a writing studio where top instructors come each year and teach.

Beall is former Program Coordinator for North Carolina Writers' Network-West (NCWN-West), and is presently Clay County Representative for the program.

Writers and poets seem to have one question these days. NCWN-West will answer on December 12, 2015 at a Panel Discussion in Hayesville, NC.

Wally Avett

Deanna Klingel

“How do I get my writing published?” And then they have another question. “How do I sell my book?”

We hope to have some answers for them on Saturday, December 12, 2015 from 1 – 3 p.m. at Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC.  No charge to attend.

We will have a panel of three novelists and me, Glenda Beall. Cherokee County resident, Wally Avett, journalist and author of four novels, Deanna Klingel, of Sapphire, NC, author of nine books for young and young at heart readers, and Tom Davis, who lives in western NC, an author who also owns Old Mountain Press. Each of these writers will have a story to tell about their publishing experiences and the way they promote their writing careers.

Glenda Beall, moderator of the panel discussion

Recently I asked Scott Owens, well-published poet and teacher from Hickory, NC to share his publishing experiences and his ideas on marketing and publishing. He publishes a new book of poems about every two years. His latest is from Main Street Rag Press. 

Scott Douglas, owner of Main Street Rag Press, was generous with his answers to questions I posed to him on these topics. He has built his small press into a well-established business with some of the best poets on his author list. He once told me that he publishes books for people he is confident are good readers who can promote their books. That is one thing a writer will not get from a small press – book promotion. They don’t have the staff or time to do that. It is up to the author to build a readership and promote his work.

Kevin Watson, founder of Press 53, in Winston-Salem, NC  answered my questions as well and gave me great insight into what it takes for a small press to accept your manuscript and publish your book. 

Press 53, which opened in 2005, quickly began earning a reputation as a quality publishing house of short fiction and poetry collections.

With all the information from Scott Owens, Main Street Rag and Press 53, I will be able to speak to those who want to publish poetry books as well as short fiction.

Today, writers are often in a hurry to get their first book out to the public. They can do this by paying for the publishing or printing themselves. Tom Davis helps people self-publish, and his website fully explains what a writer needs to know about that process.

We ask that everyone hold their questions until the end when we will have a question and answer session. Nothing is more irritating to the audience than people who interrupt the speakers with personal questions.

We will have a short break when audience members can talk with the panelists.

We hope all local writers will mark December 12, 2015 on their calendar. Our speakers will have their books for sale and will be happy to sign them for you.

This event is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network—West, a program of the state literary organization, the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Just one more day - Kakalak submission due May 15

Submit now to Kakalak 2015. 

 Poets and Artists of the Carolinas, this is from editors of Kakalak 2015. 

 

Thanks to everyone who has already entered the KAKALAK 2015 poetry and art contests. If you haven't, this is a gentle reminder that we need your poems, your inside art (photography or photos of your artwork) by May 15.

Please visit the Main Street Rag web site for guidelines ( www.mainstreetrag.com, click on Kakalak 2015).    

Submissions - Send it out

Main Street Rag has updated its submission guidelines for poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction and reviews. Please review these changes before submitting your work, especially fiction.


Main Street Rag has announced three themes for next year’s anthologies –
1) The List
2) Just Tattoos
3) Secrets.
Click here for more information and updates on submission.



MoonShine Review accepts prose and photography submissions year round but only read after the Spring (deadline March 1) and Fall (deadline September 1) deadlines., click moonshinereview.com
 
 
(from WordPlay Newsletter by Maureen Ryan Griffin)

MEMORIES IN BLACK AND WHITE

MEMORIES IN BLACK AND WHITE: A Collection of Childhood Memoirs, by the Royal Scribbler's, Cashiers Writers Group, was published in 2009 by Main Street Rag Press. Here's how they describe themselves:

The Royal Scribblers is a group of writers who are about as well-adjusted as any creative community can be.

They have been getting together twice a month since 1996 in Cashiers, NC. Meetings are called to order by a quacking duck and a squawking chicken--two wind-up toys that dance simultaneously to different tunes.

And that pretty much describes the Royal Scribblers.

Now, I ask you, what would you expect from a writers group like that? I'd expect to have some fun with them, to enjoy their meetings and their work. And I did--not the meetings, since I've not been to one yet, though I'd like to (if only to hear the duck and the chicken!), I mean this anthology that begins with Foreword by my friend Joyce Foster, a fine poet whose work I featured on my Laureate's Lasso blog last year.

"Time tumbles down the stairs two by two in this last spiral of my life. I have stories that want to be told. They sneak around corners and slide sideways, like naughty imps, into my poetry. For my children, for their father; for my brother and family long gone; for friends here and there; for dreams and for life, I remember and write. Our lives touch and come apart. Through poetry I heal. Through poetry I celebrate the gift of this fragile moment."

I haven't read a better testimonial to the power of words than this in a long time. Besides Joyce, other contributors include Netwest members Ben Eller, Bob Fahey, and Deanna Klingel, as well as Kathie Blozan, Bill Christopher, George Cowan, Debra Edwards, Stephen J. Fischer, Karen Gilfilllan, Elsie Sameulson Haight, Eva Hanson, Jeanne Larimore, and Alicia Savino. Contributors' notes at the end feature photos of the authors, as children and as well-adjusted creative adults!

Perhaps if some of these well-adjusted folks will email me their memories from this book, I will post them on our Netwest blog. Is that a deal?

Fathers and Daughters, PATERNITY By Scott Owens

Tonight I ordered from Main Street Rag, a poetry book by Scott Owens.

The cover and the title, PATERNITY, intrigue me. I always get a bit misty when I see a loving father with his daughter. Scott will be in Hayesville and Murphy in May and will be reading and signing this book at Coffee with the Poets at Phillips and Lloyd books.

Poems of aching tenderness. PATERNITY explores with a discerning, clear-eyed sensitivity the daily small delights, frustrations, and purely unexpected miracles that, taken together, make up the building blocks of one father's personal salvation.
--Joanna Catherine Scott, author of Night Huntress and Fainting at the Uffizi

In Scott Owens' lovely book of poems, PATERNITY, we have a remarkable account of how his very special relationship with his young daughter, Sawyer, has saved him from the darkness of his own childhood. The poems are engaging in the deepest sense--funny, touching, and full of the kind of wisdom we all need as parents and family members to sustain the balance of daily life. How can anyone resist a girl who makes up the word, "effluctress," to describe what only a four-year old can see.
                                           --Anthony S. Abbott, author of The Man Who.

Tired but Inspired in Greensboro

I sit here in Greensboro, NC tired, but inspired after spending all day at the Elliot Center at the UNC-G campus. NCWN held the 2008 Spring Conference here and it is the first time I've attended the annual spring conference. I usually make it a priority to register for the Fall Conferences in Asheville and last November we drove to Winston-Salem.
Most presenters for the conference today were on faculty at UNC-G.
My favorite part of the day was the Publishing Panel consisting of Scott Douglas of Main Street Rag, Kevin Watson of Press 53, Jeanne Leiby of Southern Review and a man from the Georgia Review, but I never understood his name. After a short talk by each member of the panel, I realized once again how important it is to know your market. Read the guidelines carefully and follow them. While the writer may not know it, the guidelines are specific for a reason. Douglas said it is a matter of resources. He hires editors to read submissions therefore, he makes it clear he does not want simultaneous submissions. The reason is obvious. After he has paid an editor to read work that he cannot publish because it has been accepted somewhere else, he is out that money with nothing to show for it. I can't blame him. Although Scott has grown MSR into quite a good business over the years since I first met him, he says he still sweeps the floors and binds the books. "It is easier to find a person to read submissions than to find someone to bind books," he said.
I didn't know until today that he prints books for a number of other magazines. He is still a rebel in this business and not so snooty as the Georgia Review. Their representative said don't send your poetry to them unless you don't mind letting them "meddle" with it. I got the impression that they "edited" or "meddled" with everything that goes in the magazine.
Scott, on the other hand, wants the work you send him to be ready for the printer when he gets it. He doesn't want to have to rewrite or work too much to make changes to a submission. And don't try to make changes after he has it ready to print.

Listening to some of the stories they told today made me a little more understanding of the editor's and publisher's problems with writers who are inconsiderate and hard to work with, who won't follow guidelines and seem to have no understanding of how a book is made..

This panel covered everything a writer wants to know about submitting and publishing. I sat in on about an hour of Ed Southern's session on publishing and found a good discussion going there. I wish I had been there for the entire session.
Congratulations to Ed Southern and Virginia Freedman for the work they put in to bring us this great conference. Even though they had some challenges, no one knew it and things went off well.

I worked with Virginia and Ed at the registration tables and enjoyed meeting the writers, greeting them and seeing friends like Valerie Nieman, Katherine, who was in my JCCFS class in March, and Marlyn who came to Hayesville for our Lights in the Mountains conference and stayed four days. I enjoyed meeting Jan Parker and hope she is reading this blog now. I wish more of our Netwest members would attend the NCWN conferences. They are always interesting and fun.