Showing posts with label Memoir writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memoir writing. Show all posts

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Sam Uhl to be Featured Reader at Mountain Wordsmiths

Sam Uhl, memoirist and owner of The Cheerful Word, will be the guest reader for Mountain Wordsmiths on Thursday morning, August 26, at 10:30.

This event, sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, is being held via Zoom because of COVID concerns. We hope to meet again in person in the months ahead; however, we are happy that not only local writers are attending our meetings but writers outside our state are also joining us.

Sam Uhl


Uhl helps people write their memoirs through ghostwriting, book coaching, retreats, workshops, manuscript editing, and book printing. She believes that everyone’s life is a story worth telling.

Born to older parents, she grew up at the feet of elders. Their friendly and patient storytelling kindled her lifelong passion for helping others preserve their life stories. Everyday people have extraordinary stories if one asks them the right questions. She discovered that universal truths are the stuff of great stories—love, survival, overcoming adversity, inspiration, adventure, and honor. It is her mission to give voice to the lives of everyday people, honoring and encouraging them today and helping them leave a legacy of inspiration for generations to come.

Sam has published more than 100 memoirs including limited printings for families and Amazon Bestsellers. Her passion for helping people explore and share their stories is most evident in her workshops, classes, and retreats. Through colleges, community organizations, and even the USO, Sam helps people find their voice and tell their truth to honor who they have become through life’s twists and turns and determine who they want to be for their remaining tomorrows.

Sam is a Birren Institute Certified Guided Autobiographical Instructor and is the author of How to Survive Dying: A Journal of Hope for Family Caregivers.

Mountain Wordsmiths meets on the fourth Thursday of each month
. We welcome those who were regulars at Coffee with the Poets and Writers, a monthly meeting held at Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC prior to COVID-19 restrictions.

Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. 

Anyone who wishes to participate in Open Mic may sign up upon entering the meeting, and we welcome those who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing.









Carroll S. Taylor, facilitator of Mountain Wordsmiths
lives in Hiawassee, GA and is an active member of NCWN-West



Sunday, November 3, 2019

Sam Uhl of Hendersonville, NC Shares Her News




Radio Interview with The Cheerful Word

Blaine Greenfield, host of Blainesworld on WPVM Radio Asheville (103.7) interviewed Sam Uhl of The Cheerful Word on October 23, 2019 about her work writing and publishing extraordinary stories for everyday people. 

Sam (a.k.a. The Book Doula) discussed how her early life influenced how she became a writer and publisher of memoir. She talked about the many ways she helps people write life story, whether for private family libraries or for profit—starting with as little as an idea or a completed manuscript. Sam described how, through giving voice to your story, you can discover how your life experience has shaped who you are today, and how writing it clarifies who you want to be for all your tomorrows.

Sharing books from her most recently published authors, she highlighted the variety of reasons people write their memoirs and she encouraged us to preserve our legacies while we are still able, just the way we want to be remembered.

Find the complete interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smib3gZZWsA&t=3s

Extraordinary stories for everyday people
Toll Free: 888-899-9218

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Coffee with the Poets and Writers' resumes 3/21/2018, with Bob Grove and Kathleen Knapp, in Hayesville, NC



The North Carolina Writers’ Network–West will hold the first meeting of Coffee with the Poets and Writers for the year of 2018. Poets and writers will gather at the Moss Memorial Library, 26 Anderson Street, Hayesville, NC, on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, at10:30 AM. The public is invited and there is no cost to attend. Refreshments are served and non-writers are welcome. Many of those present adjourn to a local restaurant for lunch after the meeting.

This month two members of NCWN-West, Bob Grove and Kathleen Knapp, both residents of Clay County, are featured. Bob is known for his humorous stories and Kathy writes memoir. Bob will make you laugh and Kathy might provoke a tear.


                                                  

  Bob Grove was born in Cleveland, OH. 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.

Now retired after 35 years as founder of Grove Enterprises, Grove has more time to write. Most recently, he 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.

Grove has been awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals in the Silver Arts Competition in the Cherokee County, NC senior games, in their literature competition. You are invited to visit Bob on his website at bobgrove.org.




Kathleen (Kathy) Knapp was born into a military family. She spent most of her childhood living abroad. She draws on those cultural experiences to write her entertaining memoirs. As a creative person, with a degree in Graphic Arts, Kathleen has embraced this new venue and is memorializing her late family’s history for future generations. It is her ultimate dream to publish books for children.

Kathleen also enjoys volunteering for the Hurlburt-Johnson Friendship House, Inc. in Murphy, NC, using her writing skills to promote through the newspaper, awareness of the county’s only homeless shelter. As a member of North Carolina Writer’s Network West, she enjoys challenging writing classes, attending conferences, and nurturing her newfound craft.


To participate in the Open Mic session, those attending are requested to limit their reading to one or two poems or no more than three pages, double-spaced, prose writing.

NCWN-West is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, one of the largest state literary organizations in the country.

Contact Glenda C. Beall, NCWN-West Program Coordinator, at: glendabeall@msn.com<mailto:glendabeall@msn.com
for more information or phone: 828-389-4441.






Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Mary Ricketson and Nadine Justice to read at JCCFS Thursday night


JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

              At 7:00 p.m. Thursday, February 21, 2013,  John C. Campbell Folk School  and  NC Writers Network West sponsor the monthly reading in the Keith House by members of NCWN. The reading is free of charge and open to the public.  Poets Mary Ricketson and writer, Nadine Justice will be the featured readers.  

Mary Ricketson’s poetry has been published in her chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name, Lights in the MountainsFreeing Jonah IV, Freeing Johah V, Wild Goose Poetry ReviewFuture Cycle Press,Your Daily Poem, Journal of Kentucky Studies, various magazines and in Disorgananza, a private collection distributed among family and friends.  She won the gold medal for poetry in the 2011 Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts.  She won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest national poetry contest.
Mary writes a monthly column, Woman to Woman, for The Cherokee Scout.  She is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, a mental health counselor, and a farmer.

Mary says she writes to satisfy a hunger, to taste life all the way down to the last drop.  She gains perspective from family and friends, her Appalachian home, and her life’s work as a counselor.

Writing poetry places her in kinship with her own life.
Mary Ricketson is a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor in Murphy, North Carolina.  She brings more than thirty years experience to her work, with twenty-five years in private practice.  She is a founding board member of  REACH.  She has a special interest in women’s issues, victims of abuse, and family and couple relationships.  She offers innovative ways to effect change in difficult life patterns, including Journey to Intuition and Neurofeedback.  She is listed in Who’s Who in American Women.


Nadine Justice


Nadine Justice divides her time between a mountain-top cottage in north Georgia and her home in Atlanta. For the past few years she has worked on a memoir which was published last year. Excerpts have been published in an anthology by the Georgia Mountain Writers Club. She also enjoys a successful career as an interior designer. Her design work has been featured twice in Better Homes and Gardens and in Atlanta Custom Home magazines.

Nadine grew up in West Virginia and is the daughter of a coal miner. She is married to a retired federal agent, and enjoys spending time with her four “perfect” grandchildren.

Nadine is a new member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. She will share portions of her book, I'm a coal Miner's Daughter, But I Cain't Sang, at the reading on Thursday night. 

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Spring Conference in Greensboro, NC

Have you lived - or found - a fascinating true story, but need help capturing it on paper so that it reads like a great novel? You can find that help at the North Carolina Writers' Network's upcoming Spring Conference, Saturday, April 30, at UNC Greensboro.




Marianne Gingher's all-day workshop will inform you how to analyze a narrative's possibilities and how to mine " forgotten stories." You will also learn how to create suspense and make your story truly distinctive, however weird, wild, or provocative it might be. Gingher is the author of highly acclaimed nonfiction and fiction, and has taught at some of the top writing conferences in the United States. Currently, she is professor of English and comparative literature at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Award-winning journalist Paul Cuadros's workshop will give you the nuts and bolts of nonfiction memoir and narrative writing: researching the idea, crafting a nonfiction book proposal, and employing narrative journalism techniques of reporting. He will use his book, A Home on the Field, as a template. It has been described as "a parable in the tradition of Stand and Deliver and Hoosiers-a story of one team and their accidental coach who became certain heroes to the whole community." He will also discuss selling your manuscript to a publisher and effectively promoting your book.


For several years I attended the NCWN Spring Conference in Greensboro and enjoyed all the classes, meeting the faculty and other writers from "all over."
Ed Southern and Virginia Freedman are there bright and early on Saturday to get things underway. One year I volunteered to help  give out the folders. It is a fun day and everyone goes home with tons of ideas swirling in their brains. I hope our Netwest members will attend if they aren't planning to be at Writers Circle for a workshop with JoAnn Dropp on April 30. (: )

The website where you can read about the faculty and register online is
http://www.ncwriters.org/