Showing posts with label Patricia Vestal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patricia Vestal. Show all posts

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Some authors and poets who will be present for A Day for Writers. Deadline is August 19.


Ed Southern, Executive Director for NC Writers' Network. Photo made in Sylva, NC at City Lights Books some years ago when Ed was new on the job. He was the first Exe. Director to visit us here in the mountains. He will be with us on August 24 for A Day for Writers.

Carol Crawford, carolcrawfordediting.com is a writer and a teacher as well as an editor. Her students always gain important knowledge about writing when attending classes with Carol.
Joseph Bathanti 
Poet, novelist, and award-winning writer and educator. I hear from writers and poets who know him. They all like him. He will be with us on August 24 in Sylva at the Jackson County Public Library for A Day for Writers.



Writers, from back, left, Joan Howard, Brenda Kay Ledford, Mary Ricketson, Diana Smith at Carol Crawford's Blue Ridge Writers' Conference . Janice Moore sits in front. Even seasoned writers and poets know the value of attending writing conferences.
Pat Vestal has a history in publishing and play writing. Her plays have been published in NYC.
This is the cover of one of C. Hope Clark's mysteries. The main character is female and Clark's books are page-turners.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Who is Patricia Vestal?

  

One of the NC Writers' Network Regional Representatives,  Patricia Vestal, of Hendersonville, will be teaching a NetWest sponsored workshop titled "Elements of Storytelling", on Saturday, August 2, at the Grove Enterprises building, 7540 Hwy 64 West, Brasstown, NC.
  


Recently, I asked Patricia for an interview, and she graciously answered some questions.


   Glenda: Patricia, you are a native of Winston-Salem. Did you grow up there and go to school there?
   Patricia: I lived in Winston-Salem until I was 13, when my parents moved us to Jacksonville, Fl.  Every year we visited our close knit extended family back in NC and worked in a mountain visit.  I went to high school in Jacksonville and took some college classes, but got most of my undergrad and grad education after I moved to New York at age 24.

Glenda: Tell us about your early years. When did you develop an interest in writing?
Patricia: My parents took me to movies from an early age, and I developed a vivid imagination.  I recall playing “movies” and directing brother, cousins and friends in fantasy adventures.  Once I discovered books, I devoured as many as I could.  I wove stories in my mind, including what seemed then like a complex world of fairies led by a queen whose name has stayed with me and now populates a novella I’ve just finished.  I have absolutely no idea how that strange name originated in my young imagination.  So I always have been “writing.” In school I became interested in journalism, but I didn’t get the “yen” to really be a writer until I was in my early twenties.

Glenda: You have an extensive resume as an editor, writer and researcher for publishers in New York City. What were your career plans when you were growing up?
Patricia: My family was very traditional Southern.  I was expected to simply get married, have children and be a housewife. That’s what women did. I was sent into the business world to aid in the search for Mr. Right.  I always knew that I wouldn’t be content settling down early into a housewife routine.  A job with a big insurance company could have grown into an interesting and lucrative career, but I hatched another plan to save my money and move to New York, use my business experience to earn a living while I finished my education and pursued writing.  

Glenda: When did your interest in theater develop?
Patricia: My family didn’t attend theater, but I was enchanted by elementary school field trips to plays.  My real interest in drama came from TV: the golden age of drama like Studio One and other shows written by playwrights and from performances of international plays on PBS, including some New York experimental theater that opened my eyes to the possibilities of live theater. 

Glenda: You are a playwright, and earned your M.A. in Drama. Did you perform on the stage as an actor?
Patricia: In childhood, all I knew about drama was what I saw on screen, so I wanted to be an actress; but as I matured, I realized that my interest was really in creating the characters the actors portrayed and the stories they told. I did take acting lessons, but only to help me better work with performers as a writer and director.

Glenda: Your plays have been produced in Off-Off Broadway theaters. Can you tell us something about that? How did you feel when your first play was performed in NYC?
Patricia: I had the good fortune to live in New York in the late 1960’s and 1970’s when Off-Off-Broadway was blossoming.  Many plays were done in “found” spaces that brought small audiences close to the action where they could actually see the actors’ faces and feel the electricity in sharing a one-time performance experience.  I found that very exciting and it motivated my creative and educational direction.  I took classes in playwriting and screenwriting and was in a couple of valuable playwriting workshops where actors read our works-in-progress, and produced staged readings.  My first actual production was in a small theater space in the back of an East Village tavern. I felt it verified my ambition, that I really did have the ability to write plays that would be produced; and it motivated me to continue studying and writing. 

Glenda: It is obvious you are an accomplished writer and storyteller with lots of experience in this field. When and why did you become a writing and playwriting teacher?
Patricia: I got my higher education mostly in NYC while working, so it took years. In grad school at NYU I studied with professors who were involved in experimental theater, but also read the best examples of plays ever written and looked at not only how they represented excellent storytelling but also how they reflected their culture and time.  By the time I got my M.A. I was ready to leave New York.  An offer from a textbook publisher that was relocating to Florida took me closer to my aging parents and into a stable position with benefits, including a much needed retirement plan. 

When I moved to Orlando from NYC, I wanted to maintain a theater connection and was just fortunate to find a group that developed new plays that welcomed me. Theater is very collaborative and I am stimulated by the creative process.  I enjoy working with other writers.  When I got the opportunity to teach various forms of writing to college students it was a privilege to pass along the skills and knowledge I had learned from others. I was encouraged by their enthusiasm and still find nothing more rewarding than discovering  and/or helping to develop writing talent. 
After I retired to Hendersonville, I developed my Elements of Writing Workshop.

Glenda: You also write poetry. Have you always written poetry or did that come along later?
Patricia: I always wrote a little poetry, but didn't focus on it until I was living in Orlando.   The dual lives of my responsible day job and the late night hours of theater began to take a toll and I had to cut back. A friend who was in a poetry group suggested I try that genre, and I began attending their sessions and learning from them, and participated in public readings.   

When I started teaching, I had to brush up on my knowledge of the nuts and bolts of poetry for my Comp II and Creative Writing classes. I formed a school creative writing club and joined my students in reading our work at the school’s student-faculty art shows. I enjoy the discipline of compressing words into imagery that carries some resonance and find it hones my writing skills for all genres.  

Glenda: What inspires you? Where do your stories come from?
Patricia: I have a vivid and weird imagination.  I’m not particularly inspired by everyday problems.  I like to just sit in front of a blank screen, write whatever comes in my mind and go from there.  Sometimes it’s a poem.  Other times stories arise that tend to come from the broad issues that concern me; but they often come alive in a world of magical realism or satire. The novella I just finished fuses fantasy and science, hopefully told through believable, complex characters. 

Glenda: Your forthcoming workshop on August 2, "Elements of Storytelling" covers all genres. Can you help a poet as well as a fiction writer in this workshop?
Patricia: Yes. Poems use imagery, which is an essential element in bringing prose to life.  Poetry may or may not tell a story, but it can have characters, setting, voice and point of view, among others of the elements covered in my workshop.  I edit my own poetry within the context of these elements. 

Glenda: Tell us something personal about yourself that your students might find interesting to know.
Patricia: I am a nature and animal lover. I consider it a blessing to be able to live in these mountains with my cat, Tigress. 

Glenda: Thank you, Patricia, for taking time for this interview. I’m sure our readers will be glad to know you better when they take this class and will have confidence that they will learn valuable information to help them reach their goals as writers.

Glenda Council Beall, is a writer, poet and teacher. She is Owner/Director of Writers Circle Studio in Hayesville, NC.  
She serves as Clay County Representative for NCWN West, and is former Program Coordinator 2007-2009

Thursday, July 24, 2014

One Year Anniversary

Congratulations to Lana Hendershott and Patricia Vestal. They combined their creative talents and have grown the Open Mic night poetry and prose reading held at the Hendersonville Public Library held on the third Monday evening of each month at 5:30 PM. This month, almost forty people were inspired and entertained by about 15 writers who gave brief readings of their work. The public is invited to join the fun. We thank Lana and Pat for the effort they made to make this work. 

To tell a friend about the Open Mic, click here.

Sent to us by Bill Ramsey, co-author of Me Now, Who Next, who was featured at the recent Blue Ridge Bookfest.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Don't Miss This Workshop

What: Workshop, "Elements of Storytelling"
Where:  7540 Hwy 64 West (Grove Enterprise Building), Brasstown, NC 
When: Saturday, August 2, 10:00 am -12:30 pm

Have you ever agonized over a plot? Or wondered what difference choosing the correct tense or point of view will make to your story? Or maybe you know your characters, but have struggled with bringing them to life for your readers.

The workshop, "Elements of Storytelling", has been designed to help writers at all stages of development in creating and editing fiction, nonfiction, drama and narrative poetry. 

The workshop provides exercises that review the definitions and uses of basic elements of storytelling, such as story and plot, theme, character, setting, tense, voice and point-of-view, imagery, dialogue, and pacing. Participants are asked to bring examples of their work for use in these exercises. Course content materials will be provided. 

The instructor is one of the NC Writers' Network's Regional Representatives, Patricia Vestal, a retired publisher and educator, who has developed a writing course and workshop which she has presented at Hendersonville’s Opportunity House and other western NC locations. During her career, Patricia taught playwriting, film & game scripting, poetry, prose and journalism through theater groups and IADT (International Academy of Design & Technology) in Orlando, Florida. She also worked in New York City as an editor, writer and editorial and image researcher for major encyclopedia, textbook and newspaper publishers and earned her B.A. in Media Communications and her M.A. in Drama. 

Fees for the workshop, sponsored by NC Writers' Network-West, are $15 for NCWN/NetWest members and $25 for non-members. It will be held at the Grove Enterprise building at 7540 Hwy 64 West, between Murphy and Hayesville, on Saturday, August 2, from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. Although fees will be payable at the door, and walk-ins will be welcome, pre-registration is requested. To register, please contact the instructor, Patricia, at patriciavestal@gmail.com.