Lonnie Busch signs books at Curiosity Books in Andrews, NC

The Curiosity Shop Bookstore ...
proudly welcomes local (Franklin, NC) author, Lonnie Busch on Saturday, October 18 , at our ANDREWS location.
Lonnie, who is also an accomplished artist, will be signing his novella, Turnback Creek, winner of the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize.
Join us between 11am and 1pm at 1060 Main Street, Andrews.

Contact Lonnie Busch:airbusch1@yahoo.com

Meet Ed Southern in Netwest territory October 16

Anyone interested in writing is invited to meet Ed Southern, executive director of the North Carolina Writers' Network when he visits the Netwest area on Thursday, October 16. His first stop will be at City Lights bookstore at 2:00 PM in Sylva, NC.

Netwest county representatives and Glenda Beall, program coordinator for Netwest will also be there. Come out and learn what NCWN and Netwest can do for the literary community.

At 6:00 PM, Ed Southern will be at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC to meet with writers in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, and north Georgia. This is the first time a director for the NCWN has made the trip over this far west to speak with members and others interested in the writing community. Ed Southern has said Netwest is a model for what he'd like to see all over the state.

Poets and Writers Reading Poems and Stories at JCCFS

Michelle Keller

Estelle Rice

Reading at the John C. Campbell Folk School on Thursday evening, October 16 at 7:00 PM are Michelle Keller and Estelle Rice. Michelle or Mary Mike as she is often called by her friends writes poetry, essays and short fiction. Her poem, Lace Shawl, was posted on this blog last week. She is also a painter and likes to think of her poetry as painting with words. Mary Mike is an active member of Netwest hosting Coffee with the Poets for the past year and keeping the public updated on Netwest events through local newspapers.

Estelle Rice is a native of Charlotte and lives in Marble, NC now with her husband, Nevin and a frisky pup, Bear. She recently taught a class, Writing from the Spirit Within, and donated her fees, $300, to Netwest for the new anthology. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines. Her poetry chapbook, Quiet Times, published a few years ago is still selling well in local bookstores in Hayesville and Murphy, NC. Estelle also edits manuscripts and some of us who have known her for years won’t submit our work until she looks it over.

Michelle and Estelle will read after the meeting at 6:00 PM with Ed Southern in the living room of the Keith House. Plan to come and stay through the reading. These two friends and excellent writers will give the audience an entertaining and interesting hour.

Paul Newman and Me

Paul Newman Has Died, and I Have Regrets
By Glenda C. Beall

Barry and I sat in a booth across from Gay and Stu, my sister and brother-in-law, in a small restaurant outside Suwannee, Georgia. The four of us had been on vacation and were driving home, heading south. We had almost finished our meal when some men entered and sat next to us at one of the tables in the crowded room. We could hear them as they ordered hamburgers. All four dressed casually like the other customers, mostly working people and travelers.

My three companions, caught up in their conversation, paid no attention to the new arrivals. I’ve always been a “people-watcher” and my eyes fastened on the handsome face of one of those men as he pulled out a chair and sat down near enough I could have touched him. He removed his ball cap covering his short brown hair. The jeans on his slender frame and the denim jacket could have been the working clothes of any man eating there. But he was not like everyone else. His cornflower-colored eyes crinkled at the corners as he laughed and talked in that distinctive voice I can still hear in my head after thirty years.

“I think that’s Paul Newman,” I whispered to my sister. I wanted her confirmation although I knew I had to be mistaken. How could a movie star of his caliber be sitting in a non-descript diner in Georgia?
“What?” she asked. She couldn’t hear my low comment. I didn’t want to appear to be gawking at my favorite movie star who just happened to be sitting right next to me. I didn’t point at him, but spoke a little louder.
Our husbands tuned in this time.
“That’s Paul Newman right there at that table.” I threw a furtive glance toward the man who stole my heart the first time I saw him in Somebody Up There Likes Me. Like everyone who ever saw him on screen, I could never forget his perfect face, especially his eyes, but it was his smile, that gave me peculiar feelings in the pit of my stomach.

“I think you’re right. That IS Paul Newman.” Gay was as surprised as I was.
“Nah,” Barry said. “That’s somebody that looks like him.”
Stu stared for a minute, then he corroborated my statement, “Yep, that’s him.”
“What is he doing here? This is crazy. Why would a big movie star be in Suwannee, Georgia, in THIS restaurant?” I still would not believe my own eyes.
Barry was the first to figure it out. “He’s here for the race. There’s a racetrack in this area. He races sports cars.”
Newman had fallen in love with auto racing after making the movie Winning in 1969.
Nobody in his group at the table looked like part of an entourage for a movie star. Barry said they were likely part of his pit crew. I read that he enjoyed hanging out with his race-car team and tried to be as inconspicuous as he could at the track, wearing glasses to cover his familiar peepers.
He became a winning driver and participated in racing into his seventies. A couple of weeks before he died, the race track near his home in Connecticut opened during the day so that he could drive a final lap in his favorite car.

I’ll never forget my sweet jealous husband’s reaction to this giant icon of celebrity sitting within arm’s reach of us. “You like that guy? Look how short he is. He’s a little bitty guy. I thought he was tall.”
Of course, Barry got the rise out of me he wanted. “He’s beautiful and he is NOT short. Besides, I don’t care if he is short or tall, he’s gorgeous,” I whispered, so afraid Paul Newman would hear Barry saying uncomplimentary things about him.
If I had not been terribly shy and afraid of appearing silly, I would have spoken to him and told him how much I enjoyed his movies. But since no one else seemed to even notice he was there, I was not about to interrupt his lunch just to hear him speak to me and look at me with those crystal blue eyes and maybe give me one of his endearing smiles.
But, gosh, I wish now that I had.

Appalachian Poets

Brenda Kay Ledford and Glenda Barrett

For thought-provoking poetry from a Netwest poet, click on:Breath and Shadow and read three poems by Glenda Barrett.

She and Brenda Kay Ledford will sign their poetry chapbooks recently published by Finishing Line Press, at Phillips and Lloyd Books on the square in Hayesville, NC Saturday, October 4 at 10:00 AM.

In both Ledford's Sacred Fire and Barrett's When the Sap Rises, pure Appalachian voices rise and reach out to the reader.

On Saturday, November 1, 10:00 AM - 12:00 pm, Brenda Kay Ledford will hold a book signing for Sacred Fire at Mountain Regional Library on Main Street in Young Harrris, GA.

This poem is from Sacred Fire by Brenda Kay Ledford.

Progress

You know the old logging road,
the one behind the red house,
the one winding past Mama's garden
where morning glories climb the corn;
and you know the path reeks
with trash and broken pines weep
where the loggers butchered trees.

And a mourning dove moans
from the spring where you drew
water for tea and light oozes
through the black gum like bile
as the shadow of a crow passes
over trillium that will soon fade
away like all of us.

You know the Shewbird Mountain
quivers beneath the Thunder Moon
as the mining company
creeps up the mountain
to grind her bones into dust.

New Magazine on the Market

Recently Michael Beadle of Canton, NC read at the John C. Campbell Folk School. He brought with him a copy of the Smoky Mountain Living magazine. He, Gary Carden and Susan Lefler, all members of NCWN West write for this magazine, published by Scott McLeod.


Smoky Mountain Living can be found on stands all over the country, according to Michael, not just in North Carolina. Articles are focused on the mountain area including the high country and south western counties such as Clay, Cherokee and Graham.


This is another opportunity for writers to submit stories and poems. The magazine is a paying market. Go to the website, and see for yourself.


I was impressed with the wide variety of subjects covered in the Fall 2008 issue.

Gary Carden has a new DVD coming out

Congratulations to Gary Carden whose new DVD will be available at

http://twhistle.wordpress.com/ on October 6th.

Sheila Adams' blurb says it all. Gary is just the best storyteller around these parts.

Followers of Netwest Blog

We have our first "Follower" for this blog. Thanks, Alice Osborne, http://wildwomenswriting.blogspot.com/we are so glad you are following our writers and we are sure other viewers of Netwest Writers will check out your blog.

Many viewers of Netwest Writers don't leave comments but that doesn't mean they aren't counted. We know you are there. If you have a blog or website and follow our blog, add your site to our follower list.


I learned of another interesting site today. Have you seen http://www.wordsy.com/ ?

Comments on this blog

We are happy you are reading this blog and that you care enough to let the writer know you read his/her work by email or by leaving a comment at the end of the post.

As requested, the following is to help those who are unfamiliar with the comment process which we've tried to simplify:

At the bottom of a post is a line of type showing the name of the person who posted the article or story or poem. This may not be the writer. It might be me, writerlady, or Glenda.
Next to my name and the date you will see a line that looks like this.
'0 comments' or it may have a number before the word comment:
'2 comments '

Click on comments. A window opens for you to write your comment. You may sign your name in the same window if you want.
If you don't want to sign in with your yahoo address, just click on anonymous at the bottom and the comment will be posted with no name at the top. If you want to sign your name in the comment window, that will show.

You will be asked to use your yahoo address if you have one or you will be asked to open a "google account" by completing the information asked for.
To make it simple, just post as anonymous and sign your name inside the comment window.
Click on preview and see your comment as it will appear. If your comment needs to be edited, you have the opportunity to edit.
When you have it like you want it, click on Publish.
A Message will appear at the top of the page saying that your comment will appear later. To protect the blog from SPAM, we must moderate the comments. Your comment comes to my email address where I will read it and approve it when I check my email.
If you are a member of Netwest and have contacted me saying you want to be on the contributer's list, and you have been sent an invitation to post on www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com your comments will appear right away without moderation.

You can also email me if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the blog. I don't have all the answers but continue to learn, and blogger continues to offer new options.

Serena by Ron Rash - Reviewed by Gary Carden

Serena by Ron Rash
New York: HarperCollins Publishers
$24.95 – 371 pages 2008

There is no animal more invincible than a woman,
Nor fire either, nor any wildcat so ruthless.
-Aristophanes, “Lysistrata”

In graduate school I once enrolled in a literature course devoted to “evil women.” It was a daunting collection of demonic and murderous ladies and I still carry some vivid memories of their notable acts: Lillith, the sensual demon that tormented Adam, defied God and refused to accept her “secondary” role in Adam’s Eden; Medea whose love turned to merciless rage when she was betrayed; Lady Macbeth, who shared her husband’s vaulting ambition and readily murdered anyone who became a hindrance to their wishes; and finally Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, a barren woman who plots to destroy fertility/creativity in others.

In his remarkable novel, Serena, (also the name of the book’s “anti-heroine,”) Ron Rash has created a dark and pitiless sorceress who deserves to take an honored place in the pantheon wicked women. In fact, Selena Pemberton embodies the vices of all of her predecessors. Let’s set the stage for a drama that unfolds with all the intrigue and bloodletting of a 17th century Jacobean revenge tragedy.

The setting of Serena is western North Carolina in the turbulent decade following the 1929 stock market crash. While Horace Kephart struggles to save the region’s diminishing wilderness, a half-dozen timber barons are intent on reducing the same area to an immense, stump-studded wilderness. When the Pemberton Lumber Company with George and Serena Pemberton at the helm, arrive in Waynesville, they quickly demonstrate that they embody the essence of timber baron morality: arrogance, greed, an immense hunger to subdue and destroy the natural world – all of which is forged into a ruthless single-mindedness, a desire to succeed at all cost.

Horace Kephart makes an eerie prediction regarding the tragic consequences of lumber mills when he witnesses the arrival of the “mindless machines” on the slopes near Hazel Creek in Our Southern Highlanders:

“(Every tree, plant, beast and fish) will be swept away. Fire will blacken the earth; flood will swallow and spew forth the soil. The simple-hearted native men and women will scatter and disappear. In their stead will come slaves
speaking strange tongues to toil in darkness under rocks.
Soot will rise and foul gases; the streams will run murky death.”

Although George Pemberton quickly demonstrates that he is a brutal, selfish and arrogant beast in his own right, he is a pale presence when compared to Serena. Within days of her arrival, she takes control of the camp. Clad in jodhpurs and riding an Arabian stallion, she oversees the camp’s daily operation with a cool confidence that is disturbing. In short order, the work crew learns to both fear and revere Selena. With brutal efficiency she solves problems as diverse as George’s illegitimate child by a local girl, the fates of disruptive employees and untrustworthy investors and a troublesome local sheriff. Some merely vanish, but the mutilated remains of others (found in hotel rooms or train stations) suggest that for those who defy Serena, the consequences are often fatal!

When the timber workers complain of rattlesnakes in the woods (a problem that affects their efficiency), Serena acquires a Persian eagle (it perches on the pommel of her saddle). The bird soars above the work crew as it advances into the forest and occasionally streaks down like a divine force, snatching rattlers from the undergrowth, shredding them and bearing their remains aloft.

Serena has a rich diversity of sub-plots, including the travail of Rachael Harmon who bears Pemberton’s child and attracts Serena’s enmity (that intensifies after Serena miscarries); Sheriff McDowell who defies Serena; a knife-wielding killer who becomes Serena’s disciple and a colorful collection of timber workers who function as a kind of Greek chorus commenting on the daily life of the camp. In addition, Serena contains an impressive collection of Appalachian folklore ranging from the existence of mountain painters (panthers). the potency of herbal remedies, the belief in madstones and the means of invoking “blood stoppers.” (The mountain natives who are employed by Pemberton are given to lively discussions of folk remedies, superstitions and lore.)

At times, Serena Pemberton is in danger of morphing into a near- supernatural being – a kind of blond Viking warrior who leaves a wake of broken and/or quaking victims behind her. However, she is also a vibrant character in an historic drama. She moves, breathes and speaks from a period of memorable Appalachian history and her presence adds depth and dimension to our perception of that time. Personages such as Horace Kephart, the Vanderbilts (who come to dinner) and a host of adversaries - all confront Serena and the meetings invariably strike sparks. These encounters (real and imagined) give us vivid glimpses into the issues that were at stake when the fate of our shrinking wilderness hung in the balance.

Finally, it seems appropriate to comment on Serena’s fate. Given the immensity of her crime, it may be that no agent or method will satisfy the reader’s need for some special (terrible) customized punishment that suits Serena’s crimes. Even so, the “agent” that finally arrives to extract a kind of “poetic justice” from this evil bitch seems perversely apt. I’ll say no more.

Food Journalism - Is it for you?

Sam Hoffer, http://cherokeescout.com/ writes food column

Peg Russell

Sam Hoffer who writes "From My Carolina Kitchen," a food column for the Cherokee Scout which emphasizes casual yet elegant recipes and "how to tips," sent a newsletter with the following recommendation:
"This is an interesting newsletter I subscribe to from a food writer. Even though it is about food, it has some very good points for everyone.

The lesson about querying gives some good ideas about different kinds of publications to send queries to. In the section about Oprah, the quote, last paragraph, last sentence says it all. News you can use, third paragraph, talks about blogs and making money."

This is a market some of our members might find interesting to try. http://www.diannej.com/ Click this site and see what think. To read the newsletter Sam Hoffer refers to, you must sign up on the website. This latest newsletter is not on the site yet.
Dianne's research finds that women read and prefer food blogs over print journalism.
For some time I subscribed to Recipes.com and it was great fun to read a recipe and then read the comments from those who had tried it already. Some made a few changes and liked the recipe better than the original.

On the subject of food, I want to share Peg Russell's marvelous recipe for the Rum Cake she brought to the Netwest picnic this year.

BACARDI GOLD RUM CAKE
1/2 cup Bacardi Gold Rum
1 cup ch pecans
1 pk yellow cake mix
1 pk instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. Preheat oven to 300. Sprinkle nuts in bottom of pan. Mix rest of ingredients; beat at high speed for two minutes. Pour over nuts. Bake one hour. Cool 15 minutes. Invert over a serving plate.

GLAZE
1/2 cup Bacardi Gold Rum
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water (I omit)
Melt butter. Stir in sugar, water, rum. Boil five minutes, stirring constantly. Prick top of cake with a fork and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.

Note: Can gently shake cake loose in pan, and pour glaze in sides of cake while in the pan. Leave in pan for transport.



Peg gives some history and interesting anecdotes on this recipe.

"The recipe came from a free Bacardi Rum booklet from years ago. The special gold rum (Bacardi Gold)has a strong flavor, and is best for cooking. Three years ago, my only baking pan was a bundt cake pan, and for that year I found many good recipes for bundt cakes. Last year I added tiny tart pans to make pecan tassies, and this year at a local church rummage sale, I bought a cookie press. I've already mastered the little flower press cookies (it said to put the cookie sheets in the freezer so dough would stick and it worked).

I would advise other wives not to send their husbands shopping with a list if it can be avoided. If I want something, by golly, Mike makes sure I have lots of it. The above cake recipe calls for a total of one cup of gold rum. Last fall Mike came home with a big bottle of Bacardi Gold. I took rum cakes to church luncheons, library pot-luck, Senior Games/SilverArts dinner, Marine Corps League dinner, served it for company... I think I made at least seven cakes to use all the gold rum."

Let us know when you try this Rum Cake recipe if you like it. Thanks Peg Russell and Sam Hoffer for sharing with our Netwest Mountain Writers and Poets readers.

Mountain Writers Award Winners in Short Story contest

Awards to Winners
Mountain Writers' Short Story Contest
Free and Open to the Public
Sunday afternoon, September 28 at 2:30 PM in the Waynesville Library Auditorium, Mountain Writers will present the winners of their Short Story Contest. Winning entries will be read and awards will be presented to winners. The high quality entries made the judges work difficult. Everyone is invited to come hear the winning stories read and to enjoy light refreshments.

Mountain Writers use the entry fees from the contest for a scholarship fund, and workshops for local writers.
Mountain Writers of North Carolina (MWNC) is a Waynesville-based non-profit organization dedicated to furthering all literary ventures. Their regular meeting is the second Tuesday of each month, at 6:00 PM in Osondu Booksellers Tea Room on Main Street in Waynesville. If you are interested in the craft of writing, they invite you to join them.

Submitted to this blog by JC Walkup of Haywood County, NC

Have you seen this interview on youtube?

I ran across this video on youtube and wanted to share the site with our readers and members. This is Ed Southern, Exe. Director of NCWN in an interview.
Ed will be visiting the far southwestern part of the state of NC in October.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y99XlxFlCsU

Lace Shawl by Michelle Keller

LACE SHAWL

The sign says Estate Sale, code words,
someone died, usually a grandmother,
mother or elderly aunt, the men already gone.

Two great nieces sit in overstuffed chairs
drawn to an early American table, topped
with Japanese Hummels and sandwiches
on waxpaper, potato chips and half full cola cans.

This is part of the ritual of letting go,
after all no one wants Aunt Mae’s old things.
The great nieces live in new vinyl houses,
decorated with designer furniture of pressed wood,
poly-acrylic protected, permanent press Pricillas,
and rent to own.

Put up that sign and strangers rush
in where family fears to tread.
I confess, I am one of those strangers,
I walk reverently through the house, after all
she well could have passed in this room.
Not wanting to appear insensitive, a vulture,
I examine, measure with care the leavings,
those in sight of the great nieces… mourners.

In the bedroom I quickly sum up a life’s accumulation,
unused gifts from sons and daughters, worn quilts
pieced by her mother, polyester dresses and slips,
straps pinned shorter with safety pins. I untangle
a lace shawl tossed on the floor in a cardboard box.
Aunt Mae had run a string through the top cupping
it to fit around her frail shoulders. I hold it up,
admire the flower tracings tatted into the triangle
of silky fringe. It cannot be much,
an old woman’s shawl.


Michelle Keller, a member of Netwest and hostess for Coffee With the Poets, also submits announcements to newspapers about Netwest events. Contact her about reading at John Campbell Folk School in 2009 if you are a NCWN West member. mmkeller@brmemc.net

Christmas Anthology by WNC women

Thanks to editors Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham, forty-five western North Carolina women writers have had their Christmas stories, poetry, essays, or memoirs, published in an anthology titled "Christmas Presence." It is a beautifully bound book "filled with the unique voices of women writers who have roots in and connections to western North Carolina. These works add seasoning to the cultural landscape of a region already rich in custom and lore. Most of the writers are members of the NCWN and include Glenda Barrett, Celia Miles, Nancy Dillingham, Dee Dee Parker, Nancy Purcell, Susan Snowden, Barbara Ledford Wright, Lana Hendershott, to name a few. The book, "Christmas Presence," can be ordered from Catawba Publishing Company at (704) 717-8452 or http://www.catawbapublishing.com/. It will be available in local book stores and if not, they can get it for you. ISBN #: 978-1-59712-259-7. The stories will bring back fond holiday memories and the book would make a fine gift for a reading friend.

Editor Celia Miles and Nancy Purcell will be reading stories from "Christmas Presence" at Highland Book Store in Brevard, across the street from the college, between 10am and 12 noon on October 25. Please join us for this early touch of holiday spirit. The event will be in conjunction with Brevard College's Homecoming Weekend. Books will be available for sale.