Google+

This is a call for assistance to our Google+ savvy members. I've been trying to get up to speed so that we can have a workshop - trouble is, I'm kind of slow. So if any of you can help out, please let me know. 

Also, I've set up a page for NetWest, and I hope that you will check it out and add us to your circles. 

March Coffee With the Poets and Writers Features Deanna Klingel

On Wednesday, March 12, Coffee with the Poets and Writers features author Deanna Klingel, who lives in Sapphire Valley, NC. The literary event takes place the second Wednesday of each month at 10:30 am at Blue Mountain Coffee and Grill located at 30 Hwy 141 in Cherokee County, NC. 

The public is invited to come and enjoy the author of five novels including Cracks in the Ice and the young adult series, Avery's Battlefield and Avery's Crossroads, based on a fourteen year old boy who lives during the Civil War era. Deanna will read from her new book to be released in March, Rock and a Hard Place, a Lithuanian Love Story, based on real people living today and she will talk about the truth in fiction.

The NC Writers' Network West sponsors this gathering of writers and poets and welcomes those attending to participate in open mic and to stay after to have lunch together. 

Contact Glenda Beall at 828-389-4441 or nightwriter0302@yahoo.com

Writers’ Night Out In New Location, March 15

Writers’ Night Out starts its fourth year by featuring two local writers: poet Mary Ricketson and novelist Paul M. Schofield. The event takes place on Saturday, March 15 in its new location, the Union County Community Center at Butternut Creek Golf Course in Blairsville, GA. A social hour starts at 6 p.m. with the reading at 7 p.m. and open microphone following. Writers’ Night is free (food available for purchase) and open to the public. Writers can sign up at the door to read poetry or prose for three minutes in the open microphone.

Ricketson, of Murphy, NC, has been writing for 20 years. She is inspired by nature and her work as a mental health counselor. Her poetry has been published in her chapbook, I Hear the River Call My Name, as well as in Lights in the Mountains, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Freeing Jonah, Red Fox Run, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Future Cycle Press, Your Daily Poem, andJournal of Kentucky Studies.  She won medals for poetry in the Cherokee County Senior Games/Silver Arts, and won first place in the 2011 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest 75^th anniversary national poetry contest. Ricketson writes a monthly column, “Woman to Woman,” for The Cherokee Scout, is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, and is president of Ridgeline Literary Alliance.

Schofield’s three action-packed books make up The Trophy Saga, based on ideas that are theoretically feasible. They feature time-travel, chase and battle scenes, fusion powered star-ships, a computer-controlled society, tender moments and scary episodes. Refreshing to read, they are free of explicit sex, profanity, graphic violence and paranormal themes. Schofield was born and raised in Montana and now lives in Murphy, NC with his wife Ellen.

Writers’ Night Out is sponsored by NC Writers Network-West and is now at its new location: The Union County Community Center, located 129 Union County Recreation Rd., Blairsville, Georgia 30512, off Highway 129 near the intersection of US 76, phone (706) 439-6092.  Come to the upstairs banquet room, which is accessible via stairs or the elevator. Starting April 2014, Writers’ Night Out will move to the second Saturday of each month. For more information, please contact Karen Holmes at (404) 316-8466 or kpaulholmes@gmail.com.

Ten Year Old Abigail Rose Cargo's Poem Featured on Rattle.com

Thank you to Lisa Cargo, proud mom, for sharing this information with us:

"Abigail's poem, "Firefly," is published in the 2014 Rattle Young Poets Anthology and is featured this week on the Rattle website.

If you go to the website, rattle.com, you can read her poem and author's note as well as hear her audio reading of "Firefly."  It will be the featured poem until next Friday, February 28.

When you visit the website, be sure to leave a comment for Abigail.  I'll print those out for her at the end of the week as a keepsake.

Help me spread the word by forwarding this information on to anyone else you think may be interested.  Thank you for supporting Abigail and the other young poets."

Congratulations to Abigail - we hope that you will keep writing.

Celebrate the Release of Deanna Klingel's New Book

Deanna has invited you to a literary soiree (aka book release party) Sunday afternoon 1-4 PM, March 9, 2014, St Jude Church, 3011 US Highway 64 East, Cashiers, NC, to celebrate the release of A Rock and a Hard Place, A Lithuanian Love Story. 

Enjoy Lithuanian food, beverage, music, book discussion, reading, signing and meeting the couple about whom the book is written. Bring your friends. 

If you can't be there in person, you can still be part of the party. Friday before the event go to www.BooksByDeanna. Use the tab Rock & a Hard Place to find recipes you can try at home. Sunday, the day of the event, go to Amazon.com and buy a book (available as of March 8), then send an email to deannaklingel@yahoo.com with your name and address. You will receive a signature and book mark for your book.  

Monday following the event enjoy the photos of the event at Facebook page, "Books By Deanna".

Those Who Do Not Read Books

NCWN/NetWest member Bill Ramsey (www.LifesWrite.com) sent us this observation "In recent conversations with young adults, thirty somethings, the subject of books came up. Perhaps I should not have been surprised when they told me they "never read books." 

While "too busy" was offered as an excuse, there is something else at work here. 

Enjoying reading is difficult for those who rarely do it. They can read the words but miss the message. Do we, as writers, need to speak to this growing situation in the young adult population? If yes, how can we do so?"

Do you have any suggestions? We'd love to get your comments.

Revised Website For NCWN

The North Carolina Writers' Network, of which NetWest is a chapter, has a newly revised website: www.ncwriters.org. This is a good time to familiarize yourself with it, because a guide for using it appears on the home page. And don't forget to bookmark it while you're there!

What Should We do? Deanna Klingel, author, answers.

We have as guest writer today, Deanna Klingel, successful author of five books published by different publishers with three more to be released soon. Deanna lives in Sapphire Valley, NC with her husband and a rescued golden retriever. She is a member of NCWN West as well as other literary organizations. She admits she was a late starter in the world of publishing, but she hit the ground running and was a quick learner. Her advice is for all of us who write and want to write. Take note.

“So What’s it Like to be a Writer?” 

My signing table was inside the Low Country Museum in Yemassee, South Carolina. I’d had a lot of fun that Saturday talking to families and signing books for their middle graders. During a quiet few minutes a chubby boy wrapped in his puffy winter coat and toboggan hat paused and looked at my table. I guess he was eight, maybe nine.

“So, what’s it like to be a writer?” he asked. He caught me off guard and I didn’t have a quick reply. The usual question from precocious kids is “Do authors make a lot of money?” for which there is a quick answer.

“Well,” I thought aloud, “I spend a lot of time alone listening to voices talking in my head.”

“Yes!” he said. “That’s how it is for me, too. Whenever I get sent to my room alone, my head talks to me. When I get mad, it even talks more. And loud.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Maybe when you get mad you should write.”

“I guess you’re right,” he said. “That’s what I'll do. Next time I get sent to my room and I'm mad I'm going to write me a book. How many pages should it be?”

How many pages should it be? Whose voice should it be? What style should it be written in? What font should I use? New writers all worry about should. Should I send it to a publisher? Should I staple it? Should I get a Mac?

Even accomplished writers who participate on the online writers groups are often still asking should I? Should I change genre, should I use a pen name, should I have an agent, should I blog, should my main character turn out to be a bad guy? Should I use semi colons?

I’m not exactly an old timer in the publishing field.

I only started writing with a thought to publishing around 2005. My first book published in 2010. In the next few weeks book six, seven and eight will be released, all different publishers. That still makes me a relative newcomer. But I've had enough experience now that I can share some "what-I've-learned-along-the-way" suggestions.

The first thing I think you should do, is unload your shoulds. You can make yourself crazy with the angst of shoulds. There is no should. Your writing is a result of your writer voice. There can be no right or wrong to it. You should not should over it. Just write it.

Then there are things you must do. You must finish it. You must edit it. You must have another edit it. Then you must rewrite it. Then you must submit it. These aren't things you should do, these are things you must do. To submit you must do it exactly the way the publisher you’re submitting to instructs; not should, must.

Writing is easy for a writer. Writing for publication is not. It’s tedious, it’s lengthy, it’s lonely, it can get frustrating. There are so many things to learn, the more you learn the more you discover things you need to know!

You must go to conferences, workshops, take writing classes. You must. But you can make it easier on yourself if you relax and enjoy the entire process and not worry about all the shoulds. The voice in your head is yours and it must be heard. You should let it. You must. That's what it is to be a writer.

Deanna will be sharing her work at Coffee with the Poets and Writers at Blue Mountain Coffee and Grill on Wednesday, March 12, 10:30 a.m. This event is free and open to the public. 

Updated CWPW -see date change for May

Please note a correction to Schedule for Coffee with the Poets and Writers 2014.

http://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/2014/01/coffee-with-poets-and-writers-schedule.html

A library with no books?

A public library with no books is now operating in San Antonio. At the cost of 2.3 million, the country's first and only paperless public library is providing patrons with rows of iMacs for use there and tablets to loan for those who want to do their reading at home. This library is expecting over 100,000 visitors in the first year. Libraries with no printed material are said by many to be "the future." If this is true, one has to ask what it means for the future of agents, publishers and even for writers. What do you think?

 

A Man For All Seasons Going Out Of Business

This article about NCWN/NetWest member Bob Grove appeared in the December 18, 2013 edition of the Cherokee Scout newspaper. Bob is the facilitator of the NetWest sponsored Prose Critique Group that meets the second Thursday of each month at 7 pm at Tri County Community College near Murphy. I knew Bob was a man of many talents, but I learned even more of them from the article. 

Here it is, in its entirety, courtesy of the Cherokee Scout newspaper and writer, Dwight Otwell.

By DWIGHT OTWELL

dotwell@cherokeescout.com

Scott Wallace/swallace@cherokeescout.com

Brasstown – Bob Grove moved to Cherokee County and began teaching in 1978, but he soon began his own business that would become one of the most respected in the industry.

After 35 years, Grove Enterprises, a standard in the shortwave and radio equipment business, closed at the end of November along with his longtime magazine, Monitoring Times.

“Judy and I decided to finally take real retirement,” the Brasstown resident said. He will be missed. “Grove radio has been a national institution to shortwave and other radio enthusiastsfor many years,” Bellview resident Hugh Williamson wrote to the Cherokee Scout. Grove taught science and math for two years at Hiwassee Dam High School beginning in 1978. He had been living in Florida and became disillusioned with the fast growth and crime.

“I was establishing the business,” he said. “I loved the kids, but it became clear that my destiny was to go into business for myself.” It began as a mail order business for radio receivers of all kinds. Its specialties are radio scanners, shortwave receivers, antennas, database and control software, listening accessories and a full spectrum of publications. Grove Catalogue is mailed to the company’s database of customers each year.  

However, Grove is a man of many interests. It took him six years to get a four-year college degree because he changed his major 12 times. He taught a wide variety of subjects in public schools – including every science, English, journalism and creative writing.

Grove grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and taught in Ohio and then Florida. He was named director of the South Florida Museum & Bishop Planetarium in Bradenton, Fla. He later went back into teaching, but became curator and interim director of a museum in Palm Beach County,Fla.

Grove was noticed by a local ABC television affiliate and began working a few jobs for them before being named public affairs director. He hosted some programs and was seen on air by more than any other person in southeast Florida. His favorite guest was famous movie star and dancer Ginger Rogers, who he called “delightful.” His most irritating guest was Eddie Albert,actor and star of the television show Green Acres. “He was just snarly,” Grove said of Albert. “He looked around at the studio and asked, ‘What is this – the city dump?’ ”

His memories of his time at the studio are both touching and humorous. Grove gave tours of the facility, and one day some kids were fascinated at the height of the transmission towers. Grove pointed to the tower, and at that moment lightning hit it. The kids asked him how he did that.

Grove hosted the television show Now World and was known as Mr. Science. Grove and wife Judy had always cared deeply for animals and wildlife. After moving to Brasstown, they had a tree cut down that had a nest with squirrels. A wildlife official told Grove they weren’t allowed to keep the animals, but they could designate them as the Brasstown Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. “We have kept anything that walks on two or four legs,” he said, including hawks, owls, deer, oppossums, groundhogs and mink.

Grove and Judy gave talks to schools and groups. Once, Judy was telling a group that you can’t get close to wildlife because you have to eventually set them free. You can’t make pets of them. Just then, a squirrel they had rehabilitated ran up, jumped on the table and onto Judy’s shoulder. Grove was surprised that they have received well wishes from hundreds of present and former customers and subscribers who sent in congratulations about their retirement.

“It is very gratifying. There were no negative comments about our closing,” he said. Although both Grove Enterprises and Monitoring Times are being retired, the chief editor and practically all of the writers will begin a new magazine, Spectrum Monitor, on Jan. 1. 

Grove is 75, but he isn’t going to just sit back in an easy chair. He will write for the new magazine and do original writing for publications and more books. He has already written an e-book, Misadventures of an Only Child, which he calls his autobiography. It’s for sale at Curiosity Shop Bookstore in downtown Murphy.

Grove will also continue teaching adult continuing education classes. Through John C. Campbell Folk School and Young Harris (Ga.) College, he teaches local geology, including field trips with students. His latest enterprise is being president of the new Mountain Community Orchestra. The orchestra is assembling serious musicians from the region and hope to begin performing after the first of the year. “I don’t play an instrument. I am a drummer,” Grove quipped. 

At 7 p.m. today (December 18, 2013) at the folk school, Grove will do his annual reading of A Christmas Carol, which is a special arrangement by the author Charles Dickens. Grove will do the entire reading himself, in costume. He said it’s fun but exhausting. “It is all British, but I have no problem with that,” he said."My father was born in England. I love life, and I have had a great time of it.”

My Favorite Authors "Know" Me

By Bill Ramsey

As a reader, after completing a novel or a collection of poems, I am often left feeling that the book's author "knows" me. Oh, I don't mean that we are personally acquainted. It just seems that the book must have been written about me because it so accurately describes my life. 

When that happens, I ask myself if the author may have been reading my mail or even my mind. Was there a camera hidden in my home? Were my friends and family talking too loudly about me in a public place. What else could explain it? 

Then it came to me. Authors are people too, ordinary people with a finely developed and special skill. They observe, understand, and are able to describe real life in the printed word. They are honest and open, willing to make themselves vulnerable. As a reader, I appreciate what they write - even when it strikes so close to home.

Review of "East African Odyssey", by Emilee Hines

Review by Lana Hendershott:

I enjoyed reading Emilee’s personal account as a young American woman teaching in Kenya. In the early 1960s many young college graduates were joining the Peace Corps, but Ms. Hines focused on teaching young adult Africans to become teachers themselves while she learned about the country in the process. The author's honesty and naiveté shines through as she admits her misgivings, social blunders and her love affair with two very different men: Rico, a jealous Italian and Ray, an Englishman. The afterward offers closure as the reader learns the fate of her friends years later. The author's love and respect for Africa is revealed in her physical descriptions of the country but is balanced by the reality of the country's problems. One has the sense this East African teaching experience had a lasting influence on the author. 

Click on the titles, East African Odyssey, and The Proposal, to listen to the author's books on Audible.com.

The Wordsmiths of Macon County

The Wordsmiths of Macon County met December 5,2013, at the Macon County Library and had a great time, from the sounds of this report from our Macon County Representative, Shirley Cole. 

"Sixteen guests  and poets were present, and 12 to 15 pieces of original  poems were read and discussed. We had four young guests, who heard Eugene Field's poem "The Duel' about the gingham dog and the calico cat. Everyone giggled and afterward the children approached me and thanked me for inviting them and sharing our  gingerbread cookies with them. We may be on to something! Mrs. Moe, the head of the library, suggested to me that perhaps we would like to share our poetry with the children often. I agreed and am going to include  a section of our next meeting for our children to bring us ''LOVE  POEMS'' AND will send the Library small posters to display. OUR NEXT READING IS IN February and I am searching for  funny poems to read to our children. I will encourage them to write some cursive if they so desire. The library received  another donation from us as a thank you for allowing us to read. But, I think that they are very thrilled to have us."

Thank you, Shirley, for this great report, and for all you are doing to increase literary awareness, especially for children, in Macon County. I've no doubt that the library is very appreciative.

Call For Submissions For a New Anthology, "Mountain Writings"

Submissions of poetry and flash fiction for the next anthology, Mountain Writings, part of the Old Mountain Press Anthology Series, will be accepted beginning March 1, 2013. 

The anthology’s theme is anything about the mountains, the people, the places, the activities or other applicable subjects. To submit, writers must have been previously published in an OMP Anthology or be recommended by a writer who has been previously published in an OMP Anthology. Names and bios of contributors can be found on any of the books' web pages which are linked to the OMP Anthology Books in Print web page, found here.