December 16, 2015, 10:00 AM – Coffee with the Poets and Writers – Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC

 

Coffee with the Poets and Writers will have their annual holiday program on Wednesday, December 16, 2015, at the Moss Memorial Library, Hayesville, NC. It will be open mic, so bring your Christmas or holiday poems, short stories, or essays of your original work.

Refreshments will be served.

Everyone will take home a gift. This is the time our members can sign up to read for next year. We will not meet in January and February.

BOB GROVE PERFORMS A CHRISTMAS CAROL AT THE JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL

Bob Grove, author and member of NCWN-West is quite the performer. Wednesday evening at the John C. Campbell Folk School, he will gift us with his annual reading of A Christmas Carol.
 Bob always gives a wonderful performance. Come out and enjoy. See Bob's announcement below.

Just a reminder that tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7 p.m. at the Folk School I wil be doing my annual performance reading of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. I will be in period costume and do the best I can with a wide variety of character dialogues. This one-hour abridged version of his popular volume was actually written by Dickens himself to facilitate such readings.

My performance will be followed by a musical treat from the Folk School dancers. I hope to see you there.

Bob

BOB GROVE PERFORMING A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Brenda Kay and Blanche, Ready for Christmas

Brenda Kay Ledford and her mother, Blanche Ledford

The picture above was first posted on Brenda's blog, She gave me permission to share it with all of  you. Brenda Kay Ledford has been a member of NCWN and therefore, a member of NCWN-West for as long as I have been here, about twenty years or more. She lives with and cares for her mother, Blanche, also a published writer.

Brenda Kay's poetry books have won the Paul Green award from the North Carolina Society of Historians several times. She began writing poetry in Nancy Simpson's writing classes and began publishing her work very soon after. She is dedicated to promoting her community in various ways and we often see articles by Brenda Kay in the local newspaper. She's a retired educator and earned her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University. She studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee and was Creative Writing Editor of "Tri-County Communicator."

Blanche Ledford has not been able to get out much lately due to a fall and a broken hip earlier this year, and we have missed seeing her at our writing events, but she is doing better. Several of Blanche's stories of growing up in Appalachia were published in anthologies by Old Mountain Press. She and Brenda Kay co-wrote a book, Simplicity, about their lives here in Clay County NC. She won the Paul Green award for that book.

The new anthology edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham, It's All Relative, Tales from the Tree, includes one of Blanche's stories, Planting by the Signs.  Curiosity Shop Books in Murphy, NC  carries this book.

Brenda Kay and her mother preserve the old ways of the mountain people by writing about them.
Brenda Kay's most recent book of poetry is Crepe Roses published by Kelsay Books. This book also won a Paul Green Multi Media Award.

Besides posting photography that is a feast for the eyes, Brenda writes on her blog about interesting places to visit. Read about this goat farm right down the road from where I live in Clay county.

The Christmas picture of Brenda Kay and her mother, Blanche, warms my heart because I know they have the same loving relationship I had with my mother.
 Visit Brenda Kay's blog to learn more about them.

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.

The Mountain Writers, January Jumpstart XVI - January 8-10, 2016, Morristown, TN

Mark your calendars for The Mountain Writers' January Jumpstart XVI on January 8-10, 2016. It will be at the Best Western Morristown Conference Center in Morristown, TN, at Exit 8 off I-81. By popular demand, Pamela Duncan will lead Fiction and Connie Jordan Green returns to lead Poetry. Saturday session will run 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. and Sunday session 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (EST).



Additional Information: Contact Sue Richardson Orr at theorrs@usit.net