CWPW 2019 SCHEDULE OF READERS

Schedule for Coffee with the Poets and Writers for 2019

March  20 –Knute Rary  and Bob Grove

April   17--  Brenda Kay Ledford

May 15--   Charley Pearson   

June  19—Joan Howard  and Gene Hirsch

July  17--  Patricia Zick   

August  21—Don Long and Carroll Taylor

September  18--   Richard Cary and Fred Tarr 

October  16  -- Glenda Barrett and Roy Paine

November   20 --  Mary Ricketson and Jim Davis

December –  18 --  Christmas Luncheon – Open Mic

 If you are on this list and have not done so, please send your bio, less than 200 words, along with a photo (300 DPI) at least a month before your reading. Send now and Carroll Taylor will put it in her file and you can forget about it.

If you would like to be put on our waiting list to read if someone cancels, send your bio and photo and tell us you want to be put on the list.

We hope you all will come out to hear these writers and storytellers share their work. We meet the third Wednesday of the month, March - December at Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC. We often give door prizes so come and maybe you will get lucky.

Joan Howard is the facilitator of this group. Carroll Taylor handles publicity. 

Spring Conference Time is Near

Seeing the announcement of the NCWN Spring Conference created an excitement in me to go to this gathering of successful writers and poets. I want the inspiration and motivation I always receive when I am with writers. 

Ed Southern at City Lights Books. Photo by Barry Beall

I like to learn and I can tell there is much I could learn here. One of the things most of us need is the sessions by Ed Southern and his wife, Jamie, both knowledgeable about the book business. That is what we have if we make an effort to publish our writing, a business we need to work at just as we work at our writing. 

At times our book business takes too much of our time, or it seems to. We want to spend our time writing, not building a platform or reputation with readers, or getting our books into book stores, checking on their sales and even picking up books that are not selling. I was told that many writers, enthusiastic about their new novels, travel far and wide to sell book store owners on the idea of carrying their books. But, book store owners say often authors never come back. They never even contact the book stores. 

When our local book store closed the owner said she had contacted all the local authors whose books she carried, but very few came back to get their books. I ended up with many of them because I was asked to take them. Elizabeth didn't want to just throw away the books, so I give them as door prizes in our writing groups or donate them to Friends of the Library book store. 

The book business is important to learn. I want to attend Ed and Jamie's sessions. If anyone in WNC or north Georgia wants to go to Greensboro to the Spring Conference, I would like to have a companion for the trip. 

Keeping our Blog and Website going

I know we are all sorry that Joan Gage has resigned as our blog and webmaster for NCWN-West. She did a terrific job of keeping our events and our publishing success out there for all to see. 

Joan will continue as a member and will continue to do publicity for the Literary Hour, the monthly reading at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Many of our members have come to know Joan through this blog and through her own blogs. 

She is and has been a very busy person who was a tremendous help to me in the past. I hope I can still call on her from time to time to share her talents with us.

For now, I will resume posting here and try to keep up with everything, but I would very much appreciate one of our members stepping up to help with the blog. 

I learned about blogging and the success writers were having starting a free site to make their books known to the public when I attended a NCWN Fall Conference in 2007. I came home and tried my hand at creating one. I was delighted that our members liked the idea.

During the next year, I taught blogging classes at the Moss Library and several of our members set up their own blogs. One became an internationally known food blog. 

Brenda Kay Ledford and her mother, Blanche

Brenda Kay Ledford, author of many books and articles has two or three of the best blogs where she shares her poetry and writes about the history of Clay County. She has attracted a wide audience and Brenda has won a number of awards. Nancy Simpson also learned to blog at that class. I think her blog is still open and is great to read. 

I hope that you, our members, will follow us, if you do not already, and will send some of your work to post here. This site belongs to all of us, members of NCWN-West, and it is read by lots and lots of people here and around the world. Make your voice heard right here on www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com  

Do you wonder why your book is not selling?

I like to post articles or posts that benefit my readers, so today I am sharing a site that is full of good advice for writers. In this post, the writer tells us, with humor, why our books are not selling and what we must do to sell at a time when reading books has fallen as a major entertainment for people.

I have been reading Kristen Lamb for a long time and I have learned so much from her articles. Do you subscribe to Kristen? If so, what do you like about her site?

https://authorkristenlamb.com/2019/02/how-to-sell-more-books-a-tale-of-fishing-catfishing/

What do you think about her suggestions on how to sell books?

Joan Ellen Gage retires as Admin for the NCWN-West Blog

Greetings to my friends at NCWN-West. I regret that I must resign as the Admin for the NCWN-West Blog, but due to circumstances, it is in my best interest.


Please direct any questions to our Program Coordinator, Glenda Beall, at:
glendabeall@msn.com

The best of luck in your writing and publishing! 

Joan Ellen Gage

 

Michael Diebert guests posts on Writers Circle around the Table

Editor of Chattahoochee Review, Poet Michael Diebert guests posts here today. 

His posts on Writers Circle Around the Table are the most popular posts in recent times.

Spring Literary Festival at Western Carolina University, March 21-28, 2019, for your information

TENTATIVE 2019 Schedule, Spring Literary Festival at WCU

Thursday, March 21st

• 7:30 pm - UC Grand Room: Fiction writer and WCU One Book author Cristina Henriquez

Monday, March 25th

• 12:00 pm - UC Theatre: Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series featuring Ricardo Nazario-Colon and student poets
• 4:00 pm - UC Theatre: Fiction writer Diane Cox McPhail
• 7:00 pm - UC Theatre: Army veterans and writers Laurie Jean Cannady and Tom Baker

Tuesday, March 26th

• 4:00 pm - UC Theatre: Fiction writer Michael Croley
• 7:30 pm - UC Theatre: Fiction writer Silas House

Wednesday, March 27th

• 4:00 pm - UC Theatre: Nonfiction writer Jason Howard
• 7:30 pm - UC Theatre: Poet A. Van Jordan

Thursday, March 28th

• 4:00 pm - UC Theatre: Nonfiction writer Bryant Simon
• 7:30 pm - UC Grand Room: Fiction writer Marilynne Robinson

Events take place on the campus of Western Carolina University in the A.K. Hinds University Center (UC).

Links:  https://www.wcu.edu/learn/departments-schools-colleges/cas/humanities/english/lit-fest/

https://www.wcu.edu/learn/departments-schools-colleges/cas/humanities/english/lit-fest/artists.aspx

Contact:

 Pamela Duncan
Spring Literary Festival Director
pyduncan@wcu.edu828.227.7264

Request for NCWN-West members to read at Coffee with the Poets and Writers meetings, for 2019, Hayesville, NC

Glenda Beall is setting up the schedule for featured members of NCWN-West to read at Coffee with the Poets and Writers for 2019. The event will begin in March and go through November with featured readers. Some months we will have two readers and some months we will have one. The meetings are at the Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC on the third Wednesday of the month at 10:30 AM.

Joan Howard is the facilitator and Carroll Taylor will doing publicity. There will be an article placed in the local newspapers.  If you are not from Clay, Cherokee, Towns, and Union, publicity will try to get an article in your local newspaper if you get them the contact information. If you have a book to promote, that is great. Bring copies to sell and sign. The event usually has visitors from the community who are not already members, some who just want to hear the reading.

CWPW has Brenda Kay Ledford reading for April Joan Howard for June, and tentatively, Charlie Pearson for March. Some other months are open; please check with Glenda Beall at glendabeall@msn.com for the current schedule. If two readers want to read on the same day, let Beall know. The event has a good attendance and everyone enjoys the Open Mic.


 

Dates and Readers for 2019, for The Literary Hour, John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC

Here are the readers and dates for the updated 2019 Literary Hour readings, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. You will notice that most months will have 3 readers, our best attempt to accommodate everyone who asked to read, so we have two months that can add another reader. We will start promptly at 7:00 PM, finishing by 8:00 or 8:15 PM.

Please contact Mary Ricketson for issues regarding this event at: maryricketson311@hotmail.com.

Wed, 3-20-19         Joan Howard

                                    Natalie Grant

                                    Mary Ricketson

Wed, 4-17-19          Bob Grove

                                    Carroll Taylor

                                    Joan Gage

Wed, 5-15-19          Carol Lynn Jones

                                    Kanute Rarey

                                    Rosemary Royston

Wed, 6-12-19          Brenda Kay Ledford

                                    Richard Cary

                                    Maren Mitchell

Thurs, 8-22-19       Karen Paul Holmes

                                    Carol Crawford

                                    Kenneth Chamlee

Thurs, 9-19-19       Martha O. Adams

                                    Loren Leith

                                    Glenda Barrett

Thurs, 10-17-19     Mary Mike Keller

                                    Glenda Beall

Thurs, 11-21-19      Janice Moore

                                    Linda Jones