Sam Uhl to be Featured Reader at Mountain Wordsmiths

Sam Uhl, memoirist and owner of The Cheerful Word, will be the guest reader for Mountain Wordsmiths on Thursday morning, August 26, at 10:30.

This event, sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, is being held via Zoom because of COVID concerns. We hope to meet again in person in the months ahead; however, we are happy that not only local writers are attending our meetings but writers outside our state are also joining us.

Sam Uhl

Uhl helps people write their memoirs through ghostwriting, book coaching, retreats, workshops, manuscript editing, and book printing. She believes that everyone’s life is a story worth telling.

Born to older parents, she grew up at the feet of elders. Their friendly and patient storytelling kindled her lifelong passion for helping others preserve their life stories. Everyday people have extraordinary stories if one asks them the right questions. She discovered that universal truths are the stuff of great stories—love, survival, overcoming adversity, inspiration, adventure, and honor. It is her mission to give voice to the lives of everyday people, honoring and encouraging them today and helping them leave a legacy of inspiration for generations to come.

Sam has published more than 100 memoirs including limited printings for families and Amazon Bestsellers. Her passion for helping people explore and share their stories is most evident in her workshops, classes, and retreats. Through colleges, community organizations, and even the USO, Sam helps people find their voice and tell their truth to honor who they have become through life’s twists and turns and determine who they want to be for their remaining tomorrows.

Sam is a Birren Institute Certified Guided Autobiographical Instructor and is the author of How to Survive Dying: A Journal of Hope for Family Caregivers.

Mountain Wordsmiths meets on the fourth Thursday of each month. We welcome those who were regulars at Coffee with the Poets and Writers, a monthly meeting held at Moss Memorial Library in Hayesville, NC prior to COVID-19 restrictions.

Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. 

Anyone who wishes to participate in Open Mic may sign up upon entering the meeting, and we welcome those who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing.

Carroll S. Taylor, facilitator of Mountain Wordsmiths
lives in Hiawassee, GA and is an active member of NCWN-West

Zoom Writer's Night Out & Open Mic, August 13

NCWN-West presents
Kanute Rarey
Storyteller, Poet, Writer, Teacher

Writers' Night Out via Zoom

August 13, 7 pm
Reading & Discussion + Open Mic

Kanute Rarey has performed oral and written stories and poetry in North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina and from Texas to Florida; Vermont to Minnesota; and parts in between. His stories range from personal to family, to sacred, to scary, to a tall tale or two. While Rarey has officially been a storyteller since 2015, his family and friends would say, “He has been telling stories all his life.”
 
Rarey’s personal goals are to write and perform stories, to promote the storytelling revival in America, and to work with and support aspiring storytellers, writers, poets, and singer-songwriters to encourage and create opportunities and audiences for the performance of their arts. 
 
He is the founder and producer of a weekly Zoom-based TELL IT LIKE IT IS Story Swap and STORIES ON THE SQUARE, a monthly open mic night at a coffee and wine shop in his hometown in historic Hayesville, NC. He also founded FRESH AIR Stories and Music – a four-concert series at the gazebo on the Courthouse Square in Hayesville. 

Rarey is currently working with a small group of leading prose and poetry writers, authors, storytellers, and singer-songwriters to produce a new, yearlong four-performance series for 2022, SCRIBES ON STAGE, with the regional theater, Peacock Playhouse, in Hayesvile, NC. 
 
He is a member of the Board of Directors of John C. Campbell Folk School and the southeastern regional organization, Southern Order of Storytellers, and a member of the North Carolina Writers' Network. His wife Kathy and he have lived in the mountains, including Georgia, Alaska and North Carolina, for over thirty years. Visit his website for more info. 

Open Mic
3-4 minute maximum of poetry or prose (2 poems only, please)

To sign up for Open Mic, please send Glenda an email (with a sentence she can use to introduce you): glendabeall@msn.com 

Poetry Workshop with Catherine Carter

 Poetry Workshop on Zoom

 Saturday, September 11^th, 1:30-3:30 PM

Poet and professor, Catherine Carter offers a a two-hour workshop for NCWN-West via Zoom from 1:30-3:30 on Saturday, September 11^th.  The workshop focuses on using adding of internal slant rhyme to poems to echo off existing keywords and increase poems’ music, along with close attention to the impact of lines’ end words.  For the first hour, poets will look at published poems and the ways in which their sounds enhance their content; for the second hour, participants will work on enhancing the sounds in a short poem of their own and, if they like, share the results with the group.  

Participants are asked to have on hand a HARD COPY of a draft of a short poem of their own, less than one page long, for this activity. 

Beginners and more experienced poets are all welcome.

Registration:  Send a check or money order for $25 made to NCWN-West, %Glenda Beall, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904. We need to receive the fee by September 6, and we will then send you the link to the class.

 

 

 

 

Lisa Turner, Congratulations!

  

Congratulations to Netwest member, author Lisa Turner, on her latest book. You can get the paperback or order on Kindle. We all need to have this book if we own a home or plan to own a home one day.

It is a handbook on home inspections for home buyers, sellers, homeowners, and real estate professionals.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09BMG7GCP

 

I purchased Lisa's book, House Keys, The Essential Homeowner's Guide, and also gave it to friends and family. Lisa intersperses facts with stories of challenges she faced as she crawled under houses with only a flashlight. She writes from her experiences as a female home inspector, just one of the many positions she has held in her life. She also built her own airplane and flew it.  She tells that story in Dream Take Flight.

One reviewer said she never would have thought she would find a book on home inspections so entertaining she didn't want to put it down.

I plan to read the new book tonight. 

My friends who received the book, House Keys, were delighted to find the answers to many of their concerns and questions about their homes. I'm sure the new book will be packed with more relevant information. 

Lisa's website and blog are chock full of advice for the self-published author

https://dreamtakeflight.com/blog/f/self-publishing-the-secret-to-the-blurb

Virtual Open Mic Night, NCWN-West, Jackson County, Friday, August 20th, 7:15 PM

 NCWN-West Jackson County is hosting its monthly Open Mic night, courtesy of Jackson rep Matt Nelson, via Zoom on Friday, August 20th, beginning at 7:15 p.m. It's a supportive and friendly group which has kept in touch through 2021. Writers from beyond Jackson County are welcome to join us!  Length of readings will be determined by number of readers; if there are only a few, readings can go to ten minutes, but if we have more than six, we'll ask writers to keep their readings to five minutes.  For the link, please e-mail Matt at mattnelson.poet01@gmail.com, or City Lights Bookstore in Sylva at more@citylightsnc.com. 

Anthology of Poems from Jayne Jaudon Ferrer

 Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, founder and host of YourDailyPoem.com, which has featured a number of North Carolina poets through the years, has just published an anthology featuring 100 classic and contemporary poems entitled Poems to Lift You Up and Make You Smile. Featuring the work of poets from across the U.S., Canada, England, and Ireland, the collection offers upbeat perspectives, positive outlooks, feel-good scenarios, and smiles galore—“exactly what we need after this past year and a half,” says Jayne. 

Published by Parson’s Porch & Company, part of the proceeds from the book will go to support a food ministry program. Poems to Lift You Up and Make You Smile is available upon request from booksellers and on Amazon. 

 

 

 

  

 

ISBN 978-1-955581-09-7 
$18.95 Retail 
 

Brenda Kay Ledford Featured in The Laurel of Asheville

 

Brenda Kay Ledford's book, "The Singing Convention," is featured in "The Laurel of Asheville," August, 2021 issue.

Her  book is available at the Shelton House Museum; Waynesville, NC and The Beal Center; Hayesville,  NC.

Awesome Open Mic 7 30 21

Reminding people that I'm still here and to give people an idea of what another kind of Open Mic Night is like. I hope to have a much bigger crowd next time.

Have you taken an online writing course?

If you have not taken an online writing course, I suggest you read this post on the NCWN blog. 

http://www.ncwriters.org/whitecross/2021/07/27/pandemic-jones/

Jeremy B. Jones,  a professor at Western Carolina University and author of Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland (Blair, 2014), was interviewed by Gretchen Thomas. She asked him about teaching online during the pandemic and asked for good advice for writers. As writers, we all have judged ourselves on whether our work was accepted or rejected. I like Jones' comment on this and found it to be my philosophy as well.

What do you think?

If you have taken an online course, please tell us about it. You can email or leave a comment below. 

We have been asked to do a poetry online course. Would you be interested? Catherine Carter would be the instructor.

Your Correct Email Address

 To all members of NCWN-West,

Please be sure you update your email address with the Network if you have made a change recently or if you have recently renewed your membership. 

Some complain that they do not get reminders to renew membership, and I find that often the emails I send are not opened or delivered due to a wrong email address. 

To get the full benefit of your membership in both NCWN and NCWN-West, we need your current email address. 

Visit charles@ncwriters.org or Deonna@ncwriters.org to be sure your membership is up to date and your information is all correct.

Don't be left out

Some of you who have been members for a long time are no longer on the list I receive from NCWN because you have not renewed. If you are not on the list, you will not receive emails from Netwest nor the Network.

I am deleting old membership lists so only the latest lists will be in my computer and only those people will get the news about events that are local as well as those that are statewide.

If you subscribe to this site, you can see most of what is offered each month. Take a minute to do that.

See you on Zoom for Writers Night Out in August when our guest will be Kanute Rarey, storyteller, writer, and man of many talents. Members will be sent the link to attend.

Glenda Beall

Program Coordinator for NCWN-West

glendabeall@msn.com

gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com 

 

Carroll S. Taylor to be Featured Reader at Mountain Wordsmiths

Mountain Wordsmiths’ host, Carroll S. Taylor, will be the featured reader for the group on Thursday morning, July 22, at 10:30 a.m.

This event, sponsored by North Carolina Writers’ Network-West, is being held via Zoom because of COVID concerns. We hope to meet again in person in the Fall of 2021; however, we are happy that not only local writers are attending our meetings but writers outside our state are also joining us.

Carroll S. Taylor

Carroll Taylor grew up on a dirt road in rural West Central Georgia. A graduate of Tift College (Mercer University), she holds graduate degrees in French, English, and Educational Leadership. She retired after teaching for over forty years. 

She is the author of two young adult novels, Chinaberry Summer and Chinaberry Summer: On the Other Side. Her books emphasize generational storytelling and her love for reptiles and amphibians. Her children’s book, Feannag the Crow, introduces young readers to the joy of making new friends. Her poem, “Final Wishes,” is included in a newly released anthology, Poems to Lift You Up and Make You Smile. Her poetry has also appeared in The Reach of Song published by the Georgia Poetry Society and in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International's online gallery.

She and her husband live in Hiawassee, Georgia, and she’s always finding adventures, whether it’s standing on Prime Meridian, studying in Oxford, watching alligators in the Okefenokee Swamp, or hoping to be photobombed by Nessie while sailing on Loch Ness.

Taylor is a member of  North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and the Georgia Poetry Society. Readers may find her journal blog at chinaberrysummer.com and follow her at Facebook/chinaberrysummer.

Mountain Wordsmiths meets on the fourth Thursday of each month. We welcome those who were regulars at Coffee with the Poets and Writers which met at Moss Memorial Library prior to COVID-19 restrictions. 

Those wishing to attend Mountain Wordsmiths may contact Carroll Taylor at vibiaperpetua@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. Anyone who wishes to participate in Open Mic may sign up upon entering the meeting, and we welcome those who would simply like to listen to the beauty of wordsmithing.