Blue Ridge Writers' Conference 2021 is open now for Registration

I registered for the 2020 Blue Ridge Writers' Conference which had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus. I asked them to keep my fee because I plan to attend the next one which has now been scheduled for April 9 - 10 in Blue Ridge, Georgia. I have high hopes that our world will be safer by then. 

Carol Crawford and Caroline Mann and others at the BRM Arts Center work hard each year to bring us the best speakers for this conference. I have only missed one or two since the first one. I was once a speaker there. 

For more than 20 years, we who live in the mountains of North Carolina and North Georgia, have been given this wonderful opportunity to learn from top writers, editors and others. And for those of us who live in the local area, we can spend the day there and still be home at night. Check the website and see who will be there. You know your writing friends will attend. I hope to see you there.

https://www.blueridgewritersconference.com/about-our-speakers.html

Teaching and Writing Brings Joy to My Life

I have enjoyed teaching a memoir class for the Institute of Continuing Learning the last three weeks. As usual, my students seem to bond and enjoy each other. This class is taught on Zoom which has become the way I see most people in these strange and abnormal times.

Monday will be the last class in this course, and I hope my students have learned much and are motivated to continue writing. It is always a joy for me when my students tell me that the class was important to them in any way. You can see what some have said if you visit this page on this blog.

Some of the things we covered are the importance of using dialogue and how to best use dialogue. Dialogue is the part that readers never skip, so we want it to move the story forward, describe characters, and help the reader know the person speaking. My dear friend, Carol Crawford, editor, poet and writer, will teach a class on writing dialogue on Zoom in September. If you want to take that class you don't have to leave your own home. I will post more about it and how you can register in a later post.

I am always thrilled to see one of my students write and publish a book. 
Author Gene Vickers has a new novel, his second, titled Amen and Amen. It is set in north Georgia, and characters range from high school students to teachers, coaches, parents, business men and women from various economic levels. We have young lovers, Friday night football in the south, and a melding of cultures. The book started from a short story by the author, and someone suggested he turn that story into a novel. I want to do an interview with Gene when he and I both have time. His book is now available on Amazon.com. It is a good read, a book that offers hope and boosts your mood in a time when we all need some of that.

I hope my readers, my friends, will have a wonderful week ahead and find good in every day. No matter how dark things seem, there is always a silver lining if we look hard enough. 


Want a short history lesson? Click here to read what another student, a veteran, has to say about Korean Conflict. 

See you in Blue Ridge, Georgia in April

Carol Crawford and her volunteers have posted seven presenters for the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference to be held in Blue Ridge, Georgia,  April 4 and 5. 

I am delighted to be included in this outstanding group. 

This conference is always excellent. I suggest you put it on your calendar now if you live in the vicinity or plan to make a visit to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Do you attend writing conferences, workshops or other events for writers? Tell us about them.

A short Road Trip

Life is fun and life is busy these days. 

CAROL CRAWFORD, POET AND WRITER

I went up to Hendersonville with Carol Crawford, director of the annual Blue Ridge Writers Conference in Blue Ridge GA Thursday to speak to Senior Friends, a delightful group of people in my age bracket. 

Carol is a dear friend and was one of my mentors when I started to write and publish poetry sixteen years ago. She read from her poetry book, The Habit of Mercy, a touching and funny collection of poems about mothers and daughters. After the meeting we sat up in my room and ate popcorn and talked. I think I did most of the talking, but Carol is a wonderful listener. I could hardly believe her girls are in college now. Her guilty pleasure is knitting and playing online scrabble with her girls.

On Friday before leaving town we dropped in to meet Valerie Welbourne, owner of the Fountainhead bookstore.

 Hendersonville is only two hours from where I live, and I plan to go back soon just to browse the shops along Main street. Of course I indulged my guilty pleasure and bought more books, not only there, but I couldn't pass by Waynesville without stopping at the Blue Ridge Bookstore there. Now I have to try to find a book or two to give away so I have room for the new ones.

I was asked to read and teach and I hope I also motivated  and inspired.

I very much appreciate both of these independent book stores  stocking Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, anthology of WNC writers and poets, edited by Nancy Simpson. The Fountainhead bookstore sold two copies just before we stopped in.

Also, this week, I received Susan Snowden's new novel in the mail. Southern Fried Lies. Valerie said she couldn't put it down, so I look forward to diving into it soon.

 

Reading and Writing at John C. Campbell Folk School

Brenda Kay Leford and I read before an enthusiastic audience of people from several different states at JCCFS on Thursday night.  I saw Vicki Hunt, an excellent instructor,  who was teaching that week.  I was one of her students a few years ago. All the teachers in the writing program at JCCFS are good. Over the past fifteen years, I've taken many, many classes there with memorable writers and poets such as Kathryn Stripling Byer, past Poet Laurette of North Carolina.




View from behind writing studio at Orchard House


Carol Crawford , one of my writing mentors, teaches there and I have studied with her several times. I will always remember a class on writing essay with Dr. Steve Harvey. And I'll never forget an unusual , but informative week with R.T. Smith.

One writing teacher I still haven't met, but I want to take her class, is Dana Wildsmith. It has not worked out yet, but one day I hope it will. She is a writer I admire.
 
Some people say to me, "You teach writing,  why would you want to take writing classes? "
Well, I don't think any of us knows it all. Every class I take I learn something, especially when I study with instructors for the first time. Writers like to gather and talk about writing. They share and they learn from each other. That is also true in writing classes.

To become a good writer, I believe we should take every opportunity to glean what we can from those who have been successful and have experience we don't yet have. Even the most well-published writers and poets suffer doubt when they finish a poem, a story, an essay, or a book.  They worry, is it good enough; is it as good as the last one; will this work reach the editor, publisher or reader who will connect and fall in love with this particular piece. As writers we put everything on the line when we submit our work. We are all human in that we want others to approve of our efforts.

I hear that writers are narcissistic, writers are selfish, writers are self-centered, writers are arrogant, and so on.
At times, I have to agree. At one time I thought I didn't know any writers who were mean spirited or jealous and competitive toward other writers, but I was naive. Writers are people and we all come in different sizes and shapes. I have been fortunate that most of my friends who are writers are generous toward other writers and are willing to give them opportunities, to give them advice and share insight into the literary world.
We can all aspire to become that kind of writer.

Writers' Conference

I spent the day in Blue Ridge Georgia at the Arts Center where Carol Crawford pulled off yet another flawless writers’ conference. This event was number fourteen sponsored by the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association and this time it was held at the magnificent old building now used as an Arts Center. My eyes feasted on the paintings and photography on the walls as well as carvings and sculpture displayed. I arrived late and missed Sally McMillan’s opening remarks, but I did not miss Hope Clark’s session. I subscribe to Hope’s free newsletter at http://www.fundsforwriters.com/ Her handout was jam-packed with Internet sites to contact for funding for writers. She had not planned to make her living this way. Her talk about her own life and how she came to be in the business of helping writers find grants, proves you just never know how your plans can change and often for the best. Hope is from South Carolina. Her warm smile and easy manner with an audience comes through on her blog. She enjoys helping her readers. She is the kind of person you know you will like the minute you see her. It was so good to see my good friend, Scott Owens, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, and hear the compliments heaped upon him. He was a big hit, and I am happy to say he will be back here in the fall at Writers Circle to teach a workshop. Check this site for the date: http://www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com/ All the presenters talked about online publishing and social media’s importance to a writer. Attendees came away realizing their need to catch up with technology. I recognized that deficiency some time ago. That is why we asked Ronda Birtha to teach us how to best use social media to promote our writing and she will do that at Writers Circle on May . It is not too soon to sign up now. Space is limited. Echoes across the Blue Ridge, the Netwest anthology published last year, sold well as did all the books on the table manned by Melinda of Cowan’s Book Nook in Blue Ridge. http://www.hellonorthgeorgia.com/Shopping/CowansBookNook.html I picked up a couple of books I’ll write about later. Except for the air pollution caused by all the people who wore perfume, it was a perfect day. Tonight I’m nursing a sore throat and headache, and praying I won’t end up with bronchitis or asthma from networking with all the delightful writers there. It would not be difficult to print on the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference application a little line that says, “Please do not wear perfume or fragrance of any kind. Some of our guests are extremely sensitive to the chemicals.” If you did not go to the conference, I urge you to put it on your calendar for next year.

A New Year and New Beginnings

2009 , tonight less than one hour old, is as new and as innocent as this beautiful baby.

It is now 2009 at 12:35 AM. No one is awake but Tiger the bob-tail cat and me. Barry was determined to make it till the Ball Drop in Times Square, but I didn't need to see a ball drop, a peach drop or as they do in Brasstown, a possum drop, to know another year has flown by and still, I have so much yet to do.

Today was windy, cold but sunny and that lifted my spirits which are not the best on New Year's Eve. I even gave myself time to be pampered with a good long massage by Linda at Murphy Mountain Therapeutic Massage and now I feel more prepared to face a new year, with new challenges and new hopes and new goals. Always new goals. Last year my goals were more for NCWN West than for me, but in 2009, my goals are more personal.

Number one is to help my husband and partner heal and be well. Secondly, I want to submit more of my writing and possibly publish a book. This will take more discipline, more time given to myself, and a writing schedule such as Kelly L. Stone advises in her book, Time to Write..

When the Christmas tree, the few decorations I put out and the cards are put away, I look forward to beginning the new year with my class at the John Campbell Folk School in January. February will hopefully mean the end of Barry's chemo treatments and the beginning of a few weeks in Florida. We will both be ready for that down time.

March brings on the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blairsville. I have not missed this annual conference since it began and I've enjoyed every one. My good friend Carol Crawford has created an excellent event for writers.

April weather inspires me to garden even though my planting usually takes place on my deck with pots of geraniums and in my yard, impatients line the bed beside the driveway. Thanks to Robert, a wonderful man who does the heavy work, our daylilly beds, our shade bed and our azaleas will pop with color and our twenty five dogwoods will brighten our wooded areas like left over snow mounds.

So now I go to bed and wake up in a brand new year. I will open my new journal and begin, January 1, 2009 and I hope and believe I will fill this journal with good things, things of which I'm more appreciative than I was last year. At the top of each page of this journal I will list what I'm grateful for and why. The more we emphasize our blessings, the less we dwell on our hardships. The more we give, the more we receive and the happier we are. This year with our shortage of cash, we plan to live a more frugal life and dispose of much we have that others can use.

I know what it is to do without. I saw my parents sacrifice and I can do the same if need be. Material things that have no active purpose are unnecessary if we need food and shelter. I see the country moving away from the greed and keeping up with the Joneses, and embracing a simpler life which will make for a kinder more compassionate society.
Happy New Year to you, my readers , to those who leave comments and let me know you enjoy this blog, a special thanks.

May all the best be yours in 2009.