The Haves and the Have Nots make for good reading

Years ago, I met Gene Vickers when he attended a writing class I taught. I remember him well because, just as the class was ending, Gene stood and addressed those who sat in the chairs. I had told them that my husband had very recently been diagnosed with cancer. 

Gene got the attention of the group and said, " I hope you all will pray for this lady. She is going to have a rough time ahead. She needs our prayers."

I didn't know the man, but was impressed that he thought of me and what I was going to face in the coming months. I did have a rough time for the next year while my husband, Barry, went through chemo and ended up in the hospital in Atlanta. He died soon after. 

A few years later, Gene contacted me and signed up for one of my classes at Writers Circle around the Table. It was his first writing class, and it was not his cup of tea. He was the only man present.

After the class ended, Gene asked if I would give him private lessons. I knew he had an active imagination and could write a short story with a moment's notice. There was no doubt he was a writer at heart. Like all successful writers, he just needed to learn the craft of writing. 

We went to work, and he tried to come to my studio once a week, but he has his own business and was sometimes working and unable to attend class. Gene was working on a book meant for his family, especially his grandchildren.  Eventually he took his manuscript to an editor who helped him with finishing touches to prepare for publishing. The book was printed, and I was proud of him and his determination to complete the work even when it was not easy for him as a first time author.

Now Gene Vickers has written and published his second novel, Amen and Amen. 

With this title, you might assume this is a book for the Christian Book Store, but this novel is about the human spirit, the difference in economic classes in our country and the pain caused by this. It is also about two teens from different backgrounds who fall in love and bridge the chasm. It is about high school boys who loved football, were fine athletes, but never tried out for the high school team. They knew how the system had always worked. They knew they would not be chosen because of where they lived and their economic standing in the town. It is about wealthy men who made sure their sons made the team, but were surprised when the coach did not let wealth and position dictate who played on his team. The characterization is good and the reader will be rooting for the underdog all the way.

There is no violence and vulgar language in this book. It is about people and their relationships. It is also about football, and followers of the sport will enjoy descriptions of the game and meeting the high school boys who play.

This is a feel good book, which I think is perfect for today. 

My brother, Max, read this book, and he said he didn't want to put it down. He really liked it.

Find the book on Amazon.com. 

 

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. 

IMAGINE THIS - writing and publishing a book

Today I received an email from Gene Vickers, author of Imagine This, the Tale of Two Bears. 

In this email Gene sent a list of places his recently published book can be found online.

Here are the links to Gene’s eBook listings:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-This-Tale-Two-Bears-ebook/dp/B01BECUJVW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455160410&sr=1-1&keywords=Gene+Vickers+Imagine+This

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/imagine-this/id1082536984?ls=1&mt=11 

B&;N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imagine-this-gene-vickers/1123354090?ean=2940157624385 

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/imagine-this-12 

I am excited for Gene. He was my student for a year while we worked on this book. Together we worked on all the basics of writing because Gene had never taken a writing class. I was impressed. He was a quick learner and practiced what he learned in his revisions and re-writing. 

Gene has a terrific imagination and can create a story in a few minutes. His stories are not the usual subjects one might find in today’s magazine. They grab the reader and keep her turning the pages.

Imagine This is the tale of two grandparents who are feeling the void of the empty nest. Their children are grown and live far away. The grandchildren come and leave too soon while Papa and Mema stand with tears running down their cheeks as they wave goodbye. Mema, the nurturing mother and grandmother, hurts the most when she enters her suddenly quiet and lonely house.

Gene Vickers with Bear and Lilly

It is not that the grandparents don’t keep busy. Papa is a woodworker who has a shop in his garage. He goes fishing and visits with his friends for coffee each day. Mema stays busy with church and her friends, but both have lost their inner child, their playfulness that children bring out in all of us. When we lose our ability to create, to imagine, we become old, feel useless, and lose our spontaneity and sharpness. Mema found a way to imagine, and to believe as well, with the help of a little stuffed bear. This book is unusual because it appeals to children and to adults. The best way to enjoy this book is to read it to the children, I believe. Grandparents should have a copy for when the kids come. 

When Gene came to me for help with his writing, he said he wanted to publish this book for the public but more importantly, for his family, his grandchildren. 

As I tell all of my students, I said, “You will have to be willing to have the book read by others and edited by others to make sure it is the best it can be.” 

Before it left my hands, it was copy edited and content edited by two competent people other than me. Today’s authors speak of beta writers, qualified people who read a manuscript from front to back and give constructive critique. An author who has excellent contacts with other writers often finds beta writers among his friends, in his writing groups or online. An author can also pay for beta writers, but the best authors have many pairs of eyes read their manuscripts before sending them to the publisher. 

I could not advise Gene as to where he might find a traditional publisher for this book that was not just a children’s book, but was written with grandparents in mind. I knew if he began trying to publish traditionally, it would be a long, drawn out experience that could be very disappointing. For one thing, he didn’t have a readership. Publishers today want an author to already have a following. His best chance was finding a small press, but they won’t publish a book that they don’t feel will sell well. Unless an author has been writing and reading his work to the public, or publishing his stories in journals or magazines, he will have a hard time marketing a first book. In today’s literary world, most small presses will want an author to have an online presence with followers. 

Gene contacted Georgia Mountain Publishing, LLC. He worked with Barbara Harkins who continued the editing process until she and Gene hammered out the final copy. Gene had to face some difficult truths about publishing, things new writers always have to accept. He had to listen to an experienced publisher who had to convince him of what was best. I was not surprised. Other students of mine had to learn to put their trust in strangers; editors or publishers who know the ropes. Those professionals can make a huge difference in the outcome of a book.

The Hard Work Begins

Once a book is published, the author is in the writing business. The hard work begins once the book is printed. Marketing is not in the DNA of writers. We sit alone and pour out words, tell our stories, and feel good when someone likes what we write. 

That is why in recent years I have begun to hold workshops on publishing and marketing. In May we will hold a three-hour workshop on publishing and on another Saturday, we will discuss marketing. 

Tara Lynne Groth will teach at Writers Circle in August. She will share her vast knowledge of online marketing and using social media to promote our writing. 

Beginning Tuesday, March 1, I will teach a six-week course in creative writing at Tri-County Community College in Murphy, NC. 

This class is for people, like Gene Vickers was, who would like to write, have not taken writing classes but want to learn the basics of what is needed to complete a story, poem, or true stories about their lives. Even those who have published a poem or short story will benefit from the class if they want to move forward. 

My students say at first they were afraid to take a class, but once they came in and found all the other folks felt the same way, and no one was going to make them feel bad, they suddenly began to enjoy the class. Few people drop out of my classes once they have attended a couple of times. Most people repeat the classes several times to stay motivated and to learn more and more.

To register for my class beginning March 1, 6 – 8 p.m. Tuesdays, contact Lisa at the college. Fee is only $35 for twelve hours of instruction. Great deal.

To Register: Contact -Lisa Long 

Director of Community Outreach

(828) 835-4241

lthompson@tricountycc.edu

Nothing pleases me more than the success of my students. I love to help a fellow writer on the way to reaching his goals. If that was not so, I would sit home and write all day every day instead of teaching and inviting instructors to come and teach at Writers Circle. If I had found classes and writers in the state and town where I used to live when I was younger, I might have begun publishing much earlier than I did. Don't put off something you have always wanted to do. Do it now.

A New Student at Writers Circle, Gene Vickers

Mt Zion

By Gene Vickers

The pastor was late and his tardiness allowed time for a sobering walk up the hillside. I didn’t need a
compass to determine which direction was East; all of the headstones and markers faced that way. Hope is ever present, even in cemeteries. A recent burial was indicated by fresh flowers and fresh turned earth; a new neighbor moving into what appeared to be a very old neighborhood. Graves dating from the early 1800s were everywhere. Markers were so old some names and dates were obliterated. Time, the very commodity each one residing here ran out of, is now so brazen as to take away their identities.

As I read names and dates I tried to imagine the era in which they lived and died. What, according to my memory of history, was happening in 1803. Eighteen thirty-five, eighteen fifty-six, and all of the other by-gone years.

As I stood in front of Ezekial Brown’s final resting place, my cell phone rang, breaking the silence of
my contemplation of eternity. I was somewhere between his birth in 1807 and his death in 1886. Why
did I answer my cell phone? Habit, I guess. It was someone doing marketing for a surveillance equipment company. After several no’s, they finally hung up. But Ezekial had closed the door and would not allow me back inside. I couldn’t blame him. Rude is rude no matter the century. I moved on.

Ezekial had a neighbor, a small neighbor, and I decided to read her poetry cut deep into the headstone: “Only five years with us she spent, till God for her His angels sent.” No doubt Elizabeth had brought lots of joy and happiness into her family that sixth day of January, 1929. The Stock Market would crash later that year. It was not the best of years to be born. But the crash of the market paled in comparison to January 25, 1934, when Elizabeth moved here permanently.

“Who wept for this child?” I thought.
“I did and still do,” came a voice into my mind.
I looked next door and there was her mother’s place. Both mother and daughter, side by side, separated only by a few feet of earth and eternity. The hillside seemed alive.
“Come here.”
“No, over here. Come over here and read my name.”
“Please say my name. I haven’t heard it in so long.”

I went to as many as I could, saying each one aloud and reading the birth dates. I purposely did not read the date of their death. Many of the stones were so old and worn I could not read their names. I felt their pain, the pain of being nameless and forgotten. I heard the pastor as he arrived in the parking lot. I could feel the disappointment of those whose names I had not read.

“I will come back,” I told them in my mind. “I will come and visit you again.”