A Blogger who teaches and writes prose and poetry

http://www.danawildsmith.com/everglades-log.html

The writer, Dana Wildsmith, is a favorite blogger of mine. I have never met Dana in person, but I feel a kinship to her. She lives in Bethlehem, Georgia outside Atlanta, and she lives on a farm, loves dogs and was devoted to her mother. 

She has been to many places writing and working and she writes about her experiences there.

The link above is to a post she wrote while at the Everglades National Park in Florida.

Presently, she is on a writing retreat in north Georgia, and like many of us, she is trying to get motivated to work on her next writing project. If anyone thinks it is easy to sit down and write, even though we love to write, they are mistaken. I think it is especially hard when you write poetry and prose. Changing from one to the other takes time and lots of work. 

I have enjoyed Dana's books of poetry and prose. She teaches a writing workshop each year at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC very near where I live. The writing classes I took at JCCFS from 1995 - 2005 helped me be who I am today. However, it would be almost impossible for me to attend a full weeklong class now. I don't have the stamina I once had. 

Because of the pandemic, they were closed most of last year. Now open again with all CDC guidelines in place, they also offer online courses. Dana is one of the teachers for the online courses.

It is very hot here and almost everywhere in this country, it seems. Climate change is proving to be a concern for all of us. I heard today that Lake Powell out west is falling low because of the drought. What must we do? 

My subscribers to this blog, I hope you are still getting my posts in your Inbox, but if you are not, please let me know. 

JUST ONE PERSON IS ALL IT TAKES - SEE HOW IT IS DONE!

Coronavirus is just twenty miles away from me now. A woman came down from New York where the virus is rampant at this time. She attended a Contra Dance at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Now she has been diagnosed with Covid-19 and we have no idea how many people she exposed at that dance or the staff at the folk school.

I wish they had closed the doors there earlier, but so many in this area thought that if the president didn't think it was serious, it was crazy to take all these measures like avoiding large crowds. How long did it take for the government to finally say, stop gathering in groups? Remember it was said that this was just a Democratic Party hoax? I saw that on TV and was shocked. 

We should have been prepared and certainly prepared earlier than we were.
So, people kept having parties, going to dances, gathering in bars, and in businesses.  This is from my most recent post:

Some say there is no need to be concerned. They go about their business paying no attention to warnings to use sanitizer, practice social distances, wash their hands, etc. Even if someone is young and is not likely to die from this virus, he can spread the disease to others, to someone like me who is not young and doesn't have their immune system. The secret to stopping a disease such as COVID-19 is keeping it from spreading. But young people are still gathering at bars, drinking and dancing, and how many are spreading this virus that might seem to only be a cold?

I chastised a man I know on Facebook because he was making light of the seriousness of this virus. He didn't see why people should close their business since no one here had been diagnosed and besides, only old people were dying from this. I told him that I was one of the high risk people and my life was just as important to me as his was to him. Now, we see that ignoring the warnings has brought this deadly virus here to our area.

In my hometown two people died because someone from Atlanta came down there to a funeral. I imagine that those who died were older people. The carrier was sent back to an Atlanta hospital, but twenty-three people are sick in Albany, GA. Just one person can spread this virus and you don't know who that person might be. I have many family members in Albany, GA. Now I worry that they might carry it to my brother who is a high risk. 

Stay home. Self-isolate and enjoy some alone time, some quiet. Today I worked around my house doing things I have put off for a while. I edited a story by one of my students. I went to Walgreen's and picked up a prescription at the window, went to the ATM at the bank, and back home. I was not exposed to anyone and I used gloves and sanitized my hands after.

If I get sick with this virus, it won't be because I ignored the warnings. I hope all of you are obeying the rules, doing more than you are told to do to protect yourself.

An old friend at the Folk School

Years ago, I met a lovely young woman, Karen Hurtubise, a massage therapist at the time. As with many healers I've met, Karen's sweet, loving personality is evident in her smile when she greets you. I'm sure she is an Empath, one who feels deeply and is overly sensitive to the world around her. 

I met Karen in a writing class I taught. I found that she had not come to learn to write, but to bring an older lady, a friend of hers, who had arthritis in her hands, but was set on writing her life stories for her family. I think Karen did much of the writing for her. A very generous person, Karen drove this woman to class each week. I realized quickly that I liked and admired Karen Hurtubise.

Today I read on the folk school blog page that she is Nature Studies, Gardening, and Soap-making Resident Artist at the John C. Campbell Folk School. What a great position for her. She loves herbs, plants, flowers and all of nature. She and John, her husband, had a raspberry farm at one time. They grow turmeric now. I have to try this fresh herb and the seasoning paste she makes.

To read more about Karen's interesting story, click on this link.

Karen and John with their dogs and Karen in a class at JCCFS

Tipper teaches mountain cooking at JCCFS

In a little town nearby, Brasstown, NC, resides the John C. Campbell Folk School where adults come from all over the world to participate in "camp for grownups" where every day is filled with fun. I spent many, many happy hours on this campus learning from the excellent staff of writers who have been coming here for fifteen years or more.

I have never taken one of the cooking classes they offer, but I am sure this class 

RELISHING MOUNTAIN FLAVOR (INTERGENERATIONAL)

will be fun because my good friend, Tipper Pressley, the knowledgeable author of her Appalachian blog, The Blind Pig and the Acorn, will be teaching. 
This class is for 12-17 year olds to attend with a parent, grandparent, or guardian -- 1 youth per 1 adult. Youths will receive a $100 discount on tuition.

Tipper Pressley

The folk school has been a fixture in this area since the 1920s and if you don't live in this area, I recommend you plan to take a vacation here and spend a week that will change your life. Take one of the many, many classes offered in music, crafts, writing, jewelry making and other interesting arts. 

a view from Folk School campus

You never know who you might meet because guests from all over the world have found JCCFS and come back again and again. Tipper's class on cooking mountain style is bound to be a good one. 

Have you been to the folk school and if so, what did you like best about it?

They come from the north and the south to John Campbell Folk School

This week has been exciting and exhausting. As I meet each day with my class of students, I love that they are there before me anxious to learn and to write.

We began Sunday evening and many of the eight students seemed a bit unsure as to what they hoped to write and what they expected to be writing in the future.
Today we discussed publishing and later when I asked where they might try to publish and what kind or writing they planned to pursue, everyone had something definite they wanted to do.

When students sign up for my classes at JCCFS, I never know the experience they have had in writing. I offer my class for beginning and intermediate writers. In this class, I have only one beginner. But his writing is good and he made the decision to write fiction. He is on his way to finding places for his stories for young adults.

One of the women in the class is a fantastic travel writer though she has only published one article. We all encouraged her to pursue publishing. I believe editors will want her humorous and entertaining work.

One woman is working toward a memoir on a subject seldom explored in today's world of literarure - women in agriculture. She held our attention with personal stories, often funny stories, and written with comedic timing, but without question of her knowledge of farming and the work involved.

The group has gelled slowly, but I can see the bond growing between them as they get to know each other through their writing and socializing on campus.
I think of my classes like a new book. I open the cover knowing nothing of what is inside, but with each page I learn more, and more. By Friday noon, we will dismiss and disperse to distant states and cities. Some of them I might never hear from again. Others will become email friends. I will always be interested in them and their writing.

I feel it is a priviledge to meet with these people, and I try to give them the best I have in me. I want them to leave knowing they can contact me with questions or for advice.

Tomorrow my students will show what they have learned this week when we hold a reading at the Keith House at 4:45 PM. I hope we have a full house for their reading debut. If you are in the area, please drop by and you will enjoy the stories by my students.

Renaissance Rebecca, a fascinating woman

I really enjoy Rebecca's blog. She will be living at John C. Campbell Folk School in July 2011 where I first met her.
I hope you click here and read her words. She is a most unusual but fascinating woman.
Leave her a comment, please.

SPRING SCHEDULE FOR JOHN CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL WRITING CLASSES

Where: John C. Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Rd. Brasstown, NC

Registration/Contact: 1-800-FOLK-SCH or http://www.folkschool.org/

Class Descriptions: https://www.folkschool.org/index.php?section=subjects&subject_id=47


Writing True Stories, March 28-April 3, Instructor Carol Crawford

The Habitual Writer, April 4-9, Instructor Susan Woodring

Nature Writing, Exploring the Natural World, April 18-24, Instructor Elizabeth Hunter

Write Like a Genius, May 2-8, Instructor Maureen Ryan Griffin

Your Poetry: Journey into the Interior, May 23-28, Instructor Nancy Simpson

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

Write what you know. What do we know better than our own stories, our own lives?

Recently, I overheard two little boys sitting on a bench outside a market. “I don’t think Mama and Daddy had video games when they were little,” one said to the other.

Kids wonder about what life was like for parents and grandparents. If your children or your grandchildren were gathered around you waiting to hear about what life was like when you were a child, what would you tell them?

Spend a week at Orchard House on the John C. Campbell Folk School campus in Brasstown, NC writing the stories of your life.

In 1998, I published a family history chronicling the lives of my grandfather and each of my ten aunts and uncles. They were not famous people. Just simple men and women who lived in the early twentieth century, who endured hardships and triumphs, and who will be forever remembered by future generations because their stories have been recorded in this book.

Since then, I’ve been writing and collecting incidents and stories about my own life. An example is Tar, Tallow and Prayer, which tells how a home remedy saved my baby sister’s life. My Mother’s Reunion is a humorous story of the time we crashed another family’s reunion.

In my writing classes students aren’t expected to be experienced writers.

Besides exploring our lives for stories, we learn to use the five senses to draw the reader into our work. We learn to use strong verbs, to avoid overused adjectives. We help cut out the fat, the extra verbiage, and show how to use historical events to place a story in time. We learn how to entertain and enlighten our audience, to tell true stories using the same components as good fiction.

A former student said this: What was so special about your class is that you created a harmony among strangers that evolved almost immediately into a group connection of respect, joy and genuine warmth and understanding. I believe every one of my classmates is a beautiful and courageous writer. … as you had us read our stories we were able to glimpse and appreciate the depth and the diverse culture of their fascinating lives.

We have openings for Leave a Written Legacy, February 21 – 27, at John C. Campbell Folk School, but registration must be made by January 29.

Anyone living in Clay, Cherokee, or Graham counties in NC or Towns, Union, and Fannin counties in Georgia, receive half price tuition. Call 1-800-365-5724 or click on http://www.folkschool.org/ and register online.

Local number is 828-837-2775.

Contact Glenda Beall, writerlady21@yahoo.com for more information.

2010 classes for JCCFS have been published on their website.

I took this photo behind Orchard House where our writing classes are held.

The John C. Campbell Folk School has published classes for next year, 2010, on their website and in their new catalog.
See the sidebar of this post to find my classes for 2010. I will teach in February and again in December of 2010. We are nearing the end of 2009.
Register for 2010 classes.

Nancy Simpson, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, Dana Wildsmith, and many other good writers and poets will be teaching at JCCFS next year. If you haven't taken a class at the Folk School in Brasstown, NC, you are missing a wonderful experience.

Nancy Sales Cash is working on her next novel

My friend, Nancy Sales Cash, author of Ritual River, a novel set in the south western mountains of North Carolina, is hard at work on a new novel. The setting is the same mountains but look for an unusual new story.

I met Nancy when Ritual River was first released. She read at the John C. Campbell Folk School and I was impressed with her presentation. Many fiction writers choose one section of their book, perhaps a chapter from the middle of the book, and read for twenty minutes. Sadly, the intense hours of writing the story, finding the best words, building the characters and plot, are lost within a few minutes as the audience drifts off in thought. Without building up a mystery or question in the minds of the audience before the reading, the listeners quickly loose interest before they hear the excerpt.

Nancy Sales Cash did not waste her moments reading a chapter. She spent much time enthralling her audience with how she researched the facts for the book. As she told about a particular piece of truth she used, the audience began to wonder why was this important. Then she read a short piece showing why she researched the subject. The time flew past so quickly I was amazed and I bought the book right off.

Nancy is in process of building and updating her website for her new book. She will also begin a newsletter for those who want to know more about her and her books, both past and future.
Her most recent work can be found in the anthology, Clothes Lines, published by Catawba Press, edited by Celia Miles. Last year one of her short stories was published in the popular book, Christmas Presence, also edited by Celia Miles.

Nancy and other authors will be reading and signing Clothes Lines throughout western NC in the next three months.

Contact Nancy at nancysalescash@charter.net or contact me, writerlady21@yahoo.com, if you want to receive her Newsletter.

Twenty Ten - planning ahead

Today I received my contract from John C. Campbell Folk School for a class I'm planning to teach in December 2010. Imagine, twenty-ten. That is next year and already I have plans for December. This class will be for folks who want to write their Christmas Stories. Don't we all have stories of Christmases past? I know I do.

The book published last year by Catawba Press, Christmas Presence, will be our text for this class. I am sure my students who often come from distant states will enjoy the Appalachian stories in this book.


The class I planned to teach in July at Tri-County College in Murphy NC had to be cancelled due to my husband's illness, but I hope we can hold that class in the fall of 2009. A number of former students had registered and I must ask their forgiveness but I know they understand.

Planning ahead is something I've always done. I keep a calendar and mark all important dates, but for over a year my life has been as uncertain as a summer thunder storm. I don't know what is coming, but I do see clouds gathering on the horizon. In the past I'd have closed all the windows, taken the clothes off the line, and called my dog inside.

Today, I look at those thunderheads forming and say to myself, they will blow over. I have no fear.

Tending the Roots article in WNC magazine

WNC Magazine is a terrific magazine on the caliber of Our State, but WNC is about western NC. Not much on south western NC yet, but in the Jan-Feb issue a small article "Tending the Roots" quoted me and mentioned my January class at John Campbell Folk School. The piece is on preserving your family history or your story. A nice young lady called a few months ago and interviewed me on the phone.

Pick up a copy of WNC magazine if you haven't seen it. Eric Seeger is the editor and he appeared on NC-Public TV Sunday to discuss this issue.