Arts Expo in Hayesville

The Arts Expo in Hayesville last Saturday was a fun-filled day with many artists and crafts people and a goodly number of Netwest writers on hand.
Shirley Uphouse read from her book, My Dogs, My Friends, and Paul Donovan read his poetry from Ramblins of an Idiot. Carole  Thompson helped man the booth and shared her story from Clothes Lines, the anthology based on a theme of clothing.

Jo Carolyn Beebe, one of the authors in this book, read a short piece. On our table were books by Nancy Sales Cash, Ritual River and Patterns of the Heart, and the anthology Christmas Presence, an anthology edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham, that came out last year.

Karen Holmes, our Netwest editor and publisher of the Netwest News, was a huge help to me in taking down the booth after the long day. Karen is also published in Clothes Lines and participated in reading and signing books.

We were happy to have Sonny Boyer from Blairsville, GA join us at our table. Sonny, like many writers, has published an excellent historical novel, but is finding that marketing his book is difficult.

I was delighted when my students Ash, Nadine and Ginny came to hear me read. They had their books in hand and I was most happy to sign them.
Ash, whose essay was published in our local newspaper for Veterans Day, was persuaded to come up and read his story. I learned later that someone came to our table and asked how to get in touch with Ash to ask him to speak to their group.

This was the first Arts Expo held here in Hayesville, but I hope it will be an annual event. We found it to be an excellent opportunity to reach a new audience of listeners, readers, and possible writers. We hope to be invited again.

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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.

a BOOK ON FASHION FROM WOMEN WHO WORE IT

Recently I acquired a copy of Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham's new anthology, Clothes Lines, a book filled with stories and poems about, what else, clothes.
Among the writers I know in this book are Nancy Sales Cash, author of three novels and she is working on number four. Nancy is a native of Murphy, NC and spends much time in the Cherokee and Clay county areas. We met at the Daily Grind and Curiosity Shop Bookstore, had a cup of coffee and discussed readings of Clothes Lines and my poetry book Now Might As Well Be Then.
Some of the writers in the far southwest area of North Carolina and north Georgia who have work in Clothes Lines are Kathryn Stripling Byer, Joyce Foster, Nancy Sales Cash, Karen Paul Holmes, Carole R. Thompson, Glenda Barrett, Jo Carolyn Beebe, Janice Townley Moore, Blanche Ledford and Brenda Kay Ledford, and Peg Russell.
A number of our Netwest members throughout the region also appear in this interesting book by 75 western North Carolina Women.

Celia and Nancy published Christmas Presence last year through Catawba Press and used the same press for Clothes Lines. The book is made more interesting by the use of a few black and white pictures all done by Mary Alice Ramsey.

 Be on the lookout for readings from this anthology in your town.