New Year's Eve 2024

Glenda

It is New Year's Eve in Roswell, GA and I am having a quiet time at home. 

I will be preparing Lexie for the fireworks that will begin soon. It terrifies her. She usually hides under my bed, but I am going to make her hiding place more comfortable tonight. I will put her bed and her cozy blanket there. I will play quiet music that I hope will drown out some explosions and shrill sounds. 

I am excited about the coming year. As I recover from the past two years, I hope for more interesting things in my "city" life. Over the holidays, I was included with Gay and Stu for a couple of parties where I met women who told great stories about their lives and the lives of their ancestors. Everyone has a story, and a unique story, to tell. I hope to do some readings and programs in this area.

Beginning in February, I plan to schedule writing workshop classes again, on Zoom. This year I want to include my writer friends as instructors for Writers Circle Around the Table. For ten years I had a writing studio, with that title, in my house in Hayesville, NC. Almost every week, we held a workshop in poetry or prose. We had outstanding writers come and teach at my studio. I had a guest room in the studio with a private bathroom. There were some kitchen necessities. The visiting men and women said they enjoyed staying overnight and sitting on my deck in the morning listening to the sounds of nature as they wrote down their thoughts.

Joseph Bathanti, NC Poet Laureate from Boone was a favorite. Robert Lee Brewer of Writers' Digest publications was another welcome instructor. Scott Owens, a good friend, came over from Hickory NC to do a reading and teach a class once or twice each year. 

Poet Scott Owens

I feel sure more writers and poets of their caliber will take part in an online class. I will share a portion of the profit of these classes with the NC Writers Network-West.

Remember, with Zoom, it doesn't matter where you live. You can participate from your own home or school or anywhere you have access to a computer and WiFI. 

If you want to be on my mailing list for announcements of classes, please send an email to me using this info: gcbmountaingirl(AT)gmail.com. Write Classes in the subject line.

Wishing all of you a healthy and happy New Year. Be grateful you have another year in which you can reach out to others, share your time and talents, and maybe change a life for the better.

Guest Post for Robert Lee Brewer's blog on Writers' Digest site

I don't often seek out guest posting opportunities, but recently Robert Lee Brewer, Senior Content Editor, Writer's Digest Community placed an invitation on his blog asking for anyone who had a good idea for a guest post to send him an email. I did, and he requested I write the post and send it to him.

He published it today. You can read it here.

The poet  Karen Paul Holmes, is the subject of my interview and you can read that interview here. 

Karen Paul Holmes, author of Untying the Knot

What do you think? Would you rather read a review of a book or read an interview with the author?

Meet the Men Who Teach at Writers Circle this Summer

 I am excited and happy to get back to working full time on my classes at my studio, Writers Circle, in Hayesville, NC after spending some time as volunteer Interim Program Coordinator for NCWN West. 

Below find biographical information on a few instructors for upcoming classes. Visit Writers Circle site and click on Schedule page to learn more about the classes taught by these men and how to register.

WILLIAM WRIGHT comes up from the Atlanta area and is author of six collections of poetry: three full length books, including Night Field Anecdote (Louisiana Literature Press, 2011), Bledsoe (Texas Review Press, 2011), and Dark Orchard (Texas Review Press, 2011). Wright’s chapbooks are Sleep Paralysis, Winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, selected by Kwame Dawes, forthcoming from the Stepping Stones Press, Xylem & Heartwood, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, and The Ghost Narratives (Finishing Line Press, 2008). Wright serves as an advisory and contributing editor for Shenandoah and a contributing web columnist for Oxford American, translates German poetry, and is currently editing four anthologies. Wright won the 2012 Porter Fleming Prize in Literature. 

Wright was born in Augusta, GA, and raised in Edgefield County, South Carolina. His wife, the writer Michelle Nichols Wright, and he now reside in Marietta, GA.

http://www.towncreekpoetry.com/

ROBERT S. KING grew up in the rural countryside near Gainesville, Georgia. While in the Navy he earned a diploma from the Defense Language Institute which trained him to serve as a Cambodian translator stationed at the National Security Agency. After military service, he went back to college and graduated from West Georgia University with degrees in English and Spanish. Since then he has worn out quite a few hats. He has more than 20 years of experience working in public and academic libraries, book stores, and as Publications Editor for the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

After 12 years, he left UGA to pursue a more lucrative occupation as Software Engineer, especially as a developer of web applications. He retired in 2010 and soon moved to the mountains with his long-time soulmate, Diane Kistner. Their son, Ian Dorian King, is an artist currently living in Athens, Georgia. Robert is the only football fan in his family (Go Dawgs!).

Before his retirement, much of Robert’s spare time was spent in writing and publishing poetry. He has also served as editor and/or publisher of several literary presses. He stepped down as Director of FutureCycle Press in 2012 in order to devote more time to his own writing.

Robert’s poems have appeared in hundreds of magazines and anthologies, including California Quarterly, Chariton Review, Kenyon Review, Main Street Rag, Midwest Quarterly, and Southern Poetry Review. He has published three chapbooks (When Stars Fall Down as Snow, Garland Press 1976; Dream of the Electric Eel, Wolfsong Publications 1982; and The Traveller’s Tale, Whistle Press 1998). His full-length collections are The Hunted River and The Gravedigger’s Roots, both in their second editions from FutureCycle Press, 2012; and One Man's Profit (Sweatshoppe Publications, 2013). His work has received several nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of Net award. Robert's personal website is www.robertsking.com

ROBERT LEE BREWER also comes to us from the Atlanta area. He is the Senior Content Editor for the Writer’s Digest Writing Community. In addition to handling the Writer’s Market, he edits Poet’s Market, manages the Poetic Asides blog, writes a poetry column for Writer’s Digest, and a whole lot more. Named Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere in 2010, Brewer has been a featured poet at several events around the country and will have his debut full-length poetry collection, Solving the World’s Problems, published by Press 53 in September 2013. 

He’s married to poet Tammy Foster Brewer, who helps him keep track of their five little poets (four boys and one princess).

Read Robert's blog here.

See the time, date, and location of classes Here.