Pat Zink is a new Cherokee County Representative for NCWN West

"Reviser – Look at this word. Break it down. The prefix “re” means again. The rest of the word comes from the Latin “visio,” meaning vision or seeing. Revision in writing means to “see again.” It doesn’t necessarily mean putting in a comma or spelling a word correctly. It means to look at your writing with fresh eyes. Rarely do we write something one time and publish it without this step. It’s important to get over the concept that what we’ve laid down on paper is written in stone."

The quote above is from P.C. Zink's website.

I recommend her book on writing which you can find here.

Pat Zink writes under the pseudonym of PC Zink, and she has published many books in various genres.

 Check out her website and learn about her as an editor.

Pat is now a county rep for NCWN-West. Although she lives in the winter months in Tallahassee, FL, she also has an address in Cherokee County, NC. Many of our mountain residents spend the cold months in Florida and the warmer months here in the southern Appalachians.

Pat is so comfortable and happy here, she has written a series of books set in this region. The setting is a very important character in fiction and in creative nonfiction. Pat writes about Florida and other places in her novels. To me, the setting is important to the tone and the time frame of a book. Pat does a good job with that. I hope you will visit Pat's online sites and perhaps you will fall in love with her writing.

If you have read her books, tell us what you like about them.

Dana Wildsmith reading and singing - makes you laugh and sing with her

Delightful writer, Dana Wildsmith from Bethlehem, Georgia loves to sing as well as she loves to write. See her on this video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jG-fLs0KLY

A reviewer says of her poetry book, A GOOD HAND,
"Great read on simple joys of life including seasons, dogs, and community. Dana has a true voice that sings, on and off the page!"


BACK TO ABNORMAL: SURVIVING WITH AN OLD FARM IN THE NEW SOUTH:

I purchased the book directly from Dana when she read at Writers' Night Out in Blairsville, GA, and I'm so glad I did. While it's true that it's theme is that of preserving, and not destroying, I honed in on Dana's wise advice to aspiring writers like me. I aspire to write about my family history and make it interesting to folks who don't know us. In Dana's words, like, "... Writers write to figure out the why of what is.", I found considerable insight into why I want to write, as well as how to go about it. I recommend the book as a writing handbook as well as a treatise on how to take care of our earth. Thank you to Dana for her sage advice. --- Ellen Schofield

A reviewer says of her poetry book, A GOOD HAND,

"Great read on simple joys of life including seasons, dogs, and community. Dana has a true voice that sings, on and off the page!"

The intertwined essays in BACK TO ABNORMAL: SURVIVING WITH AN OLD FARM IN THE NEW SOUTH spin out from author Dana Wildsmith's daily life on an old farm in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains, to the regional world of the ESL classes she teaches, to the national scope of her work as a writer and a teacher of creative writing.

The chapters read like a string of summer front-porch evenings with the author - talking about her past, her work on the farm, the people she lives among, and the eternal puzzle of how to make sure her time on this spot of earth continues whole, healthy and life-sustaining.

Environmental writer Jeff Biggers calls BACK TO ABNORMAL "a testimony to what we risk to lose."

Philip Lee Williams, a Georgia Author of the Year, says, "The rural world needs all the friends it can get, and it has here found the champion it deserves."

Writer & teacher Darnell Arnoult says BACK TO ABNORMAL is "a sharp and compassionate anthem and prophetic elegy to the pastoral standing ground against the hungry and devouring teeth of suburban sprawl." www.MotesBooks.com ~

Register for Dana's writing class, Words are All We Have, at Writers Circle on April 25, Saturday 10 - 1:00, by calling 828-389-4441 or emailing glendabeall@msn.com

Print the registration form found at www.glendacouncilbeall.blogspot.com 
Mail with your check to address provided.

Should Authors have a Marketing Plan in Place before submitting the Novel?

My friend from Brevard, NC, Pat Davis, was back home in the mountains recently and we shared lunch at City Lights Cafe in Sylva. Pat writes fiction and has been shopping around a manuscript for a while now. She had good news to share with me. Two publishers have shown interest.
One of the publishers wanted to see the marketing plan Pat had for this book. This certainly makes the point I have harped on for some time. The author must have a plan to sell the book, even before the book is accepted by a publisher. Writers must do the business of writing if they expect to be published.

I was happy to introduce Pat to Chris the owner of City Lights books. Writers and bookstore owners need to know each other and help each other. Without writers there would be no need for bookstores. Without bookstores, where would we be as writers?

City Lights has a few copies of my poetry book, Now Might as Well Be Then. Look for the ones with the ribbons hanging down on the Poetry shelf.

Pat has a couple of good blogs. This is her newest one - Single Life and Love after Fifty - not about writing so much, but about single women over the age of 50. I find it quite interesting.