Books can take us far away from the pressures and worries of today.

Joy Dent, my brother Max, and my cousin Rob looking for our Robison ancestors a few years ago.

I have not been much of a social media person except for Facebook which I use for announcements about writers, our writing group, and some family news. But recently I checked out some of the other sites and found that many writers use Instagram, and my second cousin Joy Dent, who writes under the name of Darcy Flynn has a page with pictures of her family, her pets, and her books. This is her page:  https://www.instagram.com/joydarcyauthor/

I have read some of her books and they are what she claims them to be: sweet, romantic, and clean.  No rapes or torn bodices in her books. The love stories make you sigh for that time in your own life, and her characters are well-drawn and interesting.

The author has an impressive background. She grew up in New Orleans, and she was named Mrs. Tennessee in a beauty pageant. She is educated in music, art, and dance and is talented in all, but in her empty nest years, she decided to write fiction and has published quite a few books. 

See her page on Goodreads. 

Her books are great for the times you want to escape the realities of this world and drift away to a place and time when life was filled with young love, with the games young people play when they are looking for Mr. Right or for Miss Right. 

With all the natural drama of our lives today, Darcy Flynn's books are perfect for those of us who feel the world is too much with us.

Joy with her son, Roman, who recently passed away

 

Miss Minerva and William Green Hill

 A 2009 study at the University of Sussex found that reading can reduce stress by up to 68%, lower heart rates, and ease muscle tension.

Perhaps that is why I have always turned to books when I am down or when I feel stressed. Books surround me and my house is filled with them. One of the oldest books I have is a book titled Miss Minerva and William Green Hill. This book was read to my third grade class by Mrs. Chapman, a gifted teacher who read to us for the last thirty minutes of the day. 

When the school year ended, Mrs. Chapman, who knew how much I loved the book and her reading it, let me take the book home so I could finish it over the summer. I am sure Miss Minerva would be banned today because of the language used between the white kid, William Green Hill (Billy) and his friend, a black boy his age. The dialect used through out is difficult to read, and I admire my teacher for doing such a good job with it. I think the author was being true to the culture of our country at the time, the early twentieth century.

The two children loved to be together and played together, got into loads of mischief that brought Miss Minerva, Billy's aunt, down on them with angry words. She preached to Billy, and he responded with words that often made his aunt stop and think. The book will make you smile and laugh but you need to know it is full of stereotypes regarding race. 

When I ran across the book in a used book store about twenty years ago, I had to have it. When I opened it and tried to read it, I was amazed at how much dialect was used and how difficult it was to read. I didn't remember it that way.

In writing classes today, we are encouraged not to use heavy dialect in our writing because it often stops the reader who has to go back and try to understand the weird writing. We use only a few phrases or words to indicate the dialect, but it is not acceptable to misspell words or write a sentence with so much dialect the reader must struggle to understand what the author is trying to say.

The Miss Minerva books, and there are several, remind me of the Mark Twain books which also reflected the culture of the time. The author of the first book in the series is Francis Boyd Calhoun. After her passing the books were written by others. I loved the book when I was a child. The reviews of the book tell the same story of kids who were read this book by adults and insist their own children hear it. 

Did you read this book when you were a child? Did you have a special book you loved as a child and bought it as an adult?

John Lewis was refused a library card when he was a child. So was a little white girl.

Today I found myself shedding tears, watching a horse drawn wagon carry the body of a special man, a leader who was willing to give his life for freedom for all in this country. A man who was spat on, beaten and threatened, never gave up.

 His story is touching and shows that determination and doing the right thing can raise a man, the son of a tenant farmer in Alabama, the deep south, to the halls where major decisions are made in the United States of America. I doubt that he ever thought he would reach such heights when he was a young man in his twenties, a follower of Martin Luther King, the pacifist black man who changed our country.

The story told about John Lewis that brings tears to my eyes is not the horrible beating he took on the bridge in Selma Alabama in 1965 when I was a young married woman. It is the story of him going to the library in Selma when he was a little boy and being refused because "the library is for white people only." This child had a hunger for learning, but he was poor and black, and was denied the only place where he thought he might find books so he could read and learn. 

I was a reader from the time I was small and loved to see the Book Mobile come to my house on the farm where I loaded my arms with books to last me until that book mobile came again. I wonder now, did that book mobile go to the homes of the black farmers whose farms were adjacent to our place?

John Lewis' story is a sad reminder of a little white girl who lived on the wrong side of the tracks in Pelham, GA. She, too, loved to read but the only books available to her were at school. In the summer she told her mother she would like to read. She was told to walk downtown a few blocks away and go to the library. 

PELHAM CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY, 133 Hand Street

The little girl, excited that she would be able to find a book to bring home, made her way down the road and across the dividing line of the Haves and Have Nots, the railroad tracks. She approached the large library doors, already feeling intimidated, and entered. Amazed to find so many books on all the tall walls, she didn't know what she should do, where she should go. Behind a large desk an older woman sat oblivious to the little girl who had just entered. 

"Can I get a book to take home to read?" The shy little girl asked the woman behind the desk. 
That little girl never forgot the look the woman gave her or the words she said. "No. There are no books for you here."

The little girl turned and walked through the big doors. Tears ran down her cheeks as she made her way back across the tracks. 

Eventually the little girl and her family moved to another town and another school. The little girl excelled in school, was a favorite of one of her teachers, and was given a college scholarship. She always loved books, fine literature, best sellers, and even in her last days she found reading a great comfort.

Today, one of her great nephews is head of the libraries in the region of Pelham, GA. I would like to tell him this story and ask what librarians today would say or do if that little girl came there. I hope they would help her.

Visit this site today to read more about John Lewis and my brother-in-law, Stu Moring.
https://www.glendacouncilbeall.com/2020/07/congressman-john-lewis-servant-leader.html#.Xx3azlVKj3g

You want to know about this!

We are featured on the NCWN Book Buzz page: Thanks to Charles Fiore.

https://www.ncwriters.org/index.php/our-members/book-buzz

We have a new website/blog. That is, Estelle Rice and I have a site for our books. Check it out here.  Be sure to look for the Pages where you can see where we will be reading or signing books and for Your Comments.We would love to hear from those who have read any of our books. Send comments to gcbmountaingirl@gmail.com. I will publish them on Your Comments.Or you can leave your comments on the page.

Our new book is Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins: Family Pets and God's Other Creatures. We published a collection of stories about our own pets and also added some fiction about animals. We included poems. One of mine is about our first mixed-breed dog, Rocky, and how he came to be with us. A touching story is about Barry, my husband, and how a special horse helped cure his depression after open heart surgery.

Rocky came to us when we most needed him, but I didn't want him.

Estelle wrote a funny story about what happened when she tried to tell her youngest child where babies came from using the pregnant family dog. All of her stories are entertaining, include humor and keep you reading until the end.

We have been pleased by the number of books ordered, and we hope more orders will come in as Christmas nears. The books, filled with color pictures, are great gifts for animal lovers. 

We each published a poetry chapbook some years ago. That is a small book of around 28 pages of poems. Estelle's book, Quiet Times, is a lovely collection of inspirational poems that is loved by everyone who reads it. 

My poetry book, Now Might As Well Be Then, was published by Finishing Line Press and sold on Amazon.com. But recently I learned Amazon is not selling books with the binding used on my book. Sadly, someone has stolen the link to my book and now when you click on it, you go to a website that sells devices. The book is still available at Finishing Line Press and from me.

In 1998, I combined my genealogy research with creative nonfiction and published a hard back, beautiful book: Profiles and Pedigrees, Descendants of Thomas Charles Council (1858 -1911)  Although I was not as good a writer back then, I am proud of this book because I spent ten years researching the lives of my grandfather, Tom Council and his ten children. 

All of our books can be found at Blue Heaven Press.

A Poem from Quiet Times by Estelle Rice:

Silence

When I am silent,

thoughts surge onto the shore

of my consciousness.

There is no place to hide

or deny my fears.

Silence endures my frailties,

nudges me toward the paths

where I will meet myself.

Silence encourages me

to listen to the universe,

that I may hear

the songs of angels.

             ---Estelle Rice

Let's go to the Festival on the Square

Lake Chatuge and the mountains that surround it.

This coming weekend, we will set up a booth at the Festival on the Square in Hayesville, NC where thousands of people will pass through and see fine crafts and outstanding original art by men and women from all over the south. This festival has grown tremendously since I first attended in 1995. I can't walk around the square where all the tents and booths are set up without taking home something. One year it was raining and I was not feeling well, but I did go to the festival and bought a barbecue plate to take home. 

On several occasions in the past our writing group, the NC Writers' Network West, set up a booth and many local writers and poets brought their books to sign for visitors. I furnish the tent, table and chairs but I can't take all that down town and put it up alone. This year, Joan Gage, poet and blogger and her man, Rob, will do the heavy lifting. Another writer, Deanna Klingel, will help set up and she will be in the booth all weekend. Karen Holmes, outstanding poet from Atlanta will be at the table on Saturday afternoon along with Carole Thompson who wrote a beautiful poetry book, Enough. 

The anthology, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, will be on sale. This book contains stories, poems, essays by authors from all over our region. I am proud to have a story in this book which also contains poetry by two poet laureates and is dedicated to Byron Herbert Reece, a highly regarded mountain poet who lived in the early part of the twentieth century. 

I hope that visitors to the festival will take time to visit the shops and businesses around the square. If you like crafts of all kinds, we have Busy Hands which sells work done by many local crafts people. Be sure to drop in at the local ice cream soda fountain next door to Tiger's Department store. 

I learned today that the CCCRA, a community group that is striving to save and update our historic courthouse, is having a trash to treasures sale right across the street from the square - where the Phillips and Lloyd Bookstore used to be.

I'm taking some of my "stuff" down to be sold.

Molly and Me is a fun place to roam around and look for special items once used but ready for a new home. And don 't forget to drop in at Joe's Coffee House and Wine Shop. They will be open this weekend. Sit outside on the covered porch area or inside with your friends. 

Music rings out from the Gazebo all weekend - cloggers, fiddlers, and one of my favorite groups, The Pressley Girls, will be on hand to sing their mountain harmonies.

Whatever you do, if you come to Hayesville this weekend, 11-12 of July, come by the booth to speak to me and our other writing friends. I'll be there Saturday morning and Sunday. Our Clay County Historical and Arts Council is sponsoring this festival. Many thanks to all the volunteers who work so hard to make this festival a big success every year. 

A short Road Trip

Life is fun and life is busy these days. 

CAROL CRAWFORD, POET AND WRITER

I went up to Hendersonville with Carol Crawford, director of the annual Blue Ridge Writers Conference in Blue Ridge GA Thursday to speak to Senior Friends, a delightful group of people in my age bracket. 

Carol is a dear friend and was one of my mentors when I started to write and publish poetry sixteen years ago. She read from her poetry book, The Habit of Mercy, a touching and funny collection of poems about mothers and daughters. After the meeting we sat up in my room and ate popcorn and talked. I think I did most of the talking, but Carol is a wonderful listener. I could hardly believe her girls are in college now. Her guilty pleasure is knitting and playing online scrabble with her girls.

On Friday before leaving town we dropped in to meet Valerie Welbourne, owner of the Fountainhead bookstore.

 Hendersonville is only two hours from where I live, and I plan to go back soon just to browse the shops along Main street. Of course I indulged my guilty pleasure and bought more books, not only there, but I couldn't pass by Waynesville without stopping at the Blue Ridge Bookstore there. Now I have to try to find a book or two to give away so I have room for the new ones.

I was asked to read and teach and I hope I also motivated  and inspired.

I very much appreciate both of these independent book stores  stocking Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, anthology of WNC writers and poets, edited by Nancy Simpson. The Fountainhead bookstore sold two copies just before we stopped in.

Also, this week, I received Susan Snowden's new novel in the mail. Southern Fried Lies. Valerie said she couldn't put it down, so I look forward to diving into it soon.

 

My Guilty Pleasure

Why do I do it? Why do I continue to go into book stores and purchase books? My office and my studio are running out of room for more books, but on a recent visit to Barnes and Noble, I came home with two more books. My Nook is loaded with books I plan to read one day, but I just can't pass by a novel with a nice looking cover, by an author I like to read. Like a diet item I don't want, but feel compelled to take.

I dropped in to the book store to get a little advice on my e-reader and before I knew what was happening, I was urged to wonder through to see what I could see. 

After I had perused a few stacks, gone up and down all aisles in the store, I found myself with two books - one on self-publishing which I will use in a class this summer - and one on using the Internet for genealogy research. I don't know when I'll use that one, but I keep telling myself I do intend to further research my family.

I am addicted to reading. My husband used to tease me about it. "If Glenda is in the bathroom without a book or magazine, she will read the labels on the toilet tissue." I have to plead guilty. 

So now I have two more books to find space for on my shelves. I don't know what to do with myself - I just have no self-discipline when I am turned lose in a book store.

Do you have a guilty pleasure like mine? Tell us about it.

Henderson County, NC - Flat Rock Community College

After a long drive I arrived in Henderson County for the annual Bookfest held at the Flat Rock Community College. We all know of the Flat Rock Playhouse, where plays are performed all summer and people from everywhere travel to see them. We also know that the Carl Sandberg home is here.

Writers are hearing about the Blue Ridge Bookfest, now in its third year and growing. When this event was just an idea by some people in Hendersonville, I learned about it from Bob Greenwald who contacted me with questions about writers who were being considered as key note speakers, and authors who might want a table.

I rode up to the first bookfest with Kathryn Byer and her husband, Jim. I enjoyed meeting many of our Netwest writers who were present. We did not have a table that year. The second year, I could not come, but Lana Hendershott and Karen Holmes sent me glowing reports about their day.

This year, I am delighted to see that Flat Rock Community College has lent their support and sponsorship for the bookfest. Bob says when he spearheaded the first one, he had no idea whether it would sustain the interest of sponsors but he feels sure it is here to stay.

The kickoff with free workshops on Friday afternoon by Nancy Simpson and Carol Roan set the atmosphere that only comes with a group of writers. The buffet reception that evening was a meet and greet time where I had a chance to talk with poet and editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Scott Owens. He was at the bookfest for the first time.  At 6:30 PM,  we all sat down for a dramatization of Ann B. Ross's first book of her famous Miss  Julia series. Mrs. Ross, a resident of Hendersonville, was honoree for the evening.
As tired as I was and suffering from the chemical scents in the room, I still enjoyed the program.

On Saturday six of our Netwest members sat for a panel discussion on a variety of writing subjects including poetry, editing, compiling an anthology and a poetry collection, free lance writing, publishing a literary journal and submitting work. This group of writers could have gone on another hour, and the audience seemed to want more, but we only had 45 minutes.

Bill Ramsey iss program chair. This year he brought in  Ron Rash. Last year Robert Morgan was the keynote speaker. Who will they have next year?

I don't know, but I hope to be back to see.

From left, Glenda Beall, Wayne Drumheller, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, Lana Hendershott, Nancy Simpson, Nancy Purcell, JC Walkup.

Also present on the panel but not in the photo: Rosemary Royston.

Linda Smith, publicity chair for Netwest was also present.

Journaling

Do you keep a journal? I have been journaling almost my entire life. Sadly, when I used spiral notebook for my thoughts and notes on my daily life, they seemed to get used for other things and eventually were lost.
When I began journaling in little bound books, my writing became more important to me. The cost of these small books is minimal, and I ask for journals as Christmas gifts, so I always have one or two waiting.
I especially like starting a new journal at the beginning of a year. There before me is a clean white page waiting for me to begin my new life for this year. It represents a new beginning to me. I guess I always feel that if I can start fresh, I’ll do a better job.

I’ll share with you a few lines from my journals.

Monday, Nov 6, 1984

"Today Gay and I sprayed Greenzit on the Christmas trees and both got sunburned in the 89 degree weather. Last year it was cold when we greened the trees."

"I like Reagan except for his stand against the ERA. I wish I could see a woman in a high office of our government. Geraldine Ferraro is running for vice president. Surprisingly, most women I know are opposed to a woman vice-president. We haven't come that far yet."

July 23, 1986

"I am at 31,000 feet flying over snow capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Below me, clouds look like millions of puffy cotton balls floating past....

We had a beautiful flight and now we are checked into the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco with a view of the area that includes part of the bay."

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006

"I talked to Gay today. She is starting a fund for a Katrina victim to help her pay her mortgage on her flooded house in New Orleans."

And here are a few of the books I love to go back to, books that hold my happy times, my saddest moments, my deepest thoughts I’ve never shared with others, favorite times with loved ones or those special moments of silence and solitude.

If you haven’t done so, start journaling. You don’t have to write every day. But try to write often. When I go back and read what I wrote years ago, I’m amazed at how far I’ve come in my relationships, how I’ve grown in understanding of others and my beliefs in politics and religion.

Journals create great jumping off places for writing the stories about your life.