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?

Back to Poetry Group

After five years, I finally went back to my poetry critique group tonight. I am so glad I did. We had a great group, small but all of them excellent published poets, and my poem was well discussed. 

Janice Moore, poet, has facilitated that group for many years. She teaches English at Young Harris College and although she retired this year, she is still on staff as an adjunct professor. Having her as our leader is a bonus because she is knowledgeable about all things literary. 

I believe that any serious writer should be a part of a well-run critique group with people the writer respects. Most writers or poets who publish books will list their writing group on their acknowledgements page. I know I did. Janice Moore was one of them. She also wrote a blurb for my poetry book, Now Might as Well be Then. I was honored.  

We will have some excellent writers and poets at the Netwest Writers Conference in Sylva, NC on May 10. Conferences are great to meet new writers, make friends with like-minded people, and take classes with top writers. We will have Judy Goldman, Susan Snowden, Kathryn Byer, Nancy Simpson, Gary Carden, Newt Smith and William Elliott at this conference. Any one of their sessions will be well worth the small charge for attendance. 

In the coming weeks I plan to get back to my own writing and get that poetry book published that I have on hold. Time is flying by and I have so much I want to do. Tonight's energy-filled meeting has me pumped up and feeling creative. 

What makes you feel creative? 

Poets and Poetry

We have a great time at Writers Night Out in Young Harris, GA on the second Friday of each month. Karen Holmes hosts this event and has been doing a great job of bringing excellent writers to our area for a number of years now.

If you live in the surrounding area - Cherokee, Clay, Towns, Union or Fannin Counties - be sure you drop in this Friday night to hear two poets from the Atlanta area.

Well, just click Here and read all about them.

Everyone is welcome. Come early and have dinner. Bring a poem or short prose piece to share. You will find a warm and friendly group. 

I am sharing a poem from my book, Now Might as Well be Then, published by Finishing Line Press. Hope you enjoy it. 

Listening for the Rain

The leaves lose their chlorophyll

slowly brown and curl,

then drift like flying birds

to nestle on the ground.

The grass that once was springy

underfoot, now crackles when I walk.

Blades break and lie in shattered shreds

on barren ground.

Last night brought rain.

I woke to hear it tapping

on parched leaves, gently at first,

then a steady pouring stream

rushing through the trees.

Too late for the corn, my father says

across the bridge of time.

Maybe it will save the pasture,

give us one more haying

before summer ends. 

Some Netwest News for our Readers, Happening on November 10

This should be an afternoon of fun for all writers, as NCWN West invites you to come to meet and greet other writers in the area and hear from some outstanding writers, Catherine Carter, Brent Martin and Pam Duncan. 

• Save the date: Sunday, November 10, for the Netwest Open House at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, from 1-4 pm. From 1-2 pm, we will enjoy a social hour upstairs, where we will serve light refreshments so that we can mingle and perhaps find some great reading material. 
• From 2-4 pm, we will go downstairs to the cafe, where drinks and additional goodies will be available for purchase during the readings and open mic.  Guest readers will be: poet Catherine Carter, naturalist writer Brent Martin, and novelist Pam Duncan, with an Open mic to follow. Please mark your calendars for this outstanding event.

I plan to attend this event and hope to see many writer friends, bloggers and poets there.

A Good Night's Sleep Bartered for Poetry?

I have been so pleased at the number of my friends in the writing community who have told me about gluten free products available here. Today Karen Holmes brought me some delicious crackers, that I can get at the grocery store. Maren Mitchell says a local health food store carries wonderful bread! I plan to go and pick up some today.

I am pleased to say that I feel much better this weekend and have been getting some things done around here. 

Will Wright, poet and editor, and a nice young man, is my house guest. He is teaching a class at my studio this morning. Like so many of my guests, Will exclaimed that he had never had such a good night's sleep as he did in my downstairs bedroom. Karen stayed here before and she agreed. She said it is comforting, like being in the womb. Now isn't that the words of a poet?

I think it is the darkness and the quiet. With no windows to let in the morning light, a person could forget to get up. Will asked permission to come and stay one night each month just to get a really good night's sleep. I told him we could barter, my favorite thing to do. He can help me with my poetry, and I'll provide him with a room where he can rest and sleep as long as he wants.  

I am the most fortunate person I know. I have work that I love, and through that work, I meet people I enjoy and admire. Each day brings me more joy and gratitude for what I have. 

Do I Have to Wear a Label?

Many writers are identified by one genre. Some are poets and that is all they write. Some are novelists. Some write only creative non-fiction.

I like to write it all -- fiction, non-fiction and poetry. I also enjoy interviewing people and writing about what they have to say. I write passionately about subjects like indoor air pollution and multiple chemical sensitivity. I probably write more personal essays than anything.

So, am I a writer? A poet? A journalist? A memoirist? 

Do I have to be put into a box? Do I have to wear a label like a box of spaghetti on the shelf? 

In recent weeks I've published a review of a novel, an interview with a writer, and I have interviewed another writer. I am in the  process of finding the best home for that piece now.

Almost everyday I write a post for one of my blogs. These posts seldom have anything to do with poetry, but at times I will publish a poem on one of my blogs because it is short and because I want to share it. And sometimes I have a poem that seems to fit with my subject for that day. 

However some people think of me simply as a poet. I wear many hats in my life. I am a writer, a blogger, a poet, a teacher, a mentor, a business owner, a volunteer. Some people refer to me as a publicist at times. 

Variety makes anything more fun, I believe. I have been asked, "Can I write creative non-fiction and write poetry as well?"

Of course you can. At a recent reading at John C. Campbell Folk School, I read a true story, a memoir, and had many compliments from my audience. I also read one or two poems that evening. 

My friend, Estelle, says she tends to write poetry when she wants to express serious feelings and emotions. She finds that memoir helps her tell about her family, her past, her history. But short stories are her path to share humor. Another friend, Mary Mike, writes touching poetry that lingers in the mind of the reader, but her short fiction is memorable as well.

I might sit down to write and find that my subject lends itself to personal essay better than to poetry. I might begin to write a non-fiction piece and find that I'd rather embellish it and make it a short story (fiction).

If you look, you will see that I have published short stories, personal essays, articles in magazines and newspapers, memoir, and poetry. I like to do it all.

Below see where some of my short stories and memoir pieces are published in magazines, journals and anthologies:

How We Met – Forks in the Road -Anthology
Reunion – Reunions Magazine
Tar, Tallow and Prayer -- Moonshine and Blind Mules and other Western North Carolina Tales, 2006
Confrontation  --Muscadine Lines; A Southern Journal - 2009
What Did You Say? - Dead Mule School of Southern Literature - April, 2010
The Trillium -- Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, Essays, stories and poems by writers living in and inspired by the southern Applachian Mountains.
Pass it on - Breath and Shadow, online journal, July 15 issue,; ICL Newsletter, 2011, Clay County Progress Newspaper
Buck, My Brother Ned and the Snake -Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal - 2011     
Public Domain - Dead Mule School of Southern Literature - April 2012   

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.

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.