So not only did you teach me about writing memoir, you also taught me about reading and thinking about how others write memoir. Thank you so much! Rebecca

Accepting what is to come

You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Kathryn S. Byer's last book is published


I am delighted to see that Jacar Press has published the final poetry book by my friend, poet, Kathryn Stripling Byer, who is missed by so many of us who loved her and her work.

Although Kathryn and I grew up about thirty miles from each other and both lived on farms in south Georgia, we didn't meet until I moved to the mountains of North Carolina where we both had found our home. She still lived some miles away but writing brought us together. I never met a more encouraging and helpful writer. She gave of herself, her time and cared about the poets and writers she knew. 







On Saturday, June 8, 6:30 PM, I plan to be at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC.

The publisher of Jacar Press wrote this:

It is with great joy and sorrow that Jacar Press announces the posthumous publication of Kathryn Stripling Byer's Trawling the Silences. The book should be available late May, and City Lights Bookstore in Sylva will host an opening reading on Saturday, June 8, at 6:30. Please join us if you can.

Jacar Press will be donating proceeds from sales to a cause Kay valued. We are in the process of narrowing that down and will have a decision on that soon.

When she died suddenly from lymphoma in June 2017, Kathryn Stripling Byer had just completed her 7th, and what would be her last, collection of poetry, Trawling the Silences. It is a book of great beauty and heartbreak, revisiting all her important themes - family and ancestry, the natural world, the inevitable process of aging and death, and the pressing issues of environmental degradation, racism, and international conflict - with an urgency that seems, in retrospect, to have come from an awareness about what fate awaited her. Kay loved the craft of poetry and the expressive possibilities of intricate poetic structures. She wrote free verse, metrical verse, syllabic verse, and used forms as diverse as the sestina and the ghazal. Though often dense with meaning and allusion, her work remains accessible to any careful reader.

During her writing career Kathryn Stripling Byer received many honors and awards, including the Lamont prize for her second book, Wildwood Flower, the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Literature, in 2001, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. She was the first woman to be selected as the North Carolina Poet Laureate, and served from 2005 to 2009. In 2012 she was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.



Monday, June 3, 2019

Reblogging a post from Netwest Writers - Good advice for writers

https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/2019/03/guest-post-by-c-hope-clark-award.html

I have been subscribing to C. Hope Clark's Funds for Writers newsletter for decades and find her advice for writers to be the best online. I never tire of reading what she has to say and she provides lots of places to submit.


Saturday, May 25, 2019

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Appalachian Author, Ron Rash, speaks to students about his book Burning Bright

Ron Rash is a well known writer in our region of the world. He is from Appalachia and writes about Appalachia. His novel, Serena, is a real page turner that I enjoyed. The movie made from his book was changed a good bit. That, of course, was not his fault. Once a writer sells the rights to his book for a film, the film makers can do what they want with it.


Terry Kay, author of  To Dance with the White Dog, says once he sells his rights to his books, he forgets about them because they are no longer his. The new owner can do what he wants. Kay concentrates on his next book.

I subscribe to https://authorsroundthesouth.com/lady-banks. 
Lady-Banks is a devoted reader of books and in her newsletter, she gives us a glimpse of Ron Rash in which he is with students at Washington High School.

The students had the opportunity to talk with Rash, author of “Burning Bright,” which is this year’s National Endowment for the Arts Big Read. 

His remarks and answers to questions are here.



Sunday, May 5, 2019

Why We Should Not Isolate Ourselves

I follow Maria Shriver, a writer and activist for women and for Alzheimer's Disease.  I relate to almost everything she says and does.

In her Sunday Papers today, she says, "Over the years, I’ve learned that a meaningful life is one steeped in purpose. It’s also one grounded in relationships with family, friends, a higher power and community. Yes, you may face failure and hardship and pain along the way, but be brave enough to keep dreaming of new adventures and climbing new mountains. And, also be sure to bring people you love along with you on the journey.

Connection is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other on this path of life. So, don’t hesitate to ask for it or offer it to someone else."

Like my mother, I am a people person. Being with others improves my mood, gives me a high that lasts all day. That is why it is hard for me, at this time, as I deal with my personal problems, to cancel my writing classes, be unable to attend classes for which I registered and paid fees, and to take part in other events I would love to be a part of. I find myself feeling down with little to look forward to right now.

This experience has been a teaching moment for me. I think of the older people in nursing homes, or who are alone in their own homes. Isolation is devastating and relationships with family, friends, and community is necessary for individuals to be healthy, both mentally and physically.

In Assisted Living Centers, the residents are encouraged to take part in activities with others, to attend musical events and to eat together. Sadly, those don't usually involve friends and family, but strangers with whom the residents don't relate or feel comfortable sharing emotional events. They enjoy having their family and friends visit and eat with them or take them out to lunch.

Even my father, who was not considered a people person, found that he was lonely in his old age when family was too busy to come and spend time with him. His wife, my mother, had lost her short term memory from brain hemorrhage, and was not company for him anymore. His own experiences each day were limited. He had hung up the keys to his truck. His time was spent mostly in his garden and with his dog.

The housekeeper, whom he had opposed vehemently, became his best friend. She made his breakfast and lunch. After my mother died, Daddy sat with Barbara and talked. He poured out his thoughts and feelings on everything, much like some women do with their hair dresser. Barbara came every day of the week and my father could depend on her to listen to him and to do small chores for him that he could no longer do for himself. She became so important to him in his later years that he ordered his sons to be sure Barbara was given land on which to build herself a house after he died. I think that gift expressed the loudest message he could have sent.

Some people choose to live alone and reach out to others with telephone and e-mail. One of my friends and a regular reader of my blogs enjoys her solitude, she says, but she stays in touch with her family and others, sharing opinions on politics, photos of her grandchildren, and even her creative writing.

Mother, before she became ill, was lonely after her children married. She wrote letters to all of us when we were away and to her sisters in Florida. She also kept up a relationship with my father's family through letters to his sisters and her nieces. Their love for her is obvious from the letters she saved.

"Yes, you may face failure and hardship and pain along the way, but be brave enough to keep dreaming of new adventures and climbing new mountains." 

I have always been able to keep dreaming and trying new adventures and I'm sure I will now. We all face failures and hardship. We certainly face pain of all kinds.

I am at the place where I must give up some projects, try new projects, and think about my health first. I know you, my readers, have likely been to this point. I find it difficult to make important decisions without input from someone I trust. I need to bounce my options off someone who can be objective. I am fortunate to have close family and dear friends I can turn to most of the time. Like other women who have lost their husbands, I miss that partnership. I miss having someone to share the big decisions. Should I sell my house, move, and if I move, where? No one can tell me what to do. No one can make my decisions for me, and I would not want anyone making my decisions. Too many times, adult children insist their parents move near them because it is easier on the children but the parents find they are more alone because their children go on with their busy lives. The parents have no friends in the new place.

So, I will do the same thing I have always done. Make the Pro and Con list. You know, list the reasons why and the reasons why not. The hardest for me is the Limbo phase. That is the time, like now, when I am doing nothing to move on. I tread water and ponder options. Much like my life was after Barry died. What am I going to do in the next act, the third act, as Jane Fonda says?

When I feel blue and in despair, I am told by those who love me that this too shall pass.
"When you are in pain and don't feel well, you always get depressed. But you bounce back and get busy with something you enjoy."
"Just take time to take care of yourself."
"Slow down. Don't try to do so much."

See why I need my friends? They are wise and wonderful. The sun is out and we had a good rain last night. My deck garden has been watered well, and the air is dryer and cooler now. I have much to do before this Sunday is over, so I'd better get busy.

Do your friends and family help you make big decisions?






Saturday, April 20, 2019

Have you read Murder on Edisto? A good mystery.

C.Hope Clark is author of two successful mystery series. She began as a free lance writer and also began with her Funds for Writers Newsletters. In today's edition she gave us some good things to ponder as writers. 




One of Hope's series is set on Edisto Island, South Carolina. I enjoyed Murder on Edisto. Clark's female main character has lost her husband to a vicious killer and she is doing her best to protect her teenage son. Murder follows her as she goes back to what she thinks is a safe place. If you like mysteries, you will like this one. I relate to books set in the south. But the story is one any mystery readers will enjoy.

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Can you make it without an MFA? Thomas Mullen did.

Twelve years after my first book deal, I’m happy to report that no editor has ever asked me if I have an MFA. What matters to publishers is the book you write, not the path you took to get there. ... Thomas Mullen

For the first time I missed going to the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blue Ridge, Georgia. I had sent my application and definitely planned to go, but going down to south Georgia last week played havoc with my physical and mental health. I just could not get myself up to spend the day at the conference. I am an INFJ on the personality chart, so I know why I don't want to see anyone or talk to anyone right now.

My friend, Carol Crawford, who was instigator of this wonderful small conference over twenty years ago, sent me an email and a message about Thomas Mullen who was a presenter there today.

I am giving you this link to a great article he wrote for Poets and Writers.
http://www.thomasmullen.net/making-it-without-an-mfa

I know many writers who, like me, did not get that MFA and always wonder if that would have made a big difference in their writing career, will find solace in Thomas' words on this subject. I did not meet him, but, after reading this piece, wish I had.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Meet C. Hope Clark, Mystery Writer

Write short pieces to sell your long pieces.  
That is a good marketing plan and one C. Hope Clark discusses in her guest  post on www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com  this week. An author who writes books can build her name by writing articles and doing interviews published in newspapers, magazines, online and ezines. Hope Clark is proof that her system works. She is author of two award-winning mystery series.
Murder on Edisto (The Edisto Island Mysteries Book 1) by [Clark, C. Hope]



If you don't know C. Hope Clark's work, be sure you learn about her. Her website has been chosen as one of the top 101 best websites for writers by the Writer's Digest for the past 18 years. She is all about writing, helping writers and publishing her highly popular Funds for Writers.