Evensong

Love Your Neighbors

This is a nice thing: folks from my county -- some natives, some longtime residents, and some who just got here are coming together to raise funds to help Neighbors in Need, a local organization, provide heating assistance to low income families.

It began when my friend Mary Maupin had her own on-line sale of some of her beautiful paintings and collages, donating half of the proceeds to Neighbors in Need. Her generosity inspired these other folks to organize this massive flea market and more.

Some nifty items are going to be available. Above is a mixed media piece from Mary -- who records the beauty of our mountain coves and villages in gorgeous colors. 

Look at this vintage radio! I have a feeling it's going to be a popular item. Lots more great stuff is coming in -- antiques, arts, crafts.

Foe those of you in the area, this is sounding like a pretty big deal -- and for such a good cause.

MADISON HAS HEArT has a Facebook page with  more pictures of things that will be on sale, like this beautiful piece by a local potter,  and more information about donating...

I've been getting together a box of various nice  items to donate and then I realized what would be perfect -- a Madison County antique quilt.

Some years back my dear friend Grace Henderson, knowing my interest in quilting, gave me a box of string-pieced quilt square --"The last squares Mama pieced," Grace told me. They'd been machine pieced on squares cut from the pages of a Sears catalogue --very traditional.

So I put the squares together with blue sashing, layered the top with batting and backing, and tied the whole thing with red crochet thread. And then I gave it back to Grace and her husband Paul. 

And a few years later, not too long before her death, Grace gave it back to me.  I've never used it, other than to take it with me when I did a talk about quilts or to hang it up as a decoration.  I love to think that it might be auctioned or raffled to help provide warmth -- both for the buyer and for some county resident who needs help this winter when the nights are so cold and fuel oil so high.

I think Grace would be pleased to have her quilt used this way.  As they say around here, she was the givingest somebody. . .

Looking Up

 

 

 

 

 

The Impossible Dream?

Ever since I became a 'published author' back in 2005, I've been amazed at how many folks out there have that same dream. Whenever I speak at a bookstore or a library or any sort of writerly event, I can count on being asked how I got started -- and sometimes folks are surprised to learn that one little class that met just six times (and I missed one of those) was all it took. No MFA (Masters of Fine Art) in writing, no series of conferences and workshops, no grants from arts councils -- just this one simple class  was the catalyst to get me going.

Bill Brooks  taught that class (Writing Fiction That Sells!) I took back in 2000. He suggested at the first meeting that we decide what sort of novel we were going to write -- romance, western, mystery, sci fi, etc. -- come up with a protagonist and setting, and use these in each assignment. With any luck, when the six weeks were up, we'd have at least a toe hold on a novel.

And this is when my Elizabeth Goodweather was born. By the time the class was over, I'd gotten to know her and the setting fairly well -- I'd written a dialogue so I knew what she sounded like; I'd written a romantic scene (blush;) and a scene with building tension. I had, in fact, found the beginnings of my voice as a writer.

Bill also explained to us clueless novices just how one went about finding an agent -- and what exactly an agent does. He told us how to format our manuscripts and how to write a query letter. Nuts and bolts stuff -- all of which made that impossible dream seem a little more possible.

During the last class as Bill was packing up to leave, I asked him if he'd tell each of us what were our greatest strength and greatest weakness. And Bill just looked at me and said, "You don't have the passion it takes to write a novel."

Well.

Four or five published novels later, I was teaching a workshop at a writers' conference and I told this story. One of the women in the group raised her hand and said,  "I took a class with Bill. He told me I was a terrific writer and I should keep at it. Unfortunately, I just stuck what I'd been working on in a drawer and forgot about it... I kinda wish he'd pissed me off instead."

All of which is to remind those of you in the Asheville area that starting in February I will be teaching a beginners class very similar to the one I took with Bill. It's a nuts and bolts approach to fiction that may just kick start that novel you've been wanting to write. There's a description of the class over there in the sidebar>>>

And who knows -- maybe I'll piss you off...

Great Smokies Writing Program classes HERE

Longing for Yellow. . .

 

History of the World in Two Minutes

In case you missed it the first time around . . .

Here's an amazing little video -- http://marcbrecy.perso.neuf.fr/history.html

Thanks to my friend Robin for sharing!

Do These Elastic Waisted Pants Make Me Look Older?

There's a fun little quiz over HERE -- 10 Things You Do That Make You Look 10 Years Older.  

Of course I took it . . . 

 I plead guilty to the elastic waist pants (trousers to you Brits) . . . but does it count if no one sees the elastic waist due to the big shirts I always wear?  (Yes, I know, it's really about being overweight and I plead guilty to that as well.)

Comfortable, non-stylish shoes (clogs) -- yep, that's me too. Non- negotiable. Travel clothes (Things that don't wrinkle) -- heck, that's pretty much my standard garb. I'm also a wearer of drugstore glasses. I'm hard on my reading glasses -- scratch them, lose them, break them. . . When the cheap glasses no longer allow me to read, I'll consider the pricey stylish frames at the opticians.

On the positive side, I don't wear my glasses on a chain around my neck; I don't wear wire-rimmed sunglasses; I don't wear animal prints (or any prints at all, come to think of it.) Nor do I wear a Speedo (as if!)

I don't travel with hard cover books, as a general rule. I love the way the Kindle lets me carry around a virtual library.  And I don't consider myself a Luddite -- Luddites don't blog or do Facebook. (I admit I don't have a smart phone or an I-Pad -- that's a matter of economics rather than fear of technology.)

So, if those ten things make me look ten years older, and I only do four of them, does that just age me four years, making me look a spry 74?

The Cats Are Indignant

It's opening!

Such a mid-winter miracle. . . 

I love watching it unfurl . . .

Angeline is not impressed.

no Snow, No Words -- Just Orchids