Channeling Alexander AND My Time at a Military College

Me, yesterday. Yes, I'm wearing sunglasses
inside my house. I had a migraine. It was that kind
of a day.

So. Today should be an edition of Show & Tell Friday.

But.

It was a helluva parenting week, let me tell you. My 4 year-old has decided to wake up at 4 a.m. each night and to defy our every parenting request–from as simple as “take off your shoes” to “Go use the potty” to “For the love of Pete would you please eat your yogurt.” My just-turned 5 month-old is STILL wailing at night and fighting sleep during the day. So that even when my husband gives her a bottle–which should be her last meal of the night and should mean I get a break–about 30 minutes later she’s wailing, and the only thing she wants is me. Or, if I’m completely honest, the boobs.

Yes, I said “boobs.” On my author blog. It’s just been that kind of week.
 
So I’m channeling Alexander. Remember him? From Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst? “I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair….” He’s my go-to guy this week. My compadre. My kindred spirit. My muse. We’re gonna go live in Australia together.

Hey. That’s another great childrens’ book to add to the Christmas list of the kids you know.

See, I shared something. There.

 






* * *

In other, better news. Here’s something I completely forgot about: I was the featured alum in The Citadel Graduate College Spring 2013 newsletter. I forgot about it because I had a baby in the Spring.

Have I mentioned that I have a new baby? (sarcasm)

I earned my Master of Arts in English from a wonderful joint program between the College of Charleston and The Citadel a few (cough) years ago. It was a heavenly two years of living on a sea island in Charleston, SC, raising my puppy, and reading, writing and learning all about great literature. I truly loved my time at The Citadel, which for those of you who don’t know, is the military college of South Carolina. My professors were fantastic–true teachers and scholars who inspired my creative writing.

A while back someone in The Citadel Graduate College office contacted me for an interview, and I happily complied. I’m a bit embarrassed that I completely forgot about it. But, then again: BABY.

To read the interview, click here.

Happy Weekend to all, and to all a good night. Especially in my house. Because, good gravy, we need it.

Wondering What to Do During the Goverment Shutdown?

Today, hundreds of National Parks across our great land are closed due to the partial government shut-down. This makes me sad, and makes me grind my teeth in frustration for so many reasons. Most of all, my heart goes out to all the bright and faithful Park Service employees who live their lives helping to maintain and preserve what is truly “America’s best idea,” and to the thousands of families who’d planned vacations in the Park system this Fall.

I’m lucky to have spent a lifetime outside, and in the Park system–although there are quite literally hundreds of Parks I’ve not visited yet and would still love to see. When I researched Keowee Valley, imagining and tracking the routes that Quinn and Jack would take across the wild Appalachian backcountry, I spent quite a bit of time in National Parks and National Forests. I hiked, camped, swam, paddled, horseback rode and simply just sat in the splendor that is our national natural heritage. I wouldn’t be who I am, and Keowee Valley certainly wouldn’t be what it is, without that exposure and those experiences.

ecobookclub.wordpress.com

The air has cooled, the leaves will soon be afire with Autumn, the fog hangs low on the hills and hovers spirit-like over the river bottoms in the dawn, and the sky is crystalline blue during the day. It’s the perfect time to get outside.

But since you can’t get into the National Parks right now–or at least until the government (and I mean ALL of us) wake up and smell John Muir’s and Teddy Roosevelt’s coffee–I suggest you check out probably the coolest documentary I’ve ever seen: “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” on PBS, by award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns.

You’ll be forever changed. You’ll want to steal someone’s station wagon and take to the open road. I promise.

Books for Your Reading List

Saturday night I had the pleasure of hearing Ann Hite and Karen Spears Zacharias read from and talk about their new novels at wonderful Malaprop's Bookstore & Café in Asheville, North Carolina. Ann--whom I met at a literary festival last year and who has become a lovely writer-friend--and Karen have been traveling all over the South lately on a book tour. They've spent time recently at several places I traveled on my own book tour for Keowee Valley, last Fall, so it was fun to compare notes.

Ann Hite reading from The Storycatcher at Malaprop's Bookstore ~ Asheville, NC

 

It was wonderful to get to see Ann, especially. She's one of those people who emanates warmth, she's funny, and she's got this creative spark you can literally see shine in her eyes. Her newest novel, The Storycatcher, takes place in two gorgeous places: Black Mountain, North Carolina, and the sea islands of Georgia. This is definitely one to put on your Fall/Winter reading list!

Asheville--crazy, wonderfully nutty Asheville--was a wild scene on Saturday night. I'd tried to convince friends to come with me to the reading, but most were doing the single-parent thing that night with spouses out of town. Others had run in Asheville's half-marathon that morning, and were just plumb tired. So I went alone, and ended up having to park in a parking garage because of an Icelandic punk rock band playing at the Asheville Civic Center that night. No kidding: there was a line of hipster-punk rockers stretched five people deep around the block. I know because I circled the Civic Center three times looking for a space.

Asheville, NC

 

I always roll down my windows when I drive through downtown Asheville. I don't want to miss the drum circle, the singing, the catcalls. People watching here is PRIME. On my way in Saturday night I passed a gospel choir standing out on a side street belting it out for all they were worth, several street performers and their dogs, folk singers at the drum circle, and more than a few Town and Country types wearing skinny jeans and knee-high leather boots that cost more than my car. Followed by an inordinate amount of white people in full dreadlocks.

I love Asheville! It's hard not to love a city on a big river in the Blue Ridge, where all are unabashedly welcome.

Anyway. It was a great night, Ann and Karen were wonderful, and I'm excited to have new books to read. Ann also introduced me to Amy Allen, author of Summoning the Mountains, her unique story of hiking the Appalachian Trail as a divorced, single mother of two teenaged boys. Another for the reading list.

Happy sunny Monday to you all!

Show & Tell Friday: September 27, 2013

Well, last week's Show & Tell Friday was postponed due to the fact that I was at the beach with my family. And it was good to take a much-needed break from my laptop. But this week it's back, and I've got a few things to share. I've also got a nasty cold--preschool, and its myriad of little person germs, has begun again--so bear with me if today's post doesn't have quite the same pep. I promise to make up for it later.

To share:

 

1.) Jan Brett's retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Yes, it's the same old story, retold, but still true to the original. But what's wonderfully different about this version are Brett's incredibly beautiful illustrations. Here, the bears are outfitted like medieval monarchs and Goldilocks looks like a Swedish princess. The illustrations are so rich and nuanced that they seem as if they'd jump from the page.

My 4 year-old received this book in the mail because she's a part of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which sends a free book to children in any county in the U.S. willing to partner with her each month from birth to age 5. I worship at the altar of Dolly Parton, I am not ashamed to stay. She is an American treasure. So more on the Imagination Library maybe at a later date. This version of Goldilocks, however, belongs on every young reader's Christmas list.

2.) Cocomide Diethanolamine (cocomide DEA)

The other day I walked into our one bathroom to find my husband dumping bottles of my shampoo into the trash. When I protested, he pointed me toward this article about cocomide DEA, a "cancer-causing chemical" found in many different shampoos and hair products (Healthline News, Aug. 29, 2013). The chemical is used as a thickening agent, and can be found not only in shampoo but in soaps and other beauty products.

Here's what the Center for Environmental Health had to say after several products were pulled from the shelves at places like Trader Joe's Wal-Mart and Babies-R-Us: "The state has not set a [safety] level specific to cocamide DEA," says  Charles Margulis, Communications Director and Food Program Director of  CEH, "but the levels we found exceed levels typical for carcinogens."

So be wary, friends.

3.) On my bedside table, to be read

 

I'm currently taking a leave of absence from my graduate program in writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, what with just having had a baby and all. I'm also taking a break from teaching. However, next semester I'll be back to teaching, back in my last semester of graduate school, and will still have a new baby (and a 4 year-old). So I figure I'd better get my for-fun reading done now.

Here's what's on my to-be-read list: Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God's Earth by Mallory McDuff (I got to meet

and hang out with McDuff recently at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival and she seems to me to be genuine, cool, and full of grace); Charles F. Price's Nor the Battle to the Strong: A Novel of the American Revolution in the South (I met Charles at the festival, too, and he generously sent me a copy of the novel--into which, loving this period in American history like I do, I can't wait to dive in); and Kathryn Newfont's Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina (Kathryn, too, I had the pleasure of meeting last weekend, and hearing her speak so passionately and with such a familiar voice--filled with my own longing for and love of the woods--made me want to immediately buy her book).

 

It could be weeks or months from now, or it could be next week by the time I get these read. I promise to fill y'all in when I do. But if I forget, remind. Again, I have a baby.
 
 
 
 






4.) Some September quotes for this glorious time of year:

“Outside the leaves on the trees constricted slightly; they were the deep done green of the beginning of autumn. It was a Sunday in September. There would only be four. The clouds were high and the swallows would be here for another month or so before they left for the south before they returned again next summer.”
~ Ali Smith, The Whole Story and Other Stories   

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."~ Autumn Equinox Ritual

"Lord, it is time. The  summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials,  and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that  they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them  on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine."~ Rainer Maria Rilke

New Authors & Books in the Mountains: Recap of the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending the 2013 Carolina Mountains Literary Festival in Burnsville, North Carolina, as an author presenter.

I took with me a tube of mascara that hadn’t been opened in six months, the only clothes (read big ol’ sundresses) that fit my current post-baby body, my camera, a couple of fashion magazines (this is funny, really, if you knew me), a notebook and pens, and one of my best friends in the world. I did not take my husband, the 4 year-old, the baby or the dog.

In all honesty, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d heard about this festival–lauded in the region and in the NC literary community–for years, and had always longed to take part. When Wayne Caldwell, a NC author (Cataloochee, Requiem by Fire) who’d read an Advance Review Copy of my novel, Keowee Valley, just before it was published mentioned that he thought I’d be a great fit, it made me want to go all the more. I knew that it was a festival for writers AND readers, that Burnsville was supposedly a beautiful place, and that past authors included some pretty wonderful writers: Ron Rash, Sarah Addison Allen, Fred Chappell, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Robert Morgan and more. I also knew that this year’s Keynote Speaker was Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian, one of my new favorite works of historical fiction.

Heading towards Burnsville, North Carolina

So, I kissed the babies, the husband and the dog, and headed northwest into the deeper NC mountains. Being a writer-mom on a budget, I only sprang for one night at Ms. Ruth’s Colonial Guest Rooms (more on this later), so I sped away from Brevard after dropping my daughter off at preschool Friday morning.

It was a gorgeous drive, mountain and September-lovely. I popped a little Suzy Boggus in the CD player–

Give me some wheels
put me on the highway, won’t look back

–and rolled down the windows, singing at the top of my lungs. My youngest aunt introduced me to Boggus’s music years ago, when I spent the summer with her in Alaska rolling down glacial highways (another story). I’d loved it since.

Here's Suzy singin':

I met my buddy at the Conference parking lot (she, too, sans baby, husband and dog). We ran across the gravel to hug each other; it had been way, way too long. After visiting Author Check-In we wandered over to where Asheville, NC’s Malaprop’s Bookstore had set up shop. Shameless, I meandered down the table, looking for my novel. Just as I found it, a woman smiled at me, said, “Excuse me, I need this book,” and reached past to grab it from the stack.

My friend, of course, jabbed me with her elbow. I cleared my throat.

“I wrote that book,” I said, unable to hide my grin.

“You did!” The woman enthused. “I’ve been looking for you!”

Burnsville, NC ~ Carolina Mountains Literary Festival

Thus was the beginning of a truly fabulous two days and one night in the Norman Rockwell-esque town of Burnsville, at probably the most enjoyable literary festival of which I’ve ever been part. There were some great moments, and I’ll list more than a few because this is my blog and I can:

• Staying up late, talking non-stop with my friend in our cozy little room at the Colonial Guest Rooms, a beautiful old Victorian farmhouse/guesthouse run by the spry and lovely Ms. Ruth. It had two beds, a porch, a bathroom with a claw-foot tub, a mini-fridge, a flat-screen TV, and was just a skip from downtown Burnsville.
• Calling my friend, Erin, “Eric” all weekend. The organizers had given her a “guest of the author” nametag with the wrong name on it, assuming, I suppose, that I’d be bringing a date with me. It was pretty darn fun watching people bend down and squint at her nametag. I think I’ll continue to call her “Eric” for the rest of the year. Maybe into 2014. She’ll love it.
•  Meeting and getting to spend time with other authors, like the amazing Elizabeth Kostova–who offered some encouraging words about getting through the early-childhood years as a writer-mama–the fabulous Charles F. Price and his equally fabulous wife, Warren Wilson College’s Mallory McDuff, Fred Bahnson, from my adopted hometown of Brevard, and many more.
•  Spending time and presenting at the absolutely delightful book and antique store, Off the Beaten Path, where I was made to feel so much at home. They set me up with a cup of hot tea at a big, gorgeous wooden table tucked between the stacks. I’m proud to say that the fine ladies of Off the Beaten Path had to search for folding chairs for my presentation audience, and that at one it was standing room only. Such fun!
• Meeting readers and other festival-goers. Because the festival was so user-friendly, I had the pleasure of spending true quality time with new writer-friends, hanging out in the author lounge–one of the prettiest little courtyard gardens this side of Charleston, SC–eating lunch beneath the vine-filled trellis at Garden Deli, sitting on a bench in the sunshine on the town square and sharing chocolates from the local Amish bakery with other festival-goers, and so much more.
• Listening to gorgeous poet and playwright Britt Kaufmann introduce the lovely and wry Elizabeth Kostova so poetically and originally. And then getting to sit at a delicious meal as Kostova told us stories. A joy!

The old Yancey County Library ~ Burnsville, NC

Literary festivals always have their own personalities, and some are more “literary” or more

the town square ~ Burnsville, NC

academic, even more of a place to “sell yourself” as an author, than others. Nothing wrong with this! But the best thing about the CMLitFest is that it’s truly a festival for everyone–writers, readers, book lovers, history lovers, mountain lovers of all ages. It’s informal, warm, and just a little bit magical, the way that it all comes together. Kudos to the founders and organizers for continuing to craft a venue for the arts that truly represents the unique spirit and literary heritage of the NC mountains.

* On a side note, there’s always a chance in this age of arts-cutting that the Carolina Mountains Festival won’t receive its grants to fund next year’s festival. Please be sure to let your state legislators and representatives know that you want it to keep going–that you value the arts in NC. And please consider attending next year!

I feel lucky to have been part of it, and I hope they invite me back next year!

Author Ann Hite at Asheville's Malaprop's Bookstore

Hi, all. I’m back from a wonderful and much-needed beach vacation with my family, including my sister, brother-in-law, and my brand-new nephew, quite possibly the cutest
baby boy on the planet.

Though a vacation with babies and a 4 year-old isn’t always that, we had a great time. September might just be the perfect month to hang out on the South Carolina coast.

* * *

Saturday night I’ll be headed to Asheville, North Carolina to hear my author-friend Ann Hite speak and read from her new book, The Storycatcher, at Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café. She’ll be joined by Karen Spears Zacharias, author of Mother of Rain.

I met Ann last Fall at the Dahlonega Literary Festival in Georgia. We hiked across the campus of the University of North Georgia (formerly known as North Georgia College & State University), talking the writing life, the mountains, and motherhood. Ann is a mountain girl deep in her soul, and her novels will sweep you into a deep, mysterious, spirit-filled world. I hope if you’re in the area, you’ll come out to hear her on Saturday.

For more information about the Malaprop’s event, click here.

Photos from Book Events & Other News

Hi, all. Happy Thursday.

During football season, which always makes me think of being back in college as an undergrad, I can’t help but remember that Thursdays were huge social nights on campus. Everyone went out on Thursday nights. In fact, I can remember getting ready with my roommates to head into Clemson’s little downtown or to one of the many parties across town, and leaving the house at 10 p.m.

I could still do it.

Ha. Bah ha. Ha ha ha!

Okay, that’s over.

Just wanted to share a new web site page of photos I’ve posted from the many Keowee Valley events I’ve attended since the novel was published in September 2012. There are definitely some I’ve missed, so if you happened to attend a reading, book signing, book talk, book club meeting, history lecture, party, literary festival, writer’s conference or anything else with me, I’d love to see them. You can email them to me at thewritingscott@gmail.com. Do let me know if they’re okay for me to post.

And let’s all remember, as we peruse these photos, that I was pregnant. In fact, I grew increasingly MORE pregnant as the year went on. Thank you.

* * *

In other news, I’m packing my bags and readying myself for the fabulous Carolina Mountains Literary Festival in Burnsville, N.C., tomorrow through Saturday. Because of this, there’ll be no “Show & Tell Friday” post this week. I’ll try to pick back up next week.

Some time this month I plan to celebrate Keowee Valley’s one year birthday. Not sure how. Now sure when. Not sure what. But it’ll happen, so be on the lookout.