Authors Get Around

Some of the authors who will be at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival were at the Authors on Grayson tent at the Galax Leaf & String Festival on June 11. The following pictures will give you a preview of the books they'll be bringing with them to Rocky Mount on October 1. Most of the authors have books  related in some way to the Appalachian region.

Dick Raymond will have Blue and Gray Ballads with him at the Valley Writers table.

Michael Abraham will have several books with him . . .

. . . including his new book, Harmonic Highways, Motorcycling Virginia's Crooked Road. You can read some samples of Mike's work here.

Story-teller Linda Goodman will have her book Daughters of the Appalachians with her.

And she'll be one of the story tellers in the Franklin County Library. In the photo below, she's telling one of her stories at Chapters Bookshop, the sponsor of Authors on Grayson.

Another story-teller who'll be at Mountain Spirits is Charles Lytton. 

Besides writing New River: Bonnets Apple Butter, and Moonshine (the Raising of a Fat Little Boy)—a book that's part reminiscence, part cookbook—Charles is also a story-teller. 

He tells stories every summer at the 4-H camp on Smith Mountain Lake. Below, he's telling a story inside Chapters.

Karen J. Hall has written books about the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

She'll have both her books,  Building the Blue Ridge Parkway and Blue Ridge Parkway—Postcard History Series, available at Mountain Spirits.

And I'll have my books there, too.

Ferradiddledumday is an Appalachian retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale. Stuck is a novel that takes place at Smith Mountain Lake.

Y'all come see us!

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Piedmont Writers

Among the organizations with a table under the writers tent is the Piedmont Writers Group, which meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at Piedmont Arts in Martinsville. I'm not sure how many members will be at the table, but I do know that three will be there: Lynn Dudley with her handmade bookmarks, Margaret Adkins with her delightful memoirs, and Dorothy Hemenway Carter with her new YA novel.

Below, Chloe the kitty contemplates their books. Both books give glimpses into what life was like a few decades ago. One is true and the other is fiction—but rings true. I enjoyed reading both.

Two's Company is 88-year-old Margaret's continuation of her first memoir,  Echoes. When I received the book from her, she said, "Now, it's not edited—It's just the way I talk." Because her delightful voice came through so strong, I could forgive the occasional typo. I felt like I was sitting right there with her while she described her life and travels. Margaret has a wonderful sense of adventure, and—at an age when many would be content to stay home—she's traveled widely both in Europe and America.

Dorothy's novel, Facing Fallout, was her thesis in Hollins University's Graduate School of Children's Literature. Though classified as Young Adult, this coming-of-age novel will also appeal to older readers—especially those who remember the late 60s early 70s. Sara, the oldest child in a large and close family, gets a job at the local newspaper the summer before her senior year and learns a lot about life as well as newspaper reporting. When one of her brothers becomes seriously ill, Sara suspects the cause. Rich in family values, Facing Fallout successfully captures the concerns of a young girl and the way things were forty years ago. You can read the first chapter here.

Both writers used print-on-demand companies to publish their books, Margaret through Xlibris and Dorothy through Createspace. If you're interested in do-it-yourself publishing, I'm sure both would be glad to tell you about their publishing experiences.

—Becky

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Poetry Books

A few regional poets will display and sell their books at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival. Among them are Charles Swanson of Pittsylavania County, Richard Raymond III of Roanoke, And Ibby Greer of Franklin County.

Charles Swanson's poetry collections are After the Garden and Farm Life & Legend.

Dick Raymond's book is Blue and Gray Ballads, which tells the entire story of the Civil War in traditional verse. You can read some excerpts from Google Books.

Ibby Greer's book, Paper Faces: Babyboomer Memoir, is indeed her memoir. From her childhood through the 1990s, the poems cover both big and small events in her life.

If you a fan poetry, you'll have a variety to choose from at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival.

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Regional History

Several books dealing with regional history be available at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival. Among them are two books about Franklin County history by the late T. Keister Greer.

You can read more about The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 in this 1991 Roanoke Times article.

The Franklin County Historical Society will have two tables of a selection of its Franklin County books (which are also on sale at the Historical Society headquarters).

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Blue Ridge Mountain Books

Some of the books at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival deal with life in the Blue Ridge Mountains. One is this Pleasant Land: A Blue Ridge History, written by the late Max S. Thomas. His daughter, Jean Thomas Schaeffer, will have it available in the authors' tent.

Last year, I blogged about Thomas's history of the Walnut Knob area of Franklin and Floyd Counties here: http://peevishpen.blogspot.com/2010/03/this-pleasant-land.html.

Fred First, a wonderful writer and blogger from Floyd County, will also have his books at the Festival:

Fred's books deal with life today in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His essays have been broadcast on WVTF. You can listen to one of them, "This Old House," here: http://www.wvtf.org/news_and_notes/audio/200912210719210.house.mp3

In the next few months, I'll blog about more of the books you can expect to see at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival.

Edited to add update: It looks like Jean Thomas Schaeffer won't be able to attend the festival. However, her father's books should be available from the Franklin County Historical Society's table.

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Posted by Becky Mushko

Art in Rocky Mount

I am Ibby Greer, the art coordinator for the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival.

The artists and craftspeople coming to the Mountain Spirits Festival on October 1 are among those who already display their art at The Artisan Center Along the Crooked Road on Franklin Street. Mary Wray, owner of The Artisan Center, will be doing marketing for Mountain Spirits Arts Festival.

Mary Wray, owner of The Artisan Center Along the Crooked Road

Becky Mushko, literary coordinator, blogged about the opening of The Artisan Center on her Peevish Pen blog: http://peevishpen.blogspot.com/2011/02/artisan-center-is-official.html.

Becky Mushko, literary coordinator for the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival

More photos will be posted here soon of the interior of the gallery and the wonderful art it contains.

—Posted by Ibby Greer

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Coming October 1st

On October 1, 2011, in Rocky Mount, Virginia,  the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival will showcase and promote the rich cultural heritage of the people and their works in Franklin County and the surrounding region.

Many of the artisans, craftspeople, writers, and musicians who are invited to participate are from the Franklin County, but some are from surrounding counties and whose work contributes to the mountain culture.

I am the literary coordinator, responsible for selecting writers who live in the county and have recently published books, or who live in a nearby counties and whose writings contribute to Appalachian literature. I want the literary part of the festival to appeal to both readers and writers. Therefore, I've also invited some area writers groups to talk to any visitors who might be looking to join a writers group, and a publisher who publishes "Virginia books by Virginia authors."

I knew that space was limited, so—when  I compiled my list of authors to invite—I tried to stick to these criteria:

• Books about local/regional/Blue Ridge history, culture, memoir (either commercially published or self-published).
• Fiction/non-fiction (either commercially published or self-published) set in the Appalachian region.
• Commercially published authors (either fiction or non-fiction) who live in Franklin County but whose book isn't necessarily about the area.
• Authors who live in surrounding counties and have books of regional/Appalachian interest.

From 10 AM until 4 PM, the authors will be under a tent near the Franklin Center, which is just across the parking lot from the Franklin County Library. They will display and sell their books, chat with folks who stop by their tables, and answer questions about their books or about how they were published.

The Franklin Center, as seen from the library window.

Update: The authors' tent will now be in the parking lot next to Edible Vibe, which is at 315 Franklin Street, a block away from the library. The hospitality room for authors will be in the Franklin Center.


Another Update: We now have a full tent of authors. We will possibly start a waiting list for authors who meet the above criteria, with regional history at the top of the list.

I'll write more about specific authors or groups in future blog posts. Meanwhile, mark October 1, 2011, on your calendar. You don't want to miss what we hope will be an annual event.

—Becky Mushko

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