After learning that Nora Ephron has passed, I’m hesitant to write about any of my favorite writers. Twice now I’ve done that, and the writer has quickly passed. In January 2011, I paid tribute to Reynolds Price in one of my library columns and he died within a couple of weeks. Last week, my column about reading material for the …
Reading at “that certain age”
I write a weekly column for Catawba County Library, where I spend my other half life. This week’s edition was so much fun to write, I want to share it here. One of this summer’s hot picks is the new Anna Quindlen memoir, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. Her quips and tell-it-like-it-is style will resonate with most women of …
Hotel manuscript, many stories
So when’s your novel coming out? I’ve heard that question more times than I care to count. My answer: one step at a time. To write a novel is to run the marathon, devote countless hours slogging away through draft after draft, learning to live with characters you may or may not like, living in a place that may feel …
In search of nature’s trinkets
I spent two years studying fiction and have spent the past year focused on essays. I’m “following my muse,” as they say, and for now, personal essays are center stage. Connecting dots, exploring themes, thinking hard about past events and how they relate to other events, people and places are bubbling to the surface. A few weeks ago, I visited …
Hats off to Goliath
It’s not every day that a major New York press launches a book in Catawba County, so tomorrow may be a first. Novelist Susan Woodring of Drexel, NC, will unveil Goliath, from St. Martin’s Press at 6:30 p.m. April 24 at Conover Branch Library. Conover is part of the Catawba County Library system, where I work. I’m excited to introduce …
Among the “Road Scholars”
It’s official. As of this week, the North Carolina Humanities Council has me listed on their speaker’s bureau website as one of their Road Scholars. I’m honored to be among the more than 70 North Carolinians who are able and willing to speak to nonprofit public groups about various aspects of the humanities–from literature to history, arts, drama, music and …
A full-circle tour
Thanks to everyone to turned out at my readings and supported my first book tour to Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. It was exciting to read as part of a short story panel at the Virginia Festival for the Book. This event, in its 18th year, is the largest in the region, drawing thousands of readers and select writers to share …
Bob and I heading north
Dining with Robert Redford fans ..it’s time for my long-anticipated book tour of the Middle Atlantic. I’ll be part of a story panel at the Virginia Festival for the Book on March 23. If you’re in the Charlottesville area, stop by at 4 p.m. at Barnes & Noble. I’ll be a panelist with four other writers to discuss the finer …
David McCullough, a national treasure
When I say that author David McCullough is a national treasure, I’m not being trite. I’ve admired his work for years. While in graduate school, I was asked to bring in a quote from an author I admire. I immediately thought of McCullough’s opening lines to The Johnstown Flood: Again that morning there had been a bright front in the …
A salute to Reynolds Price
The NC Arts website invites visitors to write tributes to the late great Reynolds Price. Here’s my contribution to the cause: Completing an assignment for my MFA, I wrote a paper about creating the child’s world in fiction. One of the elements I identified was small treasures, those amulets that add special magic to a child-narrated story. I’d seen such …