"This mark is like a mirror held up in front of the viewer. It reflects where inspiration, thoughts, ideas, and stories originate—in the mind."
Designer, Gordon Smith.
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December Volume 29 Issue 5
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Our mission: to support local writers and promote their development through education, recognition, and community.
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A Message from the President:
When we gather in person for the first time in 20 months, it seems appropriate that we're focusing
on Critique Groups Creation & Support.
(See the block below for details about that December 14th meeting.)
These groups are an integral part of what makes us unique in the Charlotte writing community. For me personally, being in critique groups has helped me grow as a poet and storyteller.
Currently, there are about a dozen groups, meeting in person across Mecklenburg County and online. Each group, prose writers and poets, is unique too. Meeting times and locations, from Huntersville to Matthews and parts in between are set by each group. The critique offered is based on the needs of the peer reviewers.
A Little History on this Benefit of Membership.
Richard Allen Taylor and Jerri McCloud started this program, circa 2006 or 2007. Although the former president has no written records to "nail down the exact dates," he recalls "CWC was meeting at Joseph Beth Booksellers at the time, in South Park Mall."
The meeting was dedicated to forming groups. Members were invited to visit tables set up by genre. "The idea was to get people with similar interests talking with each other so they could organize themselves into a group that would meet at someone's house (or a different member's house each month), at a specific time of the month or week, with agreed-upon "rules" or procedures, and, of course, many of those rules would change and develop with time to suit the changing needs of the group."
The picture (above) taken last month of just part of our group, is of the latest iteration of the poetry critique group created during that first critique groups gathering. Taylor was the first leader.
Sally Miller, in royal blue, was part of that original group. She is an artist with a paint brush and a writing instrument and credits the caliber of the critique she has received from Taylor to Justin Hunt and now Peter Krones and the "Gastonia boys" for sharpening that poets eye and fellowship with her poet friends that keep her writing, and coming back month after month.
As we close 2021, the tradition continues on around a new set of tables. We hope we are as successful at matching people and projects as Taylor and McCloud were 25 years ago. Visit the Calendar of Events page to learn more about critique groups and why you should belong to one and join us at the Tyvola Senior Center!
And if you missed Sarah Archer's engaging talk on Structure, Marketability, and Other Screenwriting Secrets, during "The Final Zoom" on November 16th, check out the summary and pictures on CWC RECAP Page.
Stay Healthy & Keep Writing!
Caroline
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We're talking Critique Groups
Creation & Support
On Tuesday, December 14, 6:30 to 8:30 pm
For more, visit the
Do you need fresh eyes for an old project, or want to jump into something new in 2022?
Come to the December meeting--on the second Tuesday, the 14th. It's a week early because of the holidays. We will be forming new peer review groups and established groups will be looking for additional members.
There's plenty of room at the Tyvola Senior Center for mingling and we'll help you find peers to cheer you on, keep you on track, readers to help you with plot holes and bad grammar, if you ask.
If you want to be in a group but are not able to be present for this meeting or are not not yet comfortable gathering live, contact the CWC President with you specifics:
- Needs/wants in a peer review partner or in a group.
- Where you live.
- If you are willing and how far you want to travel to meet a group or partner
- Would you rather meet online.
Please note if you are willing to lead a group, should we find others of like genre for you.
New Poetry Group Forming in Belmont
If enough interest is shown, the group will meet in Belmont, NC, near where Highway 74 (Wilkinson Boulevard) crosses the Catawba River (the border of eastern Gaston
and western Mecklenburg counties) at a private home with easy suburban on-street parking.
The host and hostess are offering their space for a monthly meeting either indoors or on their deck, and suggest a start time between 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. and end time no later than 8 pm, on a day, Monday- Saturday, that best suits the members of the group. During the odd time we're living in, masks will be required. Email Paul Bruchon or contact him by cell phone, at (704) 689-5007. You can also message him from the Member Directory.
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Club Stuff, Opportunities to Write & Submit
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The Tyvola Senior Center, 2225 Tyvola Road, is our New Meeting Home, Join Us There!
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Program Chair and President-Elect David Collins and the rest of our leadership team is waiting to welcome you back to the real. Social time is from 6:30 to 7pm so plan to get here early. Business will begin promptly at 7pm because we must be out of the building by 8:30 pm sharp.
COVID
Since COVID and its spawn remain part of the plot, we need your help to keep us all safe. To attend in person, we ask that you provide proof of COVID vaccination and while in the building, wear a face covering over your mouth and nose.
Members and guests, when you RSVP, you will be prompted to take a photo of your vaccination card and email it to MembershipCWC@yahoo.com
You’ll only have to do it once and we will have you on our VIP List. As you arrive for the meeting, we will check you off the list. We will also accept showing vaccination cards at the door as a last-minute emergency—though prefer not to have to do this because we don’t want to have to turn anyone away as we follow city & county mandates.
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Craft Class is Coming For Jan. & Feb:
Flash Fiction 101 Essential Elements of Very Short Stories: A Five Session Course with Annie Frazier Crandell.
On Saturday mornings, 10am to 1pm, in January: 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, 1/29 and in February: 2/5, 2022.
The cost for this multi-session craft course is $150 for members, $200 for non-members.
Seating is limited. Reserve your seat Here.
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CWC Authors
Congratulations to
Derryl G. Barry,
Short Stories
If you would like to have your book cover featured in an upcoming CWC Newsletter, please contact Teresa Taylor, Newsletter Editor by the 15th of the month.
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Join the North Carolina Poetry Society on Saturday, December 11 at 10:00 AM for a Premier Holiday Poetry Program featuring Gideon Young, one of North Carolina's fine poets on his way up. Gideon will present a lovely morning of poetry & flute music — including winter poems, holiday songs and a reading from his debut haiku collection my hands full of light, The poet writes that there will be a time for audience participation and moments for personal inspiration. STAY TUNED! The ZOOM link will be available with the
Members and friends will be admitted after 9:45 am for welcome and sharing holiday greetings.
Dave Manning Wins Brockman-Campbell Award
The 2021 Brockman-Campbell Award for best poetry book published during the preceding year was won by Dave Manning for Sailing the Bright Stream: New & Selected Poems.
CWC's Dannye Romine Powell received an Honorable Mention for: In the Sunroom with Raymond Carver
along with The Tyranny of Questions by Michael Gaspeny.
2021 Pinesong Awards Anthology is Available On-Line
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Traditional vs Self Publishing
You’ve written a beautiful book and now you’re ready to release it to the world, but before you can truly embark on your publishing journey, you need to make a major decision: will you self-publish your book, or attempt to get it published traditionally?
Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing is one of the great debates of the literary world. Self-publishing authors sing the praises of creative control and higher royalties, while traditionally published authors say theirs is the only path to mainstream success. So with people singing the praises of both methods the question remains: is it better to self publish or get a publisher?
The truth, however, lies somewhere in the middle. There are pros and cons to both sides, and the right choice depends on you as an individual author!
In November's issue we shared traditional publishing information, here's a snapshot.
In traditional publishing: you exchange the product of your book for a publisher’s services and industry connections. You’ll no longer have complete ownership, but everything will be taken care of!
Here's a quick view of the pros of both methods:
Self Publishing Pros
- Guaranteed your book will be published
- Total creative control
- The book can get to market as fast as you choose
- Earn an average of 70% royalties for an ebook and 50% for prints.
Traditional Pros
- Prestige and awards
- Backing of an editorial, design ad marketing team
- Production cost are paid by the publisher as opposed to you, the author
- Distribution to physical stores
- Self-publishing is the more viable and personally satisfying route for the vast majority of authors today. With that being said, if you’ve always dreamed of publishing traditionally, don’t let fear stop you from giving it a shot! Do your homework; query agents and explore different publishing options, and if you ultimately decide to self-publish anyway, you can do so at any time, and there are self publishing companies that can help you, including Amazon.
So no matter which publishing path you take you now have a small arsenal of information to work from; take the leap; move forward with confidence and get that book published that the world is waiting to read.
Self Publishing Companies you can review
- Kindle Direct Publishing
- Barnes and Noble Press
- Apple Books
- Reedsy
- Publish Drive
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"Books are a uniquely portable magic."
Stephen King
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Good Holiday Reads for the Entire Family
· The Holiday Swap-Maggie Knox
· The Christmas Bookshop-Jenny Colgan
· A Season for a Second Chance-Jenny Bayliss
· The Matzah Ball-Jean Meltzer
· The Inn at Hoiday Bay-Kathi Daley
· You're My Little Latke-Natalie Marshall
· Hanukkah, Here I Come-David Stein
· What the Dinosaurs Did the Night Before Christmas-Refe Tuma and Susan Tuma
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"I see books.
I see coffee.
I see a good day ahead."
Unknown
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Wishing you all a very safe and Happy Holiday season, and a successful and productive writing 2022!
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CWC Advisory Board
Critique Groups Coordinator
- Organizes critique groups, monitors their progress, & keeps the Critiques Group page up to date.
- Works with critique group leaders to ensure all participants are CWC members.
- Prepares newsletter and website items on critique group activities.
Program Co-Chair
Volunteer your talents and learn the ins and outs of program planning, working with Dave Collins. Your main duties this coming year are likely to be technical; leading and or assisting our online audience with Q&A that follows monthly speakers. You and he will be searching for and booking presenters for our meetings in 2022-2023.
If you see yourself in this role, please contact Dave for more about this important post.
Stay Tuned for more opportunities to serve the club as a member of the 2022-2023 leadership team.
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CWC
(article/essay)
Closes: January 2, 2022
Announce Winners: February 15, 2022
Nonfiction from 750-2000 words.
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CLOSED! Best wishes to all who entered this short fiction contest. Thank you Gary Powell for judging this year's contest. In January we'll announce the top finishers and celebrating those winning voices.
Coming soon!
Opens: December 21, 2021
Closes: February 15, 2022
Announce Winners: April 19, 2022
Poetry of fewer than 50 lines; haiku excluded.
Opens: January 18, 2022
Closes: March 15, 2022
Announce Winners: May 17, 2022
A short story between 1500-4000 words.
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Sharp is the frost, the Northern Light
Flickers and shoots its streamers bright;
Snow-drifts cumber the untracked road;
Bends the pine with its heave load.
Each small star, though it shines so bright,
Looks half pitched with the cold tonight.
Longing after its summer skies
Where it swam, soft as angel's eyes.
Francis Rye.
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Shakespeare's Three References to Christmas
The fun thing about all three references is that they reveal something about what celebrating the holiday of Christmas meant for William Shakespeare.
The first reference comes from Act 1 Scene 1 of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
"At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth."
What Biron is talking about here is that each season of life has normal attributes. Christmas has snow, and May, being in summer, has mirth. Exploring the mirth and celebrations that came with May is for another episode, but for Christmas–snow was a standard part of Christmas celebrations in England for Shakespeare’s lifetime.
The second reference is also from Biron in Love’s Labour’s Lost but this time from Act V, Scene 2. In a long list of various attributes of celebration, Biron mentions, “To dash it like a Christmas comedy...”
This line is important because it reminds us that one of the key aspects of celebrating Christmas for Shakespeare was the comedy. Whether it was performing comedic plays, dressing up in costume or having fun with the Lord of Misrule, Christmas time was marked with a unique tradition in Shakespeare’s lifetime where everything was reversed.
And the third and last reference to Christmas in Shakespeare’s plays comes from Christopher Sly in the Prologue of Taming of the Shrew.
"Let them play it. Is not a comonty a
Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?"
Christopher Sly reveals in this quote that Christmastime was full of performance and games. The kind of performance could be a stage play like what Shakespeare wrote, or it could also be all manner of physical attributes, or death defying feats more akin to what you might expect at a circus performance. Jugglers, acrobats, and tumblers would often perform in street presentations or even inside the playhouses themselves. Additionally, gambling–specifically playing at cards and dice was hugely popular for Elizabethans. There are court records of everyone right up to the King and Queen of England who played at cards for money, both winning and losing large sums of money at games. While the gambling games were popular all year round for people like William Shakespeare, the atmosphere of merriment afforded by the holiday season was an especially prominent time for people to play at games.
Shakespeare and Hanukkah
Excerpts from the article by
David M. Shribman in the
Jewish Journal
At this season we might for a moment contemplate one of Shakespeare’s more intriguing but often overlooked characters, the French nobleman Lafew. The light of this man’s counsel and reason shines brightly, guiding others in the production and illuminating the action for the audience. Though his wisdom sometimes flickers and the other characters are forced to endure sporadic moments of darkness, he is an apt figure for this time of the year. His name can be said to mean “the fire,” and the play is called,
“All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Shakespeare probably wasn’t Jewish, though some recent scholars have suggested he might have been, and in his landmark book, “Shakespeare and the Jews,” the Columbia professor of English and Comparative Literature, James Shapiro sets out to explain “How Jewish questions were understood in early modern England.” But the imagery of light throughout this play might lead us to some December reflections on the meaning of the Hanukkah holiday that continues through nightfall Dec. 18 – and of the light the holiday provides in the darkness of the week approaching the darkest day of the year, this year just three days after the end of Hanukkah.
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"On Hanukkah, the first dark night, light yourself a candle bright. I'll you, if you will me, invite to dance within that gentle light."
Nicholas Gordon, Poet
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"Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them."
Neil Gaiman
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"Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably."
C.S. Lewis
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Books Make Great Gifts
Books make great gifts because they can be thoughtful, and sometimes also thought-provoking. Like a card they can convey sentiment and feelings of humor; but they are so much more than a card! They can help people to say things that they may otherwise find so hard to put into words.
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"A book is a gift you can open again and again."
Garrison Keillor
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Virtual Writing Salon & Social Time
is on vacation until February 8.
We'll miss our writing time together, but we look forward to brand new prompts from Tiffany, the master of virtual writing time.
After the first to the year, be on the lookout for your opportunity to
take 75 minutes to write and see where the prompts take you!
There will be time to share if you wish, no pressure, no angst, just writing fun! Hope to see you there!
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Wednesday, December 22, 2021
6:45-9:00 p.m.
Mugs Coffee
5126 Park Rd
Charlotte 28209
CWC presents another amazing night for members to share their awesome talent. Please note the special Wednesday meetings in December. We will return to the 4th Friday sessions beginning with January. 2022.
You must be a member and register ahead of time to read. Register Here for December.
If you aren't reading, come out and support your fellow writers.
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People Born in December are:
- Down to earth and freindly
- Honesty is high on their priority list
- Motivators
- Talented
- Organized
- Lucky
- Enthusiastic and Active
- Born Intellects
- Opinionated
- Spiritual in their own way
- Patriotic
- Committed
December was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar. It gets its name from the Latin word "decem" which means tenth. However, when the Romans added January and February to the calendar, it became the twelfth month.
Did You Know???
William Shakespeare did not have a Christmas tree, and he didn’t even have the same kind of mantle we have in our homes today.
In his plays, William Shakespeare uses the word “Christmas” three times. Twice in Love’s Labour’s Lost, and once at the very beginning of Taming of the Shrew.
December
Historical Facts
1-1941 - The American Civil Air Patrol (CAP), a U.S. Air Force auxiliary, was founded.
1955 - The birth of the modern American civil rights movement occurred as Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on the bus.
December Events
Nobel Prizes Awarded-10
Bill of Rights Day-15
and a really special event...
Act like a Monkey Day-14
Hanukkah-evening of Nov 28-Dec 6
Christmas-25
Kwanzaa-26-January 1
Boxing Day-27
New Year's Eve-31
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Make it a December to Remember
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Charlotte Area December Events
3-Handel Messiah-Knight Theatre
Charlotte
3-R&B Fest-Spectrum Center
6-Jim Brickman: The Gift of Christmas-Knight Theatre
11-Trans-Siberian Orchestra-Christmas Eve and Other Stories-Spectrum Center
30-Liquid Stranger presents Wakaan Takeover-Fillmore Charlotte
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To learn more click the logo above
December 1 @ 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
December 3 @ 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
December 4 @ 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm
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Make it Personal
Personalized Book Copies at Main Street Books
Bed Head-Holly Becker
Search for the Swan Maiden-Todd Gallicano
Goddess of the Machine-Lora Beth Johnson
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The 3 R's
Read
Rest
Relax
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Meet-a-Member:
Heather Hahn
Bio:
You may have seen the Ohio bumper sticker with the “i” shaped like a palm tree. Originally a product of what is now the Rust Belt, I identify with northeastern Ohio and the Carolinas but still experience azaleas and camellias blooming in the colder months as other worldly gifts. Having lived in less hospitable climes in Germany, New York State, and Indiana before raising a daughter in South Carolina, I rely upon my attorney husband to lend me some measure of respectability through his genteel pronunciation of cement (see’-ment) and pocketbook.
Professionally, I have always been an educator. Most recently, I was a tenured philosophy professor at Columbia College in SC, where I had the privilege of talking with students about ideas for over 10 years, having taught Comparative Literature, Genders Studies, and German the previous decades at universities in Mainz and Aachen and at SC State in Orangeburg. When I became a “trailing spouse” and an “empty nester,” I finally decided to learn to write a novel. I remain hopeful that soon someone will come up with less pejorative terms for “trailing spouse” and “empty nester,” neither of which captures the opportunity inherent in shaping the second half of one’s life! I’m also a yogi and a mixed-media hobbyist.
When and Where Do I Write?
I am ecstatic to have the option to write in coffee shops once again, but most often I work at home, upstairs in a sunny loft space. When depends on the day. I was recently reminded by Cal Newport’s Deep Work that each writer has to find the way she or he works best. This strikes me as really important, since the writing life is full of prescribed ways to work and a kind of mysticism that may not fit all writers.
Favorite writing tool?
While I am very eclectic about my preferred technology brands, my writing life has been consistently connected to Apple. Right now, I am stretching out the lifespan of my little MacBook Air as long as I can. Perhaps Scrivner will become another favorite.
A favorite writing resource:
I feel so lucky to have found the fine people and depth of programming of Charlotte Lit since coming to the city in the summer of 2020! I also recommend Brian Murphy’s Podcast How Writers Write.
Best Writing advice you’ve received and actually taken?
Elizabeth Gilbert’s suggestion to follow your curiosity as a means of setting aside fear and doubt resonates with me. Curiosity almost tricks you into taking the next step.
One thing I would like help with?
Community! I’m looking forward to getting to know the writing community in Charlotte. So glad to be a member of Charlotte Writers Club!
To start a conversation with Heather send her a message through the Member Directory
If you'd like to participate in Meet-a-Member please contact the newsletter editor,
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Come on, CELEBRATE good times and good writing!
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Inspiration and Motivation Starters
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It’s the Oscars. Allow yourself a dream: the biopic of your life as a writer is up for awards!
The story follows the usual arc: obstacles, hard work, rejection, struggle, followed by the joy of publication, astronomical sales, Oprah, the Costa-Booker-Nobel Literary grand slam.
And now the film with its twelve Oscar nominations.
What excerpt will they use from this biopic of you as a famous author? What’s really driving you? Do you know the reasons writers write?
What’s at the Heart of Your Story?
A clip could show:
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A scene from the traumatic childhood you had to overcome
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The tearful goodbye as you left your job and love interest to focus solely on achieving your goal
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The day you won that writing prize and proved you were an awesome writer
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The long days crafting your writing (for older writers, the film can show a wastepaper bin filling with discarded pages)
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The impact you had on a grateful reader, who clutches your sleeve, proclaiming, “You changed my life!”
While the end product for writers is the same–a piece of published writing–our individual motivations for writing are very different. Our sense of achievement is triggered by different aspects. Identifying what most satisfies us about writing helps us to find the right support and to understand what holds us back.
Those five imaginary film scenes reflect the variety of motivational drives we have as writers.
Five Reasons Writers Write:
- To overcome
- To achieve a goal
- To win
- To relate
- To have an impact
We all feel these motivations to some degree, but there’ll be one or two which are present in everything we do because we can’t help ourselves. These are our key motivational drives. They drive us forward as writers, and they’re behind the greatest satisfaction we get from writing.
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"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any."
Orson Scott Card, speaker & the author of Ender's Game.
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Winter Writing Spot
How about Sugar Mountain, North Carolina?
Sugar Mountain is a village in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s known for the Sugar Mountain Resort, with its ski slopes, trails and outdoor ice rink.
Although the first Southern ski area was Cataloochee, development in earnest began in 1965 with the opening of Bryce Mountain, VA. For the next five years, the development of new ski areas proceeded at a rapid pace. Seven Devils opened in 1966 with Beech Mountain following in 1967. The birth of the Sugar Mountain Company began with the purchase of 2000 acres of land by Retired General Alexander Andrews and Albert Johnson. They combined their acreage with 900 acres owned by George McRae a tract owned by Julian Morton and two Norwood Hollow farms to form what has now become Sugar Mountain.
Visit the mile-high resort village of Sugar Mountain, North Carolina – the High Country’s sweet spot for adventures and natural scenery in all four seasons. It is conveniently located in the middle of Pisgah National Forest and the highest Blue Ridge Mountains with many things to do. As one of the highest towns in the Eastern USA, the elevation ranges from 4,000 to 5,300 feet. With wide open spaces and a variety of vacation homes and condo rentals, it is the natural spot for social distancing.
Find your winter writing inspiration and have some fun too on Sugar Mountain.
VILLAGE OF SUGAR MOUNTAIN
251 Dick Trundy Lane
Sugar Mountain, NC 28604
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DEADLINE DECEMBER 1!
$10,000 in prizes plus
publication in Charlotte Lit’s new Writers/South Awards. Four categories: poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, and flash. Four prize levels: $1,500 1st, $500 2nd, $250 3rd, $50 honorable mentions.
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Check Out this Month's Featured Readers at Waterbean Poetry
Night at the Mic LIVE in Huntersville. Mask Up to Mic Up.
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CWC Authors
We'd like to feature a few of our own authors each month. If you're interested in having your book listed, please submit author name and book title to the newsletter editor, Teresa Taylor by the 15th of the following month. Only 5 authors per newsletter and it will be first received, first printed. A list will be kept and used in the upcoming editions.
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Ways to Encourage Youth to Write
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Allow them time. Our world is hectic and busy. Writing allows them the chance to slow down and breathe. To take stock of their thoughts and emotions and experiences.
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Remind them that practice makes perfect. Help them to remember that writing is one of the things in life that you get better at the more you do it.
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Encourage journaling. Writing a journal is extremely beneficial. They can write about anything and everything. They can draw, sketch and doodle.Journaling can also help improve communication and literacy skills.
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Suggest comic book writing. Many people have huge imaginations, but are put off when having to write long narratives, perhaps because of lack of concentration or perhaps for fear of ‘getting it wrong’. You can print comic book pages from the Internet and allow them to get creative without pressure.
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Try list poems. Poetry is a fantastic form of expression, allowing short (or long) bursts of expression, ridding ourselves of emotions and frustrations and allowing us to say what we want to say. Poetry can be intimidating for some people though, so suggest list poems as a way into poetry writing. Get them to list anything, what happened to them during the day, what their hopes and dreams are, what their favorite menu would consist of. It’s fun, easy and the results can be encouraging.
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Suggest FanFiction. Writers are often inspired by books, films and TV shows that they love. A writer’s love for an existing character or story line can often be what compels them to put pen to paper in the first place. Tell them that there is nothing wrong with being a ‘magpie’ and borrowing ideas from work they love. Writing FanFiction can be a positive way for beginning writers to discover their own voice by writing within a world that already exists.
"Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing."
Benjamin Franklin
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Introducing the Top Ten First Time Authors of 2021 as selected by The Observer
This year’s selection of debuts (from writers in the UK and Ireland) is a particularly rich and interesting mix. There are novels that engage with contemporary British life, with questions of race and identity prominent. There are books that seek to explore occluded histories and contested narratives. It’s a list featuring several poets who have turned to the novel as a way of exploring ideas in a more capacious form.
- Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water (Viking)
- Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation (Jonathan Cape)
- Melody Razak, Moth (Orion)
- Abigail Dean, Girl A (HarperCollins)
- Ailsa McFaarlane, Highway Blue (Harvill Secker)
- Will Burns, The Paper Lantern (Orion)
- JR Thorp, Learwife (Canongate)
- Rebecca Watson, Little Scratch (Faber)
- Natasha Brown, Assembly (Hamish Hamilton)
- Sam Riviere, Dead Souls (W&N)
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" A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies...The man who never reads lives only once."
-George R.R. Martin
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"A writer only begins a book, a reader finishes it.
Samuel Johnson
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"Gaining knowledge is the first step to wisdom.
Sharing it, is the first step to humanity."
Unknown
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If you're you looking to get more involved or have an idea share it
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Encouragement Quotes
"You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say." ―
. Scott Fitzgerald
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"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
Albert Camus
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Share Your Knowledge and Experience
Learning to write well is one of the most challenging tasks for anyone, regardless of age. It takes time, practice, and But Charlotte Writers Club members can help young writers develop their skills and equally important, a love for words and writing by participating in our monthly virtual office hours the first Wednesday of each month, and more importantly by helping spread the word to everyone you meet that the help exists. There are more fun and engaging upcoming activities prepared for young writers. For more information
and to help you may contact Axel Dahlberg by clicking the link or via the CWC member registry.
Thank you in advance for your support.
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Hanukkah the Festival of Lights
Also known as the “Festival of Lights,” Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish holiday celebrating the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the Second Century B.C. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for “dedication.”
The history of the holiday is tied to the time when Israel was struggling for existence. It is believed that after a successful revolt against a tyrannical monarch, the victorious Jewish community could find very little pure olive oil to light the Menorah, only enough for one day. However, the oil lasted for eight days, long enough to purify more oil!
Jewish people light a candle on each of the eight evenings in remembrance of God’s provision. They also play games, exchange gifts, have family dinners and attend plays and concerts at synagogues and schools.
The lighting of the Hanukkah lamp is to take place between “sunset and until there is no wayfarer left in the street.” The lamp should be placed outside the entrance of the house. If a person lives in an upper story, it should be set on the window nearest the street. This placement it to publicly affirm the Hanukkah miracle.
Why 9 Candles?
The eight cups that hold the Hanukkah candles are arranged in a row, one for each night of the holiday. Every menorah has one additional cup, a ninth cup, which is located in the center or to one side and is usually slightly elevated.
The ninth candle is called “the shammash,” or, “one who serves.” Jewish tradition says the purpose of the shammash is that “Judaism gives light to the world.” At Hanukkah we light an additional candle on each day. We use the shammash to light the other candles until all the candles give off their light. So, on the first night of Hanukkah, after sundown, the shammash candle is lit, which in turn is used to kindle one candle of the Menorah. The second night, the shammash again is lit and is used to light two candles, etc. The appropriate number of candles is placed in the menorah from right to left, yet they are lit from left to right.
Why Two Different Spellings?
English speakers are often thwarted by an even more elementary question about this particular holiday: how do you spell it?
A large number of variants are possible. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, lists over twenty options. According to most sources, the most common spellings are Hanukkah and Chanukah.
“May the light illuminate your hearts and shine in your life every day of the year. May everlasting peace be yours and upon our Earth.”
Eileen Anglin
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"May the lights of Hanukkah usher in a better world for all humankind."
Author Unknown
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"The spirit of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is shared by all people who love freedom."
Norma Simon, Author
"The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle."
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Got the Theatre Itch?
Check out these upcoming December shows and save the date:
- Nutcracker-3-23
- Handel Messiah-3-5
- Biology 4 Comedians-4
- An Officer and a Gentleman (The Musical) 7-12
- Black Nativity-12
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Hanukkah Events
- Waxhaw Menorah Lighting-1 10:30-11:30 p.m. E. North Main St
- Hanukkah 8K-12 2:00 p.m. 236 Charlotte St Asheville
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"Entertainment is about taking people away from the regular order of things when ther is some chaos and pain and stress."
Michael Jackson
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"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children they are all 30 feet tall."
Larry Wilde
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"Life is packed full of memories. The more memories you can create, the richer your life becomes."
Tom Evans
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"A good life is a collection of memories."
Denis Waitley
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ATTENTION Playwrights click the image above to learn more about this opportunity.
The 2022 North Carolina Playwrights Lab will develop 2 original plays, written by NC playwrights, over 2 weeks in September with 2 staged-reading presentations for a public audience. At the heart of this experience is the opportunity for playwrights to receive moderated feedback sessions with a panel of 4 local and national industry professionals after each presentation of their work to inspire brave edits in the week between presentations and beyond!
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Look What's Coming!
2022 Book Releases
- Gallant-Victoria Schwab
- Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingom Duology, #1)-Sue Lynn Tan
- House od Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)-Sarah J. Maas
- Book of Night-Holly Black
- Book Lovers-Emily Henry
- The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea-Axie Oh
- Ophelia After All-Racquel Maise
- Only a Monster-Vanessa Len
- I Kissed Shara Wheeler-Casey McQuiston
- babel,or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Rvolution-R.F. Kuang
- Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours, #3)-Cassandra Clare
- A Magic Steeped in Poison (The Book of Tea, #1)-Judy I. Lin
- A Tempest of Tea (A Tempest of Tea, #1)-Hafsah Faizal
- Where the Drowned Girls Go (Wayward Children #7)-Seanan McGuire
- Bloodmarked (The Legendborn Cycle #2)-Tracy Deonn
- This Woven Kingdom (The Woven Kingdom #1)-Tahereh Mafi
For more new releases visit goodreads.com
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"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."
-Lemony Snicket
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"Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above ordinary."
Jim Rohn
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Knowledge is Power!
Charlotte Writers Club Members
CWC writers do you have a writing tip you'd like to share or an article you'd like featured for the January issue?
December 15.
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"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."
Margaret Fuller
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Resources, grants and places to submit your work at NCArts.org.
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North Carolina Poetry Society emuse at NCPS.
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December
6- Cards for a Cause @ all branches-9-10 a.m.
8, 15, 22-Children's Scavenger Hunt: Hot Chocolate @ all branches 12-1 p.m.
11-2nd Saturday Bookshop
10-4 @ West End Plaza Event Center
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Curl Up With New
December Releases
Adults
- 28-Here's to Us (What If It's Us #2) Becky Albertalli
- 7-Call Us We Carry: Poems-Amanda Gorman
- 7-Beasts of a Little Land-Jaheak Kim
- 7-The Righteous-Renée Ahdieh
Young Adult:
- 7-If This Gets Out-Sophie Gonzales
- The Excalibur Curse (Camelot Rising #3)-Kiersten White
- 9-The Unraveling of Luna Forester-Marisa Noelle
Children
- 28-Wings of Fire (Wings of Fire Graphic Novel #5)-Tui T. Sutherland
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“Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”
Leo Tolstoy
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Michael Jerome Oher
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side
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Quiz: Can you guess the writers behind these famous quotes?
The modern world of enhanced brevity and rapidly consumed content is full of quotes by inspirational thinkers, leaders, artists, and, perhaps most notably, writers. Memorable quotes are ubiquitous on social media feeds, often referenced by politicians, and are plastered across any variety of merchandise, painted signs, and greeting cards. OK, Here goes:
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“Being human is not hard because you’re doing it wrong, it’s hard because you’re doing it right.”
- “Freedom is... the right to write the wrong words.”
- “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
- “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
- “The stories we tell ourselves can feel like a weapon to someone else.”
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Answers
- Glennon Doyle, "Untamed"
- Patti Smith
- Anais Nin
- James Baldwin
- Thomas Page McBee, Man Alive
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- Which of the "12 Days of Christmas" gifts would be the most expensive?
- Which holiday movie was created as an advertising gimmick in 1939?
- What is the name of the real-life hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining?
- How are the writer of the story Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the writer of the song Rudolph the Red Nosed Reinder related?
- The film Eight Crazy Nights is an animated musical holiday comedy-drama film. Who wrote it?
Look for answers in the lower right column of the newsletter.
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Shepherd's Center of Charlotte - Seeks Volunteer Poetry/Creative Writing Instructors
The Shepherd's Center (3115 Providence Rd) provides services for senior citizens in the community, in particular the Adventures in Learning series that offers classes on a variety of topics.
Typically this involves doing 1 hour sessions - 1 per week for 4-6 weeks. In person and via Zoom.
If this interests you please contact Alicia Celek to volunteer your talent.
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Laugh a Minute
A JOKE for
WRITING JOKESTERS
Q: What do you call a bankrupt Santa?
A: Saint Nickel-less.
Q: What's A Snowman's Favorite Breakfast?
A: Frosted Flakes!
What does lactose free milk wish to the world?
A: Soy to the world
OK, so they're corny, but I bet you smiled.
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“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.”
― George Bernard Shaw
“If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.”
― Robert Frost
“The earth laughs in flowers.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness - the hilarious declaration made by man that life is worth living.”
― Sean O'Casey
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Writing for Humor
Literature at its most serious is almost always funny. It’s hard to name an authentic great—Dickens, Faulkner, Zadie Smith—who’s not a gifted comic, too. Sean Wilsey, author of the essay collection More Curious, made his case for why literature needs laughter, though he suggested that successful humor requires way more than punchlines and good timing.
Laughter and levity are important aspects of human life, even at its darkest, and writing that lacks those qualities denies the full richness of experience.
Excerpt from Honest Writing is Funny Writing by Joe Fassler
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"You grow up the first day you have your first good laugh-at yourself."
Ethel Barrymore
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"Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone...."
Line from the poem "Solitude"
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Write Like You
Mean It, Thursdays 10:00 – 11:30 am Join from the comfort of your space to write and share our work. Contact
Prolific Pens Writing Group 11:00 am– 1:00 pm
The first and third Saturdays of the month with the exception of holidays to learn more contact
North County Regional Wordsmiths, Thursdays, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Writers of poetry and prose, all experience and skill levels are invited to meet every Thursday Group contact
Chapter Three Book Club
meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 1pm.
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Literary Dishes Inspired by a Good Novel
A Very Nantucket Christmas
Nancy Thayer
vividly depicts the joys and frustrations of family life against the beautiful Nantucket backdrop.” It's Christmas time and Felicia has returned to her family's home on the island to marry her rugged boyfriend, Archie. Every snow-dusted street and twinkling light is picture-perfect for a dream wedding.
Try a Ginger Cookie Recipe to go along with the novel.
Matzah Ball
by Jean Meltzer
Jacob Greenberg, Rachel's childhood crush and No. 1 enemy from Jewish summer camp, may have broken her heart all those years ago, but his company is hosting the biggest social event of the holiday season, and Rachel's certain she can find the inspiration she needs for her next book at the Matzah Ball.
Try Homemade Matzo Bread in 18 Minutes to go along with the novel.
"There is no friend as loyal as a book."
Ernest Hemingway
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Trivia Answers:
- "Swans a Swimming" about $6300.00
- Rudloph the Red Nosed Reindeer for Montgomery Ward
- The Stanley Hotel
- Brothers-in-Law (Robert L. May-the story and John Marks, the song)
- Adam Sandler
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Support CWC Members & Community Partners
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Charlotte Readers Podcast
The month of December is an exciting mix of book and craft talks. On the book front, we have a non-fiction book that explores the faith of three towering figures, a suspenseful thriller set on the US-Mexico border, and host Landis Wade’s forthcoming Deadly Declarations mystery where an unlikely trio of retirees try to solve the 250-year-old mystery of the controversial First American Declaration of Independence.
On the craft side, we have four talented authors discussing: (1) true crime writing; (2) writing with strength and clarity; (3) humor writing; and (4) book marketing. We wrap the podcast year up with two final episodes with the Storied Charlotte book blogger and a national book influencer who talk about their favorite books of the year.
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The Personal Story Publishing Project
Deadline for entry is December 15.
Last Call for submissions for the 6th anthology. The theme is “Curious Stuff—mementos, treasures, white elephants, and junk.” Stories about items in your possession—or things you once had and wish you still did (or not)—and the stories connected to them.Your true, personal stories of 750-800 words sharing your lived experience, and leaving the reader a lesson or a laugh or a caution for us all.
Publication will be in March 2022.
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A CLASS & Opportunities to Submit Your Work!
On Tuesday, December 7, at 7:00 pm EST, critically acclaimed author Michael Zapata will lead the online class "At the Beginning of the World: Writing Historical Fiction.
JACOBS/JONES AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERARY PRIZE
Deadline to enter is January 2, 2022. For Guidelines & More Visit NCWN.
Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition
submit your piece of unconventional journalism, not to exceed 2,000 words, Deadline to enter is January 15, 2022. Learn more & SUBMIT HERE.
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Open Mic Night
LIVE and IN-PERSON AGAIN!
Every 4th Friday, arrive by 6:45, readers will begin at 7 and continue until 9 pm,
Members Open Mic readings at Mugs Coffee. Mask Up to Read & to Drop in for a listen!
5126 Park Rd #1D, Charlotte, NC 28209
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MEMBERSHIP
Membership in the Charlotte Writers Club entitles you to participate in workshops, critique groups, contests, and guest speaker programs. The cost is a modest $35 per year for individuals and $20 for students.
We welcome all writers in all genres and forms to join our Charlotte-area literary community. Your membership in the Charlotte Writers' Club helps support writers, readers, and literacy at a critical time in our nation's and our city's history.
To Join or Renew click this Membership Link and follow the instructions.
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Charlotte Writers Club PO Box 220954, Charlotte NC 28222
Please "LIKE" our Facebook page to encourage discussion among fellow
writers and keep up with the club offerings.
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