An Author In Progress: The Pamlico Writer's cover reveal for A Carolina Christmas

WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THIS COVER REVEAL - IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!

BUT FIRST, LET'S GET TO KNOW WHO THE PAMLICO WRITERS ARE AND HOW THIS BOOK CAME TO BE!

The Pamlico Writers Group is from the Innerbanks of North Carolina, where the Tar and the Pamlico rivers meet in the town of little Washington. They’re housed just off the river in the old Turnage Theater, the oldest still-standing Burlesque Theater House still standing in North Carolina and home of the Arts of the Pamlico. The Pamlico Writers are a non-profit group and we affiliated with the Arts of the Pamlico.

The Turnage Theater stands on Main Street just one street over from the waterfront. The town of Washington is on the Inner Banks of North Carolina, where the Tar and Pamlico Rivers meet, just down the sound from the Atlantic Ocean. Forestry, watermen, and Military history are abundant in Washington and Beaufort County.

The Pamlico Writers Group hopes to use the funds generated by this anthology to assist in this, our fifth annual Pamlico Writers Conference March 17 and 18, 2017 with Keynote speaker Zelda Lockhart.

Pamlico Writers Group Officers/anthology organizers:

PWG chairperson: Sherri Lupton-Hollister in charge of planning, theme and media
Financial Director: James “Jim” Keen in charge of formatting anthology and setting up Submittable and Drop-Box

Programming Director: Kay Wilson assisted with all aspects of planning and media

Conference Director: Doris Schneider in charge of editing and cover planning

Member: Jeanne Julian assisted with editing

Member: Marni Graff marketing

Connect with the group here:

www.pamlicowriter.org

Twitter @Pamlicowritersconference

Facebook @pamlicowritersgroup

Writing on the Pamlico, pamlicowritersgroup.wordpress.com

Authors/Poets:

Suzannah Lynn Cockerille

Suzannah graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in architecture and most of her elective credits in literature courses. She expected to become an artist, but now her medium is the alphabet. She writes both poetry and prose, runs a blog, and is writing a novel with the working title John Boy and the She-Devil. Suzannah’s work spans topics ranging from personal stories to politics and social justice to humorous pieces. She’s had poems published in The Poet’s Domain, her college literary magazine, and various articles published online and in newspapers. She blogs as “Coco Q” at www.shinybutter.com, and her Facebook page is www.facebook.com/TheShinyButterBlog.

Jonathan Clayborne

Jonathan is the author of five locally staged plays, one of which was sponsored by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. He is an award-winning former editor, reporter, and columnist for the Washington, NC, Daily News, and winner of a deadline-reporting award from the N.C. Press Association. A native of Grifton, NC, and a resident of Washington since 1993, he is an entrepreneur in different fields, including creative writing. He has written a novel and a book of poetry, which he plans to publish soon. Part of the Haunted Pamlico cast, community theater group affiliated with Arts of the Pamlico, you can find him on Facebook.com/jonathan.clayborne or Facebook.com/HauntedPamlico

Nancy Eure Cordano

Nancy lives in North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro with a bachelor of science degree in nursing. Her varied professional career includes behavioral health, industrial, and Faith Community nursing. She has had a passion for writing since her youth, and has completed courses with the Institute of Children’s Literature and Long Ridge Writers Group. She has published two novels. Her additional new joy is learning to paint, finding that her expression in art, layered and vibrant, is similar to her writing. Follow her on Facebook page or check out her author page on the Pamlico Writer Group website. New member of the Pamlico Writers Conference Steering Committee.

Jerry Cuthrell

Poet, mentor and the original chairman of the Pamlico Writers Group. Jerry grew up in Belhaven and went to work in his family’s bakery as a young boy. He attended the University of North Carolina but went to work for a national agricultural company in Oregon. He and his wife Connie raised two sons. After returning to Beaufort County, he settled in Washington and started his own business and the Pamlico Writers Group. Jerry is still an active member and this anthology is dedicated to him and beautiful word-pictures.

Anne Blyth Davis

Anne is a freshman at Duke University from Swan Quarter, NC. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, reading, running, and writing short fiction. She plans to major in math and computer science, and minor in creative writing.

A former member of Marni Graff’s North Carolina Writers’ Read in Belhaven, Anne Blyth Davis won the Pamlico Writers High School Competition in Fiction two different years: 2013 & 2015.

Pam Desloges

Pam grew up in the mountains of New Hampshire and spent much time on the rugged coast of Maine. After retiring from a small New England college, she lost interest in shoveling snow. She now lives in New Bern, NC, with her husband, Max. She has been published in the anthology Art Inspires Poetry, the blog Polly’s Tea Kettle, and a magazine for dog lovers, Sniff & Barkens. She is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, the Pamlico Writers Group, and is a founding member of the Neuse River Writers’ Group. Find her work at: https://www.facebook.com/pamdesloges

Deborah H. Doolittle

Deborah has lived in lots of different places but now calls North Carolina home. She has a BA from the University of Colorado, an MA from George Washington University, an MFA from San Diego State University, and now teaches at Coastal Carolina Community College. Two chapbooks, No Crazy Notions and That Echo, have won the Mary Belle Campbell and Long Leaf Press Award, respectively. She has had more than 350 poems published in literary magazines, with some most recently having appeared or will soon appear in Atlanta Review, Bear Creek Haiku, Edge, Oberon, Pinyon, Seems and TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics. An avid print-maker, she has put together a small collection of hand-made limited edition book art. Married to a retired Marine, she has a son and a daughter and three grandchildren. When not teaching or writing, she volunteers as a Wildlife Rehabilitator. She and her husband currently share their house with four cats and a backyard full of birds.

Follow Deborah on Facebook at www.facebook.com/deborah.doolittle

Diane de Echeandia

Diane writes poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction. She has won awards in competitions sponsored by Christopher Newport University's 30th Annual Writers' Conference, the North Carolina Writers’ Workshop in Asheville, and the Pamlico Writers Group. Diane lives in New Bern, NC, with her husband and basset hound. Diane can be found on Facebook.com/diane.deecheandia or follow her blog http://theskinnypoetryjournel.wordpress.com

Polly Frank

Polly grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Duke University. She won a prize in the first writing contest she entered for her personal essay “The Small ‘c’.” Several careers, including nonprofit executive director and business owner, inform her writing. During 2014-2015 she wrote a weekly blog, Polly’s Tea Kettle, and her work has appeared in the anthology Art Inspires Poetry. She belongs to the Neuse River Writers’ Group, the Pamlico Writers Group, and the North Carolina Writers Network. She lives with her husband in eastern North Carolina, where they enjoy a vibrant arts community. www.facebook.com/pollyfrank67

Sarah Haglund

My name is Sarah Haglund. I love Jesus, music, running and writing poetry, short story's and music :)

Facebook.com/Sarah.haglund.549

Twitter @lifewithgreens

https://www.instragram.com/lifewithgreens

Ted Harrison

Ted’s work has been published by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Main Street Rag Publishing and what he calls “some very small magazines”. After more than thirty years in television news as producer, anchor and correspondent, he considerers himself semi-retired. He has been a bookseller, public affairs director and worked on a telephone hotline.

Richard Knowles

Richard began writing after retiring, about six years ago. Since then he has been a winner in a number of writing contests. He is a two-time winner in both the Pamlico Writing Contest, and the Carteret Writers Contest. This year he was also a winner in the Porter Fleming Literary Competition, sponsored by the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia. Richard’s favorite genres are nonfiction and fiction. He currently resides and writes on Harkers Island, with his wife Jill and Labradoodle Rosie.

Michaela Rappleyea

Michaela has been homeschooled from K-12, and has always loved writing. She is also voracious reader, and has made her way through a list of "100 Books From Classic Literature to Read Before You Die.”
In High School, Michaela enjoyed volunteering and then working at her local children’s library. Other activities include performing with Smiles and Frowns Children’s Theater, taking her award winning research on Honey Bees to the North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair, singing in church choir, and learning sign language with her friends. She is currently pursuing a degree in Speech Therapy at BYU

Doris Schneider

Doris was born in Rosenburg, Texas, but moved all over the United States and Canada as a child. She moved to North Carolina in 1971 where she has spent most of her adult life. She taught Theatre Arts at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and at North Carolina Central University in Durham. She has written numerous articles for professional journals, a theatre textbook (The Art and Craft of Stage Management), and two novels (Borrowed Things and By Way of Water). She is currently working on another novel, The Little Drummer Girl, and a collection of short stories. Doris is an artist/owner of the Lemonade Art Gallery in Washington, where she displays her masks and jewelry.

Facebook.com/dorisschneiderbooks/
Rock my Words dorisschneider252.com

Director of the Pamlico Writers Conference Steering Committee.

Doris Schneider has been the driving force behind the Pamlico Writers Conference since its inception. She is an amazing, talented person and I'd like to share her story.

Me: You have had an interesting life from traveling as a child to your years in academia. Juggling your life, work and leadership of the Pamlico Writers Conference; how has your experience influenced your art? Your writing? Your leadership? How did the conference come to be?

Doris Schneider: My writing and my life seem to have “grow’d like Topsy”. I paused in this writing to look that idiom up. It refers to a fictional character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and means something that grows in spurts without design or intention.

That describes my first novel—something that began as a real experience and then grew in plot and characters as it went along, often without direction or control. It also describes my life which has meandered across this continent, through the arts, and through relationships. The only thing stable has been my love of family and of teaching.

After thirty-three years as a professor of theatre in higher education, I retired and moved to Washington with I ½ unedited novels on my computer. Writing had been my bridge over the empty chasm I felt without teaching in my life. So the first thing I did was join a journaling class to hone my writing skills, to make sense of my past, and to meet other writers. I soon found myself writing longer pieces that were often fiction rather than journal entries limited to my own experiences. Somehow, a brochure about a literary symposium in New Bern found its way to my mailbox. The event included a writing competition. So I rewrote two of my favorite stories, one fiction and one non-fiction, and sent them in.

In the meantime, my husband had knee replacement surgery with many medical mishaps that kept him in bed for a month while I ran up and down the stairs, seeing to his every need. I received a phone call that I was a winner in the competition, but they would not tell me what place I had won or for which genre. My protective negative side said, “probably honorable mention”.

I found someone to sit with my husband while I attended the awards ceremony with a friend. It was held at the Bank of the Arts and was a lovely affair. The spokesperson called the names of the winners, beginning with poetry, then non-fiction, then fiction. For each genre, the honorable mention, then third, then second, and finally first place was called. When she started on non-fiction, I was ready to step forward for my honorable mention. But my name was not called. With each level, I was ready to step forward. Then she began with fiction and the same thing occurred. My foot was raised and ready with the calling of each name. Finally, the only category left was first place fiction. My friend and I looked at each other in disbelief and for a moment I wondered if I had been phoned about being a winner by mistake. Then my name was called.

I have heard my name called before, and I have received awards before, but this was different. After a month of nursing my husband, in a town where we were still new with few friends, still recovering from the trauma of retirement, I needed this moment of confidence-building in the new art form that had become my passion.

Encouraged, I joined the Pamlico Writers Group (PWG) where I could focus on fiction and meet more serious writers. After another year, the New Bern conference and competition ended. Knowing how important that event had been to me, I wanted it to be an accessible opportunity for other writers in eastern North Carolina. So I asked Jim Keen, the leader of the PWG, about holding a conference in Washington. He liked the idea, and I offered to talk to Joey Toler, the head of the Beaufort County Arts Council, about helping us sponsor it. The Pamlico Writers Conference and Competition was born.

As hosts of the event, we could not participate in the competition, but we could recreate each year that wonderful moment I had experienced and give to other writers the encouragement and confidence to persevere and grow (like Topsy).

Behind the Curtain (article in June PWG Newsletter by: SL Hollister & Doris Schneider)

Merry Simmons

Merry holds a BA and an MA in English from Southern Methodist University. For fifteen years, she taught at both the high school and university level. Then she discovered more people wanted houses than grammar and switched to a career in real estate.

After retiring, she returned to her love of words and began writing. She’s sold over a dozen short stories to most of the major science fiction and fantasy magazines as Meredith Simmons and currently has four historical romances available writing as Hannah Meredith.

Merry lives in Wilson, NC with her husband of nearly fifty years, Bob.

www.Facebook.com/HannahMeredithAuthor, www.hannahmeredith.com

Sherri Lupton-Hollister

Sherri has been writing and dreaming since she was a young child. After they raised six sons, her husband asked her what she was waiting for! With the help of her friend, library supervisor Robina Norman, Sherri attended a couple of Romantic Times Conventions. After winning the Ann Peach Scholarship for new writers, she joined Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina, and Pamlico Writers Group and began pursuing a career as a writer. Sherri writes romantic suspense with southern grit and charm, set on the coast of North Carolina.

Facebook.com/sherri.hollister http://sherrilhollister.wordpress.com
Twitter @Jeanelia1964

Member of the Pamlico Writers Conference Steering Committee

Manages the Facebook and Twitter accounts for PWG

Present Pamlico Writers Chairperson

Jeanne Julian

Jeanne’s chapbook, Blossom and Loss, was published by Longleaf Press in 2015. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Naugatuck River Review, Poetry Quarterly, Kakalak, Earth’s Daughters, and Spank the Carp, and are forthcoming two anthologies: The Well-Versed Reader and The Lascaux Prize 2016 Anthology. Her work also has won awards in competitions sponsored by The Comstock Review, The North Carolina Poetry Society, The Lanier Library, and the Asheville Writers’ Workshop. She was the featured photographer in moonShine review, Summer 2015. A graduate of Allegheny College, she has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a member of the Neuse River Writers’ Group. www.jeannejulian.com

Facebook.com/Jeanne.julian

Assistant Editor for A Carolina Christmas

Jeanne met her publisher, Longleaf Press at the 2014 Pamlico Writers Conference Pitch to the Publisher event.

James Keen

A Pamlico Writers Group member since 2008, Jim served as the second PWG Chairman. He wrote two newspaper columns chronicling his sailing adventures: “Nautical Musings,” a weekly column about coastal family adventures; and “In the Loop,” a bi-weekly column about circumnavigating the eastern United States on America’s 6,300-mile Great Loop. Jim’s book Trinidad Express is the story of his 5,300-mile doublehanded South Africa-to-Trinidad Atlantic Ocean sailboat crossing. His ebook, Log of S/V Irish Mist, chronicles his singlehanded 13-month trip on America’s Great Loop. Nautical Musings I and II are ebook anthologies of Jim’s newspaper articles.

Facebook.com/james.keen

Visit his author page at www.pamlicowritersgroup.org

Assistant Director of the Pamlico Writers Conference Steering Committee

Financial Director of the Pamlico Writers Group and Conference

Millie Johnson Sparks

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Millie joined the Pamlico Writers Group in 2016. She is a part-time writer and a full-time librarian at Pitt Community College in Winterville, NC.

Facebook.com/Millie.sparks

Kay Wilson

Kay Wilson wrote simple poetry before her best friend pushed her, kicking and screaming, into a mystery writing class at the local community college. From there she was hooked, learning all she could about the craft. She is an actress and has played numerous roles in community theatre productions (Encore Theatre - Elizabeth City; College of the Albemarle Coast Players - Elizabeth City; and Pamlico Playhouse - Washington), and believes it’s helped her see characters and their stories better. Ms Wilson is a member of two writer's groups (North Carolina Writers' Read - Belhaven and Pamlico Writers Group - Washington) both encourage and challenge her to improve her skills. She writes and manages a blog for the Pamlico Writers Group. She's also written several short stories and two novels which are in different stages of completion. K D Wilson writes Women's Fiction (Domestic & Romantic Suspense) and as yet has not been published.

Kay is the Programming Coordinator for the Pamlico Writers Group, she is also a member of the Pamlico Writers Conference Steering committee, writes the blog “Writing on the Pamlico” pamlicowritersgroup.wordpress.com, Facebook.com/writerkay

Michael Worthington

Thirty-year veteran of the education system, retired. Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina. Michael now writes full-time with his pug asleep on the footrest of his recliner.

His HI/Lo books are designed for reluctant young adult readers with high interest and low reading difficulty. You can find Michael’s books at Goodreads and Amazon.

http://higherEd411.com, Facebook.com/HiLoBooks

The Pamlico Writers Group is thrilled to announce the upcoming release of our 2016 anthology of short stories and poems written by our members with a section of award winning prose and poetry from our 2015 and 2016 competition winners.

A Carolina Christmas isn’t your traditional holiday feast of tinsel and sugar plums. While there is still a smattering of stars sprinkled through the pages and a little glitter and artificial snow lighting up a few plastic Santas, these stories are filled with more than ornaments and figgy pudding. From broken hearts to hopeful reunions, holiday anxiety to joyful tidings, the truest gift of Christmas is still found to be family, faith and friendship. But these stories are not fairy tales and every holiday is not Peace on Earth.

“Readers are in for a holiday treat with the 2016 Pamlico Writers Anthology with its Christmas theme.” ~Marni Graff, award-winning author of The Nora Tierney English Mysteries and The Trudy Genova Manhattan Mysteries

“A Carolina Christmas establishes itself as a holiday classic, a must read. The journey isn’t your typical holiday adventure.” ~Angela Beach Silverthorne, author of Depression Cookies, two-time silver medalist in Women’s Fiction and Chick Lit for Readers’ Favorite and Cries of Innocence, a five-star Contemporary Christian Fiction.

Author/Poets & Titles

Suzannah Lynn Cockerille: How I Can Be So Sure Santa is Real (creative non-fiction)

Jonathan Clayborne: Winter Finds the Cardinal (poem)

Jerry Cuthrell: Unsolicited (poem), Candles (poem)

Nancy Eure Cordano: Misfits of Christmas Eve

Anne Blyth Davis: Orbit (2015 High School Competition ~ Poetry First Place)

Pam Desloges: Christmas Chaos (poem)

Deborah H. Doolittle: My Mother’s Rocky Road to Dublin (#1), Here I am Laughing with Bears (#2), Elizabeth Bishop Attends to the Amarilli (#3)--(2016 Adult Poetry Competion~ First Place)

Diane de Echeandia: Christmas Cards-Bah Humbug! (poem), Spring Melt (2015 Adult Poetry Competition~First Place)

Polly Frank: My Christmas Tree (prose)

Sarah Haglund: Pray For Her (2016 High School Competition~ First Place Poetry)

Ted Harrison: In The Same Country (recreation of Biblical story)

Sherri Lupton-Hollister: Lexie and Ethel, Season of Hope, and Three Dresses (fiction)

Jeanne Julian: Allison’s Adventures on Christmas Eve, Holiday Flotillia (poem)

James Keen: Christmas Stocking Conversation (creative non-fiction)

Richard Knowles: Long, Cold Road (2016 Adult Competion First Place Non-Fiction)

James Lupton: Christmas Adventures (creative non-fiction)

Michaela Rappleyea: Rolling in Her Grave (2016 High School Competition~First Place Prose)

Doris Schneider: Innocence on Holiday (creative non-fiction), The Gift (creative non-fiction), and Christmas Confession (fiction)

Merry Simmons: The Naming of Things (2016 Adult Competition First Place Fiction)

Millie Johnson Sparks: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Courtney Staton: A Letter From a Gifted Kid (2015 High School Competition ~ Prose First Place)

Allison Stuart: The Combination (2015 Adult Competition First Place Fiction)

K D Wilson: Forgetful Adjustments (fiction)

Michael Worthington: Ayden Racial Unrest (2015 Adult Competition First Place Non-Fiction)

And now, before we see the beautiful cover ....

Let's meet the artist of the original piece created for this cover!

Artist Info

Born and raised in New England, Carol Mann has lived in California, Northern Virginia, and Raleigh, moving to Chocowinity, NC, in 1999. Retirement offered an opportunity for Carol to pursue other long-standing interests that were on the back burner while raising a family.

An accomplished tole painter, Carol decided to try her hand in another medium. In planning to publish her third cookbook, she took watercolor classes in order to provide her own illustrations. She became a member of the Watercolor Society of North Carolina and has been juried into their annual exhibit every year since, as well as serving on their Board of Directors. Her watercolors have won numerous awards. She is currently displaying her work and teaching at the Lemonade Art Gallery in Washington, NC.

And Lastly - The creator of the cover:

Jo Michaels

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Author/EIC

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