I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
Tomorrow would have been Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 96th birthday. I was exposed to his writing while majoring in political science at Appalachian State University in the early 1970s. It was a different time. We were in the midst of “the Cold War.” I was intrigued by Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s courage to write about the horrors of Russian labor camps and his time in prison for daring to criticize Joseph Stalin’s running of the Soviet Union’s World War II effort.
Mr. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, but did not receive the award until 1974 due to political circumstances. The KGB is said to have made an attempt on his life in 1971. He died in Moscow in 2008 at the age of 89.
I will prepare a Russian dish, beef stroganoff, for dinner tonight in honor of the bravery of Aleksandr Solzenitsyn and the richness of his writings, including The Gulag Archipelago,One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,August 1914, and Cancer Ward.
Making “cold calls” at bookstores and other stores that might sell my book is not my idea of fun because I was born without one single sales gene. It is difficult for me to enter a store and introduce myself and my book. Perhaps it will get easier with practice. I am much happier at the keyboard writing. That’s probably true of most writers, but promoting one’s book is part of the job.
I told my friend, Kay, that I was not cut out for life in the fast lane. She didn’t miss a beat and came back with, “Maybe you should of thought about that before you wrote a book!”
If you’ve been following my blog over the last week, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that my book was on all the bookstore shelves in the mountains. I visited several bookstores that had not heard of my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. That was not a surprise.
Eastern National operates the gift/book shop at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. There were a couple of Arcadia Publishing books available there, but mine was not one of them. The cashier said they will “probably have it eventually.” He said it has to be approved for sale by the national office, the regional office, and then the local office. I’m hopeful my book will be for sale there by spring. Winter is a slow time for tourists on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so spring will be good.
The woman at Fountainhead Books in Hendersonville was not very encouraging, but gave me the owner’s business card and told me to have Arcadia contact the owner directly. I did that when I got home, and Arcadia is following up with Fountainhead.
The Fountainhead Bookstore in Hendersonville, NC.
Joy of Books is the other bookstore in Hendersonville. The woman there was upbeat. She has never ordered books from Arcadia, but she has ordered from History Press and she knew that the two companies recently merged. I’m hopeful that she will order my book.
Joy of Books in Hendersonville, NC.
All the contacts I make while promoting The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina will serve me well if I get to write additional vintage postcard books for Arcadia Publishing and when I get my historical novel published. The title I’ve given that 98,000-word manuscript is The Spanish Coin. Someday….
After my cousin suggested that The Wrinkled Egg in Flat Rock, North Carolina would be a good place for my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to sell, I passed that information on to Arcadia Publishing. The sales department followed up with Virginia and she ordered a dozen copies for her store! I dropped by The Wrinkled Egg on Tuesday afternoon, although the fog was getting thicker by the mile and I hesitated to leave the interstate. Virginia was not in but I enjoyed talking to Patty. My book had not arrived, but I hope it will be available there before Christmas.
The Wrinkled Egg on a foggy December day in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
The Wrinkled Egg is a quaint gift shop in lovely Flat Rock. Across the street from the famous Flat Rock Playhouse of North Carolina, the shop is in a perfect location for the convenience of shoppers and visitors to this village that is tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Flat Rock. Carl Sandburg and his wife bought a farm there and lived out the last years of their lives there. Their home, “Cannemara” is a State Historic Site and is open for tours. Plan a trip to Flat Rock, where you can visit Cannemara, take in a play at the Playhouse, and shop at The Wrinkled Egg!
My two-day trip to Tryon, Hendersonville, Canton, Asheville, and Flat Rock was an energy booster for me. It was my first opportunity to visit the area covered by my vintage postcard book and see my book on store shelves there. I enjoyed meeting bookstore owners and employees and it was indeed a thrill to see my book on the shelf at several stores!
I visited the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center near Asheville on Tuesday. How I have missed it for all these years is a mystery. I love driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway!
The visitors center cannot be seen from the road. It is located about five or six miles south of the Folk Art Center — one of my favorite places in the mountains — and adjacent to the parkway headquarters. The building is eco-friendly. It is difficult to tell in the photograph, but grass and weeds are growing on the sod roof! It reminded me of a storybook I had as a child that had a drawing of a house with a cow grazing on the roof. I want to return to the visitors center next summer and see what the roof looks like then.
Outside view of the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center near Asheville.
Imagine my surprise when I walked into the bookstore/gift shop in the visitors center and found my book displayed on the shelf! I did not know the visitors center had my book in stock. Since there was only one copy, the employee said, “I guess the rest of the copies have sold.” I don’t know how many copies they started with or when they received the book. I hope they will restock it!
Janet with her book at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center near Asheville, NC.
I want to stop by the visitors center again on my next trip to Asheville. I was on a tight schedule on Tuesday and did not have time to look at anything but my book.
It was a treat on Tuesday morning to spend an hour or so at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Alsace had invited me to come by and autograph copies of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I met Alsace and Malaprop’s owner, Emoke B’Racz. Erin retrieved some of my books out of the window and the ones on display in the regional books section so I could autograph them.
My book was prominently displayed, which was a thrill. Malaprop’s is the quintessential independent bookstore. It has a great atmosphere and welcoming staff. I told them I wish we had a bookstore like it in our area. After following Malaprop’s website and receiving their weekly e-newsletters for several months, I was glad to finally get there in person. I could have easily spent the day there.
If you ever get to Asheville, be sure to visit Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe at 55 Haywood Street. It is a book lover’s heaven!Janet with her book at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in Asheville, NC on December 2, 2014.
On the way to my speaking engagement at the public library in Canton, North Carolina on Monday morning, I dropped in on The Book Shelf at 94 North Trade Street in Tryon, North Carolina. A delightful independent community bookstore, The Book Shelf has been a fixture in Tryon since 1952.
I was thrilled to find two copies of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on a shelf in the regional books section! With the front cover facing out, the book was quite eye catching. I was very pleased. Penny Padgett, the owner of The Book Shelf, was not in the store at the moment. Her employee, Judy, was very pleasant and welcoming.
With a recommendation from Judy, my sister and I enjoyed lunch just up the street at The Lavender Bistro. It was a lovely restaurant with an impressive menu.
After lunch, I returned to The Book Shelf and got to personally thank Penny Padgett for selling my book. She asked if I could come back next spring and have a book signing. I assured her that I would love to do that.
I couldn’t have been more pleased with how my morning and early afternoon went in Tryon. It was a great way to start out a two-day trip to the North Carolina mountains to publicize my book. I look forward to visiting The Book Shelf again.
The entrance to The Book Shelf on Trade Street in Tryon, NC.Front window of The Book Shelf in Tryon, NC.
On Monday afternoon, December 1, I had the pleasure of talking to people who had participated throughout the month of November in National Novel Writing Month “write-ins” at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County, North Carolina, Public Library about my experience while writing a book for Arcadia Publishing. This was different from all my earlier speaking engagements about by vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
The audience members were attentive and asked some good questions at the end of my presentation. I enjoyed my time with them. I felt like we were kindred spirits since I, too, hope to get a novel published someday.
In addition to talking about my experience in writing a book for Arcadia Publishing, I told them about Judith H. Simpson’s book, Foundations in Fiction and recommended that they look for it. It is a good “nuts and bolts” how-to book about writing good fiction. Judy was my teacher fall semester 2001 at Queens University in Charlotte. Her Fiction Writing course was a life-changing experience, and one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. Judy is no longer with us physically, but she is a very real presence every time I sit down to write. Judy was a gifted teacher.
Each time I have a speaking engagement, I feel a little more at ease than the previous time. I hope that means I’m getting better at it, too!
On this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful for things too numerous to list. I choose to concentrate today on being thankful for freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Through no doing of my own, I was born in and get to live in a country where I can write anything I want to write as long as it is not slanderous. I am free to study, explore, and write about any topic I choose. If I want to criticize my government, I can do so without fear of the authorities arresting me. Millions of people in the world do not enjoy that level of freedom.
As a freelance writer, I can try any path, any subject, any outlet for my writing. My writing is not subject to censorship. I do not have to write in fear of being discovered.
This is such a simple concept and one I take for granted most days. Today I pause to thank God for placing me in a time and place where I have freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
In an attempt to get the word out about the availability of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, I have written letters to 30 bookstores, pharmacies, and gift shops around the state this week and enclosed a marketing postcard from Arcadia Publishing.
Today I was thrilled to hear from Allen Eskens, author of The Life We Bury. He saw my blog about his book, and dropped me a note of thanks.
I was supposed to participate in the Downtown Christmas Festival in downtown Lenoir, NC tomorrow in a tent with several other authors. Circumstances prevent my going, so I had to cancel at the last minute. I hope to schedule some author events in some stores or public libraries in that area after the first of the year.
Scheduling author events continues to be the most challenging part of the writing process for me.
I just finished reading The Life We Bury, by Allen Eskens and I encourage you to read it. It is Mr. Eskens’ debut novel. It is the best crafted book I have read in a long time. The suspense will keep you turning pages. It’s that rare book that keeps you awake all night because you can’t put it down. Mr. Eskens has a gift and I can’t wait for his next book to be published.
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