Amy Clipston at Friends of the Harrisburg Library

Last night I had the privilege of hearing author Amy Clipston speak. She was the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Harrisburg (NC) Library.

Amy has written numerous Amish fiction books and YA books. I eagerly await the release of A Mother’s Secret, the sequel to A Hopeful Heart. These books are in her Heart of the Lancaster Grand Hotel Series.

Amy has also written The Gift of Love, about the journey she and her husband took through organ donation. I am at the top of the waiting list for it at the library.

Check out Amy’s website to learn more about her and her books. And if you aren’t a member of a local Friends of the Library organization, inquire about it at your public library.

Publication Date: August 25, 2014

I have been notified by Arcadia Publishing that my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, will be published on Monday, August 25, 2014. Mark your calendars! In addition to being in stores throughout western North Carolina, the book will be available online. I will share those details later.

It is exciting to have a publication date scheduled, and it makes the book more real to me. This is a learning process. In the coming months, I will learn about marketing the book.

I just realized I haven’t blogged in more than a month. Time flies when you’re looking after a very sick dog and dealing with 10.5 inches of snow… and life. My vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, is in the hands of the line editor at Arcadia Publishing. I’m waiting to hear what the line editor thinks of my writing. While I wait, I continue to sew and make various items to try to sell in my online craft shop on Etsy.com and I am doing the research in order to write postcard captions in case I get to do a second book for Arcadia of vintage postcards from the Piedmont section of North Carolina.

I have selected a literary agency to send a query letter to about The Spanish Coin. When I get the letter polished and we get our e-mail problems under control, I will take a deep breath and send it off.

Since my last post, I have read The Parting, by Beverly Lewis; Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail, by Louise Shivers; and The Angel of Bastogne, by Gilbert Morris. I’m currently reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It is riveting! I finally had to put it down at 4:00 this morning. Great book!

A Tribute to Mr. Ira Lee Taylor

When I started writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper in 2006, I visited 88-year-old Mr. Ira Lee Taylor. Mr. Taylor lived in Harrisburg his entire life and had an incredible memory. He had been my mail carrier all my growing-up years and I was in school with his daughter. Aside from that, I never really knew him. I expected to visit him once and get the answers to my questions about Harrisburg in the early 20th century. I found Mr. Taylor to be so knowledgeable and eager to talk that I went back to see him numerous times over the next eight years. His memory and eagerness to share stories enabled me to write more newspaper articles — and write with more detail — than I would have otherwise been able to write.

I not only learned a lot about the Harrisburg of Mr. Taylor’s youth, but I heard his personal recollections of the D-Day invasion of Normandy and subsequent battles in the European Theatre of World War II. He recalled the sights, sounds, and smells of war. As a former North Carolina State University student of forestry, he remembered how heartbreaking it had been to see the Hurtgen Forest ravaged by artillery. When he delivered mail to our house all those years, I had no idea about his war experience. Hearing this elderly veteran talk about the war gave me a whole new appreciation for the sacrifices “the greatest generation” made.

The last times I visited Mr. Taylor were at a nursing home. It was sad to see him in a wheelchair in his room instead of in his comfortable living room in his home on Stallings Road. The lives of the residents of several blocks of Stallings Road have been disrupted by construction associated with the high-speed rail. I am glad Mr. Taylor did not have to witness what the government is doing to the neighborhood in which he lived his entire life.

Mr. Taylor died last Wednesday, just 13 days shy of his 96th birthday. Sadly for me, I did not hear about his death until this evening after his funeral had been held. I regret that I did not get to pay my last respects to this gentleman who helped me in my writing and added so much local interest to the last eight years.

It’s in the mail!

No, really. This is a “red letter day.” As of this morning, the 210 vintage postcards and layout pages for my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, were shipped to Arcadia Publishing. The book’s text went to the publisher electronically yesterday. It’s time to take a deep breath, celebrate a little, and start working on the proposal for my next book.

The process of writing The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina was a bit tedious at times as there were strict guidelines for the word count on each postcard caption, but it was a good writing exercise. The word count restrictions forced me to tighten up every sentence and delete every unnecessary word. This usually results in better writing. I hope you will agree when you read the book.

Watch my blog for the publication date.

Looking ahead to the next project

I’m in a holding pattern for the next week or so on The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina vintage postcard book, so today I turned my attention to the piedmont section of the state. I was pleased to discover that I have enough postcards to consider proposing a piedmont postcards book for Arcadia Publishing. Something else to look forward to in 2014!

A Book of Vintage Postcards

A lot has happened since my last post. I signed a contract with Arcadia Publishing to write a book of vintage postcards called The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It will be a thrill to see my name as the author on the cover of a book!

The book will cover the mountains and foothills of North Carolina and the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Doing the necessary research for the book has been educational for me. I have learned a lot about the mountains, but I have also learned that writing a vintage postcard book and writing a historical novel have more in common than one would think. Either book can only contain a small fraction of the details discovered during the research phase.

The text is completed for the book. Caption word counts have been checked and double-checked. Grammar has been examined against The Chicago Manual of Style. All that remains is assigning each postcard a number and cross-referencing those numbers.

Publication will be sometime in 2014. I’ll let you know when I have a publication date!

In search of an agent

I’ve been researching literary agencies and agents in search of a good match for me and The Spanish Coin. Two agents have risen to the top of the list, and I have prepared letters and other documentation to send to them. After some last minute tweaking, I’ll send them off. Then I’ll select another agent to write, then another one, and so forth until I find the right one.

This is a big step for me!

The Dry Grass of August

Today was great fun! I got to hear Anna Jean Mayhew, author of The Dry Grass of August, speak at the public library in Kannapolis, NC. The event was well attended and she answered questions until there were no more. She’s a very entertaining speaker.

Discussions of The Dry Grass of August generate interesting questions and conversations about the days before and during the Civil Rights Movement. Today’s audience was a cross-section of ages and people who grew up in various parts of the United States. Today’s program brought several perspectives to light.

The discussion about race relations combined with A.J.’s talking about her writing and life experiences made for a very enjoyable afternoon.

I love hearing authors speak!

I got to hear Mark de Castrique speak again last night. He’s not only a good writer, he’s an entertaining and informative speaker.

I mailed a query letter to StarDate magazine today. I would be very pleased if they publish my article about the 1849 “Monroe” meteorite that landed in Cabarrus County. Time will tell.

I continue to research literary agents.