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.
When I read Centennial, by James A. Michener, I remember thinking, I’d like to write a book like that someday! When I read Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, I thought, I’d like to write a book like that someday!
Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley
In 1996, my sister and I published three Morrison genealogy books. Talk about something being a labor of love! I have been interested in my family’s history all of my adult life, so I was drawn to Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, for its writing and its sense of genealogy.
Alex Haley’s Life Before Roots
Today would have been Alex Haley’s 104th birthday.
Haley was born in Ithaca, New York. He lived in Henning, Tennessee, until the age of five, when his family moved back to Ithaca. His father was a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University. His mother was from Henning.
After two years of college, Alex Haley joined the U.S. Coast Guard. He had a 20-years career in that branch of the military. His reputation as a self-taught writer spread among his fellow service members. They often asked Haley to compose love letters for their sweethearts.
After retiring from the Coast Guard, Haley pursued life as a writer. He served as a senior editor for Reader’s Digest magazine. Throughout the 1960s, Haley conducted interviews with famous people for Playboy magazine. It was as a writer for Playboy that he interviewed Muhammad Ali; Sammy Davis, Jr.; Jim Brown; Johnny Carson; Quincy Jones; and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It was Haley who interviewed George Lincoln Rockwell for Playboy. Rockwell was the leader of the American Nazi Party, and he kept a gun on the table throughout Haley’s interview.
When Haley was writing an article about the Nation of Islam for Reader’s Digest, he met Malcolm X. The two met again was Haley interviewed him for Playboy. Haley’s first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family in 1976. It is a noel based on Haley’s genealogy. He traced his mother’s ancestry back to The Gambia. Haley was a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, a young black man kidnapped in The Gambia in 1767 and brought to Maryland to be sold as a slave.
It took Haley 12 years to do the research for Roots: The Saga of an American Family. He traveled to The Gambia and heard stories of Kunta Kinte’s capture. He went to Annapolis, Maryland, and had the emotional experience of standing where his ancestor had been taken from a slave ship.
It is said that Haley enjoyed sitting at the Savoy (a bistro) in Rome to listen to the piano music and write Roots on a yellow legal tablet. A painting of Haley writing on his legal pad hangs at a special table at the Savoy in honor of the time he spent there and the great work of literature he partially wrote there.
The writing of Roots earned Haley a special Pulitzer Prize in 1977. That was the same year that ABC adapted the book into a miniseries that drew a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers.
Misgivings about Haley’s research
Some genealogists have disputed Haley’s genealogical research and the validity of his story of Kunta Kinte.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is quoted as saying, “Most of us feel it’s highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship.”
Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
Sadly, Haley was successfully sued for plagiarism and copyright infringement by Harold Courlander. Courlander accused Haley of taking passages from his book, The African, and using them in Roots. The case was settled out of court in 1978 and Courlander was awarded $650,000. Haley’s biographer, Robert J. Norrell, maintains that Judge Robert Ward was hostile to Haley and did not think Haley was capable of writing Roots.
Posthumus novel
At the time of his death in 1992, Haley was writing a novel based on another branch of his family. At his request, David Stevens completed the novel, Alex Haley’s Queen, in 1993 and it was adapted as a television miniseries by that name.
Haley’s property
Haley lived on a farm at Clinton, Tennessee during his last years. After his death, the Children’s Defense Fund purchase the property and it is used as a national training center and retreat.
In conclusion
I had forgotten the controversies surrounding Alex Haley after his acclaim for Roots: The Saga of an American Family until I started doing research for writing this blog post.
Nevertheless, that does not change the fact that I was inspired by reading Roots and watching it’s TV adaptation. Along with James A. Michener’s Centennial, it was Roots that planted the seed in my head that I might write books someday.
Hurricane Helene Weekly Update
As of Friday, of the 1,457 roads that were closed in western North Carolina last September due to Hurricane Helene, 35 were closed, which is one more than the number reported the week before. The NC Department of Transportation reports 39 roads have just partial access, which is a decrease of one road since the previous Friday.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Alert Update
On Saturday, August 2, US-441/Newfound Gap Road – the only road that crosses the entire Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was closed due to heavy rainfall causing the undercutting of a section of the road in Tennessee by Walker Prong Camp Creek between Mile Marker 12 and Mile Marker 13.
By the next day, a portion of Newfound Gap Road from near Cherokee, North Carolina into the park reopened; however, the National Park Service announced on Friday that the Tennessee portion of Newfound Gap Road will remain closed until early October so repairs can be made at the site of the washout/landslide.
The stated detour route is I-40, which is still just two lanes and 35 mph due to the massive damage done last September by Hurricane Helene.
This road closure in the most-visited park in the United States is yet another blow to the tourism-dependent economy of the southern Appalachian Mountains.
I read three books last month that I want to share with you today. The three are very different from each other, so perhaps at least one of them with pique your interest. I recommend each of them.
After my comments about the books I read, I have my weekly update on Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina. I look forward to the day that I no longer need to report on that September 2024 natural disaster.
I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon
I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon
I was so impressed with Ariel Lawhon’s writing style and writing voice while reading The Frozen River in January, that I requested I Was Anastasia from the public library.
Reading this novel transported me back to the book and movie, Dr. Zhivago.
The Romanov family ruled Russia from 1613 until 1917. In 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries executed Nicholas II, his wife, and their five children by firing squad. History tells us there were no survivors.
The Anastasia in this novel is the alleged daughter of Czar Nicholas II.
Anastasia’s survival of the Romanov family being executed by a firing squad has remained one of those mysteries of the last 100 years. Is it fact or fiction? Is it what would be called an urban legend today or a conspiracy theory or the truth?
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
I was on the waitlist for this book for so long that I forgot what it was about. It was worth the wait, though, as this 118-page book was a fast read and thought-provoking.
The author is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and is a professor of Environmental Biology at The State University of New York. She pulls on the wisdom in those Potawatomi Nation roots to offer us a path to economies of sharing and reciprocity. Ms. Kimmerer’s premise is that Mother Earth holds all the resources we need.
The problem comes in when people see those resources as commodities instead of gifts. When something is a commodity, the idea of scarcity enters the picture. Scarcity triggers greed. When a resource is valued as a gift, it is treated with respect and is cared for.
The title of the book comes from the Serviceberry, which she calls a “calendar plant.” The author encourages us to adopt the wisdom of earlier times when we enjoyed only the seasonal produce. Referring to the seasonal practices of traditional Indigenous People, she writes, “Eating with the seasons is a way of honoring abundance, by going to meet it when and where it arrives.”
She writes, “We force the food to come to us, at considerable financial and ecological costs, rather than following the practice of taking what has been given to us, each in its own time.”
I must admit that I love the convenience of freezing the blueberries I pick in July so I can enjoy them on my oatmeal and in muffins throughout the winter, but do I really need to have access to watermelon from southern Mexico in January?
Taking the ideas presented in The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer to heart even in small, incremental ways by each of us could have a impact on how we view the gifts of the Earth.
The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir, by Sarah Ramey
The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness, by Sarah Ramey
I learned about this book through Ann Patchett on Instagram. Ms. Patchett, in addition to being a well-respected author, owns Parnassus Bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee. She and her dog post videos on Instagram highlighting books she wants to publicize.
Little did I know when I requested The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir, by Sarah Ramey from the public library that it was going to in a multitude of ways describe my own health journey!
Ms. Ramey has some health problems I do not have; however, we share the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. In her book, Ms. Ramey details the physically- and emotionally-painful 14 years it took for her to get a diagnosis. I can identify with her journey, although it did not take me that long to get a diagnosis.
As Ann Patchett did, I recommend this book to everyone.
If you have not personally experienced years of being brushed off by doctors who are ignorant of this or some other mysterious illness, if you have never been told by a doctor that your painful and debilitating symptoms “are all in your head and you need to see a psychiatrist,” consider yourself lucky. Whether you know it or not, you probably know someone who has had such an experience.
Hurricane Helene Update
Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge in western NC: A full five months since Hurricane Helene dumped up to three feet of rain and hurricane-force winds on western North Carolina, on Saturday, March 1, one lane of I-40 in each direction opened with a 35-mph speed limit. The lanes are narrow and they’re separated by a 9-inch wide and 9-inch high median. Tractor-trailer trucks are allowed, but most truck drivers interviewed by a Charlotte TV station said they will avoid that part of the interstate.
Alongside these rebuilt/repaired lanes, the original east-bound side of I-40 will be rebuilt from the Pigeon River up. It is said now that it will take two or three more years to completely rebuild and reopen I-40 in western North Carolina.
As of Saturday, 148 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included 11 US highways, 16 state highways, and 121 state roads. That is an overall decrease of seven in the last week.
Sadly, a number of wildfires have broken out in Polk and Buncombe counties (and maybe others) over the weekend in the areas that have suffered so much from the hurricane damage. It will take years and years for all the trees that were downed by the hurricane to be cleared up. Until then, they lie as dead wood on the forest floors.
Nantahala National Forest: Perhaps Elon Musk didn’t hear President Trump say in January that he was going to take care of western North Carolina that was ravaged by Hurricane Helene last September. He claimed that President Biden hadn’t helped western North Carolina at all.
Here is an example of how President Trump is helping western North Carolina recover from that natural disaster: Last week 17 federal employees working to continue to clean up the 531,148- acre Nantahala National Forest lost their jobs because some teenaged computer nerds working for Elon Musk are being paid to eliminate the federal work force. I guess rich people and geeks don’t appreciate our national parks and forests – the enjoyment they bring to taxpayers and the tax dollars they generate from the tourists who spend money for lodging, food, and shopping in the surrounding areas.
Nantahala National Forest ranges in elevation from 1,200 feet to 5,800 feet. Recreational activities include whitewater rafting and camping. There are more than 600 miles of trails for hikers, horse-back riders, mountain bikers, and off-highway vehicle riders.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
As of Friday, 12 National Park Service employees stationed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park had lost their jobs. I can’t help but wonder if one or more of them assisted me in some way when I visited the park last summer.
Perhaps the park ranger who led a group of us on a hike to see three remote waterfalls lost her dream job last week. No doubt most, if not all of those 12 people, were still working to clear hiking trails and rebuild foot bridges damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Helene.
Visited by more than 13 million people in 2023, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited US national park. It covers 552,427 acres in NC and TN.
Blue Ridge Parkway
At least one National Park Service employee assigned to the Blue Ridge Parkway lost their job last week. I report on the post-Helene status of the Blue Ridge Parkway almost every week in my blog. How are repairs and the rebuilding of that road and strip of right-of-way supposed to be accomplished with fewer employees than it had before the hurricane?
As I reported on February 17, 2025: “The flooding and wind from Hurricane Helene last September caused 48 landslides in one 38-mile section of the parkway between Asheville and Linville. There are no estimates for when those 38 miles will be completely rebuilt or if all of it can even be rebuilt, but it will not happen in 2025.”
While I’m on the topic of National Park Service cuts… six employees assigned to Cape Hatteras National Seashore lost their jobs last week. The Outer Banks of North Carolina were not damaged by Hurricane Helene, but the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a fragile, beautiful, and wild strip of land that is buffeted by the part of the Atlantic Ocean known as “the Graveyard of the Atlantic” due to its storms and hundreds of shipwrecks.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Cape Hatteras National Seashore are among the most-visited parks in the United States. The statistics I include today are just a few of the some 1,000 national park service employees and 3,400 national forest service employees Elon and Trump are letting go.
You know the National Forest Service slogan: “Only you can prevent forest fires”? It is true today, and apparently only you can put out a fire in a national forest. The employees have been fired in the name of government efficiency.
WNC Nature Center in Asheville will reopen on March 17. The 42-acre park includes the 100-year-old Recreation Park Zoo and the Nature Center which opened in 1977. The center showcases wildlife of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. As western NC slowly reopens to visitors, check out the center’s website (https://wildwnc.org/) and start planning your vacation!
Innovative Bridge Company of Petal, Mississippi has built 40 bridges in seven western NC counties since Hurricane Helene. The company had never done disaster recovery work until the City of Asheville and the NC Department of Transportation reached out to them last October.
The company repurposes flat rail cars and boxcars into foot bridges and vehicular traffic bridges. These temporary emergency bridges will be in place until permanent bridges can be constructed over the next two-to-three years. There are two short videos on the company’s website showing the work they’re doing in western NC.
Precision Grading of Saluda, NC continues to donate his time, materials, and equipment to help individuals at no cost to them. He is doing this through his own money and donations from the public. So far, he has done this hard work for more than 150 days.
The21st Century Packhorse Librarian continues to take, organize, and distribute book donations to put books in the homes of people who lost their access to books or income due to the disaster.
Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in Asheville is continuing to work from temporary quarters. After five months of fundraising, the organization is looking for a safe location where they can rebuild.
Until my next blog post
Thank you for reading my blog.
I hope you have a good book to read to take your mind off what happened at the White House on Friday.
Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.
The year 2024 has been a difficult one for many people. It has been stressful for most of us, but I’m better off than a lot of people. Here’s a brief review of 2024 from my viewpoint in North Carolina.
Travel: My sister and I took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic being over and vaccines continuing to be available – along with relatively good health – and we took trips to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee in the western part of NC as well as a long-anticipated return trip to the Outer Banks of NC in the early part of the summer.
Welcome Sign at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Black Bear, perhaps two years old, photographed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Elk, photographed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Welcome sign at Cherokee, NC
Welcome sign at Cape Hatteras National Seashore
We visited Boone and the campus of our alma mater, Appalachian State University, just two weeks before much of western NC was ravaged by Hurricane Helene. We continue to count our blessings that we did our traveling in the months and weeks before the hurricane.
A view of Rich Mountain from the Appalachian State University campus
Hurricane Helene: September brought a “perfect storm” of days of heavy rain followed by Hurricane Helene to western North Carolina. It is the most destructive storm to hit the state in recorded history. The statistics and photographs are impossible to get one’s head around.
Of the 1,329 roads that were closed due to the flooding and landslides on September 25-26, 183 of them remain closed as of Friday, including Interstate 40 near the border with Tennessee.
I saw a video made on Wednesday of several miles of US-19 in Ramseytown, NC. You can’t even tell there was ever a road there, and it is unimaginable that the little Cane River running alongside it is capable of rising so high and doing so much damage.
Last week, 10,000 tulip bulbs were delivered to Swannanoa, NC – a gift from the head of a bulb company in The Netherlands. Next April, Swannanoa will look quite different than it has since September 25th!
A hint of what to expect in Swannanoa next spring!
Photo by Krystina Rogers on Unsplash
People from all over the US and world have pulled together to help western NC begin to recover from the September storm. I’ve tried to highlight examples in my weekly blog posts. I’m not equipped to show the full picture. I’ve merely tried to keep a light shining on the situation as it disappears from the news headlines.
US Presidential Election: We survived a US Presidential campaign that seemed to last for a decade. Now we’ll get to see if our democracy and our country’s long-standing ties with other countries will survive the results.
Award for my local history books: I received The North Carolina Society of Historians Journalism Award of Excellence for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 and Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 in November.
My Writing: I’ve made a lot of progress over the last couple of months on my devotional book, I Need The Light: 26 Weekly Devotionals to Help You Through the Cold Months. Work continues on my historical novel with the working title The Heirloom. Stay tuned!
If you haven’t subscribed to my e-newsletter yet, please click on the “Subscribe” button on my website: https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com. You’ll receive a free downloadable copy of my historical short story, “Slip Sliding Away” and my e-newsletters.
In November I changed my newsletter from a several-page every-other-month format to a short weekly email.
Social Media: Technology is still pulling me into the 21st century, but I’m kicking and screaming. My new endeavor this year was Instagram. I try to share quotes I like (many of them from books I’ve read), information about my website and blog, as well as publicity for my books. I’m trying not to not come across too salesy.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read.
I hope you’ve had an enjoyable holiday season so far.
Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina where it is mighty cold for the next several months.
I did more reading in September than this blog post will reflect, but there was only one book I read from cover-to-cover: White Robes and Broken Badges, by Joe Moore.
White Robes and Broken Badges, by Joe Moore
White Robes and Broken Badges, by Joe Moore
This nonfiction book will stay in my mind forever. The author infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) not once but twice. He infiltrated it both times to a level never done before, gaining access to the top echelon in the organization.
I’ve never known many details about the workings of the KKK. Never needed to. Never wanted to. However, considering where society in America stands today, it seemed like a good time to get better educated about the threat the KKK holds.
This book sheds light on just how insidious the work of the KKK is and how many its members are employed as law enforcement officers in our country. It is widespread and probably even more of a problem than the FBI knows.
It was through the undercover work of “Joe Moore” that the FBI was alerted that the problem is greater than had been realized. Joe was not an FBI agent. He was recruited by them because of his skill set.
After infiltrating the organization the first time, Joe never imagined he would be called on to do it a second time. But he was so good at it, the FBI needed him. Joe and his wife and children sacrificed a lot for what he did. Ultimately, they lost their home, most of their earthly possessions, their family connections, and friends in a matter of several hours.
The book is chilling. I know of no better word to describe the effect it had on me. Chilling. The details should make every law-abiding citizen in the country – no matter your color, race, ethnicity, or nationality – shiver.
After reading this book, I now have a better understanding of why black people in the United States do not trust law enforcement officers. How can they, when they don’t know in a traffic stop whether they are being pulled over by an honest police officer or sheriff’s deputy or if they’re being pulled over by a member of the KKK who just doesn’t happen to be hiding under a white hood?
It has always seemed a great sign of cowardice that when members of the KKK do their dirty work, they hide in their white robes. If you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing, though, I suppose you don’t want to reveal your identity.
These are misguided people, and as a Christian I am offended that they use the cross as their symbol. Jesus Christ died on a cross for me (and for them!), so how dare they desecrate that symbol of Christ’s great sacrifice!
I highly recommend this book. It is not a pleasant read, but how do we improve as a society if we bury our heads in the sand and don’t open ourselves up to what is going on not only in the shadows but also in broad daylight?
Update on Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina
I wish I could include photographs, but I don’t want to run the risk of sharing an image that is undocumented or not in the public domain. You can use some of the links below if you wish to see pictures.
Another reason I am not including photos is that I know from my own experience after Hurricane Hugo in 1989 that pictures don’t do a disaster justice. Unless you are in the middle of a natural disaster and destruction is all you can see, hear, smell, or touch in any direction, you can’t grasp the enormity of the situation.
I know that Hurricane Helene left a wide path of destruction in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia; however, I have lived in North Carolina all my life – four of my 71 years in the mountains. The mountains are near and dear to my heart. I will blog about North Carolina and leave it to people in those other states to blog about the conditions in their states.
A couple of my blog readers said they hoped I would continue to shine a light on the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in the mountains of North Carolina on September 26.
I do not live in the disaster zone. I’m about 100 miles east of the mountains. We just had a lot of rain, some wind, and a lot of tree branches to pick up and deal with. That is ongoing, but that and our 13-hour power outage pale in comparison to what happened in our beautiful Appalachian Mountains.
Ten days after the storm, many areas of the mountains are still inaccessible. Damage assessments are still being made. Recovery will be measured in years, not months. Some locations were wiped off the map and will not be restored because the landscape has been changed completely and forever.
The United States Geological Survey has identified 244 landslides caused in the Southeast by Hurricane Helene. Most of those are in North Carolina. More landslides will, no doubt, occur in the coming weeks with additional rainfall and freezing conditions.
As of the data I found last night, the death toll in North Carolina so far was 115, with 72 of those being in Buncombe County. There are still people unaccounted for. Many communities still have no water or sewer service. Cell phone service was spotty before the storm and restoration has been slow.
Hundreds and hundreds of power poles and thousands of miles of overhead power lines are down. Thousands of people are homeless. You might grow weary of hearing about it, but many of the people of western North Carolina are in dire straits.
As always, though, the worst of nature brings out the best in most people. The outpouring of support has been amazing. Electrical workers have come from all over the country and from Canada. Four hundred nurses have arrived in Asheville from as far away as Alaska to pitch in and help local medical personnel who have worked around the clock since September 26 even though most of them have catastrophic damage at their own homes.
Pack mules are being utilized to haul water, non-perishable food, and other necessities into the steep and rugged terrain where vehicles cannot gain access.
Two interstate highways are closed. I-40 near the Tennessee state line will probably be closed for a year. Repairs to I-26 might allow it to reopen next March. Roads and bridges washed away, houses, cars, and businesses floated away, and overnight all the necessities most of us take for granted every day vanished.
The area of devastation in western North Carolina alone covers more than 600 square miles, and it is not flat land! Every mile of those 600 square miles is not devastated. The severity of destruction various from place to place as rain totals were, of course, higher in some places than in others. Also, some areas of the mountains received more rain than others in the days leading up to the arrival of Hurricane Helene. Elevations range from around 1,500 feet to more than 6,000 feet. The destruction is unprecedented. Since 1916, all floods in western and piedmont North Carolina have been measured against The Flood of 1916. Future floods will be measured against The Flood of 2024 because by all statistics it surpassed the one in 1916.
Classes at my alma mater, Appalachian State University in Boone, have been cancelled until at least October 16. (That’s three weeks of fall semester lost.) Students at Lees-McRea College in nearby Banner Elk were evacuated by air to Hickory. Classes have been cancelled at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Montreat College, Warren-Wilson College, Mars Hill University, and numerous community colleges. Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, NC is closed indefinitely. Some county school systems are unable to announce when they will reopen.
The beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway that I’ve waxed poetic about so many times is closed indefinitely. US-441/Newfound Gap Road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park has reopened; however, it was not designed to handle commercial traffic, so it is not an alternate to I-40 or I-26 for large trucks. Sadly, a few people decided that did not apply to them, so they attempted to drive on Newfound Gap Road. Two serious accidents resulted – one caused by a car hauler. The highway will be closed to all traffic from 10pm until 7:30 a.m. until further notice. (https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/news/update-on-us441-newfound-gap-road-overnight-closure.htm)
The images coming out of the mountains are gut-wrenching. The needs are great and will continue to be for a long, long time. I hesitate to start naming charities because there are hundreds of reputable ones that are on-site and providing remarkable goods and services. World Central Kitchen (https://wck.org/), the Cajun Navy from Louisiana, Mountain Mule Packer Ranch (https://www.mountainmulepackers.com/), the Red Cross, and Samaritan’s Purse are just a few.
The Manna Food Bank (https://www.mannafoodbank.org/) which serves the Asheville and surrounding areas lost their facility and its contents. Brother Wolf Animal Rescue (https://www.bwar.org/) was flooded out but the 150 animals they were housing on September 26 were rescued by volunteers. Organizations like food banks and animal rescues need to be rebuilt and aren’t necessarily eligible for government assistance. (I saw on the Brother Wolf Animal Rescue website last night that donations to that organization are currently being matched!)
The Appalachian State University Disaster Fund (https://www.appstate.edu/disaster-relief/) is another organization for you to consider. It has stepped up to assist students, staff, and faculty members who have lost their homes. The fund also provides much-needed counselling for those traumatized by the storm.
Atrium Medical Center in Charlotte has set up its mobile hospital in Tryon in Polk County. Many towns and counties across the state have sent teams of medical personnel and swift water rescue teams to assist with the aftermath of the storm. The National Guard and 1,000 active-duty personnel from Fort Liberty (formerly, Fort Bragg) were deployed and have been on the ground since weather allowed access. Numerous restaurants are giving out free meals as they are able to prepare food.
Having just visited Boone and West Jefferson on September 12-13 and having visited Hendersonville, Asheville, Bryson City, and Cherokee this summer, it is difficult to grasp the scope of the damage. I drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville to its southern end at Great Smoky Mountains National Park in June. I drove from Hickory through Old Fort, Black Mountain, Asheville, and Canton and into Tennessee on I-40 the last week in August.
I always breathe a sigh of relief when I make it through that treacherous stretch of I-40 approaching Tennessee because rock slides are not unusual. To know that part of that interstate literally washed away 10 days ago is hard to get my head around, though.
Know that any support you can give to the people of western North Carolina is appreciated.
Since my last blog post
I was told (again) in a webinar last week that the purpose of a blog is to solve someone else’s problem. Until I figure out how to do that, I’ll just keep blogging like I have for the last 10+ years. As of last week, I have 1,200 subscribers to my blog, so maybe I’m doing all right. If you came to my blog today seeking a solution to a problem, you are probably disappointed.
On the other hand, if you were looking for a way to lend a little aid to people trying to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Helene, I hope one of the organizations I mentioned today struck a nerve with you.
Until my next blog post
I hope you have a good book to read, a roof over your head, enough food to eat, and clean water to drink.
If all you are hearing is that FEMA and all levels of government are failing to respond to those affected by Hurricane Helene, then you are listening to the wrong sources. More than a week of lies about this from the immediate-past-twice-impeached-34-times-indicted-president is wearing thin here in North Carolina. Please fact check your sources and get your news from a variety of reputable news media.
Hold your friends and family close, for we never know what tomorrow will bring.
Don’t forget the people of Ukraine or the people of western North Carolina.
Several weeks ago, my sister and I spent several days in Cherokee, North Carolina. We have visited Cherokee many times, but I had never seen the “Unto These Hills” outdoor drama. Since the drama was rewritten a few years ago to give a truer presentation of the Cherokee Indian perspective on their history, I was eager to see it.
A leisurely drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway is always an activity we enjoy, so we got on the parkway on the southern edge of Asheville and took it to its end at Soco Gap. We went through 15 tunnels on that 80 or so southernmost miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Various wildflowers, including the Flame Azalea (or native/wild azalea) was at or just past its peak.
Flame Azalea along the Blue Ridge Parkway
National Park Service sign noting the highest elevation on the Blue Ridge Parkway Motor Road at 6,053 feet.
We had perfect weather all week, including the night we had tickets to see “Unto These Hills.” The acting was superb. It was amazing to see the history of the Cherokee people presented in two hours.
The play emphasized how the Cherokee and the European explorers, traders, and settlers had a congenial relationship in the beginning. It wasn’t until the Europeans started cheating the Cherokee and tricking them into poor decisions and hollow treaties that things deteriorated.
Another scene from “Unto These Hills”
A scene from a visit to the White House in the “Unto These Hills” outdoor drama
The last straw, of course, was when the United States forced the Cherokee to give up their beautiful and lush ancestral lands for what turned out to be a death march to the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. They were promised a good life, but it was just another broken promise by the white man.
A scene from “Unto These Hills” outdoor drama in Cherokee, NC
The Cherokee people who refused to leave the Great Smoky Mountains hid in the hills. It is the descendants of those brave souls who now populate the Qualla Boundary and are officially known as the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.
By visiting the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the Oconaluftee Indian Village, you can learn a great deal about the Cherokee Indians’ rich history and traditions. For instance, they lived in houses, not teepees. They did not wear elaborate feather headdresses like the Plains Indians. Cherokee men back in the day were up to seven feet tall and the women averaged only a few inches shorter.
An example of a Cherokee house from an earlier century. (The cutaway is not a window; it is there to show the wall’s construction. Cherokee houses did not have windows because they were only used for sleeping. All their work was done outside.)
Weaving display at Oconaluftee Indian Village in Cherokee, NC
A pottery display and demonstration at Oconaluftee Indian Village in Cherokee, NC
Many Cherokee people continue to master the time-honored crafts of making clay pottery, intricate bead work, exquisite basketweaving, and wood carving. It takes weeks and sometimes months for the native plants and other natural resources for these items to be gathered and prepared, not to mention the intricate work to create the finished products. Those priceless items can be admired and purchased at the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc.
Cherokee ceremonial masks were made from various natural resources, including wood and even hornets’ nests (as seen on the left in the photo.)
Although some of the signage indicates otherwise, the Qualla Boundary is not a reservation. The Cherokee people own their land and the Qualla Boundary is held in trust for them by the United States Government.
The Cherokee not only had their own written language; they also had their own newspaper starting February 21, 1828. Although the United States Government tried to eradicate the Cherokee language and traditions, that policy failed. Today the Cherokee language is making a comeback. There is even a Cherokee immersion school in which only Cherokee is spoken.
On our recent visit, we used Cherokee as our base. One day we drove through the center of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to and including Little River Road and Clingman’s Dome and back to Cherokee.
Another day we drove 10 miles to Bryson City, North Carolina and the Deep Creek entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We hiked to three waterfalls we’d never seen before and enjoyed learning lots of facts about the park along the way to two of them with a park ranger.
When planning your trip, check online for the planned hikes and lectures offered by park rangers at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center near Cherokee, NC, the Sugarlands Visitors Center near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Cades Cove near Townsend, Tennessee, and at the Deep Creek entrance to the park at Bryson City.
The Cherokee honor water and the residents and visitors alike are blessed to have the Oconaluftee River flowing right through the town of Cherokee. This shallow, wide, rocky river is the perfect place for tubing and splashing around in the water. I have memories of enjoying the river on my first trip to Cherokee when I was a young girl.
Deep Creek in the section of the national park is a popular creek for tubing. Many families were taking advantage of the creek for tubing on the very warm day we were there. If I were just younger and braver…. It looked like a lot of fun!
People tubing on Deep Creek near Bryson City, NC in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
All that hiking and tubing will make you hungry. My sister and I enjoyed the buffet at Granny’s Kitchen Restaurant on US-19 North going from Cherokee toward Maggie Valley. The wife in the couple who own and operate the restaurant is a Cherokee Indian. It is said if you want to find a good place to eat, look where the locals eat. This was certainly the case at Granny’s. (I am receiving no compensation for publicizing the restaurant. It is a good value and experience for the money. You will not leave hungry!)
People from all over the United States enjoy the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Qualla Boundary, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We kept track of the different license plates we saw. When the trip was over, we had seen cars from 42 of the 50 states and several from Ontario, Canada.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited national park in the country. People are drawn to it by its beauty and biodiversity.
If you wish to learn more about Cherokee, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Blue Ridge Parkway, I recommend my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I packed as many facts and as much history into the book as Arcadia Publishing would allow. The book is available in paperback and e-Book from Amazon.
Since my last blog post
I continue to declutter by going through closets, old magazines, and boxes of memorabilia, photographs, newspaper clippings, and recipes. It is satisfying to look at what I’ve accomplished. My fiction writing has suffered for it, but this really needed to be done.
Until my next blog post
Keep reading and traveling every chance you get.
Visit your local public library, if you are fortunate enough to have one. If you haven’t visited it recently, you might be surprised to find some of the things it offers: Internet access, free access to software such as Ancestry.com, magazines you would like to read but cannot afford to subscribe to, music CDs, used books for sale, a magazine swap, ….
I love the months in which I get to read so many books that it takes me more than one blog post to tell about them! May was one of those months. Today’s post is about the last two books I read in May. I hope at least one of them will appeal to you.
One Thought Scares Me, by Richard Dreyfuss
In One Thought Scares Me, Richard Dreyfuss presents his thoughts about how democracy has been eroded in the United States by the removal of the study of government (or civics) in our public schools. He pinpoints this quiet removal as happening 50 years ago, so it was after I graduated from high school.
One Thought Scares Me, by Richard Dreyfuss
I remember hearing a few years ago that in North Carolina the high school American History curriculum would begin with the Presidency of George Washington. I’ve wondered since then how the Presidency of George Washington would make any sense to a student who didn’t know that it followed an American Revolution.
If an American knows nothing about the Declaration of Independence – why it was written, who wrote it, when it was written, who we were declaring our independence from — and most importantly, how the signers of it risked their very lives by signing it – then they will not know what political conditions the early American settlers lived under.
If an American knows nothing about the American Revolution – why it happened, when it happened, who we were rebelling against, etc., then that American will not value what it means to be an American citizen. If they don’t know what those who came before us suffered through just to gain the right to vote, they will not value their right to vote. They will feel no obligation to vote.
If an American knows nothing about the Bill of Rights – why those ten rights were spelled out in the United States Constitution and what they are – then they won’t know when a US President or the US Congress or their State Legislature is taking away one or more of those rights.
If an American knows nothing about US history, they won’t know that July 4th is more than just a day off from work when you eat burgers and hotdogs and shoot off fireworks.
In order to be a good citizen of the United States of America, you must know the history of the country. As Mr. Dreyfuss points out in his book, it was the system of public education in the United States in the early 1800s that made it possible for every child to learn to read and write. It made it possible for every child to learn the Pledge of Allegiance, to learn about colonial times, to learn about the American Revolution, to learn about the ugliness of slavery, to learn about the Civil War, and to learn about all the wars American have fought around the world in the name of freedom.
My two-cents’ worth: If you take that out of the public schools – and if you disrespect public education and public school educators the way the North Carolina General Assembly continues to do – then you lose the level playing field on which our country was built and you lose what binds us together as a nation.
Seeking the Historical Cook: Exploring Eighteenth-Century Southern Foodways, by Kay K. Moss
Reading this book after taking the Open Hearth Cooking Class at Hart Square Village on May 20 was very beneficial. The hands-on class was invaluable to me in writing historical fiction, and the book made a lot more sense to me having had the class.
Seeking the Historical Cook, by Kay K. Moss
The book covers how to interpret historical “receipts” as recipes were called in the American Colonial Era, and the importance of incorporating an 18th century mindset when using the old recipes. Ms. Moss and her books are a goldmine for anyone doing research on frontier life in the Carolinas.
This book is illustrated and very detailed in cooking instructions, including the importance of getting the hot coals just right and judging the heart, cooking/baking time, and always having hot water on-hand.
Cyberspace fiasco since my last blog post
To say it was a frustrating week would be an understatement. My email service was disrupted for about 24 hours Tuesday into Wednesday. My Facebook account was hacked on Thursday. My LinkedIn account was hacked on Saturday. My Evernote account was hacked on Sunday.
Would be writers like me are told we must have a vast social media presence if we want to ever get published. We must have followers in the thousands and tens of thousands.
After what I’ve been through over the last few days, I’ve decided to remove myself from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Evernote. Each of those accounts had unique passwords. It bothers me that hackers can take control of my stuff without any problem; however, when I try to get an account back I must provide all sorts of documentation to prove that I am me. Life is short. I don’t foresee ever having time again for Facebook, LinkedIn, or Evernote. I’ll miss some things about Facebook, but the other two won’t be missed at all. Just for good measure, I’ll no longer be on Twitter either. It was a hassle anyway. I won’t miss it a bit.
If not having 40,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. means I’ll never get my novels published, I guess that’s the price I’ll pay.
If you receive notification via Facebook when I’ve posted a blog, you’ll no longer receive those notifications because as of last Thursday, I have no control over my Facebook account. In fact, you won’t be notified about today’s post. Someone else, apparently in Beijing, has control of my account now. Facebook indicated it would take them 48 hours to verify that I am Janet Morrison. It’s been longer than that, so I guess they’re still just playing games with the hacker in Beijing. I regret that I didn’t get to tell my acquaintances on Facebook goodbye.
My blog is protected through a whole different server, etc., so I plan to continue to blog every week and treasure the lifeline it has become.
I envy Harper Lee and her manual typewriter. She got to just hide away in Alabama and write To Kill a Mockingbird with no worries about cyberspace. There’s something appealing about that era.
Speaking of birds… the three neighborhood cats must have miserable home lives because they want to stay in our yard all the time stalking our wild birds. In my spare time last week, I had to construct a barricade to try to prevent the cats from getting to the nest of baby Carolina Wrens in the hanging basket on my porch.
I hope you have at least one good novel or non-fiction book to entertain and educate you.
With the smoke from the wildfires in Canada dissipating, we on the east coast of the US look forward to clear skies and some sunshine.
In case you’re planning a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cherokee, or the Blue Ridge Mountains this year, be sure to pick up a copy (paperback or for Kindle) of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I packed as much natural history and human history into the postcard descriptions as Arcadia Publishing would allow. I think you’ll find it entertaining and painlessly educational.
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison
Don’t forget the people of Ukraine. Believe me… I know my life — even with all my cyberspace problems — is easy compared to their suffering. I truly know that.
Today’s blog post is a continuation of my blog post last Monday, https://janetswritingblog.com/2019/10/21/great-smoky-mountains-revisited-part-1-of-2/. It is about my recent trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and is illustrated with pictures of several of the postcards included in my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and photographs I took on my trip in September.
Black Bears!
Here’s a picture of one of the many black bear postcards in my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
PHOTO OF LINEN-FINISH POSTCARD OF A BLACK BEAR IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
And here are pictures of the bears I saw on this trip to the
Great Smoky Mountains. The first picture is of a black bear, probably about two
years old, after it crossed the road in front of our car. It completely ignored
us, which was fine with us! (All these bear photos were taken from inside our
car and using the zoom feature on my cell phone camera. As I stated in last
Monday’s blog post, it’s against the law to willingly get within 150 feet of an
elk or black bear in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.)
BLACK BEAR, PERHAPS TWO YEARS OLD, PHOTOGRAPHED IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, 2019
WELL-CAMOUFLAGED FEMALE BLACK BEAR IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK. HER TWO CUBS WERE IN THE BUSHES UP THE MOUNTAINSIDE.
If the car in front of us hadn’t stopped, we might have driven right by this mother bear and her two cubs. The mother was down in a ditch. After a couple of minutes, her two cubs came running down the hill. It was difficult to get good pictures due to the trees and undergrowth.
November 2016 Fire Damage
One of the iconic places in the park is Chimney Tops. I was sad to see that the late November 2016 wildfires had engulfed this double-peaked mountain in Swain County, North Carolina. The “up side” is that today the granite folds and rough edges of Chimney Tops are visible because the trees on the mountain were destroyed in the fires.
Here, I compare the photographs I took in September 2019 with a 1936 real photograph postcard I used in my vintage postcard book:
Picture of a 1936 real photograph postcard of “Newfound Gap Highway” and “Chimney Tops.”
Chimney Tops in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in September 2019, still recovering from 2016 wildfires.
This mountainside, scarred by the 2016 wildfires, now shows off the rough, rocky folds that trees hid before the fires.
Evidence of more 2016 fire damage in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Clouds in a Valley
Cloud in a valley in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 15, 2019.
We were in the right place at the right time for this photo
of white clouds down in a valley in the park.
Why are they called
the Great Smoky Mountains?
As I stated in my book, “The Great Smoky Mountains are
called “smoky” due to the fog that rises from the valleys and mountainsides.”
These mountains were suffering under drought conditions when I visited the park in September 2019. August, September, and early October were very dry. My sister and I couldn’t help but notice there was very little of the typical wisps of fog when we were there a month ago. In fact, we only saw a little of it on our last day in the park. Here’s a photograph I took, but it isn’t a good representation of the multitude of wisps of fog that gave this sub-range of the Appalachian Mountains their name.
A fair, but not great, example of how the Great Smoky Mountains got their name. Photo taken in September 2019.
Summary
I hope you can hear the babbling brooks and smell the wildflowers of Great Smoky Mountains National Park sometime. It is truly a national treasure. In fact, it is a global treasure. I’m fortunate to live just a few hours from this national park.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the men who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps and helped build Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Unlike many national parks in the United States, no admission fees are charged for entrance into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Many families were displaced when the park land was purchased. Before agreeing to sell their land to the U.S. Government, those families (most of whom were poor farmers) made the government agree that no admission to the park would ever be charged.
Since my last blog post
Since my last blog post, my sister and I spent several days on the coast of South Carolina. We enjoyed fresh seafood in Calabash, North Carolina.
Until my next blog
post
I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading The Beekeeper of Aleppo, by Christy Lefteri.
If you’re a writer, I hope you have quality writing time.
Thank you for reading my blog. You could have spent the last few minutes
doing something else, but you chose to read my blog.
Let’s continue the
conversation
Have you visited the Great Smoky Mountains? If so, what were your impressions of it? What was the highlight of your trip?
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina on the shelf at Lake Junaluska Bookstore.
As I stated in my blog post last Monday, https://janetswritingblog.com/2019/10/21/great-smoky-mountains-revisited-part-1-of-2/, I hate to “blow my own horn,” but I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to tell you how you can have your own copy of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, published by Arcadia Publishing in 2014.
Don’t let the name fool you, it covers all the mountainous counties in western North Carolina and the three counties in eastern Tennessee that are partially in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Electronic and paperback copies are available from Amazon.com. Paperback copies are available from the publisher at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/, at quality bookstores, or from me personally.
Sign on US-441/Newfound Gap Road to alert visitors that they are entering the national park.
Several weeks ago I took a vacation from blogging, writing, and all social media. It was wonderful! I hope you can try it sometime.
My sister and I spent a week in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.
For seven days, I didn’t check my blog for comments. I didn’t text. I didn’t call anyone. I didn’t Tweet. It was fabulous!
“The Great Smoky Mountains lay in the middle of the Cherokee Indians’ territory in the mid-1600s when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto arrived.”
page 69, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison.
“Welcome to Cherokee Indian Reservation” sign in Cherokee and in English
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison
Since the park was included in my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, I enjoy visiting the park to see what has changed and what has remained the same since my childhood and since my book’s publication in 2014.
Today and next Monday, I’ll share some highlights from my trip, including a few of the pictures I took. I’ll also include photographs of some of the vintage postcards from my book, which is pictured to the right.
Elk!
Elk were reintroduced into the Great Smoky Mountains in 2001
and 2002. I’d never seen an elk until this recent trip! What a thrill it was to
see a herd of elk, including this buck, in the river that runs behind the
Oconoluftee Visitor Center near the main North Carolina entrance to Great Smoky
Mountains National Park just north of Cherokee, NC! This bull was a
jaw-dropping sight as he surveyed his herd of female elk (cows) cooling off in
this cool mountains stream. (It was late afternoon and in the mid-90s F.)
An elk bull in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
It is illegal to willingly get within 150 feet of an elk or
black bear in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Don’t worry, I was behind a
fence that was guarded by a park ranger, and I used the zoom feature on my cell
phone camera.
Sign reminding visitors that elk are back in the park.
For more information about the reintroduction of elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the safeguards people should take when seeing them, go to https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/elk.htm.
The Loop/Helix
One of the most famous construction features on
US-441/Newfound Gap Road, which traverses Great Smoky Mountains National Park
from one side to the other is “The Loop.” The highway tunnels under itself to
form a helix.
Here are pictures of two of the three postcards of “The
Loop” in my vintage postcard book.
This is a photo of a 1936 “real photograph postcard” of “The Loop” on Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
This is a photo of another 1936 “real photograph postcard” of “The Loop” on Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The next two paragraphs are quotes from the captions I wrote for the three postcards on pages 80-81 of my book:
“Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
tunnels under itself, forming a helix. The design replaced two dangerous
switchbacks on the old Tennessee Highway 71, which was built in the 1920.”
Signage to alert drivers that they are approaching “The Loop” on Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
“These black-and-white glossy real-photo postcards were made
in 1936. The Great Smoky National Park Roads & Bridges portion of the
Historic American Engineering Record of the National Park Service gives many
details about the Loop. Probably designed by Charles Peterson, the Loop was
constructed in 1935 by C.Y. Thomason Company of Greenwood, South Carolina, at a
cost of $77,644. Stone quarried nearby and reinforced concrete were used in the
construction of the bridge portion, which is 95 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 21
feet high in the center of the arch.”
Since its construction in 1935, trees and other natural vegetation has been allowed to grow and flourish. I appreciate that; however, it makes it almost impossible now to fully see and admire this engineering feat. It might still be possible to see the entire Loop from Chimney Tops Mountain nearby, but it’s impossible to get a satisfactory photograph of it from ground level due to the trees. Therefore, I had to settle for the above picture of The Loop signage.
The first time I rode through The Loop was at the age of nine. It’s still a thrill, 57 years later!
Babbling Brooks
A stream in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
One of my favorite features in Great Smoky Mountains
National Park is all the babbling brooks. Little River Road runs parallel to
the Little River for many miles in the park between Sugarlands Visitor Center
and Cades Cove. Little River and the other streams in the park are full of
bounders and rocks of all sizes, indicating the history of these mountains from
the Ice Age.
Another stream in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Since my last blog post
It took much patience and persistence (and some grinding of my teeth), but I eventually worked out a new way of inserting photographs in my blog posts last Tuesday. What a relief, to be able to present today’s post and next Monday’s the way I had envisioned! I hope you enjoy the photographs today.
I had the opportunity to watch and listen to another free webinar about the craft of writing on Monday. It was about Author Accelerator’s “Inside Outline” tool. It piqued my interest. Of course, to use the tool I’d have to pay a fee, so I haven’t made that commitment. If you, like I, are learning to write a book, you might want to look into this tool at https://www.authoraccelerator.com/. The tool was developed by Jennie Nash.
Until my next blog
post
I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading The Ragged Edge of Night, by Olivia Hawker.
If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.
Thank you for reading my blog. You could have spent the last few minutes
doing something else, but you chose to read my blog.
Watch for my blog post next Monday. It is a continuation of today’s post and will feature black bears, the double-peaked mountain called Chimney Tops, damage from the late November 2016 wildfires, babbling brooks, white clouds down in a valley one morning, and why the Great Smoky Mountains have that moniker.
A few words about my book
I hate to “blow my own horn.” I’d be remiss, though, if I didn’t take this opportunity to tell you how you can have your own copy of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, published by Arcadia Publishing in 2014.
Don’t let the name of the book fool you, it covers all the mountainous counties in western North Carolina and the three counties in eastern Tennessee that are partially in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Electronic and paperback copies are available from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com. Paperback copies are available from the publisher at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/, at quality bookstores, or from me personally.
Let’s continue the
conversation
Have you visited the Great Smoky Mountains? If so, what were your impressions of it? What was the highlight of your trip? Did you see any black bears? Did you see elk? Did you hike? Did you go camping? The recreational opportunities in the Great Smoky Mountains are unlimited! I’d love to hear about your experiences there.
Also, please let me know how you usually view my blog. Do you look at it on your desktop computer, on a tablet, or on your phone?
I’m trying to be more cognizant of the fact that a growing number of people are reading blogs on their phones. The layout of the blog translates differently on the various formats.
For instance, what looks good on a cell phone, doesn’t look quite as good on a desktop computer. Today’s blog post falls into that category. I’ve spent a lot of time on it, trying out “spacers” and “separators.” I’ve never used those tools before. Your patience is appreciated as I learn and experiment with some new blogging techniques.
Remember, I’m a writer — not a computer whiz. This is all part of my journey as a writer, which is what my blog is about.
Thank you for sharing my blog with your friends — in person and on social media!
I recently read a startling article about the government authorities in Turkey ordering the destruction of more than 300,000 books because they contained the name of a Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, with whom the leaders of Turkey disagreed.
Turkey maintains that Gulen instigated a failed coup attempt in 2016. He now lives in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States of America. This widespread destruction of books even went so far as to include any book in which the word “Pennsylvania” appeared.
I gasped!
This is Banned Books Week in the
United States.
The last
week in September is a time set aside for us to give thought to the dangers of
the banning and destruction of books. Banned Books Week is sponsored by the
American Library Association to bring attention to what is at risk if books are
censored. The association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom publishes a list of
the top 10 books that are challenged each year.
According to the http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 website, “The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 347 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2018.” The site says that 483 books were challenged or banned in 2018.
Examples of banned or challenged
books
Here are
just a few books that have either been banned or were threatened with
censorship since 2009, along with the reasons given on the ALA website:
Captain
Underpants series written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey
Reasons: series was challenged because it was perceived as encouraging
disruptive behavior, while Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of
Sir Stinks-A-Lot was challenged for including a same-sex couple;
Thirteen
Reasons Why
by Jay Asher
Reasons: banned, challenged, and restricted for addressing teen suicide;
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
The
Kite Runner
written by Khaled Hosseini
This critically acclaimed, multigenerational novel was challenged and banned
because it includes sexual violence and was thought to “lead to terrorism” and
“promote Islam”;
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
To
Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee
This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, considered an American classic, was
challenged and banned because of violence and its use of the N-word;
Fifty
Shades of Grey,
by E. L. James
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,”
“concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”);
The
Holy Bible
Reasons: religious viewpoint;
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
The
Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons:
“contains controversial issues”;
The Hunger
Games, by
Suzanne Collins
Reasons: religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group;
The
Glass Castle,
by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit;
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence;
Brave
New World, by
Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity, nudity, racism, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit;
The
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group;
My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
My
Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexism,
sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence; and
The
Color Purple, by Alice
Walker
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group.
Which book on the list surprised you
the most?
I was most surprised to find My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult on the list. I’ve read eight of her novels. My Sister’s Keeper deals with organ donation. Jodi Picoult’s novels make the reader think. The protagonist usually faces a moral dilemma.
I’ve read
most of the books on the above list. It’s frightening to see a list like this –
to know that someone thought a particular book was so offensive to them that
they thought NO ONE should have the opportunity to read it.
It’s human
nature to do what one is told not to do. I understand that when a parent or
other community member asks for a book to be removed from a middle school or
high school library, the fuss usually brings so much attention to the book that
the students will go to great lengths to read it.
If you live
in a free society, you may read anything you want to read. That is a precious
gift your government protects for you, so never take it for granted.
Since my last blog post
I took a week off from writing, blogging, and all forms of social media and went to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was unseasonably warm and dry, which doesn’t bode well for the coming “fire season.”
It was great to get away to a place where development is outlawed – to drive for miles and miles and see nothing but mountains and trees. To be in a place that was so quiet you could hear a babbling brook. I’ll blog more about my trip at a later date and share some photos.
Until my next blog post
Do a Google or other search engine search for “banned books.” Select one you’ve never read, and read it. Or reread one you’ve read and try to identify what someone else found offensive about it. Celebrate your right to read!
I hope you have a good book to read.
I’m reading The Bookshop at Water’s End,
by Patti Callahan Henry. It’s the book for discussion tonight at Rocky River
Readers Book Club. If you’re local, feel free to join us at 7pm at Rocky River
Presbyterian Church, 7940 Rocky River Road, Concord, NC.
If you’re a writer, I hope you have
productive writing time. After a week of vacation, I need to get back to my
writing this week.
Thank you for reading my blog. You
could have spent the last few minutes doing something else, but you chose to
read my blog.
Let’s continue the conversation
What’s your
favorite banned book? Do you remember the first banned book you read? Were you
aware that it had been banned on some level, and was that the reason you read
it?
The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina by Janet Morrison
I indicated that all the answers could be found in the vintage postcard book I wrote, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. These trivia questions (and the answers supplied in today’s blog post) are my way of celebrating the fifth anniversary of the publication of the book by Arcadia Publishing on August 25, 2014.
Here are the questions and answers
1. Why was Grandfather Mountain named a member
of the international network of Biosphere Reserves in 1992? Because it supported 42 rare and endangered
species. Just on that one mountain!
2. What does
Linville Falls in North Carolina have in common with Niagara Falls? They are both caprock waterfalls, meaning the
top layer of rock is harder that the underlying stone. Erosion causes the
waterfall to migrate upstream over time. It is believed that Linville Falls was
once 12 miles downstream from its present location.
3. How did Edwin Wiley Grove make his fortune
which enabled him to build the Grove Park Inn in Ashevile, North Carolina? He sold Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic.
4. What part did the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) play in the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway during The Great
Depression? The men who were members of
the CCC assisted with the paving and landscaping of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
What a magnificent gift they left us!
5. When George W. Vanderbilt purchased Mt.
Pisgah in 1897, what grand plan did the mountain become part of
temporarily? The 125,000-acre Biltmore
Estate. (It’s no longer part of the estate.)
6. What groups of people were housed at Assembly
Inn in Montreat, North Carolina in 1942?
290 Japanese and German internees.
7. Jerome Freeman bought 400 acres of land in
Rutherford County, North Carolina that included the Chimney Rock around 1870
for $25. How much did the State of North Carolina pay for Chimney Rock Park in
2007? $24 million.
8. What new breed of hunting dog was developed
by a German pioneer family in the late 1700s in the Plott Balsams subrange of
the Blue Ridge Mountains? The Plott
Hound, which just happens to be the official State Dog of North Carolina.
9. What is an early 20th century feat
of engineering on the Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park?
The road crosses over itself. This
example of a helix is called “The Loop.”
10. How fast can a black bear run? 30 to 35 miles per hour.
11. It is illegal in Great Smoky Mountains
National Park to willfully get within how many feet of a black bear? 150 feet.
12. What is the name of the 57,000 acres of land
purchased by the Cherokee in the 1800s and held in trust by the United States
Government? Qualla Boundary
13. Is Qualla Boundary technically a reservation?
No, a reservation is land that the United States Government gives to an
American Indian tribe. The Cherokees purchased their land.
14. Did the Cherokee people lived in tipis in the
1700s and 1800s? No, they lived in
houses.
15. What forest contains one of the largest
groves of old-growth trees in the Eastern United States? Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
16. What hydroelectric dam was used in the 1993
Harrison Ford movie, The Fugitive? The Cheoah Dam
17. What is the tallest dam east of the Rocky
Mountains in the United States? Fontana
Dam.
18. One of the oldest postcards in my book is of
Cullowhee Normal School in the mid- to late-1920s. What is the name of that
school today? Western Carolina
University.
19. Started in 1935, the Blue Ridge Parkway’s
“missing link” was completed in 1987. What is the connecting one-fourth-mile
long piece that filled the “missing link” called? The Linn Cove Viaduct.
How did you do?
How many of the 19 questions did you answer correctly? I hope you enjoyed trying to answer the questions and seeing the answers today. If you want to learn more about the mountains of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, please ask for The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison, at your local bookstore, online at Amazon.com, or purchase it directly from the publisher at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/. It’s available in paperback and as an ebook.
The contract
I signed with Arcadia Publishing was for five years, so you’d better get a copy
of the book while it’s still being published. I don’t know if my contract will
be extended.
Since my last blog post
I’ve finally gotten into a rhythm for writing the scene outline according to C.S. Lakin’s template. It sounds backward to be writing the scene outline after writing the book, but the questions asked in the template, along with five questions I added after reading a couple of articles by Janice Hardy, are making every scene in the book stronger. It’s slow going, but well worth the time and effort.
Due to technical problems, I was unable to include images of any of the postcards from my book in today’s blog post.
Until my next blog post
If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, @janetmorrisonbk. If you’d like to follow my business page on Facebook, it’s Janet Morrison, Writer.
I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead and still listening to Resistance Women, by Jennifer Chiaverini.
If you’re a writer, I hope you
have quality writing time.
Thank you for taking the time to
read my blog. You could have spent the last few minutes doing something else,
but you chose to read my blog.
Let’s continue the conversation
Feel free to
let me know in the comments section below or on Twitter or Facebook how you did
on the trivia questions. If you have any other comments or questions for me
about the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, I’ll welcome and try to answer them.
Janet's Writing Blog 