​Writing is a passion that we all share in this guild. Since my time as a part of the group, I have been surprised at how many of us write across different genres. My first thought is to pat everyone on the back for that effort. I know just how difficult that can be. One of the most impressive things to me is how someone who writes fiction or non-fiction can transition over to poetry and make it look easy. It’s a skill that takes a lot of confidence and bravery to even attempt!
 
To be able to accomplish this means that most of us have to be incredibly well read. Life is inspiring in itself. But I would wager a guess that most of us get inspired mostly from reading. To be able to write well in your preferred genre means that you read an incredible amount in your genre. To be able to write well across genres the same rule most likely applies. Some people are so in love with reading that they read anything and everything they can get their hands on. I know firsthand that describes a lot of folks in this guild.
 
Inspiration can come from so many parts of a great book. A particular character, a plot or sub-plot, an intense scene or a single line can spark a passion inside a writer that burns until we churn out pages of our own. What books have inspired you to write and what are you doing about it? 

​Kari sat down for an interview with Appalachian Shine recently. We asked her to do a Q & A for the blog, and we appreciate her sharing her work with us!

What is the most challenging thing that you face running Spiral Publishing?
The hardest thing by far is time, but not in the way I might have expected a few years ago. I realized back in December of 2018 (oh such innocent days on Planet Earth) that the publishing side wouldn’t last long without making sure I took care of the production side. And since my husband Jason A. Adams is a writer with a day job who greatly prefers to write short stories, production means me. I started writing at least 250 words every day that December to make sure there would always be books in the pipeline.
Not everyone has to write every single day by any means, but it works better for me than anything else. For example, Jason tends to write his short stories in one day, and that’s usually the day they’re due. Too stressful for me! So since I’ve boosted up to 1000+ words a day for the last year, the production side of the time equation is handled.
The time problem is in wanting to try new things! Hearing about a new online sales channel, or a new publishing format, or the possibility of learning how to produce audiobooks, or a new type of promotion. On and on and on. This is a tremendously exciting time for indie publishers to be sure.
But going back to that production side, if I jump in and put time and mental energy and possibly money into learning ALL THE NEW THINGS, I won’t get the writing done. Then the whole business grinds to a halt. And the writing is the most fun for me anyway. So I have to decide whether each new opportunity is worth the effort as they come along.
Pretty often, the truth is I’d be better off writing the next story and keeping an eye on how the exciting new thing is developing. Always write the next thing.
 
In normal times, how many festivals do you attend a year? Any favorite festivals or functions?
We decided in 2019 to try going to some sort of event each month, and that year we did do that and more. Again, back in those days of innocence. That ranged from the wonderful Cooks and Books event right here in St. Paul that we attend each year, to RavenCon in Williamsburg, MystiCon in Roanoke, RobCon in Kingsport, and all kinds of smaller events in between. And the truth is for me as an introvert and pretty much a hermit, it was exhausting! Fun, and exciting, and great to meet readers and other writers. But it drained me something awful.
So once we’re in the clear for travel, I’ll probably only do Cooks and Books and a couple of others, especially if they’re for a great cause like that one is.
MystiCon in Roanoke was our first convention as guests after years of attending the writer panels at DragonCon when we lived in Atlanta, so getting a badge that said “Guest” was quite a thrill. As it turned out, they asked me to moderate a panel. So it ended up that my first ever panel at my first ever con as a guest was as moderator, and it started less than an hour after we arrived at the hotel. Major stress and major fun at the same time. J
Then at the last panel for that con, as we finished up, a big gaggle of readers came charging up toward the front. My first instinct was to look behind me to see who they could possibly be interested in! It was bizarre to realize they were from our local area, and they wanted to hear more about the fantasy stories I write set here. Quite a moment.
 
You finished a book in what we movie fans know as the Stanley Hotel...in the infamous room 217. What was that experience like, from Transylvania to the haunted hotel made famous by Stephen King and The Shining?
I had no plans of starting a novel on the first trip to Transylvania back in 2015. I just wanted to have the fantastic travel experience, spend time with writer friends I’ve known for years, meet new friends, and learn as much as I could. What I didn’t count on was how much being behind the old Soviet Iron Curtain for the first time would hit me. As a Seventies and Eighties kid who always paid a lot of attention to world events, I was surprisingly moved by the whole experience, especially talking to people our age and older who lived through it all.
We spent several days before the workshop in Bucharest, Romania’s capitol, doing typical tourist things. But with four writers traveling together, it all got...interesting. We toured a Romanian folk museum with examples of houses and villages from their history, and toured the parliament building, built not long before the fall of the USSR and at a terrible cost to Romanians.
Much to my surprise, once we got back from that trip, I kept going on the assignments during the workshop. Many of the things from the whole trip found their way into my novel Until Death, along with all kinds of Romanian and Eastern European folklore. We stayed a few miles away from Dracula’s Castle in Bran, Romania, so yes, of course the story includes a form of vampire.
By a purely lucky stroke of timing, I went to a horror writers retreat in Estes Park, Colorado, the next year, and stayed at the fabulous Stanley Hotel. It’s a wonderful town and the hotel is spectacular, but the knowledge that a certain famous writer got the idea for a certain famous haunted hotel story while staying in one of the rooms was on my mind.
The organizer of the retreat also stayed in room 217 (the most haunted room from the book, changed to 237 for the movie), and he offered writers a chance to work in that room for four hours. I absolutely jumped at the chance! I finished Until Death during my time in room 217, but I have to admit nothing particularly spooky happened there. The best part was when groups of tourists would come by to peer at the door, and I naturally yanked it open. Got some pretty impressive jumps out of them!
I’ve also been lucky enough to visit the Timberline Lodge in Oregon where exteriors from the movie were filmed, and to stay at the magnificent Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite National Park, where the designs for the movie interiors came from. Inside the Timberline is tiny compared to what you see in the movie.
On my last visit a couple of years ago with Jason, we drove from a warm, springlike day up to the Timberline, where it was pouring snow! If you’ve seen The Shining, you might remember how the weather was a character in itself. Being up there with snow piled many feet high against the lodge was surreal to say the least. Sadly there’s no hedge maze, but I admit I glanced over my shoulder a time or two, watching out for a guy with an axe.

Over the years, what have you learned most about yourself by jumping wholeheartedly into writing as a career? 
These are all specific to me, because we’re all so different as writers and as people. Comparing ourselves to others is one of the worst ways to set ourselves back.
The big one is I’m so much better off writing every day. Now that I’m halfway through the third year of my writing streak, it’s become almost an ordinary thing in a strange way. Kind of like brushing my teeth. It’s just something I do.
And that’s in turn made me much, much less picky about what I write. I know I’ve got to write something, because a long streak like that exerts its own positive pressure. So I don’t wait for inspiration or A Great Idea or anything like that. I just get started. That’s really freed up how I feel about different topics, different genres, different story lengths, everything.
I can also write pretty much anywhere, anytime because of that streak. I once wrote on a bus full of ten-year-olds on a field trip with my nephew’s class on the way to Washington, DC, with Finding Nemo playing full blast over the speakers! It’s a real game-changer for me as a writer, and it carries over to other things in my life that simply need to get done. I just get started.
I’ve also gotten into the habit of publishing something major (novel, novella, collection) each month, and publishing a short story each week this year (a challenge from a friend that I couldn’t resist!). That’s entirely eliminated any lingering fear of publishing I might have had.
The truth is there will be stories people love, and others will hate those same ones. There will be stories that sell well, and stories that never sell a copy. Some will work, others will fall flat. And ALL of that is okay. As long as I do the best I can in the moment I’m writing, and as long as I keep learning, I’ll be on the right track.
And last of all, I’ve learned that I truly enjoy teaching. One-on-one, online, or occasionally for groups. I’ve been fortunate to have had some wonderful writing teachers since 2015, and a bunch of writer friends who love to try new things and let us know how they work. I’m also a computer and software nerd going back to the 1980s. Putting all of those things together means I have a lot to share. It’s a real treat to see people’s eyes light up at something when I explain it well, and even better when they tell me how they’ve used it in their own writing and publishing.

In this Author Spotlight, we talk with Tammy Robinson Smith. Tammy recently came onto the Appalachian Shine podcast to talk about her writing career, her influences, and her efforts to promote Appalachian women writers. She took some time to field a few questions from us here at the AAG.
 
Q: The Ivy Creek Sewing Circle, was there anything in particular that influenced you to write that book?
A:  The primary inspiration behind my writing The Ivy Creek Sewing Circle was the main character, Emmybeth. She first came to me as an inquisitive nine-year old girl who loved to listen to the adults talking and try to figure out what was going on in their lives, some of which directly or indirectly affected her. I realized as I wrote there was a lot of me in Emmybeth. I'm not sure why, except that I've always been inquisitive, but, even as a child I liked to listen to what the grownups were talking about. I realized if I was quiet and didn't bring attention to myself, I got to "stay in the room." Maybe I was just nosy. Lol.
 
Q: In the past you've been a champion of Appalachian women writers. Can you tell us about establishing your own publishing house and what led you to do that? 
A: Well, first of all, I appreciate you calling me a champion of Appalachian women writers. It means everything to me to have you say that. I began writing my first novel in 2003. I tried to shop it to a couple of traditional publishing houses, but, it just seemed overwhelming, and I didn't get the feeling there was a lot of interest in publishing a book that by definition had such a narrow appeal. Perhaps if it were southern fiction or general women's fiction, it might have been different. Once I self-published, I realized there were probably other Appalachian women writers who were in the same position I had been in and I realized I could help them publish their work. It was a fulfilling part of my life for a long time.
 
Q: When did you first consider writing? Were there any writers in your family? 
A:In elementary school, I loved it when the teacher would task us with writing a story. Then, in junior high I won an essay contest sponsored by a community civic group. I guess from there it just grew. I majored in Broadcast Journalism when I was in college and have made my living writing professionally whether reporting, public relations, or marketing for more than 35 years. Since the early 2000s, I've added fiction writer to the mix. And, yes, there are and were some talented writers in my family. Namely, my great-aunt, Bess McReynolds Becker. She was a regionally known poet and I am proud to admit I have an unpublished 600 page manuscript she wrote in the late 1940s which details my mother's family trip to work and live in Lake Tahoe, California for a year. The entire family went on that adventure and it's a fascinating story I hope to get published one day.
 
Q: Having worked in publishing, promoting, and marketing other writers, you now find yourself jumping into your creative side. After experiencing all of that, what advice would you give to new writers?
A: Honestly, just start. Start today, but also realize it is work. One needs to study, take classes and seminars, work with coaches, and surround one's self with other writers who are dedicated to their craft. Most of all, recognize some days will be hard. However, on the successful days, it will be worth it!

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It’s always great to get together with our fellow writers to learn more about our craft, to gain insight and ideas from each other whether it is in person or by virtual meeting. Many of us got together for our most recent workshop where author Steven James spent a couple of hours with us going over some great information and tips on character development.
 
These workshops have been a great way for guild members to learn and grow. It has also been a great way to develop friendships and subgroups that work together for beta reading and keeping each other motivated to write more consistently. The AAG has another workshop coming up on May 15th, our annual Spring Fling Writers Day.
 
Spring Fling is on a Saturday and begins at 8:30 at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon. You have the option to attend in person or join us through Zoom. Make sure you register for the event. Even during these times, we are enjoying growing attendance and participation. Click the link below and join us for a day of fun and learning.
 
http://appalachianauthors.com/events.html
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​Welcome back, blog readers! We’re going to be doing something new and fun with this blog. Some of our blog posts will now be used as an Author Spotlight! It’s a great location and opportunity to share information about our members, their work, and their lives. In this first Author Spotlight, we welcome new member Dr. Christal Presley to the guild and she was gracious enough to share a bit about herself with us. So, we tossed a few questions her way and we’re happy to showcase her book Thirty Days with My Father: Finding Peace from Wartime PTSD.
 
AAG: Tell us a little about yourself such as your hobbies, where you’re from and your local passions.
Christal: I’m from Honaker, Virginia. My wife and I recently moved back home—to Abingdon—to be closer to my parents. We lived in downtown Atlanta for many years. My biggest passions are farming (we own a donkey sanctuary here in Abingdon) and running our Airbnb. It’s called Abingdon Donkey Lodge. I also teach full-time at Georgia Cyber Academy. My school is all-virtual, and I currently teach American Literature. I am very passionate about creating safe, inclusive spaces for people, whether that be in my classroom or at home.
 
AAG: We noticed you have a PhD. What is your doctorate in and what got you interested in that field of study?
Christal: My PhD is in education. My specialty is mentoring and coaching other teachers to become more reflective practitioners—and to ultimately improve their craft.
 
AAG: Can you tell us a bit about Thirty Days With My Father? About the writing process of that…PTSD is such a hard thing for folks to deal with (soldiers and their families).
Christal: Thirty Days with My Father: Finding Peace from Wartime PTSD is a memoir about connecting with my Vietnam-veteran father in thirty days of phone conversations after being estranged from him for many years. I finally got to ask him questions about the war and what happened to our family back then--and the answers changed my life. I began my journey searching for my father and I found myself. In terms of the writing process, it was wonderful AND it was awful. I don't regret any of it. Writing about trauma and about PTSD is such a sensitive subject. You live through the trauma twice when you write about it. And then I feel like I lived through it again every time I did media about my book. The year it was published, I did over 100 TV and radio shows, including CNN (twice), CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Canada AM, and more. It was very tough to talk about my own trauma that much--and sometimes several times a day.  
 
AAG: What did you take away most from writing this book?
Christal: Writing a book is one thing. Marketing it and getting it into the hands of readers is something else altogether, and equally as important. Authors don't talk about the latter enough. 
 
AAG: Any future books being planned?
Christal: I’m currently working on a children’s picture book. The subject is a secret—for now! :) 

​2021 is finally here! With 2020 now in the rearview mirror, it is a great time to refocus on writing goals and ways to get better at our craft. With that said, the AAG is excited to welcome back all of our members and even a few new ones. If you haven’t yet paid dues for the new year, please do so here on the website.
 
We’re still hoping for life to get back to normal this year and we have a full slate of events planned. On Tuesday, February 9th our board will meet at noon at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon. Everyone is welcome to attend. Immediately following that meeting, Vicki Fletcher will lead a workshop titled Writing TIPS. That will begin at 1 PM and go until 3 PM. Make plans to attend! We hope to see everyone there. Our next meeting will be a general membership meeting on Tuesday, March 9th at 11:30 at Shoney’s in Abingdon.
 
ANTHOLOGY NEWS! We will be putting out a new anthology this year. If you would like to add a short story, essay, or poem to the mix, please submit your work to Vicki Fletcher at [email protected] by April 2nd. Our last anthology, Mountain Mist, had some great submissions and we look forward to another excellent group of submissions this year.
 
If you have events scheduled for the promotion of your books this year, please let us know so that we can help share those events with others and help promote your work. Send that info to Vicki Fletcher.
 
Last year was an incredibly challenging year for everyone. Despite that, we still grew the organization and had some fun. We look forward to doing the same this year and that everyone can be a part of it.
 
We will be welcoming back authors at the Virginia Highlands Festival. The event will be at the Higher Ed. Center in Abingdon and more details will follow. To be able to sign up for a table, you must renew or join by March 9th so take advantage of our $20 dues until then.

Soldiers In Petticoats, the latest book by guild member Betty Jamerson Reed, is a powerful look at three Appalachian women educators who were brave soldiers in the fight for equal rights, literacy, and justice. Although none of the women who are the subjects of this book were originally from Appalachia, they all came to these mountains for a similar cause and this book highlights their struggles and courage.
 
Betty was kind enough to spend some time answering a few questions about this book and her work and we greatly appreciate the question and answer session.
 
Q: What inspired you to write Soldiers in Petticoats?
A: I came across information about Emily Prudden while doing information for graduate studies at Western Carolina University and was amazed at the schools she founded for white and black mountain children, but was unable to locate much information about her. Then I discovered Sophia Sawyer while researching the history of schools for the Cherokee. Each founded a school which either physically or influentially exists in the twenty-first century. So, I looked for another female who had founded a school in the Southern Appalachians and decided Martha Berry would do, even though she was a Southerner.
 
Q: Given the deep subject material, was there a particular woman that you highlight in the book that served as inspiration?
A: I highlight the three women mentioned above and identified in the book’s sub-title. Living in a time when women were restricted in their means of making a living and in their access to an education, these three amazed me that they were able to provide schools for mountain white, black, and Indian children. Each one amazed me; how could they accomplish so much and what led them to do that? I set out to find the answers and decided to share that information with twenty-first century readers. Their accomplishments should not be forgotten.
 
Q: What was the research process like for this book?
A: I have spent my retirement doing research. It’s is an addictive process, and I am an addict. I sat in cold basement rooms, read ancient newspapers in a secluded vault fearing I would forget to lodge something against the steel door to prevent my being locked in and forgotten for days, found space to read school board minutes in isolated conference rooms, and browsed the internet for hours and hours—but I enjoyed it, and now I feel I KNOW these three women and admire each one. Each hoped to live a useful life, and each accomplished that.
 
This intriguing book, Soldiers In Petticoats, can be found online at Amazon for your Kindle device and paperback and hardcover.

​​The Appalachian Authors Guild has a big year planned for 2020. Not only are we doing great with membership (and gaining new members!) but the year ahead is full of events for our members and others thinking of joining. Not only will we be having our regular general meetings every other month at Shoney’s in Abingdon, Virginia, but we will also be hosting several workshops throughout the year. We encourage all members to attend. The workshop topics are suggested by members of the guild and are designed to help all of us get better at our craft.
 
Mark your calendars and come out and join us!

On February 11th we will have a board meeting and a workshop from noon to 3 pm. Jahmal Potter will lead the workshop. "My Book Got Schooled" will show us how he got his children's book into area schools and other marketing tips.

March 10th--general meeting at Shoney's in Abingdon. This will be our first general meeting of the year and we'll use this opportunity to meet and greet each other give each author an opportunity to introduce their work to the group. 
 
April 14th—board meeting and workshop from noon to 3 pm. (Topic to be determined)
 
May 16th  is SPRING FLING!! This is our second annual Spring Fling event to be held at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator in Abingdon, VA from 9 am to 4 pm. Guest speakers will be Dr. Jesse Graves, Tammy Robinson Smith, and a panel discussion led by Delilah O’Haynes, Oral Frazier, Matt Bolt and Jon Bott.
 
June 9th—board meeting and workshop from noon to 3 pm. Rose Klix will lead the workshop on poetry.
 
August 11th—board meeting and workshop from noon to 3 pm. Kari Kilgore will lead with a discussion on publishing with Ingram and how to market your work.
 
October 13th—board meeting and workshop from noon to 3 pm. Penny Sansevieri will present on “How to sell books on Amazon” and “How to best promote your books for sales.”
 
*All workshops will be held at the Virginia Highlands Small Business Incubator. 

2019 has been an amazing year for the Appalachian Authors Guild. Membership increased, attendance at regular functions either held steady or increased, and we’ve held several workshops for members with some good participation and great guest speakers. The workshops have been especially helpful and more are planned for next year.
 
Speakers this year included:
Linda Hoagland
Linda and Amber Icenhour
Linda Dobkins
Joe Tennis
Greg Lilly
Damean Mathews
Kari Kilgore
Dr. Jesse Graves
Jim Glanville
 
Although we were unable to have a Symposium this year, we did hold our first annual Spring Fling in Abingdon at the Small Business Incubator off of Exit 14 near the Higher Ed Center. We had a great crowd in attendance, a catered lunch, and great guest speakers that included prolific and bestselling author Steven James. Writers that attended the event came away with some new skills and provided some great feedback about the event. We are looking forward to hosting the next Spring Fling in 2020 which will be held on May 16th, times yet to be determined.
 
Our last gathering of the year will be on Tuesday November 12th at the Small Business Incubator in Abingdon. If you’re new to the guild and haven’t attended any events, come on out and make some new friends. The guild is about writers helping each other in this region. We welcome everyone to come and be a part of it!
 
Pictures from 2019 events are below.


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Now that summer is officially here, people from our region are flocking to their favorite vacation spots for some rest and relaxation. Nothing is more relaxing that settling in with a good book. Well, at least in the collective humble opinion of the members of the Appalachian Authors Guild. Several members were recently approached and asked what books were on their summer reading list. To say that our members are well read and read a wide variety of books would be an understatement! 
 
Here are 10 recommendations from the AAG members:
 
The Night Window-Dean Koontz
Rebecca-Daphne du Maurier
Every Deadly Kiss-Steven James
New Orleans Mourning-Julie Smith
To Be Where You Are-Jan Karon
Grendel-John Gardner
Moscow Rules-Daniel Silva
Black Mountain Breakdown-Lee Smith
Blood Meridian-Cormac McCarthy
Mountain Mist-Anthology by the Appalachian Authors Guild
 
What’s on your summer reading list?