PHOTO GALLERY

I got to visit James Whitcomb Riley's beautiful home in Indianapolis, Indiana,
in October.  Riley was in constant demand as a speaker; thousands of
people showed up at his poetry readings. My, how times do change!

With good Mr. Riley in his garden. He was having a better hair day than I was. 

A veritable avalanche of authors descended on Greenville's newest independent bookstore,
As the Page Turns, when a group of Western Carolina and Upstate writers got together
for a day of communal signings. From left are children's author Dawn Cusick, ATPT owner
Lisa Nichols, nonfiction author Angela Dove, inspirational author Emily Sue Harvey, me, short story author
Terry Rollins, novelist Kathryn Magendie, and nonfiction author Mark Washburn. What fun!

The fun continued on the other side of town at Gail Leslie's Book Gallery in Simpsonville, SC. 
Can you tell we were getting a little goofy after six hours of literary labors?

I had the privilege of chauffeuring legendary prose poet Louis Jenkins around town
when he visited Greenville this fall. Here I am with Louis and my good friend and
fellow poet Dana Wildsmith after his reading at the County Library.

Good times at Haywood County's BookMania, sponsored by Osandu Booksellers
in Waynesville. Here I am with Margaret Osandu, young adult author Alan Gratz, 
and debut author Terry Rollins.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer
at the Blue Ridge Book and Author Showcase. We're joined here by our mutual
friend, poet Glenda Beall, former program chairman of NCWN's Netwest branch. 

I had a chance to meet and interview The Mayhem Poets recently.
Great guys, great spoken word poetry. They kept 400 middle school students
completely mesmerized!

The beautiful Sebring Lakeside Golf Resort Inn and Tea Room 
was the setting for a tea at which I spoke last January.

It was my good fortune to be in Sebring the same weekend as legendary gospel pianist Derrick Lee 
and Grammy nominated singer Rev. Lawrence Thomison. Their concert had normally well-behaved
Methodists dancing in the pews!

 I was blessed to have the opportunity to talk about writing with the teen girls at the 
Florida Children's Home in Sebring. Two of the girls shared their poetry; all of them stole my heart.

In Bowling Green, Florida, I did a creativity workshop with ladies from several
area churches. We had a great time sharing "sensory memories."

More than 130 women celebrated "A New Year: A New You" at a day-long workshop in Ocala. Florida.
A lot of great brainstorming took place; look for exciting things to happen in that community!

At the John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, with Nantahala teacher and writer Natalie Grant (far left); 
Nancy Simpson, Writer in Residence; Janice Moore, English teacher at Young Harris College;
and Glenda Beall, program coordinator for the NetWest division of the NC Writers Network.

I was one of the featured authors at Books Alive! in Jefferson, Texas, in November. After a hard day's work, 
I joined fellow authors Kathy Whitehead, Marcia Gruver, and Kathy Patrick for dinner and conversation.

I had the world's best time when I spoke to the Blue Flower Literary Club in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. 
Theirs is the oldest literary club in the state and their members are as charming and gracious as they are beautiful!

Julian, California, is an old gold mining town that is, today, a favorite spot for tourists. 
They have a fabulous new library that has an active itinerary of programs for all ages. 
I'm pictured here with head librarian Colleen Baker (behind me) and some of the folk who attended my 
communication skills workshop there. We had everything from students to songwriters 
on hand as I shared tips on "Packing a Punch with Words."

Taylor Romero, a sixth-grader at Barnett Middle School in Ramona, CA, 
chose my poem "Table Talk," to memorize and perform for a school poetry project. She dressed up 
like the attitudinal teenager featured in  that poem and got an "A+" for her effort!

My Three Sons...and moi!

As part of the Amelia Island Book Festival, I spent a morning at Hilliard Middle Senior High School, near Jacksonville. 
English teacher Natasha Drake orchestrated a "poetry tea" for female students; 
we had a glorious time sharing words and scones and Earl Grey tea!

I was honored to be the workshop leader for Ramona United Methodist Church's first UMW retreat. 
This was taken after the P.J. Parade and before the Great Ping-Pong Pound-off!

Me perched on the porch of "Hillside House," in Concord, Massachusetts, where Louisa May Alcott spent her early teenage years.

What the Alcott family called "Hillside House," Nathaniel Hawthorne called "The Wayside." 
He bought and occupied the residence four years after the Alcotts moved out. 
The barn on the right was the inspiration for those lively "Roderigo! Roderigo! Saaaaave me!" scenes in Little Women.

Orchard House is right next door to The Wayside. (The Hawthornes and Alcotts were neighbors for 12 years.) 
Louisa May was 20 when her family moved into this house. It served as the model for the March family home in Little Women, 
which Louisa May wrote sitting at a shelf desk in her bedroom (perfectly preserved behind those two windows on the top right floor).

This is Walden Pond, located only a few miles from the Alcott houses. We were able to walk a trail all the way around the perimeter.
 Amazing that Louisa May, Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson all lived 
in the tiny little town of Concord at the same time! I tried to drink a lot of water while I was there, just in case...

This is the school that allegedly inspired Sarah Josepha Hale's poem, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." It sits on the grounds 
of Sudbury, Massachusetts' Wayside Inn, immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Tales of a Wayside Inn." 
Henry Ford bought the inn in 1923, then moved the school onto the grounds a few years later. 

My book, Dancing with My Daughter, is dedicated to my mother--a fiesty, fearless woman who loved music, 
friends, family, and growing things! Tragically, the last ten years of her life were spent in the grip of Alzheimer's disease; 
even then, her sense of humor managed to shine through.