PHOTO GALLERY

Here I am with NC Poet Laureate Cathy Smith Bowers at the NC Writers' Network Netwest picnic
in September. Great readings, great food--and it wasn't nearly as hot as we look!

 
I taught a class called "Harnessing the Power of Words" this summer at John Campbell Folk School 
in Brasstown, NC. This is me with three of my wonderful students. We had such a great week!

The writing lab at JCFS is Mac-based, and we were all PC gals, so we ended up using our laptops instead. 
It worked out well, though, because that allowed us to sit in a big circle and interact as we worked.

This is the incredible view from inside Orchard House, where all the JCFS writing students stayed. 
We alternated having class here and in the writing lab located just next door.

I enjoyed the opportunity to read with fellow poet Anne Harding Woodworth at JCFS this summer. 

I was the guest speaker last spring at the Dale Baptist Association's annual Women's Retreat in Ozark, Alabama. I'm being introduced here by Wilma Hart, Associational WMU Director.

I got to visit James Whitcomb Riley's beautiful home in Indianapolis, Indiana, last fall.  
Riley was in constant demand as a speaker and thousands of people showed up at his poetry readings. Imagine!

An avalanche of authors descended on Greenville indie bookstore, As the Page Turns, 
when a group of North and South Carolina writers got together for a group signing. 
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!

I got to chauffeur legendary prose poet Louis Jenkins around town
when he visited Greenville last fall. Here I am with Louis and my friend and
fellow poet Dana Wildsmith after his reading at the downtown library.

I had a chance to meet and interview The Mayhem Poets when they visited my city.
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 holiday tea at which I spoke in 2009. 

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. 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 participated in my "A New Year: A New You" workshop in Ocala, Florida.

I was one of the featured authors at Books Alive! in Jefferson, Texas, in 2008. After a hard day's work, 
fellow authors Kathy Whitehead, Marcia Gruver, and Kathy Patrick joined me for dinner and conversation.

I had the privilege of speaking 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 library with an active schedule 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.  

My Three Sons...and moi!

I had the pleasure of speaking at a poetry tea at Hilliard Middle Senior High School, near Jacksonville, FL. 
We had a fine time sharing words and some really good food!

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!

One of the highlights of my life was visiting Concord, Massachusetts, a few years ago, home of numerous authors, including my all-time favorite, Louisa May Alcott. Here I am perched on the porch of "Hillside House," Louisa May 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...

Not too far from Concord is Sudbury, Massachusetts, home of the Wayside Inn. Immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Tales of a Wayside Inn," it was purchased by Henry Ford in 1923, who moved this schoolhouse onto the grounds a few years later. Supposedly, this is the building that inspired Sarah Josepha Hale's poem, "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  

My book, Dancing with My Daughter, is dedicated to my mother--a fiesty, fearless woman who loved music, 
friends, family, and growing things. Although the last ten years of her life were spent 
in the grip of Alzheimer's disease, her sense of humor shone through till the very end.