Jim Hartsell to be featured author at Local Voices Program

Historic Ramsey House on November 14, 6:00 p.m.

AGT member Jim Hartsell will appear at the November Local Voices Program at the  iconic home located at 2614 Thorngrove Pike, Knoxville. His talk will center on the coming of age in Appalachia, referencing his Boone series, and give advice about the process of writing.

He will also be selling and signing his books at their Christmas Market on November 9th.

Authors Guild of Tennessee Next Meeting

Thursday, November 7th

AGT will hold its next monthly meeting at the Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut. The social time will start at 10:30 a.m., and the business session from 11:00 a.m. to noon.

Our special speaker will be AGT member Ernie Lancaster who will reprise his presentation to the Lenoir City High School Writing Classes competing in the fall 2024 session of the Writing Contest we sponsor. His topic will be the roles of goals, motivation, and conflict in character development in writing a novel.

Ernie retired as a captain in the Memphis Police Department. In his thirty-three years as a cop, he patrolled every corner of Memphis, where he responded to calls from seedy bars, hotels, and squalid housing projects, as well as mansions and recreational areas of the wealthy.

He walked the downtown night beat for two years in the mid ’70’s when Beale Street was in decline attracting unsavory characters. He also patrolled in ward cars, and worked Elvis’ funeral that attracted thousands. He edited the Memphis Police Association’s newspaper, acted as the union’s vice-president, and for twenty-six years held positions on the TACT Squad.

Ernie’s three crime/detective books are inspired by the triumphs and tragedies in his work. He is president of Sister in Crime’s east Tennessee chapter, The Smoking Guns. In 2023, he released his short story collection, Precinct Memphis Cop Tales. “The Shotgun and the TieTack” is in the November 2023 issue of online Killer Nashville Magazine.

His talk to our membership should prove to be both interesting and enlightening. As always, visitors are welcome.

Art Stewart’s New Release

“Yes, but…” explores how each of us negotiates life through a never- ending series of responses to a question, posed, oddly, as a brief quote from a scientific treatise titled Stream Fish Community Dynamics: A Critical Synthesis. The quoted question is simple: “What’s it all mean, Bill? What’s it all mean?” Each of us struggles with this question daily, minute by minute, second by second. “Yes, but …” is about how we dance that dance of reconciliation–cause and effect, while learning to learn.

Susan Kite Wins Special Award for her Latest Book

Susan Kite’re most recent book, Planet of Outcasts, Moon Crusher 2, was awarded gold at the Royal Palm Literary Award ceremony in Orlando, Florida. Congratulations to her for this high honor.

A reviewer wrote of the book: I was excited to find it lived up to the action and suspense in Moon Crusher. Diego, with his foretelling dreams and creative problem solving, leads his ragtag crew in new adventures on a distant planet. Old friends return and new loyal companions are added to the mix as they fight to free a civilization from evil alien oppression. Kite leave the door open for book 3, and I can’t wait. (Book 3 is in the editing stage.)

New release by Stan Borgia

Spies and traitors at the highest levels of the U.S. Government. The President establishes the Sanction Authority and approves a hybrid CIA/FBI assassin with expanded rules of engagement to solve the problems with a surprising outcome.

New Release by Bill Barbour

As a retiring Air Force fighter pilot, Ray Spencer steps into the civilian world which he soon finds is fiercely competitive rather than the cooperative comradery of the military. He performs well above expectations at his new job in strategic planning. When a seemingly upright senator offers him a position in Washington D.C., Ray finds himself embroiled in a tangle of deceit that culminates in a terrorist attack on the American electrical grid. Can Ray successfully confront this new reality as he is involved in a relationship with a young lady coworker while being betrayed by others around him?

Melanie Hutsell

Our October meeting speaker talks about keeping the writing drive alive

A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

In “Hope Is the Thing” Poet Danita Dodson reflects on the loss of her father.

Danita Dodson’s most recent collection of poetry, Between Gone and Everlasting, explores the many facets of grief after the loss of a parent. Dodson focuses on the death of her father and discusses grief and its impact across all facets of her life. The voice of the collection is childlike and hopeful, conveying a reverence for the dead and the process of dying and grieving, as well as a love for the natural beauty of the world and the signs of life below the surface. Dodson’s collection captivates with its focused narrative arc, using the extended theme of grief to tell a story of one man’s life and one family’s reaction to the loss of that life.

Go to this link to read Danita’s interview on this online publication:  https://chapter16.org/hope-is-the-thing/

Brenda Sellers  gives talk in Iceland

Brenda Sellers had her first international speaking/book signing in Iceland yesterday, July 6, in an antikvariat (antique booksellers’ shop). The announcement in the local media was in both English and Icelandic. Brenda reports that the attendees were very receptive to her talk about her book, You Slept Where?, particularly her story about staying in the Ice Hotel in Iceland.

New Retail Location

IGA Store in Townsend

The Townsend IGA store is now selling our books. We have a good number of titles for customers to choose from.

Townsend IGA is a locally owned grocery store serving the Townsend community. They buy local grocery items and proudly support the local farmers.

Hours are: Mon. through Sun. 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“Trails of Wrathful Waters” by David Curran

now available in the online journal AppalachiaBare

This is a delightful chapter from the author’s book Hiking for Fun and Pain.  Leaving his comfort zone of sylvan serenity, Dave agrees to join his fearless brother-in-law in white-water rafting on the Ocoee River, followed by calmly rowing down the Missouri, then hopping in a funyak to take on the turbulent Nolichucky River.  The result is a tale of high adventure laced with humor. To read this entertaining account, go to AppalachiaBare, click on highwaysandbyways, then on Wanderings — recent posts.

“Daisy”

                       by Russ Fine

a short story on the online journal Appalachia Bare

This is the heartwarming story of a small brown dog who was adopted by a lonely man at the request of its homeless owner. The good deed turns into a blessing for the new owner whose life is enriched by the company of this loving animal.

Between Gone and Everlasting

Danita Dodson’s New Poetry Book

Published May 6, 2024

Danita Dodson writes with emotive transparency about loss, the passing of generations, and the love of a father whose memory becomes a source of light after his death. Between Gone and Everlasting pans the perimeters of mourning with a phenomenal scope: heartrending reflections on grief, tender odes of remembrance, stunning elegies about Appalachia’s fading past, and stirring psalms of spiritual awakening amid loss.

Creative Writing Contest

Lenoir City High School

2nd Semester 2023-24

In the second semester of the 2023-4 school year, Angela Crabtree, teacher of the junior/senior writing classes at Lenoir City High School, selected poetry as the literary form for the Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Authors Guild of Tennessee.

The first- and second-place winners in Ms. Crabtree’s two classes are linked under this notice. Again, the students were not assigned particular subjects but were encouraged to write from their personal experiences and viewpoints. The poems are honest and personal and sometimes reflect harsh realities in each student’s life. They are all well-written and create word pictures of place and time.

The Authors Guild of Tennessee is proud to publish these outstanding literary accomplishments on our website with parental consent for students who are minors.

Creative Writing Contest

Lenoir City High School

1^st Semester 2023-24

In the first semester of the 2023-4 school year, Angela Crabtree, teacher of the junior/senior writing classes at Lenoir City High School, selected poetry as the literary form for the Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Authors Guild of Tennessee.

The first- and second-place winners in Ms. Crabtree’s two classes are linked under this notice. The students were not assigned particular subjects or themes but were encouraged to write from their personal experiences and viewpoints. As you will see, the poems are honest and personal, and sometimes reflect harsh realities in each student’s unique perspective on life. They are all well-written and skillfully create word pictures of place and time.

The Authors Guild of Tennessee is proud to publish these outstanding literary accomplishments on our website.

Daddy’s Little Girl – Kara Gresham

A Broken Soul – Abner Alvarado

The Mother – Reagan Griffith

Home – Christopher Lopez