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About the book
About the authors

About the Cover: Sitting in front of his store filled with everything from junk to jewels, Bobby Carr waits with Santa for Christmas shoppers in search of an unknown treasures. Bobby’s store is just a few steps down from the intersection from which Vienna, Georgia’s one stop light hangs.

About the book

Sample of the work:
 

WORKSOCK         Shelby Stephenson If I could round up stockings I’d take all the holey ones from Mama’s box of       sewings, My father’s, first, the heel ragged as a monkey’s       face. I’d hang that sock again for him And pray Santa would put an orange Or some nuts down in the thin And frayed toe, then arrange One real coconut with peeling skinned Off to let him know  The love he held for me I hold for him. We were not poor – just didn’t have much money. Christmas meant longing: That chance to fill me with sunny Reveries when I would skip the fields And pray for days that Jesus would not appear. I was never ready to see Him  Alive instead of nailed to a dogwood tree. Before sunup on Christmas day The plankhouse hummed with joy. In my stocking:  raisins, a few English walnuts,      toy From a Cracker Jack box I’d  run A store with:  I’d “sell” my brother a Mary Jane From his sock that Mama darned in a ray of sun.   SHELBY STEPHENSON’S Play My Music Anyhow is from Finishing Line Press.  His forthcoming book of poems to his mother is called Maytle’s World (Evening Street Press). He lives near McGee’s Crossroads, NC.

My Soldier Boy Doll Celia Miles I WAS NEVER one for dolls, don’t recall a homemade rag doll or a store bought porcelain-faced doll. But I did have a unique doll among the girls at Dillsboro School—a soldier boy, complete with uniform, removable cap, black boots, and a “Yes Sir” look on his face.          He arrived before Christmas, and I didn’t wait for Santa time to tear into the box and discard the stuffing.         It was barely post WW II and I was barely six. My uncles, not yet demobilized (the two who were) or home (the one whose casket arrived years later), had sent a perfect gift for the niece who played “Cowboys and Indians” and roamed afield, far from kitchen or broom.         His name is lost in the annals of childhood and violence. I lugged him around (he was half as tall as I was, gangly, loose-limbed, straw-stuffed) in the woods, sat with him on the front porch, dragged him through the snow, and, yes, subjected him to violence. He was a perfect object to be yanked and pulled: me on one side, a “foe” on the other; and he lost an arm that way. No complaining from him, but I thought his face began to look drawn and his tan paled.          Still my soldier lasted three winters, three Christmases, during which two sisters found pretty dolls beneath the tree. Of course, they vied for my soldier boy’s attentions and more tugging ensued; he preferred my company but they didn’t believe it.          Then he was severely wounded. I’d left him outside they said—a cat or a rat had found his heart. I bandaged his wounds, noting his chipped lip and his scratched eye.  “An enemy” fatally shot him, so said those who found him under my bed. Red smeared his bandaged chest. I knew it was lipstick but I wept for his death and put him away.         “A casualty of war,” Mama said. “Like your Uncle Winfred.” Celia Miles, a retired community college instructor, writes, edits, and lives in Asheville, NC. Her sixth and latest Appalachian novel, Sarranda's Heart: A Love Story of Place, came out this spring. Visit her web site.

Sandra Ervin Adams has always loved cats, and since her son and daughter grew up, she chose to mother some feral felines that she rescued over ten years ago and had neutered and spayed. They are truly part of her family as they provide unconditional love and companionship as they all experience growing older together. Sandra lives with and cares for her catbabies near Jacksonville, NC where she sometimes writes poetry.

Sam Barbee poems have appeared in Crucible, Asheville Poetry Review, Potato Eyes, Georgia Journal, St. Andrews Review, Charlotte Poetry Review, and Pembroke Magazine. He lives in Winston-Salem, NC, with his wife and has two children, and is the current President of Winston-Salem Writers. “I never miss any gathering that values the free voices of poets.” His day job for 29 years has been with the Winston-Salem Recreation Department.

Katherine Russell Barnes lives in Wilson, NC. Her work has been published in many magazines and anthologies including Crucible, Pembroke Magazine, Here’s to the Land, Earth and Soul, and Weymouth. Her collection (both nominated for The Pushcart Prize) Treading Water and Mornings at McDonnall’s were published by Old Mountain Press. An award-winning poet, she served on the boards and was active in the NC poetry organizations for many years.

Donna Burton is an educator who writes free lance articles and poetry. In 1989 she worked full time for The Panama City News Herald, where she specialized in making news out of nothing (or very little). Her poems have appeared in The News of Orange County and World Order Magazine. Donna lives in Mebane, NC.

Jim Clark is the Elizabeth H. Jordan Professor of Southern Literature and Chair of the Department of English, Modern Languages, Religion and Philosophy at Barton College in Wilson, NC. His books include Notions: A Jim Clark Miscellany; two collections of poetry, Dancing on Canaan’s Ruins and Handiwork; and he edited Fable in the Blood: The Selected Poems of Byron Herbert Reece. The new CD by his band The Near Myths is . . . and into the flow.

Tom Davis’s publishing credits include Poets Forum, The Caroli­na Runner, Triathlon Today, Georgia Athlete, The Fayetteville Observer’s Saturday Extra, A Loving Voice Vol. I and II, Special Warfare., and Winston-Salem Writers’ POETRY IN PLAIN SIGHT program for May 2013 (poetry month). He’s authored the following books: The Life and Times of Rip Jackson; A children’s coloring book, Pickaberry Pig;, The Patrol Order; and an action adventure novel, The R-complex. Tom lives in Webster, NC.

Nancy Dillingham is a sixth-generation Dillingham from Big Ivy. Her book of poems, Home (March Street Press), was nominated for a 2011 SIBA Award. Americana Rural (Wind Publications) is her latest collection of prose and poetry. She lives in Asheville, NC.

Beth Dragon is an ordained interfaith minister. She has earned her inconsequential fortune writing commercial non-fiction and light poetry. Dr. Dragon has won a number of poetry contests and has been previously published in OMP anthologies. She has edited various in-house publications and her work has appeared in magazines and newsletters. Beth currently resides in the town of Victor, NY. She is kept busy taking adult education classes and humble by her two resident felines.

Dena M. Ferrari is a regular contributor to OMP. Her poetry is featured in Westchester Community College of NY Phoenix (1975); placed several times in Fields of Earth, sponsored by the Writers’ Ink Guild; in Charles Weyant’s book, An Odyssey in Broken Rhythms and Ragged Lines (2006). Writers Alliance Poets World-Wide anthologies has many of her works. Dena’s own book, Poems From the Hearth (2010) shows diversified writing styles. She and her husband, Peter live in Vass, NC.

Ann Fogelman, a writer of memories in prose and poetry, was born in Reading, Pa. Her work has appeared in The Noble Generation, That Thing You Do, Pets Across America, Texas Poetry Calendar, Boundless, OMP Anthologies and school publications. Ann is a member of Bay Area Writers League, Gulf Coast Poets, Poetry Society of Texas and Osher Lifetime Learning Institute at UTNB, Galveston. Ann lives in Friendswood, TX.

James Gibson (Northville, Michigan) combined his love of the American West and his fascination with Native American culture to write the five novels of the Anasazi Quest series, available at www.PentacleSPresS.com, as well as The Last Ride, a traditional western set outside Tucson, Arizona. Visit his blog at www.anasaziquest.wordpress.com.

Marian Gowan is author of Notes from the Trunk, published by Old Mountain Press (www.oldmp.com/mariangowan.htm). Her work has appeared in several Old Mountain Press anthologies and regional publications, most recently in Longest Hours, published by Silver Boomer Books, Abilene, TX. She retired to the NC mountains from western NY in 2001. 

Kerri Mai Habben lives in Raleigh, NC where she works as a writer, photographer, and a local historian. A graduate of Peace College and North Carolina State University, her articles, essays, and poetry have appeared in literary journals, The News and Observer, and in publications throughout the U.S. and Canada. Currently she is editing a collection of her essays for publication.

MaXine Carey Harker and husband Berkley, have lived 57+ years in the little one-stop-light town of Grifton, NC, reared 5 children who have produced grandchildren and great grandchildren in far-flung places. Published in national, state, and local publications, she prefers non-fiction, sonnets, and haiku. She’s taught Writing for Publication for 30+ years at Community Colleges, now Rec Center in New Bern. MaXine is 84; her doctor tells her she is 65. 

Robert Hewett lives in Louisville, KY and writes in several genres including Children; Romance; Old West Romance/ Adventure; Humor and Skits. He has been named Poet of the Month on several worldwide sites and Poet of the year on www.publishingwithpassion.com, a poetry forum. You can find some of his writings at roberthewettsr.hubpages.com (no www or http://)

Joyce Keel is a novice writer, but hopes to develop some writing talent eventually! She recently self published two journals that were written over the past 20 years telling about the memories she has of the time she spent with her grandkids. She has 6 grandkids, so she has 4 more books to complete. The goal is to give each grandchild his or her book for high school graduation. Greenville, SC is her hometown.

Fiona Kelly is a Broughton HS student who lives in Raleigh, NC. She loves her family and friends and draws inspiration and insight from them. She likes to do all the things that a normal girl likes. She has all the thoughts and concerns and trials and ups and downs and smiles and tears of her friends. Maybe writing about them helps in clearing the mind. She is the author of a published play, Promise.

K. D. Kennedy Jr. has published four (4) books of poetry, short stories, and essays: Our Place In Time, Waiting Out In The Yard, For Rhyme Of Reason, and Progenitors: A Kennedy Genealogy. He has also published works in over twenty anthologies and periodicals. He has served as Chairman of the following: The Board of Trustees of Barton College, the North Carolina Board of Ethics, the North Carolina Theatre, and the Building Committee of the Duke Power Performing Arts Center.

Sara Lauren Kennedy is a Broadway actress having done leads in five Broadway and London West End shows: Spamalot, Sunset Boulevard, Side Show, Les Miserables, and South Pacific. She attended Cincinnati Conservatory studying musical theatre and other stuff. She has produced three CD’s of her work and teaches as an adjunct professor at Elon, Barton, and CCM. She is the producer of “Hot Summer Nights” in Raleigh, NC. Riley Rose Campbell is her amazing daughter.

Sara Lynn Kennedy has served on the boards of North Carolina Theatre, North Carolina Museum of Art, and many booster clubs and associations of her children and grandchildren. She graduated from Ralph L. Fike High School in Wilson and Meredith College in Raleigh. She was a primary school teacher after graduation and has enjoyed using those skills to help her four children and six grandchildren with their scholarship, socialization, and maturation.

Barbara H. Kenyon is a retired professional musician and always listens carefully to the sounds of her written lines, whether prose or poetry. She is Hillsborough’s Poet Laureate for 2012/2013 and has been previously published by OMP as well as in other venues. A native of Minnesota, she ventured South and has lived in Hillsborough, NC for 20 years.

Jo Koster teaches at Winthrop University, where she spends too much time on administrative duties and not enough on writing. Recent work has appeared in the collection Mother’s Little Helper (Old Mountain Press) and a new chapbook, Nine Days’ Wonder, is due in 2014. She was a finalist in 2011 for the Carrie Cray Nickens Fellowship in Poetry from the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She and her cats Max and Neville live in comfortable chaos and in Rock Hill, SC.

Patsy KennedyLain of Hubert, NC, frolics, writes and paints passionately. She is published in anthologies, magazines, one online, plus her local newspaper, received Adult Student 2009 Eastern NC’s Gilbert-Chappel Distinguished Poet Series, and holds senior literary and visual art competition gold medals and ribbons awarded over the past four years. 

Blanche L. Ledford’s work has appeared in Mother’s Little Helper, Happy Feet, The Nature of Things, and other Old Mountain Press anthologies. She received the Paul Green Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her books, Planting by the Signs, and Simplicity. Blanche lives and writes in Hayesville, NC.

Brenda Kay Ledford is a member of North Carolina Writers’ Network and listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Her work has appeared in Mother’s Little Helper, Happy Feet, The Nature of Things, and other Old Mountain Press anthologies. Finishing Line Press published her poetry chapbook, Beckoning, this year. She’s won the Paul Green Award six times for her books. Brenda lives in Hayesville, NC.

Valerie Macon, from Fuquay-Varina, NC., has received awards from the N.C. Poetry Society, The Writer’s Inc Guild, and the Gilbert-Chappel Distinguished Poets Series. Recently, her poetry has been featured in the Spare Change News, appears in The Clockhouse Review, and has been sung in a concert at the New England Conservatory. Shelf Life, her first collection of poetry, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Sleeping Rough, her second book, focuses on homelessness.

Celia Miles, a retired community college instructor, writes, edits, and lives in Asheville, NC. Her sixth and latest Appalachian novel, Sarranda’s Heart: A Love Story of Place, came out this spring.

Beverly Ohler lived most of her life on the Warren Wilson College campus, teaching and designing in the Theater Department. However, she spent her early life in NYC, and she has vivid memories of that time. These early memories often appear in her writing. She has published several books, with poems and stories in many anthologies and magazines. She lives in Black Mountain.

Martha O’Quinn lives in Hendersonville, NC. She writes poetry and non-fiction. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and in regional publications, both in print and online. When not at her keyboard, she enjoys reading, needlework and travel. She has lived in five different southern states. 

Patricia Podlipec taught first grade for over two decades. After retirement she and her husband moved from Wisconsin to Hendersonville, North Carolina, where she enjoys many activities, including writing poetry. Besides several Old Mountain Press anthologies, her poems have appeared in Kakalak, Clothes Lines, WNC Woman, The Great Smokies Review,Women’s Spaces Women’s Places, Pinesong:Awards 2012, and The Longest Hours: Thoughts While Waiting.

Michael Potts is Professor of Philosophy, Methodist University, Fayetteville, North Carolina. He has published a full-length poetry collection, Hiding from the Reaper and Other Horror Poems, and his chapbook, From Field to Thicket, won the 2006 Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award of the North Carolina Writer’s Network. His novel, End of Summer, was published in 2011 by WordCrafts Press.

Cindy Rickey’s poetry credits include MetroNY; the NY Times blog; Blueline; Avocet, Journal of Nature Poems; Avocet Weekly; Emerald Coast Review; Kakalak; Red Fez; Poetry Pacific; The Mountaineer; Miller’s Pond Poetry Magazine; On Your Mark; Sacred Visions; and a poetry book, A Year in the Life of an Unemployed Poet. She was a winner of the NYC Office of Cultural Affairs Poetweet contest. Cindy recently moved from the NYC suburbs to a Waynesville, NC, mountaintop.

Edwina Rooker grew up in Warrenton, NC. She holds an AB in English from Duke University and a MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught English or worked as a media coordinator in Southern Pines, Virginia Beach, and Warren County. She retired to Bridgeton, NC, on the Neuse River. Her newspaper column, Observations, appears in the weekly Warren Record. Today she lives at The Courtyards at Berne Village in New Bern, NC.

Carmen Ruggero. Fiction writer and poet. Co-authored a poetry anthology, Shaken & Stirred, and short story collection, Kaleidoscope, published by BeWrite Books. Adventure Books of Seattle published her short story collection: Eighty-six Eggs. Joined Bewildering Stories as an author and review editor. In 2011, she became part of a writers group organized by her hometown newspaper, where she was also a contributing author. Carmen lives in Crawfordsville, IN.

Rhonda Frazier Rutterbush is a human being, as well as a native and lifelong resident of Greenville, SC. She lives with one husband, two dachshunds and a myriad of dust bunnies that the dachshunds like to chase. Her literary claim to fame is winning first place in a short story contest sponsored by the Pickens County Museum. Her first published story was in OMP. Rhonda is also a lay chaplain and spiritual mentor with the Upper Episcopal Diocese of SC.

Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, of Pittsboro, a former college president, has published 5+ books and 72 articles, edited 22 books/proceedings and three national journals, and published a newspaper column. In creative writing, she has published 9 poetry chapbooks (another forthcoming) and 4 full-length collections (another in press), over 100 short stories, 4 novels, a novella, and a short story collection and written 41 plays. As Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet 2013-2014/2014-2015, she mentors student poets.

Jane Shlensky, a veteran English teacher, is discovering that life after school is improved by writing and reading. Her recent poetry has been published by The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bay Leaves, Emerge Literary Magazine, Prompted: An International Collection of Poems, Beyond the Dark Room, Poetic Bloomings, KAKALAK, and Writer’s Digest. Jane lives in Bahama, NC.

Rishan Singh is a prize-winning South African poet, biologist and writer. His writing has appeared in numerous journals and books. He gained prominence in the international literary community, when his autobiographical piece won the most reads award in the USA, after gracing the shores in the United Kingdom, in a book by South African writers. He has received numerous South African and other international honors for writing and science. 

Marty Silverthorne holds degrees from St. Andrews Presbyterian College and East Carolina University. He has published four chapbooks Dry Skin Messiah, Pot Liquor Promises, No Welfare, No Pension Plan, and Rewinding at 40. Marty has been published in numerous journals including Tar River Poetry, North Carolina Literary Review, St. Andrews Review, and Pembroke. He has received several North Carolina Arts Regional Grants and in 2012 received an NC Arts Fellowship.

Nancy Sollosi lives in Jamestown, North Carolina with her daughter. She longs to slow the passage of time by capturing it in her writing. But the more she writes, the older she feels. Trying to capture her daughter’s Christmases reminds her of her own youth. So much to write. So little time.

Susan Spalt’s poems have appeared in Pine Song, Bay Leaves, Mistletoe Madness Anthology, Happy Feet and Carrboro’s 100th Birthday Poetry Anthology. Her poem, “Carrboro Rocks”, was set to music by Billy Sugerfix to celebrate Carrboro’s one hundredth anniversary. Susan is one of four poets published in Carrboro Poetica. She is a member of the Carrboro Poets Council of Carrboro, NC and enjoys writing poetry about everyday life.

Dorothea Spiegel, a poet most of her 91 years. Now living in Gainesboro, TN, with her daughter, Connie Gilbert, an artist. With many talents, she has read her poems several times to the students at John Campbell Folk School while she lived in Hiawassee, GA, written many newspaper articles, poems in several anthologies, and she makes jewelry, to sell in the art gallery where Connie’s paintings are shown.

Tonya Staufer found her way back to writing a few years ago. She is a real estate investment broker by day and a writer by night. She and her husband call Saluda, NC home. Her stories have appeared in Spirit of the Smokies, A Long Story Short, Western NC Woman, Moonshine Review, and numerous anthologies.

Wendy Stephens lives in Brevard, NC. Her work has appeared in Women’s Spaces Women’s Places.

Shelby Stephenson’s Play My Music Anyhow is from Finishing Line Press. His forthcoming book of poems to his mother is called Maytle’s World (Evening Street Press). He lives near McGee’s Crossroads, NC.

Sandy Waddell lives in Greenville, SC. She published one children’s book entitled Telly Turtle Tales. Now she writes primarily about memories of her life.

Elizabeth West lives in Asheville, NC. She is a retired high school librarian. Elizabeth is an avid reader and enjoys writing for personal pleasure.

Glenda S. Wilkins grew up on an eastern NC tobacco farm, and believed she’d never live beyond the county line. Decades later, she moved to Europe for almost a dozen years. Her poems are published in the U.S.A., Canada, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Great Britain. Along the way, she has won several poetry awards. Today, she lives with her husband on an airstrip outside Winterville, NC. 

Barbara Ledford Wright, associate editor to Moonshine and Blind Mules frequently contributes to OMP’s Anthology Series, including Mother’s Little Helper, Clay and Cherokee County Souvenir Edition’s, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, Express Yourself 101 Vol 2 For Your Eyes Only, Kaleidoscope, Fireflies and June Bugs, Yesterdays Magazette, Christmas Presence, Clothes Lines, Women’s Spaces Women’s Places, Fresh, Mused, Bread ‘N Molasses, Northern Stars, The Oxford So and So. Barbara lives in Shelby, NC.

C. Pleasants York of Sanford, NC, at the age of four, made her acting debut at Mount Tabor Methodist Church in Winston-Salem where she donned a white lace nightgown, white ballet slippers, and a halo made of twisted sparkly wire to star as Third Angel from the Right in the Christmas Eve Nativity Scene. She impressed the audience with her bright smile and her soprano solo of “Morning Star O Cheering Sight.”

Joseph Youngblood lives in Fayetteville, NC, with his family. He works as a Military and Family Life Counselor on Ft Bragg with service members and their families. He writes for pleasure about topics that move him. Christmas and children have always been a favorite topic. His work has appeared in several previous anthologies.