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Monthly Archives: July 2021

Two New YA Novels by Charlotte Authors

July 25, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Since I regularly include young adult novels in the literature courses that I teach at UNC Charlotte, I am always on the lookout for new YA novels by Charlotte authors.  In recent weeks, I discovered two such novels:  List of Ten by Halli Gomez and Phoebe Unfired by Amalie Jahn.  These novels pair together perfectly.  They are both about sixteen-year-old protagonists who are struggling with mental health issues.  Troy Hayes, the central character in List of Ten, suffers from both Tourette Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder.  Phoebe Benson, the central character in Phoebe Unfired, wrestles with germophobia and depression.  Although these characters have serious problems, their personalities are not defined entirely by their problems.  Troy and Phoebe are fully developed and sympathetic characters, and both forge meaningful and complex relationships with other characters.  In the end, it’s these relationships that make List of Ten and Phoebe Unfired such powerful stories.

I recently contacted Halli Gomez and Amalie Jahn, and I asked both about their new novels and their experiences as Charlotte writers.

Here is what Halli sent to me:

List of Ten, a young adult novel about a teen with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), is a story I’ve been trying to tell most of my life. It is one that explains what having these disorders feels like on the inside. This book follows Troy Hayes who is tired of the pain and humiliation that frequently accompanies TS and OCD, and, despite his new friendships, is planning to end his life. Troy’s story isn’t my story, but as someone with these disorders, I do admit there is a lot of me wrapped in those pages. Deciding to write this novel has been a priority since I began writing ten years ago, but I couldn’t find the right plot or character. Until one day as I walked the beautiful tree-lined paths of one of Charlotte’s many greenways, the details came to me.

I was fortunate to have had a friend (a local literary agent and fellow martial artist) recommend joining the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), an association with an incredible Carolinas chapter. At their yearly conferences (always held in Charlotte) I met wonderful local writers and was quickly welcomed into their group. I also met the woman who would become my agent and sell List of Ten.  I’m happy to say the story doesn’t end there. While working with Park Road Books for my book launch and pre-order campaign, I was told about an open bookseller position. One of the many things writers and booksellers have in common is reading. Well, it just so happens I’ve been in love with books my entire life. I got the job and as a writer and Park Road Books bookseller and events coordinator, I am deeply involved with the Charlotte literary community. A place that feels right at home.

Here is what Amalie Jahn sent to me:

The major underlying theme in each of my YA books is that no one is ever alone.  Adolescents spend an unfathomable amount of time worrying that they aren’t going to fit in or that no one has ever experienced what they’re going through.  I like to show teenagers, through my stories, that their experiences and feelings are largely universal and regardless of what they’re feeling, they’re not alone. To that end, I developed severe germaphobia after my first child was born. The trauma of a difficult pregnancy and her premature birth triggered severe anxiety, and it took years of suffering and therapy to learn how to navigate the world from inside my diagnosis. Like my pregnancy, I recognized the recent stress of living through a global pandemic was going to be extremely triggering for a lot of people, especially kids, and I wanted them to know they’re not alone, it’s okay if it takes time to figure things out, and they shouldn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help. I wrote Phoebe Unfired to show readers that when it comes to mental health, sometimes the only way around is through, and even though “normalcy” might seem impossible, there is always, always hope.

Writing is often a solitary endeavor that can be quite isolating. After several years of toiling away on my own here in Charlotte, I began searching for other local YA authors to commiserate with over publishing’s many ups and downs. I conducted a quick Twitter search, discovered several names, and after working up the courage to ‘slip into their DMs,’ a group of us ultimately started the Charlotte Area YA Writer’s Group. At the moment, we have thirty-three members, and although I would like to say we get together frequently to write, we mostly just hang out and enjoy each other’s company. Truly, though, one of the best parts about having author friends who write in your genre living in your city is knowing someone will always show up to your latest event!

Halli and Amalie each has her own website.  For readers who want to know more about Halli, please click on the following link: https://halligomez.com/ For readers who want to know more about Amalie, please click on the following link: https://www.amaliejahn.com/

Halli’s List of Ten and Amalie’s Phoebe Unfired are welcomed additions to my ever-expanding list of YA novels by authors who call Storied Charlotte home. 

Tags: germaphobia booksobsessive-compulsive disorder bookstourette syndrome booksYA novels

Abbigail Glen and her Pop-Up Bookstore

July 13, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

There was a time when Charlotte supported lots of bookstores, but nowadays the Queen City has only a handful of bookstores that are still in business. However, not all of the news is bad. Two years ago, Abbigail Glen launched a pop-up bookstore called Shelves, a black-owned business that is finding success by making books available where people already congregate.  

A native of Philadelphia, Abbigail is an avid reader and for years she had a dream of owning her own bookstore. After moving to Charlotte following a road trip to the Queen City 6 months earlier, she secured an HR position at a small technology company where she worked for 3 years supporting their employees. She eventually resigned from that role and launched Shelves as a Pop-Up Bookstore at Queen City Grounds in Uptown shortly thereafter. She realized early on that the key to making her pop-up bookstore work was partnering with other small businesses like Enderly Coffee Co. and Mint Hill Roasting Company.

Continue reading to learn more about Abbigail’s mission for Shelves.

I launched Shelves in June of 2019 and have been serving as Charlotte’s friendly neighborhood bookseller ever since. In addition to being a dream come true, Shelves is both an online and mobile pop-up bookstore that partners with other small businesses that have a brick & mortar presence in the Charlotte Metro area. We are committed to educating families and celebrating the joy that reading books brings to people all over the world because we believe that reading is freedom. We are on a quest to not only provide our supporters with great books, but also create amazing lifestyle products made exclusively with readers, writers, and dreamers in mind. It’s been quite a journey so far and continues to surprise me along the way.

Shelves has two upcoming Pop-Up Bookstores hosted by Enderly Coffee Co., which is located at 2620 Tuckaseegee Road in West Charlotte. The first will take place on Saturday, July 17th from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm EST, and the second will take place on Saturday, July 24th from 9:00 am to 1:30 pm EST. These events provide Mecklenburg County readers with a chance to discover and purchase new books, while enjoying a cup of coffee made from coffee beans roasted locally by Enderly. If you are unable to attend their Pop-Up Bookstore, you can always shop with them online at shelvesbookstore.com. In addition to USPS shipping, Shelves also offers Local Pickup and Friday Home Delivery options to Mecklenburg County residents. In my opinion, the combination of books and coffee has the makings for a perfect day in Storied Charlotte. 

Christopher S. Lawing’s Photographs of Charlotte’s Disappearing Landmarks

July 06, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Like many long-time residents of Charlotte, I am saddened by the recent closing of Mr. K’s Soft Ice Cream, Price’s Chicken Coop, and Zack’s Hamburgers.  I especially miss Mr. K’s since its location is just a few blocks from my home. Our dog misses Mr. K’s, too. Nearly every day the two of us would walk by Mr. K’s, and often the owner, George Dizes, would give our dog a piece of a hotdog bun.  Mr. K’s closed in March, but our dog is still on the lookout for more hotdog buns.  Just as Mr. K’s played a role in our daily life and the life of my neighborhood, Price’s Chicken Coop and Zack’s Hamburgers played important roles in the neighborhoods where they did business for so many years.  These three businesses were not just places where one could get a quick meal.  Each of them had a distinct character and colorful history.  They were Charlotte landmarks.

Charlotte photographer Christopher S. Lawing has a passion for preserving the history of such Charlotte landmarks.  I have a copy of his book Charlotte:  The Signs of the Times—A History Told Through the Queen City’s Classic Roadside Signage, and I recently thumbed through it.  I am pleased to report that it includes photographs of the signs associated with Mr. K’s Soft Ice Cream, Price’s Chicken Coop, and Zack’s Hamburgers.  As Christopher sees it, photographing these signs is part of a larger, ongoing project.  For readers who want to know more about his Charlotte Signs Project, please click on the following link:  https://www.cltsignsproject.com/

Looking at Christopher’s beautiful photographs of the signs for these landmarks brought back good memories for me.  I am grateful that Christopher had the foresight to photograph these places while they were still in business, serving their customers and participating in their local communities.  I decided to contact Christopher and ask him for more information about his efforts to preserve the history of such Charlotte landmarks.  Here is what he sent to me:

When I first started photographing iconic Charlotte signs back in 2010 for a darkroom photography class at Myers Park High School, all I had was an analog Nikon FM SLR 35mm film camera and rolls of Kodak Ektachrome 100 slide transparency film. A few years later, after I’d moved on to college, I was able to make the investment in a Nikon D3200 DSLR digital camera, but by that point I’d already photographed some of the Queen City’s most well-known, locally (but also regionally!) famous, and of course beloved landmarks. Signs representing this ‘film period’ of my ongoing Charlotte Signs Project, included none other than Mr. K’s Soft Ice Cream, Price’s Chicken Coop, and Zack’s Hamburgers – places most recently in the news due to their bemoaned and too-soon closures.

Each spot represented an incredible array of diversity, welcoming people from all walks of life, and while the delicious ice cream, fried chicken, and hamburgers will be sincerely missed, the true loss of these businesses will be in losing the salt-of-the-earth, humble, easily-approachable, and simple nature of these places. The shared collective experience and sense of community is what made them significant, meaningful, and profound!

I am thankful to have two sets of specific memories from each of these places: one being the repeat enjoyment of these places from a patron’s point of view, and the second being the Sunday afternoon drives my parents and I would take to these places for me to photograph their respective signs for my project. Many times over the course of the project, I have been able to interact with the owners of these businesses I photographed, and that has certainly been true with these three icons. The families and faces behind each one of these spots are exactly as you imagine them to be – friendly, smiling, and enthusiastic.

Fortunately, I was able to be on-scene the last day of business for both Price’s Chicken Coop (I waited 6 hours, but it was worth it!) and most recently Zack’s Hamburgers (this line moved quicker, and I waited only 1.5 hours). In my own way through my simple food orders, I was paying tribute to the greater legacy that each business has given to me, my family, and to Charlotte overall. And while I didn’t bring either of my Nikon cameras or film or memory cards to mark the occasion, I did take plenty of pictures on my smartphone.

With a combined 159 years of dedicated service to the Charlotte community, these 3 places exist now in our memories, our stories, and our photographs. We owe it to our friends, families, and future Charlotteans, to tell them of the storied past that these places were, while also supporting our remaining classic eateries, places that make our community a community!

The photographs in Christopher’s Charlotte:  The Signs of the Times remind me of Rod Stewart’s 1971 hit song, “Every Picture Tells a Story.”  Each of the photographs in Christopher’s book has a story associated with it.  When viewed together, these photographs add an important visual dimension to Storied Charlotte. 

Tags: Charlotte landmarksCharlotte signs
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