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Monthly Archives: May 2023

Charlotte Lit and the Magic of Summer

May 31, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Jenny Han, the Korean American author of The Summer I Turned Pretty and many other popular novels, once wrote, “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.”  For me, part of the magic of summer involves the act of writing.  Since I don’t usually teach during the summer, I spend the summer months in my quirky office working on a book or an article, all the while endlessly sipping coffee from my Wind in the Willows mug.  I cannot seem to write without drinking coffee at the same time.  My goal every summer is to finish the initial draft of whatever writing project I am working on at the time, and then I do my revisions during the school year.  This approach has worked for me for many, many years.  I attribute whatever success I have had as a writer to the magic of summer (with a little boost from the coffee).

Paul Reali and Kathie Collins, the co-founders of Charlotte Lit, know all about the magical relationship between the months of summer and the act of writing.  Paul, Kathie and the other people involved with the running of Charlotte Lit have scheduled a wide range of summer programming for all kinds of writers.  I contacted Paul and Kathie and asked them for more information about Charlotte Lit’s summer programs.  Here is what they sent to me:

Mark, we’re excited to tell you about Charlotte Lit’s summer offerings!

Our community has been asking, so for the first time in our seven years we’ve decided to add a big selection of summer programming. At the risk of saying we have something for everyone, we do have a really good mix of topics and formats from which to choose.

“Everything, Really Everything…” is our newest concept. On three Wednesday nights, we’ll host a writer who will tell the audience everything they know about a certain topic. The evening starts at 5:30 and also includes social time and adult beverages. Here’s that list:

June 14: Everything, Really Everything, Kim Wright Knows and Writing Beach Reads

July 19: Everything, Really Everything, Dustin M. Hoffman Knows About Writing Short Stories

August 16: Everything, Really Everything, Emily Sage Knows About Songwriting

We’ll host two other writers for special events. Poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi joins us for the next Poetry Nightclub, June 22 at Starlight on 22nd. These are fun nights in a very cool atmosphere. Later in the summer, on August 11, novelist Abigail DeWitt will be at Charlotte Lit to read from and discuss her work.

Of course, Charlotte Lit will offer some writing classes, too—by Zoom to make it easy for anyone to attend from anywhere. Journalist and essayist Amy Paturel will join us from Los Angeles for Writing and Pitching the Reported Essay, two Sunday afternoons, July 30 and August 6. Writer Elizabeth Hanly comes to us from Mexico for four sessions beginning July 18, for what we think will be one of our most important offerings ever: Togetherness: Writing for Those Touched by Cancer and Other Serious Illness.

Every Tuesday morning at 9:30, a dozen or more writers gather on Zoom for our prompt-based writing hour, Pen to Paper. This continues all summer and is a great way to spark new ideas.

We’ll end the summer and kick off our full programming year at Rosie’s Wine Garden for our second annual Open Mic, with our friends at the North Carolina Writers’ Network, August 25.

Finally, there’s one more item of interest for poets: we’ll start taking applications for our Poetry Chapbook Lab on June 15. This is a year-long intensive with coaching and master classes that results in a publication-ready chapbook.

It’s a whole lot of things, so we’ve made a special web page with all this info and registration links, here: https://www.charlottelit.org/summer2023/

We hope to see many of your readers this summer!

I thank Paul and Kathie for sharing this information about Charlotte Lit’s summer offerings.  I also thank Charlotte Lit for providing area writers with a spoonful of inspiration so that they, too, can have their own magical summer in the city of Storied Charlotte.

Going to ConCarolinas

May 22, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Many Charlotte-area fans of fantasy and science fiction stories are eagerly anticipating the upcoming ConCarolinas convention.  Scheduled to take place from June 2-4 near UNC Charlotte, ConCarolinas is expected to attract thousands of fans, authors, performers, gamers, game designers, and cosplayers.  For more information about this year’s convention, please click on the following link:  https://concarolinas.org

The Programming Director for this year’s convention is Charlotte writer and publisher John G. Hartness.  John is the author several fantasy series, including The Black Knight Chronicles.  He is also the driving force behind Falstaff Books, a Charlotte-based publisher of genre fiction.  Given John’s role in coordinating the all of the programming for ConCarolinas, he is the perfect person to provide an overview of this year’s convention.  I contacted John and asked him for more information about ConCarolinas 2023.  Here is what he sent to me:

ConCarolinas is the largest and longest-running science fiction and fantasy convention in the Carolinas, held every year the weekend after Memorial Day. Taking place at the Hilton University Place and the Holiday Inn Charlotte University, ConCarolinas brings in writers, actors, filmmakers, costumers, paranormal investigators, scientists, and fans of all types for a fun-filled weekend. ConCarolinas celebrates fandom in all its flavors, to whether you’re a Trekkie or a Padawan, Team Edward or a Decepticon, you can find plenty to enjoy.

ConCarolinas showcases the talents of geeks from all over the Charlotte region and the Carolinas as a whole. With local publishers like Falstaff Books and Mocha Memoirs Press, fan groups like the 501st Legion and Southern Belle Ghostbusters, and award-winning filmmakers like Dave Harlequin and  Jaysen Buterin, there’s something for everyone, no matter what you’re into. The convention also brings in top-rated guests from all around the country, including this year’s Guests of Honor and Special Guests. The 2023 Media Guest of Honor is Ari Lehman, the first actor to portray Jason Voorhees in a Friday the 13th film, and this year’s Writer Guest of Honor is Gabino Iglesias, a two-time Bram Stoker Award Nominated novelist and professor. Artist Guest of Honor Lynne Hansen’s work has appeared in Weird Tales magazine and on the covers of hundreds of books and magazines, and her husband, Writer Special Guest Jeff Strand is the Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of over fifty books, including Bring Her Back and Autumn Bleeds into Winter.

Expanding to two hotels in 2023, adding the Holiday Inn Charlotte University allows the convention to increase its dealer space while also growing its educational and workshop space. This year the convention will host hands-on workshops where participants can learn how to make puppets, work with leather, and craft basic armor. They can also watch short films submitted by filmmakers from around the world, and view the regional premiere of Shingles: The Movie, a comedy horror anthology film based on a series of books authored in part by local writer John G. Hartness. If fans don’t want to sit in a room and watch movies all night, there are roleplaying and tabletop games going all weekend, plus sing-alongs, karaoke, and dance parties!

Tickets are available now at www.concarolinas.org/attend/, but get ‘em quick, before they’re all gone!

Although reading is usually a solitary activity, participating in fandom is not.  There seems to be some sort of paranormal, gravitational pull that brings fans of fantasy and science fiction together to celebrate their love of shared stories.  In a sense, ConCarolinas is a big communal celebration.  I always say that my blog is all about celebrating Charlotte’s community of readers and writers, so as I see it, Storied Charlotte and ConCarolinas are made for each other.  

Megan Miranda’s New Thriller

May 16, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

A regular reader of my Storied Charlotte blog recently asked me how I find out about the new books that I feature on my blog.  Well, in the case of Megan Miranda’s new thriller, The Only Survivors, I learned about the publication of the book from an announcement that I received from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library about their Around the World in 21 Branches Festival Tour:  https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/events/around-the-world/ 

This year-long festival kicked off with an event on May 6, 2023, at the North County Regional Library, and Megan served as the featured author.  During the event, she talked about The Only Survivors, which Simon & Schuster published on April 11, 2023.  It seems fitting to me that Megan spoke at this event held at the North County Regional Library since she lives near this branch of the public library.  For more information about Megan and her novels, please click on the following link:  https://meganmiranda.com

After seeing the announcement, I decided to find out more information about The Only Survivors.  I immediately became intrigued when I discovered that much of the novel takes place in and around a beach house located on the Outer Banks.  I have visited the Outer Banks many times over the years, so the setting appealed to me.  However, in Megan’s new novel, the Outer Banks is not a place to kick back and relax. It’s a place where the water surges ominously and danger lurks around every corner.

The novel focuses on a group of former high school classmates who survived a tragic event during their senior year.  These students were participating on a school trip when their two vans crashed into a ravine, killing all but nine of the students.  The survivors decide to have an annual reunion on the anniversary of the tragedy, and they always meet at the same beach house. 

On the tenth anniversary, the reunion takes a frightening turn.  The seven remaining survivors are isolated in the beach house because of terrible storm, which results in the roads being closed.  As the survivors huddle together in the beach house, it gradually becomes clear that there are secrets related to the original tragedy that cause the survivors to mistrust one another.  Things are made worse when one of the characters finds a washed-up cell phone on the beach.  Once the phone is dried out, it starts working.  The information retrieved from phone increases the tensions in the beach house.

As the novel progresses, the focus alternates between the events surrounding the original tragedy and the escalating tensions in the beach house.  These two plot lines converge in an unexpected way. The Only Survivors is a fast-paced thriller, full of intriguing plot twists. 

The setting plays an integral role in The Only Survivors.  This is a story about the dark side of the Outer Banks, a side most tourists never see.  Still, if you have ever spent time on the Outer Banks during a bad storm, Megan’s portrayal will resonate with you. I remember once arriving at our hotel in Nags Head at 2:00 in the morning in the middle of a drenching rain with high winds.  It seemed so ominous that I had an impulse to get back in the car and drive back to Charlotte.  The next day the sun came out and we had a great vacation, but I can still recall the sense of dread that I felt during that truly dark and stormy night.

For readers who enjoy thrillers, The Only Survivors is a great book to read while vacationing on the Outer Banks or anywhere else for that matter.  Megan is one of Storied Charlotte’s bestselling authors, and the success of The Only Survivors helps explain why she is such a popular author. 

Turning Pages with Andrew Hartley

May 08, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Last Friday I attended a retirement luncheon for my friend and colleague Andrew James Hartley.  Andrew has served as the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies at UNC Charlotte since 2005, but he is now retiring from his university position.  Although he still loves Shakespeare’s plays, Andrew’s current plan is to focus on his own creative-writing endeavors. 

A true renaissance man, Andrew achieved success as a bestselling novelist at the same time that he pursued his academic career as a Shakespearean scholar.  While he uses his full name when writing scholarly books, he usually writes as A.J. Hartley when he is publishing novels.  Given the fact that Andrew is about to become a full-time novelist, now is a fitting time to take a look back at the creative side of Andrew’s writing career.

Andrew published his first novel, The Mask of Atreus, in 2006, one year after he arrived in Charlotte.  The Mask of Atreus is an archaeological thriller that revolves around an ancient and highly sought-after artifact that goes missing from an Atlanta museum.  This novel received excellent reviews, and it launched Andrew’s career as a thriller writer.  He soon published several other thrillers, including On the Fifth Day (2007) and What Time Devours (2009).  At this early stage in his career, Andrew’s publisher billed him as a thriller writer, but Andrew soon broke this mold.

In 2009, Andrew published Act of Will, a young adult fantasy novel.  This novel proved to be the first of many YA and middle-grades fantasy novels, including Will Power (2010), Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact (2011), Darwen Arkwright and the Insidious Bleck (2012), Darwen Arkwright and the School of Shadows (2013), Steeplejack (2016), Firebrand (2017), Guardian (2018), Cold Bath Street (2018) and Impervious (2020).

Andrew has also written historical fiction for adults, including two novels based on Shakespeare plays.  He and David Hewson co-wrote Macbeth, a Novel (2010) and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a Novel (2014).  Andrew also collaborated with Tom DeLonge on two historical thrillers:  Sekret Machines: Chasing Shadows (2016) and Sekret Machines: A Fire Within (2020). 

For more information about Andrew and his many novels, please click on the following link:  https://ajhartley.net

Given Andrew’s propensity to jump genres and break molds, I am not sure what sort of books he will write in the future.  I do know, however, that he has a new mythological fantasy in the works titled Hideki Smith, Demon Queller.  I can’t wait to read it. 

I will miss running into Andrew on the UNC Charlotte campus, but I am glad that he intends to continue living in Charlotte. Andrew lived in many other places before he moved to Charlotte.  He grew up in England, taught English in Japan, earned his graduate degrees from Boston University, and launched his academic career at the University of West Georgia.   However, he started his career as a published novelist after he moved to Charlotte, and I think it is appropriate that he will pursue his career as a full-time novelist while living in Storied Charlotte. 

Visiting the Carolina Lowcountry with Susan Diamond Riley

May 01, 2023 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

As a long-time English professor at UNC Charlotte, I always feel a sense of pride and satisfaction when my former students go on to achieve success in their chosen careers.  Susan Diamond Riley is an example of such a student.  About ten years ago, Susan started our graduate program in children’s literature, and she took several courses from me.  Toward the end of her program, she wrote a creative thesis under my direction.  For her thesis, she wrote a mystery novel for middle-grade readers, and a few years later a revised version of her thesis came out from Young Palmetto Books/The University of South Carolina Press under the title of The Sea Island’s Secret:  A Delta & Jax Mystery (2019). Since then, she has published two more books in this series—The Sea Turtle’s Curse (Koehler Books, 2020) and The Sea Witch’s Revenge (Koehler Books, 2022).  All of these books are set in the Carolina Lowcountry around Hilton Head Island. For more information about Susan and her books, please click on the following link:  https://www.susandiamondriley.com/

I recently learned that The Sea Witch’s Revenge has won several awards.  Children’s Book International declared the book their top winner in the categories of “Best Historical Fiction” and “Best Mystery” for 2023.  Also, the BookFest Awards 2023 named the book a winner in the categories “Juvenile–Historical Fiction” and “Juvenile–People & Places.” When I heard this exciting news, I contacted Susan and asked her for an update on her writing career.  She responded right away and informed me that she has just finished the fourth book in her series.  Here is what she sent to me:

Titled The Sea Devil’s Demise, the latest installment in my award-winning middle-grade historical mystery series will find sibling sleuths Delta and Jax encountering a strange girl at a Savannah pirate festival. When the girl follows them back to Hilton Head Island, they suspect that time is playing tricks on them again. Who is this mysterious person, who is she fated to become, and how can they return her to her own era in history before she gets stuck in the 21st century forever? As in my previous Delta & Jax mysteries, this tale will include real history, a bit of magic, and a message about the Sea Island environment. This time the kids will learn about the dangers plastics pose to sea life, and what they (and readers) can do to help save our oceans.

While marketing my already-published books is an ongoing task, I also write a twice-monthly blog about Lowcountry history, nature, and culture called “Greetings from the Lowcountry!” I find this regular communication keeps me connected to my readers while they’re awaiting my next novel. As if that doesn’t keep me busy enough, I do continue editing professionally for others. In fact, some of my returning clients are contacts I formed while completing my master’s degree and working in the Writing Resources Center at UNC Charlotte. I regularly edit articles and books for UNCC instructors, and also am occasionally contacted by former clients from the WRC. Now graduates themselves, these folks have entered the workforce and seek my help to polish work-related speeches and presentations, as well as applications for grants and graduate programs.

One of my favorite aspects of being an author/editor is the opportunity to speak to schools and organizations about my books and the writing process. For example, a couple of months ago I was asked to lead an editing workshop for high school students who were competing for a prestigious writing prize. Also, last fall I was delighted to be invited to speak to a group of English master’s degree candidates at UNC Charlotte regarding the various career options available to them after graduation–many of which I have personally sampled! Several attendees of that event contacted me with additional questions afterwards, and I love the idea that I am now able to mentor these aspiring writers just as my UNC Charlotte professors (like you!) did for me during my time in Charlotte. Paying it forward is an honor!

I congratulate Susan on her recent awards and her continued success as a children’s author.  Although Susan no longer lives in Charlotte, she is a graduate of our M.A. program, and as such, she is still very much a member of the community of readers and writers that make up Storied Charlotte.   

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