NC's Literary Lineage Lunch

Part of this year's Ashe County's Literary Festival was a lunch and presentation with Georgann Eubanks.  She has written three books that are guide books to different areas of NC and historic sites where authors have lived and worked.  There are more than 170 writers featured in Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains.

"Every book is a journey, carrying us into worlds unknown and familiar. Through them we learn about ourselves and others--the culture of whole communities, the poetry of place, and the daily chores, observances, and surprises of life among characters imagined and real.

Now suppose you combined the journey of a book--many books even--with an actual trip, say, a statewide tour of the places, people, and events described by those curious creators of books: in this case North Carolina's poets, playwrights, novelists, biographers, and essayists. Throughout history, our state's native and visiting writers have been a talented lot. Connecting their work and lives to actual places in North Carolina worth visiting is the idea behind this series...." Georgann Eubanks

After a delightful lunch that consisted of green and pasta salads, ham and cheese sandwiches, veggie wraps and chips, we were treated to a slide show of many of the authors that have lived, or stayed briefly, in North Carolina from the 1700's onward.  The list is long and includes F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Margaret Mitchell, Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry.  Along with the slides, we were treated with stories of the authors exploits and readings from some of their works.

Everyone had a fun time and I am looking forward to reading her books and talking hubby into taking some of those day trips.

On the Same Plate

Part of the Ashe County's Literary Festival was a luncheon with five North Carolina authors and one journalist.  This was the culminating event of a week full of activities such as book readings, informal discussions over lunch, writing workshops and a movie.  I went to the open discussion of the Big Fish book and the author Daniel Wallace was at the luncheon.

The folks around here are so thoughtful.  When I presented my ticket I was asked if I had a place to sit and I told Jane (the ticket taker) that no, I really didn't know anyone.  She took me right over to her table and found me a seat.  I sat next with three people that live in my neighborhood that I had never met before, one of the few woman pastors in the area, Jane, and a writer from Greensboro.

After a delicious lunch of chicken salad sandwiches there was a panel discussion amongst the authors.  They talked about the role of place in their writing.  All of the authors were humorous and their love of North Carolina was evident.  I bought two mystery books by John Hart, whose books all made the NY Times Best Seller lists.  Daniel Wallace talked about his family life growing up and how he modeled the dad in his book to the dad he had.

I had a wonderful two hours surrounded by people who have the same love of reading as I do.  I am already looking forward to next year!

From left: Jane (standing), Daniel Wallace, Fred Chappell, Robert Morgan, DG Martin, John Hart, Georgann Eubanks

Don't Cry for Me Margaret Mitchell

I was in the middle of reading a biography of David Selznick when an ad for a community play "Don't Cry for me Margaret Mitchell" caught my eye.  The play was part of the Ashe County Literary Festival.  


Selznick was a movie producer during the 1930's and his biggest hit was Gone With the Wind.  Selznick had a type A personality and had to be involved in every facet of the film he was producing.  He often  rewrote the screen plays himself, some several times.  Or he would have three or four different writers working on the same screen play without them knowing about the others and he would still rewrite them himself.  Ten different writers contributed to Gone With the Wind, including F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The play takes place in  1939, and Selznick had already begun filming Gone with the Wind, but he needed a new script (again). There was only one writer up to the task, the legendary Ben Hecht. The only problem, Hecht had never read the book, and they had only a week to write a new script. So Selznick locks himself, Hecht and director Victor Flemming in his office with the mission to write a screenplay for Gone With the Wind in one week, the book that took Margaret Mitchell ten years to write. They survive on bananas and peanuts.  

The dialogue was fast and snappy and even hubby enjoyed it.  The actors were hilarious and they captured the egomaniac Selznick perfectly.