NaNoWriMo...except for non-fiction

Have any of you done National Novel Writing Month?  Each November, a intrepid group of writers sign in to write a novel in November.  They cheer each other on and do word counts and generally keep everyone focused on the work at hand.

I was thinking this morning that it would be fun to do something like that with non-fiction.  The new book is about 1/3 of the way to a strong first draft but I've been travelling so much this year that I haven't given it the attention due.

I posted a query on Facebook and then Googled it and found there is such a beast.  Here's the link--

http://writenonfictionnow.com/about-write-nonfiction-in-november/

I signed up and will spend the rest of this evening--where I've been mostly updating my blogs--looking over all my notes about the new book.  I really would love to have that first draft done by the end of December.

"Gnarly Roots" but first...a second book on you-know-what

I spent three wonderful weeks in Scotland and England this summer and part of that time I was doing field research of those future Appalachians--the Border Reivers.  There's a lot of research still to do before we get to the place where "Gnarly Roots" is ready to be written.

One reason is I love to research and will keep on doing that for a while. I still have some field work among the Hexen and Pow-Wow folks up in Pennsylvania and with the folks out on Qualla Boundary. And I'm hoping to find a little grant money somewhere that will give me another month or two in the Debatable Lands in Britain.

But you know what really needs to be written next? A Hillfolks Hoodoo book for the experienced practitioner. My friend Diotima has given it its working title--Egg Binding: a Sourcebook for the Advanced Hoodoo Practitioner. Or something like that.

I set up the file and have started writing.

Whew.

Appalachian Studies Association National Conference

This afternoon I got back from the ASA conference in Boone. I presented a paper there that is one of the starting points for my new book. The paper is "Gnarly Roots: Exploring the British Sources of Appalachian Folk Magic."

Here's the abstract--

 As Appalachian mountain culture is transformed through modern technology and generations of rural isolation are broken by in-migration, some of the older folk traditions are fading into obscurity. My area of research is folk magic and superstition and “Gnarly Roots” marks the next step in this research. In this paper, I will link certain practices and beliefs to similar ones in the British Isles and attempt to find the migrational links that brought these practices into the southern Appalachians. I began my formal exploration of this material with the presentation of the paper “Hillbilly Hoodoo and the Question of Cultural Strip-mining” as part of the Forging Folklore colloquium, hosted by Harvard’s Department of Folklore and Mythology, in 2007. My continuing study led to the publication of a primer on these traditions called “Staubs and Ditchwater” in June 2012. My next step is to look at the sources of these traditions—Cherokee, Scots-Irish, German and English, beginning with English and Scots-Irish. With the help of colleagues in Britain, I will be acting as a “spellcatcher”—as earlier musicologist were “song catchers” in the southern highlands tracing the haunting mountain music to its British roots. “Gnarly Roots: Exploring the British Sources of Appalachian Folk Magic” is the first step in this cultural exploration and will continue with a research trip to Great Britain and Ireland in the summer of 2013.

And here are the opening paragraphs--

My roots in these old mountains are deep and gnarled. My story is a familiar one of poor soil and a narrow escape and a return home. And even as these roots grow older, I am looking backward over my shoulder. Looking eastward.

Some of my people practice old ways of healing and justice that academics may refer to as Appalachian folk magic. It is called “granny magic” and “cove doctoring”, too, but most of the people who practiced it—and practice it still—don’t have a particular name for it. They are country folks who know what herb to use for what and how to whisper warts away and blow the fire out of a nasty burn.

 I grew up in a cove in west Buncombe county at a time when a silver dime on a string was worn by teething babies and a tired woman could prevent a pregnancy with the strategic use of Queen Anne’s Lace seeds. Those old ways stuck with me through college and graduate school and have come full circle in a book I published last year—a primer called “Staubs and Ditchwater.”  In this modern age, an author can’t simply write a book and find a kind publisher to print it up.  She must give talks and do book-signings and those have been a delight and an education as I learn what other people have done in their own coves and hollers.

A Place to Dream and Scheme

Since this is the portal for the first book and that whole process, I'm thinking I'll shift a bit here and let this also be the place where I chronicle the path to the second book.

I'll tell you all about the plans for presenting papers and getting myself to these interesting, inspiring and exhausting conferences.

I'll share bits and pieces of the writing that will form the foundation of "Gnarly Roots" and generally blather on and on about traveling--which is the big thing I'm doing this year.

I'll make sure the links work--thanks, Fern!--and try to amuse you as the mood strikes.

Off we go!

Return of the Prodigal

Y'all, I have been so busy with this little book that I have not been blogging about it, but doing it.  Since it was published last June, we have sold nearly 500 copies of the darned thing and I made an appointment for another book event just this morning!

I had no idea how much interest there would be in this old information and am very, very grateful.

If you are on Facebook and would like to keep up with "Staubs" there, I made a page for it.  Here's the link-

https://www.facebook.com/staubsandditchwater

The big news I want to share with you are a couple of conferences and a research trip planned for the summer.  I will be presenting a paper at the Appalachian Studies Association conference in Boone at ASU on March 22-24.  The title is "Gnarly Roots: Exploring the British Sources of Appalachian Folk Magic."  I'm still working on it, of course, but hope to have a good rough draft by Wednesday.

I'm presenting at a conference in April called Sacred Landscapes. That one is in Columbia, SC and I'm presenting "Rock-candy Cairns: How the Irish and Scots-Irish Diasporas Produced Pagans in Old Appalachia."  Here's the link for that conference--

http://www.cherryhillseminary.org/students/degree-programs/intensives-and-conferences/ronald-hutton-featured-in-spring-chs-usc-symposium-more-info-tba/

Ronald Hutton is the keynote speaker and he was also at the Harvard conference that started this all so long ago.

And finally--I'm heading over to Britain in July to do some field research on the border reivers and to talk to folks who practice what I do, but over there.  It will be the basis of the sequel to "Staubs" which will be "Strange and Gnarly Roots: an Appalachian Spellcatcher in Britain" (or something like that).

I'll be tring to keep you posted here about the process and will give you some chances to participate in gathering information, if you're interested.

Thanks for checking back in with me!

Waiting...waiting...and scheming

apple blossom on the Cortland tree

Yes, a new batch of books have been ordered and yes, I continue to take orders and make a nice fat list of who gets a book from the second batch. I haven't heard the ETA of the shipment but suspect it will be about a week.

So I am catching up with the other work of being a subsistence farmer in Appalachia--harvesting herbs, veg, berries and processing all that for the winter.

Also, eating it.

The beautiful kale keeps producing prolifically and I am happy for it.  And the big patch of blackberries in the yard has to be picked pretty much every day.  Tomorrow I start processing apples--they will be cleaned, peeled, chopped and frozen for hard cider a little later in the season.

Mmmm cider.

And I am booking some book talks here and there.  I'm waiting to hear from Malaprop's and Blue Ridge but have a gig at City Lights in Sylva at the end of August.  Lots of sweet reviews are flowing in and there may be one in Rapid River, in the August magazine.

I'm already scheming about how to spend some time in the high country, talking to old folks and to practitioners of the kind of work I do.  Drinking some strong coffee and setting on the porch.  I hope I can make that happen sooner rather than later.

If you are waiting on a book--thank you for your patience.  And if you'd like to order a book, well, let me know.

and I peeked around the corner--there were more people

Hi, all. I'm trying to get my life back to what passes for normal and catching up with blogging is one of my happy chores.  I wanted to tell you all about the launch party on Friday night--it was worth all the nail-biting of publication to be in that happy crowd, reading from this little book.

I arrived with husband, daughter and friend around 5 to set the bookstore up for the party. We set out food on the table that Lewis had set in the back and put the iced tea in the fridge to chill a bit longer. People started arriving soon after and all the chairs were filled when Patrick introduced my near 6:30.  I talked for a bit about the making of the book, read a couple of passage and then answered questions.  When everyone was tired of hearing me talk, I went to a different table and started signing books.

I had no idea how many people were around the corners of the shop--people I couldn't see from my perch in the front of the chairs.

That was especially nice.  In a way, it must be sad for famous authors who only scrawl their name in the front of the book.  I knew many of the people who stood in front of the table and it was my delight to say something very specific to them about how we knew each other. It was like signing yearbooks in high school--except: no high school.

We sold out of the first printing of this first edition but more are on the way from the publisher. And now I can think about more ways to get the word out about this little book.

I've had some nice reviews from friends and colleagues--

"Nearly finished reading Staubs and Ditchwater by Miz Byron Ballard. I love it SO much. Practical, powerful home-grown wisdom."  Rose


 "Love the book! I can hardly put mine down. I certainly hope you'll be writing another. 


Funny, thoughtful, and informative. Not to be missed. A must have! Thank you so much!" 


Mari