Join me this summer for “Sustaining Your Writing Life,” a five-week workshop I’ll be teaching for the Great Smokies Writing Program on Monday evenings 6-8:30 starting June 3rd (location TBA).

Do you long to write, but just can’t seem to work it into your life? Do your writing resolutions last about as long as your New Year’s resolutions to go to the gym?  This class for beginning or experienced writers is an offshoot of the “Creating Your Writing Life” seminar offered by Asheville’s Flatiron Writers in April 2013, but students do not have to have taken the Flatiron Writers’ workshop to enroll.  We’ll focus on practical ways to make writing an integral part of your life: establishing routines and rituals, enhancing space and environment, honing your writing process and building a writing community.   For inspiration, we’ll read selections from High Tide in Tucson: Essays in Now or Never by Barbara Kingsolver, whose beautiful prose–about her life as a writer–will leave you aching to construct your own writing life.

Register at: http://agc.unca.edu/great-smokies-writing-program

 

Twitting. Tweetering. Tweeting–Whatever You Call It!

by Heather Newton on March 20, 2013

I don’t do Twitter, because I already have too many time-sucks in my life, but here are my responses to Twitter interview questions posed for an Indie book event:

1. Favorite book as a child? 

Chronicles of Narnia

2. What are you reading right now? 

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

3. Why independent bookstores matter?

They read! There is no higher honor than being an Indie Bookstore “staff pick.”

4. Favorite part of writing a book? 

The ending–I write it first.

5. Least favorite part of writing a book

The middle.

6. Are you working on anything new? 

Yes-revising a new novel. Hope to be done by end of April.

7. Do you have any superstitions, lucky charms, or rituals around your writing? 

Crunch-n-Munch.

8. Comment on the writing life…

The writing life: worth every contortion and sacrifice I’ve had to make to claim it! :)

9. Why do you write? 

Can’t help it.

10. When do you write?

Fridays + whatever other time I can steal.

11. When did you know you were a writer? 

High school.

12. What is your favorite food?

Greens. Chard, kale, spinach–you name it.

13.  Other items on the bucket list?

Take a poetry class; make a documentary film; spend a summer in Wales.

On Being an Inconsistent Writer

October 17, 2012

On October 30th, my wonderful long-time writers’ group, the Flatiron Writers, will come to my house to critique the new novel I handed out to them to read a month ago.  I’ll provide food and drink and then sit like the proverbial fly on the wall while they discuss my novel the way a book [...]

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Mama’s Fat Pants: The Gift of Written Expression

October 9, 2012

I grew up with a mother (Suzanne Newton) who was a writer.  Because of this, in the Newton family, expressing ourselves in writing came as naturally as speaking.  Sometimes my written expression was positive: I opened a poetry business in my bedroom offering to write poems for any occasion (my mother was my only customer).  [...]

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Luddite Author Enters 21st Century: Creating an eBook

September 11, 2012

I am the second most technologically-impaired person I know.  (First prize goes to my mother).  I am so inept that after ten years of living in my house I still haven’t memorized which switches turn on which lights, and my husband had to prepare a notebook for me with instructions for operating the stereo and [...]

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April 18, 2012

  27 Views of Asheville is now available in stores–the perfect Mother’s Day gift for the Asheville-loving mothers in your life!  Join us for the book launch at Malaprop’s in Asheville May 12th at 3 p.m., or at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville June 16th at 3 p.m. http://malaprops.com/event/27-views-asheville

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Vote AGAINST Amendment One

March 16, 2012

Writers are not supposed to be political, for fear of alienating readers who might buy our books, but as May 8th approaches I feel the need to say a few words about why I am voting AGAINST North Carolina’s Amendment One and why I think you should vote against it, too. Amendment One, crafted by our [...]

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Under The Mercy Trees Wins 2011 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award

December 19, 2011

On December 6, 2011 I was honored to accept the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award for Under The Mercy Trees.  The Western North Carolina Historical Society has given the award for literary excellence every year since 1955.  The list of past winners inscribed on the award’s trophy includes such North Carolina greats as Wilma Dykeman, John [...]

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Under The Mercy Trees is a “Great Group Reads” Pick

September 21, 2011

The Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) has chosen Under The Mercy Trees as a 2011 Great Group Reads selection.  Founded in 1917, WNBA promotes literacy, a love of reading, and women’s roles in the community of the book.  WNBA selects Great Group Reads titles based on their appeal to reading groups for whom they are bound to [...]

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Celebrate Summer Giveaway

May 23, 2011

To celebrate summer beach reading season, I’m giving away a beach tote containing a beach towel, sun screen, and autographed copies of Under The Mercy Trees and When We Were Strangers, a terrific historical novel by my fellow HarperCollins author Pamela Schoenewaldt.  Here’s how to enter: Contact me through my website by June 20, 2011 [...]

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