Goldsboro Reading and Workshop--April 1, 2015

GOLDSBORO READING AND WORKSHOP–APRIL 1, 2015

Wayne County Library, sponsored by the Friends of the Wayne County Library

Going to Goldsboro for a reading has become a ritual as well as a highlight of my reading schedule when I have a new book out.  Killer Frost (2012), Farm Fresh and Fatal and Beaver Soul (2013) were all celebrated in Goldsboro, thanks to the efforts of Katherine Wood Wolfe, who’d been my writing student in the late 90s.  This past April 1 (it was poetry month), Katherine had arranged for me to do both a reading of my new poetry book, This River: An Epic Love Poem, and a workshop on how writers can get published these days from 6-9 P.M.

Left to right, Gail Carucci, Judy, Katherine Wolfe

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Two students from my winter “Tell Your Life Story” class helped out, too.  Gail Carucci of Sanford drove me there and helped set up for the reading and sell books during the evening.  Mary Susan Heath, who lives in Goldsboro, kept Gail overnight, took photos, and also gave Gail, Katherine and me a bacon and egg send-off breakfast the next morning.  For the evening program Katherine laid out a feast of refreshments with flowers to decorate the tables, and sent me home with my first begonia plant.  To the reading came some Goldsboro folks I’d met before, some new faces, and then Margaret Baddour, with whom I’d worked back in the mid-80s to start our N.C. Writers’ Network, came and brought her writing class.  We had sixteen folks there.  

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It was a whirlwind 24 hours.  On arrival, Gail and I had lunch with Mary Susan and Katherine, and an early supper, too, and we left the next morning by 8 A.M. to return to Moncure and Sanford.  The best part for me was being so valued and appreciated.  It comes harder each year to coax readers to book readings and then selling the books person-to-person.  When they not only come and buy books but also cherish you like I was cherished in Goldsboro, it makes all the difference, and the $81in book sales helps, too.  I have to get another book out for next year so I can return to Goldsboro!

Judy and Mary Susan Heath at the book-selling table.