A Working Month: Interview, Projects and Plans

Uuually January is a quiet month for me as far as storytelling but this year is proving to be the exception. I'm not on the road telling stories but there is a lot happening anyway. Even though the weather is fairly frightful--snow, rain, mud, cold, and repeat--and I continue to take care of Larry and do his chores as his knee mends, there is plenty to keep me busy on the storytelling front.

First, this excellent article on WV Explorer with David Sibray. He asked me about my 5 favorite ghost stories, and our conversation became an article. Click here to read it in full.

Photo from wvexplorer.com

Next, Celtic Storytellers is up and running! We have a blog and several performances scheduled for this spring. We've limited ourselves a bit as my partner in this project is moving in March so she has some big priorities right now. But here's the schedule so far:

March 2: St. Albans Public Library, 12:00 noon.
March 12: Moundsville Public Library, 6:00pm
April 10: Serenity Coffee House, Vienna, WV, 6:00pm

We are adding Celtic Ghost Stories and Celtic Christmas to our offerings, so stay tuned for details about that.

And then there's the Mountain Magic series, a collaboration between Step by Step and Kanawha County Public Library, funded by the WV Humanities Council. I will be performing at one of the Kanawha County libraries this spring as part of Mountain Magic. The schedule has not yet been announced, so again, stay tuned!

  I'm also working on plans for my weeklong workshop from June 23-29 at Allegheny Echoes. Echoes, as it is known, is a study and celebration of West Virginia and Appalachian heritage and culture. Echoes is held in Marlinton, WV, in the heart of some of West Virginia's most beautiful mountains. For information on registering, visit the Echoes website.

A nature walk will be part of this year's activities. We'll be looking for edible wild plants, discussing folk remedies and old wives' tales along the walk, concluding with writing time.

For my workshop, poetry and storytelling will be joining hands in a weeklong exploration of both disciplines. Field trips, writing, and a workshop with Athens County Ohio Poet Laureate, founder of WomenSpeak and the Women of Appalachia Project Kari Gunter-Seymour are just part of the week's planned activities..  Kari will also be at the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace to present a workshop the following day, June 27.

Creative Writing teacher and poet Kirk Judd shares a poem
at the Master's Concert at Allegheny Echoes. Photo from
Mountain Music Trail.

One of the most exciting parts of the week is the student concert, where students get the opportunity to share their work at a concert at the Marinton Opera House. There's always a big crowd for this event, and it's a wonderful opportunity for students to present their week's best effort in public.The following evening the week's teachers--of old-time and bluegrass music and the writing master--are on stage for a rollicking fine concert. Evenings offer a square dance, a wild meat cookoff, and music jams all over the Echoes grounds. What a week it will be!

I am looking forward to all these exciting events!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Home

Back from a week in the mountains of Pocahontas county, WV. Talk about restorative!

Scene from the back yard of the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace farm

I was at Alegheny Echoes for a weeklong creative writing camp. We took field trips, did writing exercises, talked, wrote some more, did some improv, and so much more in the class.

On the Scenic Highway that runs along an Allegheny ridge

Then there was the music--in addition to the writing class, Allegheny Echoes offers classes on banjo, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, dulcimer, bass, and more in both old-time and bluegrass styles. So there was music everywhere, all day every day and far into the night.

field trip to Beartown

We stayed at a friend's camp with 6-7 other people, a rustic old house that was once a section supervisor's house for the railroad. The tracks are long gone and the trackbed has become the Greenbrier River Trail. It's a beautiful spot, very restful and usually quiet.

at Beartown Rocks State Park

More Beartown

Staying with a group like this was such fun. We divvied up cooking and cleanup responsibilities so no one had to cook very often and there was a huge variety of food. Sometimes one of us would cook breakfast, sometimes not. Evenings on the deck watching the moon rise and mornings on the porch watching the fog lift were great times for conversation.

I came home with some solid pieces to develop, which was what I had hoped for.I also heard many amazing pieces by my classmates.

We got home in time to unload the van, clean up and head out to a friend's birthday party on a beautiful ridge in our county. It was lovely to be there, and took me back to my early days in this county and visits to a friend's cabin on that very ridge--in fact, it was the next farm up. I had all but forgotten about it until we drove up there and then the memories came back. How young I was then!

Today will be packing again, this time for the big annual flea market. I hope we have time to go into town for the showing of a film made by a friend about the last public hanging in West Virginia, which happened in our county seat. Sounds morbid but it's quite a story, and I am interested to see this film.

This evening I'll be back to work on stories for the annual Mountain State Arts and Crafts Fair. It runs concurrently with the flea market so I'll be doing a bit of running back and forth. The MSACF is always a highlight of the year as the very best artists and crafters in the state are there to sell their wares. There are workshops too, and music, storytelling, and food of all kinds.

So for now I'd better get to work! Lots to do, and the day is warming up fast.



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Allegheny Echoes: At Camp

The old camp I stayed at during Allegheny Echoes  is in a lonesome place, at least most of the time. The Greenbrier River Trail passes in front so the occasional bike, runner or walker passes by, but otherwise it is quiet, with just the bees, birds and other wildlife for company. There's no TV, no cell service and although there is a radio and stereo it is seldom used because the real music, the real news is right outside:

deer making their morning pass-through,

birds about their business, berries ripening and flowers blooming.

After all, when our man-made madness is gone, these are the ones who will take over and rebuild to suit themselves.

Consider the abandoned buildings you have seen, and how the vines grow over, around and even inside. Birds nest, raccoons and other varmints make their homes inside, bees build hives in the walls and before too many years nature has reclaimed the space that was hers in the first place.

This old camp will likely go that way one day. It has seen better days to be sure, and the critters try to take over whenever the camp is not occupied for a while.

But for now it's a space of beauty and rest, a place to recharge worn batteries and to recall what is best and good in life.

a flood measuring board; the river is just a few hundred yards away. This was used for the railroad that used to run
along what is now the Greenbrier River Trail.

This strip of paper was on the porch floor. Think it was a message for me?

 

Run it slow today, my friends. It's too hot to do otherwise!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

In The Cranberry Glades

Last month at Allegheny Echoes, our creative writing class took a field trip to the Cranberry Glades, a unique ecological area atop one of the states highest mountains. The Glades support plant life not found anywhere else at this latitude, and their unusual beauty make them a perfect place for quiet reflection on our beginnings, and on our endings.

The ferns in the glades reminded me of pictures of the dinosaur era, when the giant ferns covered much of the land. Ferns here grow to immense size in the boggy, soggy ground. An orchid found shelter beneath these.

Can you imagine the first man to see this place? Or the first settlers in these high mountains, trying to traverse such tricky terrain?

We were expected to not only wander, observe and reflect, but also to write. I took many photos, and then found a quiet spot to stop and jot down the story poem that came to mind:

What is this place of tropic ferns, unknown flowers and pines

shaped and acquiescent to the wind,

this place where no man has left his trace, or made his mark? 

My feet sink, my legs up to my knees in muck and moss--

no easy travel here; careful steps on uneasy ground while above

the birds sing unconcerned, unfamiliar melodies that rise from hidden perches.

 Beneath my feet tiny white blossoms, above clouds bloom and shift in a moody sky.

Here, in this thicket of tangled laurel, yew and fern, 

a deer bedded last night. Her shape lingers

in broken skunk cabbage, and I sense that she is close by, 

watching, waiting

for this cursed bog to suck me under.

Through, under and around, a tiny creek 

that surely springs from the roots and death 

of these twisted yew pines gurgles over its blackened bed; 

the scent of death and life is everywhere assaulting, 

beckoning with pungent sweetness

beneath sun-gilded leaves,

beneath verdant ferns,

beneath my sodden feet.

I am the stranger here, the one thing that does not belong.

Long have I traveled to feel and smell and be of this mountain,

and in my own time

the smell of my death will mingle with the rotting leaves,

the decayed trees until at last

I am no more than the soil and the root

from which new life will spring.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Rose Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon, Birthday Moon

Native Americans had names for each full moon, instead of names for each month. Sometimes the moon of a particular time had more than one name, like June. I added one: Birthday Moon, because the full moon came on my birthday this year, the Summer Solstice.

Whatever you call her, she was beautiful as she rose over the high Alleghenies. We drove up to the Scenic Highway, hoping for a glimpse even though the forecast was for rain showers. We got lucky.

We walked back a trail to an overlook with a breathtaking view. As we waited and talked, we noticed clouds rolling in. But then, there she was, pink with the rays of the setting sun:

A little hide-and seek, but finally, 

 then back to being shy,

and ahhhh...

It was getting too dark for me to take photos. I am not very good at night photography, but I did like this one,

but this, I think, was my favorite all evening. The transition of the moon from pink to gold to silver was heart-stopping. I could have stayed all night.

We stayed a long time though, just talking, sharing moon legends and a song or two. 

Kirk, our instructor, recites a poem

Checking out the softness of a spruce tree's new growth.

It was a night to remember, the night of beauty before the rains came.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

It's Summertime, and the Livin' is Good

How can I tell it's summer?

1. Library Summer Reading programs--I did my first one on Friday and it was such fun! All about vegetables, believe it or not. Vegetable riddles, vegetable songs, vegetable stories! The Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library was a great place to be on a hot, hot afternoon. A small audience, but big fun.

2. The West Virginia Writers Conference--I did not present or submit the year. I've been lazy about creative writing for the past few years and am only recently getting back into my writing groove. But the conference is THE place to reconnect with writing friends, and it was all I could have asked and more.

photo by Susan Korstanje of WV Writers

3. Late nights--I arrived late Friday evening after my performance in Clarksburg and a 2 1/2-hour drive, and found the conference in full swing. Well, maybe not workshops and such, but the meet-and-greet was going strong. We stayed late, just catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Saturday morning I was up and out for a workshop with the stellar poet and musician Doug Van Gundy. His session was on finding poetic inspiration in music, and it was not anything like you might expect. Listening to pieces, then describing the person who might have loved the music, or a setting the music took us to...very good stuff. The evening offered a concert by Doug and his music partner Paul Gartner, known together as Born Old. Their music is old-time and just plain excellent. Here's a quick clip of Doug from an afternoon break on the porch at the conference:

We stayed until the wee hours of Sunday morning and honestly I hated to leave even then.

4. River watching--the Ohio continues to fascinate me, even though I'm pretty much afraid of water of any depth. We had a leisurely morning, getting up late and having a very late breakfast, then went to Marietta to tidy up our booth and (most important) pick up our monthly check. The booth certainly needed the attention! Sales have been excellent and the booth was a right mess. I didn't need to bring anything new in, just rearrange and straighten up what was already there. When we were done we picked up some lunch and took it down by the river to eat, and stayed a good while just watching the boats, the water and the people. It was so relaxing. Then we took the slow way home, following the river as far as possible south before turning east to home.

5. Gardens! Veggies are coming in beautifully now--lots of broccoli, cabbage, onions and new potatoes. Larry pulled the peas and planted pickling cucumbers and another row of carrots and beets, and replanted lettuce because the last planting did not germinate. Lettuce seeds seem to be very difficult to get to sprout in the last few years and I wonder why? What has changed? We're certainly not doing anything different.

6. Firepit evenings--now that we're finally caught up on spring yard chores and some of the house things, like painting the deck and porch, we can stop work a little earlier and enjoy the evenings. The cicada go to bed early, thank goodness, and the air becomes blessedly cool and soft. Such easy pleasure.

This week summer programs happen in earnest with 3 library programs scheduled this week in various parts of the state, followed by he West Virginia Folk Festival on the weekend. And then, I take a week off for Allegheny Echoes creative writing workshop in the beautiful mountains of Pocahontas county, WV.

Such bliss it will be, to only write, listen to some of the best music in the country in the evenings, and enjoy the beauty of the mountains, the Greenbrier River, and the fellowship of many friends.

So, this is how I know it's summer, even if the calendar doesn't agree. What says summer for you?


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.