By Don Vaughan, donaldvaughan.com Last year, I lost one of my best friends. We’d known each other for eighteen years, and had grown extremely close. We visited almost weekly, and shared innumerable stories on topics both intimate and far-reaching. I miss my friend a lot. This special friend wasn’t a person, but the McKay’s Used Books & More in Raleigh, which suddenly and inexplicably closed its doors in April 2017. When Nan and I moved to Raleigh from South Florida in 1999, [...]
By Jeff Davidson, breathingspace.com An insidious trend is impacting authors, writers, poets and all creative individuals everywhere. As a result of the Amazon.com review process, virtually anyone can post anything about any intellectual property at any time. Such postings can be made independently of whether or not one has actually, say, bought and read the book, or has anything coherent to say about it. In Amazon’s quest to provide a “forum” for users, all reviews, those [...]
By Kristy Stevenson, kristystevenson.com I don’t make resolutions anymore, but with the New Year upon us I thought it was as good a time as any to START something. Something new, something neglected, something fun, something challenging … you get the idea. In 2017, I was grateful that my work went in a lot of different directions. This of course meant that some projects got sidelined in order to meet new deadlines. But I learned to juggle and diversify. Regular and repeat business is [...]
By Don Vaughan, Conference Director It’s hard to believe that the first Write Now! conference took place way back in 2008. Since then, TAF’s annual spring writing symposium has become a truly special event that local and regional writers look forward to each year. Write Now! 2018 will take place on Saturday, April 28 at The McKimmon Center on Gorman Street in Raleigh, and we promise a conference you’ll long remember. Our fiction guest of honor will be award-winning short-story writer [...]