Read Freely Fest at Richland Library

 

I hope to see you this weekend!

SC’S BIGGEST LOCAL AUTHOR EVENT

IT’S FREE

 

Read Freely Fest

Sat., March 28 (9am – 6pm) & Sun., March 29 (10am – 4pm)

Richland Main Library

1431 Assembly St, Columbia, SC

 

I'LL BE THERE

You’ll find me in “Indie Author Alley” with 30 other authors on the first level of the Library. Author presentations will continue seamlessly throughout the posted hours on both days. Numerous options each hour with shows on the Outdoor Main Stage, in the Auditorium, and in the Theater. This includes talks by writers of romantic reads, mysteries, graphic novels, and nonfiction. It’s a chance to meet and share ideas with other readers and writers. Check out the schedule.

https://www.readfreelyfest.com/schedule

 

BUY A BOOK

Also, check out the Library’s book sale with its selection of used books for readers of all ages, all priced at $1 each.

 

Don’t miss with this opportunity! Catch up on SC authors and genres, pick up a new signed book or buy a $1 used one, and most important, support your local talented writers.

 

I hope to see you there!

 

Poem published in Last Stanza

Check out my poem in Last Stanza

 

POEMS ABOUT "THE NEIGHBORHOOD"

My poem “Downtown Neighborhood” has been published by Last Stanza Poetry Journal. Though I don’t live in an urban area, my sons have. Visits with them have convinced me that there are essential differences in your approach to life depending on where you grow up. If it was Brooklyn, your tastes and mores vary from those of a person from rural South Carolina and vice versa. That’s not to say one is better or worse than the other, just different.

Issue #23 of the Last Stanza focuses on “The Neighborhood.” It’s available in 1) black and white softcover, 2) eBook, and 3) color illustrated hardcover. Paperback is $12.95, about the cost of a hamburger and fries.

The hamburger will only make you fat whereas reading a magazine (esp. poetry) will sharpen your brain cells. Do yourself a favor. Buy and read the latest Last Stanza, or any book or magazine for that matter.

I hope you’ll take a look.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GGQXBHW3/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.PJXp2H4uP_TtTmta1saBBQ.XE452Me9xM_2tiIBKcF8GUvB3BHfz0nIeTOYDAnRJTU&qid=1768406125&sr=1-3

 

 

Rice Festival

 

APRIL 25 & 26

 

I’ll be under my tent and signing book sales at the Rice Festival in Walterboro, SC, on Friday and Saturday April 25 & 26. It’s the perfect time of year for outside activities amid throngs of people. 

A car show will be on display

 

Even if you don’t care to see musicians on stage, dog acrobatics, a duck show, or cornhole tournament, you can enjoy people watching.

Doug & I will be there early to put up the tent

 

Put the date on your calendar and find me at the Rice Festival. It has something for everyone.

Festival Contacts: PH. 843-549-1079

STREET ADDRESS

494 Hampton Street

Walterboro, SC 29488

https://sites.google.com/view/colletoncountyricefestival/home

Quartet Journal

 

 

CAR ACCIDENT AS INSPIRATION

The May edition of Quartet Journal will publish my poem “Failing To Yield,” which is about an auto accident that occurred at Fairview Crossroads some years ago. The Crossroads has been the scene of a number of accidents, in part because it is the intersection of four roads: Hwy. 178, Neely Wingard Rd., Calks Ferry Rd., and Wagener Hwy. 

 

I didn’t view the accident, but I was there when the EMS arrived. There were a number of us standing on the sidelines in silence. The hush was broken by the wailing prayer of the grandmother who had been uninjured in the accident.

 

A car accident has been used as a point of departure for a number of writers, I’m thinking of novels. Here are several examples of writers who took an auto accident and went into diverse plots:

 

* If I Stay by Gayle Forman – an accident leads to a common trope of memory loss which gives rise to mystery and discovery.

* Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor – five people are killed in a car accident which develops into a story about organized crime.

* The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal – a car accident begins a story about a heart transplant.

* Home Stretch by Graham Norton – after a car accident involving a wedding party, the driver can’t face living among the mourning relatives and friends.

 

The publisher of my poem, Quartet Journal, is an online poetry magazine with three issues a year—Winter, Spring/Summer, and Fall. Linda Blaskey is the usual editor, but on the masthead for 2025 is guest editor Franetta McMillian.

 

One of the things I enjoy about this magazine is the authors' comments about how they write and what has meaning for them. In the most recent edition, poet Deidra G. Allan wrote that a theme she comes back to is “the great interplay of hope and despair, grief and joy.” Her poem speaks implicitly to this theme and ends with “like a child’s laughter through the open window of a house in mourning.”

More of Quartet Journal at - https://www.quartetjournal.com.

Selling Books

FESTIVALS

Selling books is a challenge, in part because readers are hard to find. Even publishers have to work hard to market books, so for an individual writer it becomes near impossible, unless of course they are already well known, e.g., Tom Hanks, Britney Spears.

 

To market my books I’ve been going to festivals with some success, depending on the festival. Yesterday I went to Augusta to check out the Fat Tuesday Food & Music Festival as a possible venue.  

 

A description of the festival was tantalizing: it was to “bring a taste of New Orleans to Augusta.” My sister Nila and I waited 30 minutes to pay the $10 entry fee, we spent about 15 minutes checking it out.

My sidekick and sister Nila

 

I should have taken a hint about the “festival” when a person selling gutters approached me at the entry. On surveying the vendors, instead of jambalaya, beignets, or gumbo, we saw the usual tacos, lemonade, funnel cake, and kettle corn. There were few other vendors selling things such as soaps and jewelry. It didn’t have the sort of traffic to sell books, or much of anything else. 

I wasn't looking for lemonade...

In the past, book festivals in our area were more successful, at least in the sense that they were big events that pulled traffic from a large area. The three-day South Carolina Book Festival held in Columbia closed down in 2015 after 19 years. Book “Em NC, held at Robeson, and Lowcountry Arts & Literary Festival have closed. 

 

What we have now are smaller festivals that are hanging on despite low traffic. Several that have returned annually for several years are the Indie Author at Aiken, SC, Author Showcase at the Richland Library, and Authors for Literacy at the Lexington library. A more intimate gathering that features authors is Readers & Writers held at a local restaurant. 

 

At a time when selling books has become as productive as digging for gold, festivals in SC are multiplying like rabbits. Flower festivals (azalea, iris), food (crawfish, peach, pimento cheese, shrimp, BBQ, strawberry, rice festivals), cultural (Celtic, Cajun, Italian, Swamp, Greek, Irish, hippie festivals); music (jazz, bluegrass, boogie), which is but a sampling. A list can be found here:

https://festivalguidesandreviews.com/south-carolina-festivals/

Belle Isle Books

 

My book Dust on the Bible has been published by Belle Isle Books with a few changes to the original, which I self published several years ago. When Belle Isle expressed an interest in publishing another edition, I jumped at the offer. 

 

Dust on the Bible has appeal for readers of Young Adult, Literary, Historical Fiction, and Religion readers. Lily’s spiritual journey is combined with a mystery. When she tries to find out why her father is not living with the family, she discovers that her family is not as easily understood as she thought. 

 

The novel has received good reviews and I hope this edition will attract more traffic than the original. Chanticleer Reviews gave it five stars and a positive review with comments such as this:

 

"A poignant tale from start to finish, Dust on the Bible by Bonnie Stanard is a vivid and emotionally captivating story about the strife of a family living in rural South Carolina in 1944.

"Stanard creates a family with a non-nonsense way of life, but the family also carries a deep abiding love for each other; no matter what." 

 

Take a look, buy a book, and leave a comment!

THINKING QUOTE - "If you only read the books everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." —Haruki Murakami

Dust on the Bible is available at Belle Isle Books:

https://www.belleislebooks.com/store/p258/Dust_on_the_Bible.html

amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Dust-Bible-Bonnie-Stanard/dp/1962416739/ref=monarch_sidesheet_title

Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dust-on-the-bible-bonnie-stanard/1123171377?ean=9781962416733

 

Night at Bull Dog Pub

 

This is me as a mafioso

NOIR STORIES AT HALLOWEEN

 

There were seven of us writers reading stories at the British Bulldog Pub on Halloween night. I read “Waitiing at the Back Door,” a story about a woman who has a major-time grudge against her sister.

 

Phil Lenski stole the show with a story about parishioners in a church who are concerned about the drop in attendance. Only gradually do you realize the church members are all vampires.

 

I dressed as a mafioso and was the only author in costume. One reason I love Halloween is the fun of dressing up and becoming somebody else for a night. My dream is to have a Halloween party only for persons in costume.

 

Today I worked in the house, packed away Halloween and took out Thanksgiving. I’m doing lots of stuff but not much writing. 

 

 Photo L to Rt. Raegan Teller, Paula Benson, 

Irene Stern, Phil Lenski, Carla Damron, Warren Moore, and me.

 

Noir @ the Bar

 

WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR EAR?

 

Ever feel like there's a spider in your ear? Ever feel a bony finger on your neck or hear somebody groan under your bed? Come to Noir @ the Bar Thursday night and you'll get an earful.

 

Eight writers will be reading Halloween-like stories. Is there a difference between a tense story and a scary one? Doug described my story for Thursday night as tense, not necessarily scary. It wasn’t my first attempt at writing a Halloween story. I put a ghost, bloody teeth, freaky noises, and crawly moonlight together in a story thinking it would be scary. It wasn’t.

 

To get blood-curdling ideas to inspire me, I watched Halloween movies on Prime. The only thing I saw was blood and gore, which is supposed to be frightening, I guess, but that doesn’t scare me. Just makes me wonder who watches those movies.

 

The story I’ll read aloud Thursday is about siblings, neither of them stellar characters, but one has a grudge against the other that leads to, well…come to the British Bulldog Pub.

 

Readings start at 7:00 PM, but if you plan to order food, that’s available 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm. Here’s the author list and the order of readings:

1) Phil Lenski

2) Cathy Blake

3) Irene Stern

4) WarrenMoore

5) Paula Benson

6) Bonnie (ME)

7) RaeganTeller

8) CarlaDamron

 

British Bulldog Pub is located at 1220 Bower Parkway, Columbia, SC (near Columbiana). I’d love to see you there!

 

 

Cayce Fall Fest

 

I enjoyed talking with readers.

 

SUNSHINE AND SALES

 

We had hot sales at the Cayce Harvest Fest. Sold out of Kedzie, St. Helena Island Slave. Given the modest size of this festival, it draws more traffic than you’d expect. Doug and I wasted no time selling books. Of course, we took turns going to the food kiosks for Cokes, dumplings, and ice cream. One improvement I’d like to see next year is more and better food vendors, or at least one that sells hot dogs and hamburgers.

 

Doug tried out a python at the petting zoo. Lots of kids. Lots of contemporary music. Lots of fun.

 

Doug going too far at the petting zoo

Next weekend (Oct. 12), I’ll have a tent at the Newberry Harvest Festival (10:30 am – 6:00 pm) at the Enoree River Winery, 1650 Dusty Rd, Newberry, SC. Details online:

https://www.lakemurraycountry.com/event/newberry-harvest-festival

 

 

 

barnyard lowbrow

"SLOP"

Some words give you an idea of what they mean, aside from describing sounds. I’m not talking about onomatopoeia (words such as buzz or boom). I mean words that hint at their definition. Take for example doldrums. It sucks at the back of your throat and shreds off traces of optimism. Or flimflam, which is flippant on your lips, a signal that it’s surface-deep and likely to deceive. Or quirky, which brings a pout to your lips and makes you think of something stretching off somewhere beyond your mouth.

 

What I’m getting to is slop. Judging by the sound, it could be something to stick to the bottom of your shoe and stink up the place. Well, that’s not exactly proving my point. Slop, as any farmer in the 20^th Century could tell you, is food for hogs and it contains scraps from the kitchen, cooked and uncooked.

 

I wrote a poem about slopping the hogs and Main Street Rag has published it (Vol 29, Number 1, Winter 2024) though it’s not yet posted on their website. The poem, “Barnyard Lowbrow” is facetious while describing a moment of recognition that life includes multifarious forms, more than just human, and is better for it.

 

In the same issue is Mark Brazitis’ short story “In the Midnight House,” which begins in an adult-care home where death seems superficial and memory loss sabotages reality. Though you’d think it would be depressing, somehow Brazitis keeps the tone upbeat.

 

The winter issue is not yet available online, but check back in to get a copy. Here’s the link https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/ 

Upcoming issue Winter 2024

 

 

Meet the Authors Day

MEET ME IN AIKEN, SC

An in-person event to meet and greet local published authors! Mingle with writers, rub elbows, find out what’s happening next Saturday, March 2, in Aiken, SC from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm. I’ll be there, as well as 28 other authors. The address is 1310 E. Pine Log Road. Would love to see you with us at “Meet the Authors Day.”

 

Steve Gordy has scheduled a day of activities including round table chats, author readings, and panel discussions. I’m looking forward to the panel “The Present and Future of Writing.” Much controversy today about AI’s impact. Some people think computers will do our writing in the near future. In fact, you can already buy novels on Amazon that have been written by computers. Something to talk about! That panel is on at 11:45 am.

 

If you’ve been thinking about taking up writing, you may like “I Want To Be a Poet. How Do I Get Started?” Panel discussion at 1:00 pm.

 

Aiken is what I think of as “small town America,” in a good sense—A main street worthy of a movie setting and numerous restaurants and cafes. A visit to the Aiken Antique Mall will give you an impression of what our past was like. 

 

Short Story Accepted for Publication

  HOW FAR IS THE GAS STATION

From Encyclopedia Britannica

Close To the Bone has accepted my short story “How Far Is the Gas Station?” for publication. The estimated time of publication is this November. Close To the Bone is an online magazine that publishes edgy crime fiction, both short stories and novels. 

 

I wrote this story when I was invited to read at the Halloween “Noir at the Bar” event in Columbia last October. Like many noir stories, “How Far Is the Gas Station?” is marked by a dark theme with elements of violence and suggestions of sex. 

 

According to Close To the Bone’s website, their aim is “simply to bring you gritty and interesting short fiction across multiple genres.” Editor Craig Douglas was born in Ely, England. He joined the British Army when he got bored of life in a north eastern mining village and now lives in the UK. He spends time editing and publishes poetry and fiction.

Samples of novels published by Close To the Bone

 

Valentine Noir at the Bar

NOT SO SWEET REVENGE

Me, reading "Not So Sweet Revenge"

Wednesday evening at Noir at the Bar, I read my story “Not So Sweet Revenge” about a woman who retaliates when her boyfriend ends their relationship. Actually I re-wrote an older story, putting it into first person point of view. I can pay better attention if a person reads aloud something in first person (I-me).

Raegan, reading.

Raegan Teller was one of the readers. She, along with Chris Maw, has been arranging the Noir readings. I hope they will become a tradition, but we may not return to the British Bulldog Pug.

 

Here’s the lineup of readers, left to right:  Phil Lenski, Carla Damron, Warren Moore, Paula Bensen, John Starino, Raegen Teller, ME, and Charles Israel.

Looks like fun, and it was!

 

3 poems accepted for publication

PROTESTING

I have never liked the word protester. It’s a relative to the word victim. In the balance of power, protesters are losers. Their weakness makes them squeal rather than fight. I say this knowing full well that many protesters would fight, given the right circumstances. But circumstances have a lot to do with whether we are strong or weak. Over time and without the means to fight, a protester can become a whiner. Having said that, the word serves a useful if not necessary purpose and expands our language.

 

So why am I protesting the word protester? It’s my weakness. One of the poems to be published later this month in the ezine Bloom is a protest. How’s that for shooting myself in the foot?

 

“Period of Uncertainty” is about the predicament of women with respect to pregnancy and birth control. This protest embodies the ultimate power struggle, one in which a woman is pitted against religious belief as well as her own physiology. It ends with these lines:

 

Who will speak of these things
with a tongue untainted by inheritance?

 

noir at the bar Feb 14

 

DELVE INTO DARK STORIES

 

If you’re a reader and you haven’t tried noir, it’s about time. Noir? you say. What’s a noir story? It’s a “disturbing mixture of sex and violence” (Wikipedia). The noir heyday was in the 1930s and 40s. Think about stories by Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Carver. Or movies like “The Big Sleep” or “Touch of Evil.”

 

Typical noir movie plots are: 1) detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he’s investigating (Laura); 2) shy heiress marries and begins to suspect her husband’s planning to murder her (Suspicion); 3) gambler hired to work in a casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover (Gilda).

 

Get to know noir stories on February 14 at the British Bulldog Pub. In the capable hands of local writers, you’ll be introduced to mystery and violence (sorry, no graphic sex). I’ll be there with Paula Benson, Carla Damron, Charles Israel, Jr., Phil Lenski, John Starino, and Raegan Teller.

 

Explore kinky underwear and celebrate a noir Valentine’s Day. The British Bulldog Pub is located at 1220 Bower Pkwy, Columbia, SC. Get a table by 7:00 PM. Come earlier and order fish and chips (yum!).

 

 

appropriation

 Cultural appropriation is censorship by another name

 

One of the sessions at the SC Writers Association’s conference Saturday allowed writers to read aloud their query letter to a panel of three literary agents for critique. I made a mistake. Because I hadn’t read the directions carefully, I arrived with a pitch instead of a query letter, which I read anyway despite my embarrassment.

 

However, I couldn’t have been as disappointed with my critique as another writer who actually read a query letter. Her book, the subject of the letter, involved a story with a slave.

 

The subject of “appropriation” dominated the agents’ comments. Appropriation in writing is commonly understood to mean that a writer adopts customs, behavior, habits, etc., of a culture that’s not their own in producing a book. For example a white writer produces a story about a black, or a Latino writes about an Asian.

 

The writer at the conference who read her query letter before the panel was cautioned that we have to be careful in today’s environment. By the time the agents finished their cautionary statements, it was clear that the writer’s book had no chance of being published. The problem was her color. She was white and her story involved a black slave.

 

When it comes to cultural appropriation, a distinction should be made between historical fiction and contemporary fiction. It is easier to understand that ethnic groups have a right to claim their story as it exists today. Who better to understand the traditions, language, and ideas than one of their own members?

 

But historical fiction is another matter. The most contentious issue today is that blacks claim ownership of their history as slaves. The argument goes that they were the ones who suffered and no white (or yellow or red) person can understand this. But how can a black person living in the 21^st Century understand what their ancestors underwent over a hundred years ago?

 

A white writer has as much access to the Slave Narratives and slave autobiographies as a black writer. When you come to think of it, one of the most powerful books written about slavery was written by a white woman. Historians credit Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe with galvanizing the abolition movement. Are we to say she had no right to write this book?

 

Restricting historical fiction novels to certain authors based on ethnicity limits our perspective, imagination, concepts and understandings. The losers here are not just whites but black, reds, and yellows, the entire spectrum of literature.

 

"Query Letter" panel of literary agents