A while back I happened to stumble upon a blog titled: The Mrs. Oklahoma Pageant. Imagine the surprise I felt when I saw that a quote from my novel was the topic of a post. I stared at the words “Finding your fire” and then read what was said. Lauri Rottmayer, the author of that post, is the Executive Director of the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant. As I spent time reading about The Mrs. Oklahoma Pageant and what it truly exemplifies, I was impressed. So much so that I contacted Lauri to thank her for referencing a passage from my novel. Well, Lauri and I hit it off from the get-go, and I knew instantly that her beautiful smile and the sparkle in her eyes revealed the woman she is— charming, wise, and witty.

I asked Lauri if she’d like to share her story here on BRAVA! and she graciously accepted. So here, in Lauri’s own words, is the story behind The Mrs. Oklahoma Pageant.

So, what should that crown really represent?

When most people think of pageants, they think of women strutting across the stage in bathing suits and high heels. Superficial beauty topped by a sparkly crown with about as much substance as cotton candy. It’s thought that the women who compete in pageants are catty, backbiting and selfish. Not so in my world. Not with my titleholders.

It’s not everyone who can say that they are inspired by an assortment of amazing women on a daily basis. But I am blessed. I can say that. As the executive director of the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant, every day is inspirational for me. The reason is due to my state and local titleholders.

Our pageant is community service platform based.  Most women have a passion inside that they want to share with the world or at least their local community.  The community service aspect of our pageant offers these women a way to do just that.  A friend of mine shared that in my role, I help women to become more than they already are.  Humbling, yes, but I do feel that I serve as a mentor to the women who choose to participate.

An encourager by nature, gratification comes as I watch each woman travel along the path from when she receives her local title until she competes at the state pageant and beyond.  To watch the confidence and knowledge build as they go from event to event is wonderful.  They come to me with an idea. They are then awarded a title and go to work. The crown and banner opens doors. While it shouldn’t be that way, I learned myself as a younger woman the power of being Mrs. Titleholder. People who wouldn’t normally listen to me all of a sudden wanted to hear what I had to say.

Our ladies are starting non-profit organizations, heading up committees in already established organizations and working with their representatives to enact legislation that will help whatever their chosen cause may be.

Mrs. Oklahoma 2007, Brooke Good, is a young mother of two from Walters.  She herself is a survivor of sexual child abuse and wants girls to know that they can overcome the nightmare of this abuse. She works with the girls at the Marie Detty Girls Home in Lawton. By sharing her story this past year at fundraising events, she helped to raise over $70,000 for the Samaritan Counseling Center in Bartlesville and the Christian Family Counseling Center in Lawton so disadvantaged women can receive counseling for sexual abuse. Brooke continues this work although her reign as Mrs. Oklahoma ended in 2008.

Rachel Roberts of Tulsa, Mrs. Oklahoma 2009, is the mother of four year old Maddy.  After Maddy’s birth, Rachel suffered from severe post partum depression. Since Rachel first entered our system in 2006, she has spent her time speaking to groups about post partum depression awareness and working with her representatives to let them know the importance of their support of the MOTHERS Act. In her farewell speech at the March pageant, she said, “This pageant has helped me turn a very difficult and almost fatal time in my life into something I feel passionate about”.

Our newly crowned Mrs. Oklahoma, Heidi Ducato, was present when her aunt had a heart attack. Not knowing the signs of heart attack in women, Heidi was terrified and didn’t know what to do. After her experience, she wondered, “Is there more that I could be doing?” She wanted to find a way to prevent what she had witnessed from happening to anyone else. She found the American Heart Association and her “HEART fell in love” with the Go Red for Women movement.

Inspirational? You bet.

While these three women are the ones I used as examples of my inspiration, I am equally influenced and inspired by my local titleholders as well. They are all strong, committed women with a passion for the cause they have chosen to represent. I love that they share their excitement and successes with me.

The interesting story that surrounds each woman brings me new inspiration on a daily basis. I don’t have daughters of my own but if I did, I would take any one (or all!) of the amazing women I get the privilege of working with.

I’m proud to be involved in this pageant system and to be able to mentor such an incredible group of women. Oftentimes the women who choose to compete say they are looking to do something for themselves but ultimately they end up doing so much more for the people around them.  Beautiful inside and out, they are raising awareness, raising funds and effecting change in their communities and our state. We laugh together, cry together, and support each other through our collective journeys. It’s awesome!

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I’ll always remember the day I typed those two hard-won words “THE END” and leaned back in my chair. I was thrilled to have accomplished my goal, yet terrified to take the next step. I’d read the horror stories—that elusive and exclusive world of publishing seemed so formidable—thousands of query letters a day were unceremoniously tossed into the infamous slush pile. So what could I do to make certain mine wasn’t among them?

I thought about the research I’d done in my design business—all those hours I’d spent studying furniture, fabric, and accessory manufacturers before deciding who among them was the best for the market I was seeking. And as I contemplated finding not just a literary agent, but the right literary agent who would present my work to a carefully selected publisher, I knew research was the key.

Week after week I checked out agents in Publishers Marketplace and Agent Query. Once I learned who was selling what to whom, I compiled my submission list as thoughtfully as I had selected furniture manufacturers.

The next big moment had arrived—it was time to compose the all-important query letter. I’m embarrassed to admit that this single page, 275-word document took an entire week to write, rewrite, and polish. But I viewed my query to be exactly like the showroom window in my design studio—it had to immediately stop people in their tracks, stir curiosity, and hopefully delight whoever saw it so much that they’d fling open the door. I’ve always believed in the wisdom of that old adage: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Thankfully the hours of research and the rewritten-so-many-times-I-thought-I’d lose-my-mind query letter delivered results beyond anything I could have anticipated. But my involvement in my book’s journey didn’t stop on the day I signed my publishing contract. Interior design had taught me that having the product simply wasn’t enough—it was time to start marketing. I began by searching for book bloggers on the Internet, and I made contact with the ones who expressed their enjoyment of Southern fiction and coming-of-age-stories, and I set up accounts on Twitter and Facebook.

Being a card-carrying introvert, these things weren’t easy for me. The marketing of design services involved creative advertising in print media, and rarely was I the focal point. But I knew I had to step out of my comfort zone when it came to marketing my book, so I extended my hand and got out there—tentatively at first, no doubt about it, but I connected.

And here’s what I found—a new group of book-loving friends—a few as near as my hometown and others as far away as New Zealand and Russia. I’ve met exceptional people—librarians, booksellers, book bloggers, published authors and those who aspire to be. I’ve accepted invitations to be interviewed on blogs, in print, and in the media, and I’ve added more book-signing events to my author tour. The lone wolf part of me howls at all this, and more than once I’ve felt the acid burn of fear in my throat, but the interior designer turned author who understands the importance of marketing always wins out.

Looking back, without the marketing experience I developed as a business owner, I never would have taken full advantage of the opportunities available by connecting to booklovers via the World Wide Web. But in the rapidly changing world where newspapers are faltering and dropping their book review sections, and more and more people are getting their news online, it’s imperative that we, as writers, explore every avenue available.

It takes time, research, and even a bit of chutzpah to put ourselves out there. And it takes courage too. But as Mark Twain said: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”

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Like countless others, I’m sickened by the horrors being inflicted on innocent wildlife due to the BP disaster in the Gulf. In fact, I’m so sickened by the pictures of dying wildlife coated in oil that I can’t even bring myself to post one. I’m making a plea to all my animal-loving friends to please make a donation to the National Wildlife Federation. The NWF is working tirelessly to save all the wonderful creatures they possibly can, but it takes resources.

Please, I urge you to take a look at the good work the NWF is doing and help them out in any way can. You can read about it here: National Wildlife Foundation Oil Spill Crisis

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Within moments of opening The Conjure Man by Peter Damian Bellis, I was transported to a place where low country yarns sprinkled with magical realism set my imagination ablaze. Drawn in deeper with the turning of each page, I could see the fog hovering over the murky swamps, hear the roar of a lonely alligator echo through the night, and smell the pungent perfume of the mysterious wilderness.

Both innocent and startlingly wise, and told from two alternating viewpoints (one with a delightfully original dialect), The Conjure Man possesses the artful storytelling of days long gone by. As layers of symbolism and mythology unfolded, I was swept into the lives of Kilby, Jonas Lee, Tramsee, Thaddeus, and all the characters of this uniquely rendered tale. And what a tale it is! It had me thinking about superstitions, feeling the youthful joy of wonderment, and it often made me smile. I suspect if a gentleman by the name of Samuel Clemens were still alive, well, he’d be smiling too.

Applause to Mr. Bellis for a terrific story that delighted my senses and kept me up late many a night!

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Today I am happy and grateful.

That is all.

It is more than enough.

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Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m not a sports fan. In fact, other than equestrian sports, in which I joyously participated for two decades, I have no interest in any sport whatsoever. So, when I heard terrific buzz going around about a book named Diamond Ruby and found out it was about baseball, I knew I wouldn’t read it.

But, because I had heard that the author is a genuinely nice (and talented) man and I wanted to be supportive, I bought two copies of Diamond Ruby (one for myself and one for my baseball-lovin’ brother). I figured I’d put my copy on the shelf and that would be the end of it. But one night I decided to at least read a chapter or two, and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace is a wonderful story that’s very well told.

Ruby stole my heart—a bright and talented and sympathetic character, she beat the odds, and she beat them on a multitude of levels. Set against the backdrop of 1920s New York, this novel is rich in history, it is also human and heartfelt and uplifting. I’m particularly fond of stories where triumph rises from the ruins of adversity, and Diamond Ruby is just that. And more. Oh, so much more.

Bravo, Mr. Wallace! You gave me hours of true reading enjoyment. Before putting your novel back on my bookshelf, I’m going to keep it on the chest in my writing library for a few weeks to remind myself how important it is for me to crack open a book I otherwise might pass by.

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When I first saw this photograph I was drawn in to the point that I could have written a novella about the boy and his dog.

Perhaps I should have.

Perhaps I will.

This single image brought memories flooding back to me of my childhood years on the farm—barefoot days spent running through the open fields with our dog, Midnight, at my side, his ears flopping in the wind. And when I think about those days and all the hours I spent outside exploring, learning, imagining, and dreaming, I can’t help but wonder: what is happening to the children of today? I see them walking to school with earphones crammed into their ears—oblivious to bird-songs. I see them hunkered down in their seats on airplanes engrossed in some animated computer game to the point that hey have no interest in looking out the window to see the Grand Canyon looming below. And I see them “hanging out” at malls on sunny days while the mysteries of nature goes unexplored.

This past weekend I gave an author talk at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, Arizona. In the front row of the audience sat a lovely young woman who listened intently and scribbled notes. When I had finished speaking and asked for questions, she raised her hand.  She was a creative writing teacher and she told me how much she enjoyed the character development and the sense of place I created in my novel. So much so that she would be using my novel in her classroom. She then asked what advice I would give her students on those topics.

I told her that being awake and aware was the key. When we are fully in the moment, when our senses are completely engaged and we are truly awake and aware, we train ourselves to be open. And, when we are open, we soak up our environment like a sponge. Being a human sponge is the single most important thing that I, as a writer, can do. By opening my senses, I expose myself to the nuances of all that surrounds me. Everywhere I look, everything I see and hear and taste holds the magic to stir my creativity. The inspiration for a well-turned phrase, a story, a poem, or a full-length novel is everywhere.

Truly. Everywhere.

I’d write more on this subject, but the birds are singing, a breeze is sneaking through the window and tickling my face, and the urge to get outside and soak up some good subject matter is impossible to resist. As I walk toward the river, I hope I see a child with his/her dog enjoying the magic of nature, but I won’t know until I leave my computer and get out of the house.

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The Dixie Divas

One of the terrific perks that comes with being a published author is having the opportunity to connect with other published authors. And, being a Southern writer myself, there’s nothing better than getting to know writers who hail from the South and share their love of Dixie.  When I read the book, Bet Your Bottom Dollar, by Karin Gillespie, I laughed and had myself  gay ole time as I followed the antics of the main characters, Elizabeth, Mavis, and Attalee.

Since that day I’ve been fortunate to have connected with Karin Gillespie (shown in the photo on the left—the pretty, mischievous-looking blond with the twinkle in her eyes), and she’s just as charming and entertaining and funny as her Bottom Dollar Girls series, published by Simon and Schuster.

I recently asked Karin if she’d be willing to share with my readers how the Dixie Divas came to be, and though she’s quite busy, she graciously accepted my invitation. So without further delay, here, in Karin’s own words, is her story …

The Dixie Divas

“When I found out my novel was going to be published I talked to lots of other authors and they scared me to death. “The book signings are killers,” they warned. “Usually the only people who will show up are the events coordinator and your mother.”

I also discovered a book called Mortification: Writers’ Stories of Their Public Shame. How terrifying! I thought there had to be some way to attract an audience to book signings. I talked to a mystery author, Denise Swanson. She traveled with other mystery writer and they called themselves the Deadly Divas. She said they sometimes attracted hundreds of people to their signings.

I decided I would borrow Denise’s idea. Since I was a Southern author, I formed a group called the Dixie Divas. I asked J.L. Miles, Julie Cannon, and Patricia Sprinkle to join me in my venture.

We decided we would have fun book signings. We wear boas and tiaras and other silly accessories. Patty, our mystery writer wears black and yellow crime tape. We tell jokes and stories. No staid, stuffy readings for the Divas. We aim to entertain.

Because we have to watch our pennies we often pile into one car and one hotel room. (Thankfully none of the divas snore.) I call us Thelma and Louise squared.

And yes, for the most part, our signings are wonderful. Sometimes we sell over a hundred books and present to packed houses. The press loves us and we have enjoyed half-page feature article spreads in many Southeastern newspapers, coverage we would have never gotten as solo authors.

But every now and then we have a dud signing. Once we spoke at Cocoa Florida library and the crowd was sparse and composed primarily of elderly retirees. The librarian apologized for the small turnout. A retiree who was listening in said, “You should have been here last week. There was an author who had a long line out the door.”

“Who was the author?” I asked wearily.

“I don’t remember,” said the retiree. “I just remember the name of his book. It was called Overcoming Incontinence.”

So yes, dear friends, we were upstaged by incontinence.

On another occasion we visited a small-town library in Georgia. The cub reporter interviewing us was wet behind the ears. His story had many inaccuracies but the most glaring was the title of his piece, which read, “Dixie Beavers to Visit Local Library.”

We’ve traveled together over three years and we’ve shared a heap of embarrassments as well as countless triumphs. You get to know a lot about people when you swill wine together, share long car rides and sleep in the same bed. The Divas and I have become as close as sisters and we cherish our relationships. I can’t imagine doing signings without them. When I’m with the Divas it doesn’t matter how many people are at our book signings. I know J.L. Miles will make me laugh, Julie Cannon will have a word of encouragement and Patty Sprinkle will give me valuable advice. That’s all I care about. Now it’s less about selling books and more about spending time with my darling Divas.”

Karin’s books can be purchased at fine independent booksellers, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, Books-A-Million and many other retailers.

Bio: Karin Gillespie is the author of the Bottom Dollar Girl series and the   founder of A Good Blog is Hard to Find, a group blog for Southern authors.

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For all my life I’ve loved libraries. Be they old or new, one story or an entire building, in a crowded city or on a country road, I always know I can walk into a library and spend hours browsing the shelves in peace. I also know that if I can’t find what I’m looking for or need a recommendation, a knowledgeable librarian will be more than happy to help me. With all the budget cuts that have hit libraries so hard, now, more than ever, I try to support them whenever I can. I can’t imagine a town without a library, and if we don’t take action, that just might happen.

During these scary economic times, I am especially excited and honored to be a guest author at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, Arizona. Lesa Holstine, Library Branch Manager, was so kind in extending her invitation to me, and I gladly accepted. Velma Teague is a very special library; it’s the only one to receive the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award, and, it’s also the oldest library in the valley, serving book-loving residents since 1895. I can’t wait to meet Lesa, see the library, and talk to the attendees. I know we’ll have a terrific time.

Lesa Holstine writes a fabulous blog. She is a contributing book reviewer for Library Journal, Mystery Readers Journal, and various websites. Lesa’s Book Critiques is syndicated through Blogburst, and her reviews have been picked up by Reuters, USA Today and other distinguished news distributors. Winner of the 2009 and 2010 Spinetingler Awards for Best Reviewer, Lesa’s book reviews and author interviews are always hugely popular with publishers, readers, and authors alike. You can visit Lesa’s blog HERE.

This event is free and open to the public, and I’m looking forward to meeting the residents of Glendale and surrounding areas. So, if you’re in the neighborhood, please come to the library and say hello. Lesa Holstine and I have a wonderful event planned. And, I have a special surprise for Lesa!

Here’s the information:

June 26th (Saturday)

Authors at The Teague, Glendale, Arizona

7010 N. 58th Avenue

Glendale, AZ 85301

623-930-3431

(2PM)

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Several years ago I read a collection of short stories that I loved. And I do mean loved. So much so that I immediately wrote a review of the book and gave it the that it deserved. I believe in supporting other writers and singing their praises, and this book was so terrific that I wanted to offer the author my full support. Well, out of the blue the author of that wonderful book contacted me and we hit it off from the get-go, chattering back and forth like two happy five-year-olds.

That’s how my new friend, Pamela King Cable, came into my life. I still remember checking out her website after I’d read her book, and I still remember looking at her picture. I had no way of knowing that those gorgeous, intuitive eyes and gentle smile belonged to a woman who would one day be my girlfriend. I’m still amazed at how we connected. Life is full of surprises and blessings.

I recently asked Pam if she’d be willing to share a bit about herself here on my blog, and even though she’s busy working on a new novel (which I cannot wait to get my hands on), she graciously accepted my invitation.

I’m tickled to introduce you to my girlfriend who happens to be  a wonderfully talented writer (and gifted storyteller), Pamela King Cable. Here is her story …

A Writer Remembers

“Swarms of finches, wrens, and other tiny birds peck and hunt for food at feeders that hang outside my kitchen window. Even when I forget to fill the feeders, the birds arrive each morning, hoping to discover their next meal. These tiny birds never give up. They are constant, vigilant, driven. Despite the odds and possible dangers, the birds return every day.

Writers are like tiny birds. We beat our heads against one roadblock after another, writing against enormous odds, hoping and believing our next book will land in the laps of readers and on bestseller lists across the country. But even after decades into our career, we discover we must sometimes recall what made us write in the first place and the courage it took.

My granddaddy was a coal miner, but my father escaped the mines, went to college and moved his family to Ohio to work for the rubber companies. I spent every weekend as a child, traveling back to the West Virginia Mountains. My memories of my childhood run as deep as the Appalachian creeks and swimming holes I swam in as a child. My career as a writer was born in the dust laden coal towns of the early 60s.

For me, it is within sanctuaries of brick and mortar, places of clapboard and revival tents transcending time and space, that characters hang ripe and ready for picking.

From the primitive church services of mountain clans to the baptisms and sacraments of robed priests in great cathedrals and monasteries. From hardworking men and women who testify in the run-down churches of coal camps to the charismatic high-dollar high-tech evangelicals in televised mega-churches of today. Therein lie stories of unspeakable conflict, the forbidden, and often, the unexplained.

As a writer, it is my desire to transport a reader’s mind—but my deepest passion is to pierce a reader’s heart. The topic of faith, for me, has a way of doing that like nothing else.

My mother says I cut my teeth on the back of a church pew. I grew up in revival tents, tabernacles, and eventually in grand cathedrals with TV cameras rolling. In the early days, revivals were as exciting as the carnival coming to town and evangelists were royalty. I experienced a world from the sublime to the bizarre. It caused me to weave religion, spirituality, and the mysterious into my stories. Stories that hint to an ancient bridge where the real and the supernatural meet.

Many of my stories are based on truth, shreds of truth, people I’ve known, places I’ve been, and of course history plays a great part in some stories, like Coal Dust On My Feet; a love story set amidst the longest and most violent coal strike in the history of our country. It is truth and fiction.

Mother was a skilled storyteller without knowing it. All I wanted to do when I grew up was duplicate her life. I loved her southern accent and heritage and I felt neither imprisoned nor put off by it. But the most precious gift she gave me was a love for the written world, be it the word of God or of Mother Goose. Mom was my inspiration, and one day I picked up a pencil in the sixth grade and wrote my first story. I haven’t stopped since. The next forty years played into my storytelling, and after surviving life’s heartaches and hardships, it gave me plenty to write about.

A writer’s life is a solitary life. We hope we possess raw talent, unique originality, and gut emotional appeal. We raise the stakes on each and every page and hope, and pray, and believe that some day we’re blessed a bit of luck.

Is it worth the struggle? You bet it is. All you need, is the courage of a tiny bird.

Remember when you tackled that first story, essay, article, poem? That was courage. Courage is not confidence, nor the opposite of meekness. It’s feeling a measure of confidence, and then acting on those feelings. It’s a quality of spirit that enables you to face the moment, whatever comes, and keep going.

Courage allows you to see, hear, smell, and taste things as they really are. Courage makes you face facts, unfiltered by rosy daydreams. Courage frees you to be creative. It pushes you to prepare for the unknown without obsessing over it. To be open to what may come.

A writer can’t be open to new ideas if dazed and confused by fear. Courage enables you to be prepared and wide awake in every situation.

There were times in my youth I didn’t write because I was afraid of failing. I didn’t prepare for success because I was afraid it might happen. I didn’t look, really look, into my past because I was afraid of what I might find. As I grow older, I don’t give myself those options. Not anymore.

Fear is passive-aggressive. It’s the lazy writer’s excuse for not moving forward. It’s a great immobilizer, an avoidance technique. Fear puts the focus on what we might encounter, distracts us from what’s actually there. Courage empowers a writer to pay attention.

In the end, a writer can do without a lot of things. Remembering your journey is not one of them. Courage is the other.”

—Pamela King Cable

Southern Fried Women, Pam’s terrific book of short stories, can be purchased at Indy booksellers, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and other fine retailers.

Pam’s Bio:

Pam was born a coal miner’s granddaughter, and claims a tribe of wild Pentecostals and storytellers raised her. Her award-winning stories, articles, and essays have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and newspapers in several states. Pam’s passion and inspiration on overcoming life’s insurmountable obstacles is evident when she speaks and within the pages of her collection of short stories, Southern Fried Women, which was a finalist in Fiction and Literature-Short Story, Best Books of 2006 Book Awards, USABookNews.com, and a finalist for ForeWard Magazine’s Book of the Year 2006.

Pam has appeared on TV, radio, and has been a keynote or guest speaker at regional and national writing groups, Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis, Women’s Centers, Junior Leagues, and many churches throughout the South. Also, in 2006 Pam was invited by the First Lady of West Virginia and the First Lady of Mississippi to speak to the people of Charleston and Jackson.

She is currently working on her third book, The Sanctum.

Pam’s Website – www.pamelacable.com
Pam’s Blog – www.southernfriedwoman.blogspot.com

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