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Publisher’s Note
When I first met Alice Joyner Irby, I knew she had an extraordinary story to tell about her life, her family, and the people who crossed her path.
As she finished each chapter over a little less than a year, I knew her extraordinary book was being created. And now it is here as South Toward Home.
Why Alice wrote this book.
“I want others to get to know the characters in my stories, for they are among the good-hearted, strong, independent people who helped make the 20th century the American century.”
Here is a brief synopsis of South Toward Home.
Catch the marvelous imagery in the reading of South Toward Home. Find yourself carried into bygone eras. You will actually encounter stories that span more than eight decades. Experience those remembrances if you have lived through some of these times!
Travel with author Alice Joyner Irby in her journey during periods of turbulent cultural and societal change. She reports her attempts to shatter glass ceilings confronting women in the workplace…her
Alice and Glenn Dickens – 2019
role in integrating a university…her participation in the creation of the Job Corps in LBJ’s War on Poverty. Yet, Alice’s roots remain grounded in the South, where she was nurtured and raised in a loving community.
In her twenty-six stories, we come to know well this fun-loving young girl and those who shaped the woman she has become. A single mother with a daughter, the author expresses the bond between
the two. This is a relationship strengthened over time and deepened through their shared experiences. This book is a rare combination of intimate personal portraits coupled with a pragmatic look at the life surrounding them.
It is a book written for family about family, blood or not. Crises and joys…stress and well-being…harsh realities and great kindnesses…above all, Hope!
We, as readers, are drawn into the stories. We have known the folks encountered on these pages, maybe not personally; but these accounts cause us to reminisce about those who have poured into us the life-giving renewal that enables us to meet challenges, to celebrate life with all it brings, and to look up in faithfulness that endures. – Mary W., reader
By Carolyn Harmon
charmon@rrdailyherald.com
Reprinted with permission from the Daily Herald.
Alice Joyner Irby in The Sacred Valley, Peru 2018
Sit a spell and hear the church bells that called worshippers on Sunday morning — visit Greensboro when UNC-G was the Woman’s College — travel along on other adventures.
Alice Joyner Irby of Raleigh recently had her book published, “South Toward Home: Tales from an Unlikely Journey,” by the Outer Banks Publishing Group.
Alice was born in 1932 and lived in Weldon and after she moved away, she returned regularly until her mother died in 1991. She also visited her very good friend, the late Ruth Gregory Proctor of Halifax.
“Weldon has always been my home,” Alice said. “It is a book about my life, starting with Weldon and ending with Weldon.”
Alice grew up in Weldon, graduating from Weldon High School in 1950. She has lived through the Great Depression and the Korean War, in which her friends were drafted, she said.
“It was scary — and the polio epidemic — my brother, George Joyner, and I were quarantined for a summer, so reading about the pandemic now brings back some of those memories,” Alice said. “They didn’t know how you could get it, but they knew you could get it from other people. So we couldn’t have visitors.”
That is when she learned to play badminton. Alice’s parents were the late Margaret and William B. Joyner. William set up a badminton net during the polio quarantine.
“We couldn’t play ball, it would roll down the street,” she said. “We couldn’t go out in our yard.”
Alice’s sister is Margaret Joyner Kinker. Her brother, George, live in Morehead City and is married to a Roanoke Rapids girl, Gwen Dickens.
“We all came from Halifax County,” Alice said. “My parents were very active in the Methodist Church, and my mother’s family were some of the founders of that church in Weldon — the beautiful Gothic Weldon Methodist Church on Fifth and Washington — it is closed now.”
The Weldon Methodist Church, now closed
That is where Alice’s book begins — the first of 26 stories contains a picture of that church.
“The first section is about my growing up in the church, the importance of the church and the town. The second is about my brother, and our adventures — partners in crime — then I had a story about the four of us in Weldon.
“The four of us used to sing for funerals out in the country — sometimes in the family home and sometimes in a country church. They contacted the church, or they wanted some music, the four of us would pack ourselves in Ben Wyche’s car, he was always the driver and we would go sing.”
The four of them were Alice, Wyche, Blanche Selden Bullock, a classmate from Weldon High, who married Thurmond Bullock; and J.P. Ellis.
The first set of stories continues with Alice growing up, the train coming through, the second World War and what it was like living in Weldon during that time. The second set is what happened in Alice’s young adult life.
“One story has to do with how I was discriminated against trying to get on a United Airline Flight just for men in the early 1960s,” she said. “Some of the stories are about me hitting those barriers in those days. Another one has to do with my first job out of graduate school at Merrill Lynch in Greensboro, when I applied I was told, ‘You have the credentials that exceed, but we can’t hire you because you are a woman.’ The laws permitted that at the time.”
Another section is about her career while working for the Lyndon B. Johnson administration’s Job Corps, part of the war on poverty. She attended Rutgers University where she was the vice president for student services, followed by working for an educational testing service that makes the SAT and a lot of the admissions tests, she said.
In other sections, she writes about celebrities and her friends — her daughter, Andrea Irby, growing up with a horse; the time she met George W. Bush on a golf course in Pinehurst; her yard man; her sister, Margaret; two of her friends named Mary; her father; and the fortitude and courage of women in an earlier time, she said.
“I wanted to celebrate a lot of people who have been important in my life,” Alice said.
The book came out of a suggestion and encouragement of her editor in Raleigh, Linda Hobson, and a friend and fellow scribe, Ron Rhody, Alice said.
“We lived in Pinehurst — he said, ‘You really need to write your story for your family if nothing else.’ ”
An incident that happened in 2018, also encouraged her to write the book, she said, when her daughter’s husband, Cecil Bozarth, died suddenly of a heart attack at the peak of his career.
Cecil with his prize-winning Zephyr
“And that was a blow, it was really difficult to endure — I couldn’t write for awhile,” she said. “There were at least two stories that focused on my daughter and her family and I decided I should get those printed. I worked very hard for a year and got it published in April. I realized when I was doing it, when I really got going on it, I wanted to do it for another reason — to celebrate the people in my past — in Weldon and Halifax — that had meant so much to me.”
Another reason was to talk about the UMC Woman’s College in Greensboro, she said. The university had a sequence of names as it evolved. It was known first as the State Normal and Industrial School, and after 1897 as the State Normal and Industrial College until 1919. During the period 1919-1931, it was known as the North Carolina College for Women, and became the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina from 1932 to 1963.
Alice said she graduated with an economics degree in 1954 and then earned her Masters in Economics from Duke University.
After “South Toward Home” was published, Alice had plans to share it in Halifax, but COVID-19 has changed her plans for now.
Her close friend and former classmate Glenn Dickens said the book will be sold in Halifax at the Bass House.
“And hopefully, if this pandemic gets over she can have a book signing here,” she said.
Dickens said Alice’s mother taught her French and was her favorite teacher. She said Alice is “a mighty fine person.”
“I am very impressed to have her as a friend,” she said. “I read the book and I thought it was wonderful and so well written I couldn’t put it down. I am reading it over because I am sure I missed a lot. It is so informative of things back in that time — it brought back a lot of memories.”
The book’s cover has its own story — it is a picture of the Roanoke River in Weldon, captured by Weldon resident and photographer, Lee D. Copeland.
Mist on the Roanoak River that became the cover of South Toward Home
Photo by Lee D. Copeland
Copeland Ltd Photography, Weldon, NC
Alice had a copy of the picture, without identification, and she wanted to find out the photographer’s name. She found it at the Riverside Mill in Weldon, where Copeland has several photographs for sale, he said.
After searching for a couple of days, she received some help from her daughter Andrea and Nancy Mueller, board member of the Halifax County Arts Council. Andrea found Copeland’s wife, Dee Riddle Copeland, on Facebook.
Dee’s mother, Janie, who also lives in Weldon, is 98 — they all live in Weldon, Alice said.
“She responded to my daughter on Facebook and Lee gave us permission to use it for the cover,” Alice said.
Copeland said the photo was in Weldon at the first falls on the Roanoke River near the boat ramp on the first cold fall morning several seasons ago.
“I had been watching the river for some time, waiting for three things to come together,” he said. “The falls colors to peak, the river to be low enough to flow through the rocks, the air to be cool enough to allow the mist to rise on the river from the warmer water.
“The three elements came together early on a weekend morning where I spent 90 minutes with my Nikon, photographing the area until the sun got high enough to dissolve the mist,” Copeland said. “I have always felt it was one of my best photos of the river and am very pleased that Mrs. Irby, after seeing the picture on a greeting card, was moved enough to track me down and ask permission to use it on her book cover.”
Copeland said, after the book was published, Alice and Andrea, while passing through the area, stopped by the Copeland’s front porch.
“And spent a delightful 45 minutes visiting with my mother-in-law, Janie Riddle, and Dee and I, reminiscing and discussing friends brought together by the Roanoke River,” he said.
Copeland said he has been taking pictures for 50 years, working professionally for about 20 and as a hobby the rest of the time.
“I worked at several newspapers in Eastern North Carolina, including The Daily Herald with Dick Kern as my editor. I covered the Nixon, Ford and Carter White House while in the Army, the bicentennial in Washington, D.C., and was appointed to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Inaugural Committee.”
As a result of the book, Alice has submitted it for two awards from the N.C. Literary and Historical Society Association and the North Carolina Society, she said. The suggestion came by way of a retired professor at NC State, James W. Clark. He is a well-known award-winning North Carolina writer, who went to Littleton High School, and who read Alice’s book, she said.
The two became acquainted.
“I am not sure when I will find out if I won, but I did send them in,” she said.
When asked why folks should read her book, Alice said it is what she calls a comfort book.
“They are stories about people who lived ordinary, but at the same time exceptional lives,” she said. “I think for many people it will connect to their own memories of their growing up. It is also a social history of about seven or eight decades.
“I am 87 years old, I lived through two-thirds of the 20th Century,” she said. “It will remind people of their own lives in those times. I have heard from people I knew when I was growing up and people who I don’t even know, and they identify with someone in the story. It triggers their memories of their own lives in those times.”
James, Andrea’s son, Alice, and Andrea on the Island of Crete, August 2016
The book is available at Amazon.com and the Outer Banks Publishing Group Bookstore.
Listen to one of the chapters from Annette Creswell’s The Dark before the Dawn, a love story shortly before the start of World War II. The Dark before the Dawn is available here in our bookstore, on Amazon and in fine bookstores everywhere.
Synopsis
Author Annette Creswell
Just before the start of World War II, Peggy Davis, a London midwife, has a chance encounter with a stranger that changes her life forever.
When Peggy meets Charles, a wealthy lord as she boards a bus in front of Harrods department store, fate casts them together.
When Charles’ wife, Diana, and first child die in childbirth, Peggy, and Charles are thrust into a relationship of happiness, sorrow and unexpected tragedy.
They ultimately marry, have a son and adopt an east end refugee boy from London.
What transpires is a web of family dramas a la Downton Abbey with lesbian relationships, Nazi sympathizers and family secrets revealed as Peggy attempts to navigate through her new life from midwife to lady of the manor.
When I first met Alice Joyner Irby, I knew she had an extraordinary story to tell about her life, her family and people who crossed her path.
As she finished each chapter over a little less than year, I knew her extraordinary book was being created. And now it is here to be released in April as South Toward Home.
In this interview with Alice she tells what her book is about, why she wrote it and the importance of life as she journeyed through the early 20th century and the beginnings of the 21st.
Pictured in the photo, Alice, James, Andrea’s son, and Andrea, Alice’s daughter, in Sacred Valley, Macchu Pichu
OBXPG: What is the book about?
ALICE: There is a familiar saying, “May you live in interesting times,” offered by a British diplomat in 1936—just a few years after my birth. I have lived in interesting times—spanning more than seven decades of the 20th century and, now, two decades of the 21st.
During those years, I have witnessed and experienced times of economic depression, hot and cold wars, societal upheaval and assassinations, expanding civil rights and broadening opportunities, measles outbreaks and a polio epidemic, and extraordinary technological and medical breakthroughs.
My stories capture events and happenings in my life during these times of disturbance, crisis, tumult, accomplishment, and joy. They reveal ways in which I seized opportunities as doors opened and cleared fences that were in my path. They bring to life the people in my family, my circle of friends, and the mentors who guided me along the way.
OBXPG: Why did you write this? What made you decide to do it?
ALICE: I have always believed that personal stories make history real, and, like most Southerners, I like stories. I was inspired to put pen to paper to encourage my daughter, grandson, nieces, nephews and their progeny to learn something about their ancestors and how they handled the stresses, disappointments, and celebrations in their lives.
I became aware of how important human connections are in shaping and enriching one’s life. It seemed to me that readers in the future—not just my family—might benefit from learning about the influential roles that individuals play in the lives of others. And, I very much wanted to pay tribute to the men and women who guided and sustained me.
OBXPG: Is there anything else you want to say?
ALICE: Yes.
First, I want to say thanks to those heroes, both living and dead, who made my life rich and full.
Second, I want others to get to know the characters in my stories, for they are among the good-hearted, strong, independent people who helped make the 20th century the American century.
Finally, I want to celebrate life. This book is not a story of one life—but a story of life itself, the value of friendships, and the enduring qualities of love, kindness, and hope.
Dennis DeRose’s review on Goodreads of Koos Verkaik’s Heavenly Vision will convince you this is a book you must read.
The cover was drawn by Doriano Strologo, an illustrator in Numana, Italy, depicting the main character in the book, the mysterious Raso, the man who had the heavenly vision.
by Dennis DeRose
HEAVENLY VISION is like an out-of-focus jigsaw puzzle but the longer you stare at it, the sharper the image becomes until everything is crystal-clear at the end. Koos knows how to play to the reader as he gently but firmly makes you turn the pages as the action continues from the first page to the last. As you read the last few pages you may shout… NOW I GET IT!
Welcome to our book store
We hope you find a book that will enlighten your life
Outer Banks Publishing Group author Koos Verkaik’s newest book, Nibelung Gold, takes the reader into the world of the paranormal with a twist. He was recently interviewed about Nibelung Gold by Lauretta L. Kehoe, an avid reader, blogger and book reviewer. Here is are some quotes from her interview with Koos Verkaik.
“I am interested in everything that has to do with magic. Have a nice collection of books about all the mysteries in the world, about human history, about alchemists, about… everything! More than often I need no more than one single idea to create a book. For The Nibelung Gold I was thinking: what, if a group of magical fortune tellers concentrate together on one person, what will happen to him? I combined that with the old European saga of the Nibelung Gold and started writing. I am very happy with the result. This is a book for people who like to know more about occult events from the past.”
Koos has written over 60 books and furiously continues to write new novels full time in his home outside of Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
“Novels, series of children’s books, hundreds of scripts for comic artists, wrote songs and made albums and was a copywriter. To make a living, I wrote 4 books every month for a big distributor. Always had inspiration, never had a writer’s block. Sit down, start writing… The same way a painter can be obsessed and never puts his brush away.”
As Koos has said, “Writing is as necessary as breathing to me!”
Read the rest of the interview here>
Publishers Note: Michael Johnson, who lives in France, is the author of five books and worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London. See his full biography below.
Mary L. Tabor
Here are highlights from his review:
Any reader with an analytical bent will wonder, however, where the truth is located in a good story. I certainly did, reading Mary L. Tabor’s new collection of twelve short stories, The Woman Who Never Cooked (Outer Banks Publishing Group). She displays rare knowledge of human behavior in this assemblage of stories covering illness, deaths in the family, adultery, intimacy, dishonesty, dreams, love, family ties, and some surprisingly interesting details about food and how to cook it.
These stories display Ms. Tabor’s polished prose page after page. She has a sure touch for subtle humor as well as for rhythm, repetition, metaphor and simile. In one story she alludes to a man’s admiration of his current obsession, as her “thin, wispy shape like one of Monet’s poplars”. Or as he looked into her eyes, he saw “blue with flecks of white and yellow, reminding him of a Key West at sunset, sapphire blue and sun-struck clouds”
Mr. Johnson covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.
Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.
You can order Michael Johnson’s most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:
“Portraitures and caricatures: Conductors, Pianist, Composers”
Check out Mary’s FREE eight-session writing course…available from Outer Banks Publishing Group.
By Bob Irelan, Outer Banks Publishing Group author of Angel’s Truth
Talking to book clubs about writing and about the book you’ve written is an effective but underutilized marketing tool.
The advantages include:
Start off by telling your audience that “everyone has a story to tell,” and encourage them to tell theirs. It need not be a novel. Maybe it is a memoir, a collection of recollections and experiences that were personally important and may be of interest or guidance to others. Maybe it is a chronological narrative; maybe just a collection of anecdotes.
Then talk about what motivates you to write, what you learn in the process, what ups and downs you experience, and the sense of accomplishment you feel when you finish the concluding sentence.
Comment on how the publishing business has changed . . . about how it has become more “author friendly.”
Having done all this, it’s time to read a key passage or two from your book.
Most important — leave plenty of time for questions. You will get them and they will provide insight into how people read and whether you succeeded in delivering your message.
Bottom line: You will enjoy the small group experience, your visibility as an author will be enhanced, and you will sell books.
Outer Banks Publishing Group Author Bob Irelan recently won second place in the Northern California Publishers and Authors (NCPA) 25th annual book awards contest for his first novel, Angel’s Truth.
NCPA is an association of authors, indie publishers, and small presses based in Sacramento, CA with the goal to educate and encourage our members. The association is a regional affiliate of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA).
The contest is open to members and nonmembers alike. Books are evaluated in a variety of categories and are awarded based not only on relative rank to the other entries, but on intrinsic quality standards. Each book is read by three judges, and the judges gather for face-to-face discussion of their decisions.
Visit www.norcalpa.org for more information about the association.
Read what inspired Bob to write Angel’s Truth and how it is extraordinarily relevant today.
______________________
Order your copy at the publisher’s special discount of $11.99 – Save $4
USE THIS CODE – DISCOUNT40 – TO GET 40% OFF WHEN YOU CHECK OUT on your first purchase.
List Price:$15.995.5″ x 8.5″(13.97 x 21.59 cm)
Black & White Bleed on White paper
272 pagesOuter Banks Publishing Group
ISBN-13:978-0990679080
ISBN-10:099067908X
BISAC:Fiction / Crime
Angel Gonzales is charged with heinous crimes that law enforcement, the media, and most folks in Richmond, Texas, and surrounding communities are certain he committed.
The crimes and trial dwarf anything that has happened in that part of the Lone Star state in anyone’s memory.
When, against all odds, the jury renders “not guilty” verdicts, shock escalates to anger.
In the minds of many, justice has failed, and a brutal criminal is being set free. For Angel and his court-appointed public defender, Marty Booker, being judged “not guilty” isn’t enough.
Together and with help from an unanticipated source, they attempt to prove Angel’s innocence.
In the process, they butt up against prejudice, deceit, and a sheriff and district attorney who put politics, ambition, expedience, and arrogance above responsibility to do their jobs.
It’s a story of horror, hatred, belief, and persistence – a story of a Mexican-American teenager who nearly loses his life on the way to becoming a man.
If you vote for Trump and his MAGA GOP members you may indirectly start World War III.
If Trump and his MAGA GOP take control of our Congress, they will cut off support for Ukraine. They already cut support on the advice of Trump when the Congress was ready to approve the spending bill with support for Ukraine.
What will happen next?
said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “This is supposed to be the party of conservative principles, of tradition, of respect for customs and rules that make society governable.
“The idea that the law does not apply to Republicans is something that has now become part of the mainstream of the Republican party. We see it in terms of the approach to elections. We see it in terms of the treatment of immigrants. Some of the actions with regard to abortion may approach that level. The Republican party appears to consider the law and the constitution to be optional and to have lost legitimacy.”
From The Guardian
Republicans’ lawless leaders at odds with midterm law and order message | Republicans | The Guardian
If you vote Republican you are supporting:
– 19 GOP red states have pending laws suppressing voter’s ability to vote. Historically, dictators and Fascists have suppressed votes to stay in power.
– The GOP has come out in support of QAnon, The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys
– You may lose a loved one, a relative or a friend in a train crash, a bridge collapse or a plane crash as Republicans strip funds from President Biden’s infrastructure bill.
– The Texas abortion ban if left to stand will be passed in several other GOP states. Idaho will pass an anti-abortion law based on the Texas law. 16 states have “trigger” abortion ban laws.
by the US Supreme Court.
https://cnn.it/3RaW1zm
https://nyti.ms/3IcANNo
With the recent Supreme Court banning EPA authority from polluters
https://bit.ly/3IfQ1Bf
on Gun Purchases – will never get passed.
Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional plea to improve gun purchase background checks
https://cnn.it/3AnRweO
– will never go up leaving 18 states still paying $7.25 an hour.
– the last thing America needs are conservative leaders, especially some Republicans who want to keep America from progressing. The last thing America needs is backward-thinking leaders in the 21st Century.
– Republicans have turned to cheating to stay in power or to get back into power…and nothing is getting done by them for the American people.
The enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.
and everything America stands for: Truth, Justice and Liberty for all? Look what is happening in Ukraine.
*Of course, not all Republicans are like those described above. Here is a list of those who should stay in office.
House of Representatives – those who voted to impeach the former president
Senate – The Republicans who voted to convict the former president after impeachment:
YOUR VOTE COUNTS. It’s a lie to think otherwise.
Paid for by Jake Stone for American Democracy
VOTE like your freedom depended on it…because it does.
Books of the NY Times
