Award Ceremonies

Being a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators over several years brought me many great experiences. I attended their yearly large Carolinas conferences and a few small retreats with well-known authors in the children's literature genre. I attribute much of my success as an author to what I learned at those events. 

That said, the best part of attending any conference is the networking that takes place. I have met so many wonderful writers. Although I am no longer a member since my writing took a turn from the children's market to the memoir/local history adult level market, I have followed the writing careers of several fellow SCBWI members from years ago. I crossed paths with two of them this past Saturday.

On the left is Eileen Heyes, followed in the middle by Carol Baldwin, with me on the other end. 

We were at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Society of Historians at the Wilkes Heritage Museum in Wilkesboro, a perfect venue to celebrate those who have worked to preserve the history of North Carolina. From their website: 

Since 1941, the North Carolina Society of Historians

has presented annual awards of excellence

 to recognize those individuals and organizations

who discover and present information

 about the history and heritage of North Carolina.

That's why we were together on this recent Saturday, to receive recognition for our books preserving a bit of the history of our great state. I've read both the one by Eileen and the one by Carol, and yes, these books are definitely deserving of an award.

Freedom's Howl, by Eileen Heyes, tells the story of a pack of wolves that runs parallel with the story of a pioneer family during the beginnings of the American Revolution. In her acceptance speech, Eileen explained that her book was written for North Carolina's America 250 celebration. She included the red wolves, a species that was hunted to extinction. At the end of the book is a conservation moment about the program that reintroduced red wolves to the wild. 

Half-Truths by Carol Baldwin is set in the 1950s during a racially segregated period of time. Carol spoke about her book's setting in Charlotte and the two girls, one black, one white, who discover they are cousins. It is a must-read for teens, in my humble opinion. While I didn't live in Charlotte or in Tabor City, the other setting in the book, I did live in the state during the fifties. Even at that, so much of what happened was an eye-opener to me. It was fiction based on truth. And the truth often hurts to hear.

My book, Southern Fly Tyers, like Eileen's, speaks to the conservation of our natural resources - hers the wolves and their habitat, mine the trout and their habitat. Mine goes on to tell individual life stories of those people who tie flies. This history goes back to the early Cherokee and continues the narration with individual stories from the men who tied in the turn of the twentieth century all the way to current tyers. It is not a how-to book. It is a how-they book, how they lived their lives.

Our three books were only a few of the ones recognized on Saturday. Eventually, the full list will be on the society's webpage. There's a lot more to the story of preserving North Carolina history. Stay tuned.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen Griffith