The Written Word

Several years ago, at a Dickens of a Christmas event in Historic Downtown Franklin, the Council for the Written Word rented and staffed a booth to display our books and promote our literary projects, including an anthology with 31 local authors.  We were a non-profit organization with our goals – to educate, encourage, and empower local writers and the written word.  We researched and documented our literary heritage.  We have on our website, the names of 450-plus persons who have lived in Williamson County and written and published at least one complete book.

Frequently, people would see our name and for some reason assume we were a religious organization.  That probably explains a conversation that took place.  A lady from out of town, who was attending the festival, came to our booth and asked a question which took all of us by surprise.  She wanted to know if John, the Baptist, baptized Jesus in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Did he, should he baptize Jesus in the name Jesus?   Reaching into my Sunday school background, I came up with the “to fulfill all righteousness” response from Jesus, and admitted that I knew of no precedent for ritual or verbiage for baptism prior to John’s baptism.

She had been a Baptist, but now was non-denominational having found something more spiritual, she said.   Among her new-found faith she referred to tongues and snakes, and signs and wonders.  From her mannerisms, speech, and dress, I would have thought she might have more likely been an Episcopalian or up-scale Presbyterian, not someone with Pentecostal inclinations.

Many of our Williamson County authors write in the religious or inspirational genre, possibly half of those in our bibliography. Much of our heritage and current successes have been from historical fiction or non-fiction, much of it focused on the Battle of Franklin and life in the mid- and late-1800’s.  Our Williamson County writers Hall of Fame includes noted historians—Virginia Bowman, Jim Crutchfield, Vance Little, Rick Warwick, and Robert Hicks.

In 1993, when The Council began its research, we found 98 Williamson County published authors.  We published a small bibliography and presented our first Hall of Fame award to Virginia Bowman who at the time was the County historian.  Since that time we have worked with the Williamson County Library to put our bibliography on line.  If you google Council for the Written Word and find the home page and click on bibliography you find the full list of biographies and titles.  This is a continuing work in progress.  You may know a local author whose name is not included in our bibliography.  If so let me know and I can follow up for inclusion.

The first time I put my writing in book form, I was not aware of the vast heritage of Williamson County literature.  We find that people are impressed and surprised when they learn that we have 450-plus authors, past and present.  When I first published my play, To Think As a Pawn, the first question was, “is it about chess”, a logical question.  It was a good title and indicative of the plot, but I don’t know that anyone in Williamson County had published a play before 1990.  For my next book, I chose the title Politics, Preaching & Philosophy, thinking nobody would ask what the book is about.  Instead they have asked, “Are you a preacher?”

Back to our original premise, there is (or was, maybe not so anymore) a consensus that the published written word in Williamson County is either some commentary or exposition on the inspired word of God, or a stratagem of troop deployment and pageantry of the Confederate Army.  Consequently, most of local authorship was religious, or historical and archival narrative related to the War Between the States, specifically the Battle of Franklin.

Persons who teach creative writing often repeat the expression “finding your voice”, which defines your interests, knowledge, passions, and whatever grammatical skills you have found to convert thought to a readable configuration of written words.  I have often wished I were more astute in local history, or trained in the art of ministerial eloquence, to more easily fit the paradigm of local literature.

When you go to our website bibliography, you will find as many writing styles and subjects as you find listed authors.  The goal of the Council is to promote writers and the written word, religious or secular, fiction or non-fiction, poetry, humor, memoir, essay, and sponsor events– workshops, book-signings, lectures, and readings.  I am grateful to the Council for being supportive of my effort to find my voice in a play, a memoir, short stories, and essays.  My third book title was Random Thoughts Left & Right, which I also have not been able to explain, but a lot of people have read it, right and left.