Next Tuesday, April 2, Pat Nelson will read a short nonfiction story titled “Lost and Found,” about her extreme shyness when she was in junior high, and, standing before her class to read a report, was unable to utter a sound. In the years since, she has learned that a podium can help overcome her shyness, so she is donating one for the WordFest gatherings.

“I’m sure there are others who turn back into a scared junior high kid when they think about standing in front of a group to read their stories,” said Pat. “I’ve found that a podium provides a great deal of security!”

Pat, writer and editor, is co-creator of Publishing Syndicate’s humorous and sometimes edgy anthology Not Your Mother’s Book . . . On Parenting, scheduled for a May, 2013 release. She has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul and her stories appear on www.LewisRiver.com. She lives in Woodland and has written columns on Woodland for The Daily News. She blogs at www.storystorm.me.

Attorney and former Daily News city editor Dave Rorden will share some things he learned writing his first draft of his legal novel, “Super Lawyer.” He titles his presentation “Things I Learned From My *@&#* First Draft.”

Author of Path to Peril, H.D. Duman, will give a presentation on the new book he is writing, titled Rollo. The story is the first in the planned Wolf Moon Chronicles, about a wolf and his doppleganger. Dale, an engineer and computer scientist, is also working on his sequel to Path to Peril in his contemporary fiction series about the government and cyber terrorism.