WordFest kicks off its 2018 series on Tuesday, January 9, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

Fred Hudgins will read from his first young adult (YA) novel, Green Grass. He says, “I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché about the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence. It’s usually a little more complicated than that.”

Susannah and her friends open a portal to a magical Paradise. But Paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The young people drop into the middle of a civil war, with good people and bad people on both sides. Deciding who is who becomes a pretty important question to figure out. Once the Earthlings get cloned, things really become complicated. Imagine saying “Hi!” to yourself!

Fred has been writing poetry and short stories since he took a Creative Writing class at Purdue University in 1967. “Unfortunately, that was the only class I passed.” He spent the next three years in the army, including a tour in Vietnam, then earned a BS in Computer Science from Rutgers, with a career as a computer programmer.

His short stories and poems have been published in Biker Magazine, The Salal Review, The Scribbler, in the anthologies, That Holiday Feeling and Not Your Mother’s Book on Working for a Living, and on Poetry.Com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan O’Keefe will be reading an excerpt from his novel Shallow World: A Sunny-Thorned Seed for the Untold Stories, which he describes as “a New Adult romantic dramedy.” Set in the fictional city of Merson Valley, California, it follows the wonderful, messy, sometimes heartbreaking lives of best friends Jynnete and Katy, both 20, as they face the challenges and adventures of college, romance, new adulthood, and a school shooting.

Ryan is currently seeking ways to get his novel published.  Born in Washington, he has also lived in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, and moved to Longview in September. He previously worked as a copywriter for a financial institution.

 

 

 

Joan Enders will read from Evidence is Lacking. Yet I Still Hope. Joshua Henry Bates was a young teacher in a country school when he signed up for service in the American Expeditionary Forces going to Europe in the “war to end all wars.” The book contains primary sources about Joshua and his life–about the young woman with whom he fell in love, about leaving his farm to  attend the University of Utah, and his self-doubts reflected in his journal. Joan will lead the audience in an “interactive reading” of these sources, including documents and photographs from his youth,  his journal and Camp Lewis diary, and a variety of other materials to learn about who he was and what happened to him. Joan promises it will be “very different from other readings, to be sure!”

 

Joan taught literature and research skills in middle and high school libraries for 28 years. She was a recipient of the American Library Association’s Frances Henne Award for library leadership. She now conducts training webinars for librarians and administers the local Family History Center for Family Search International. She enjoys “peeling the research onion” for students and adults. Joan speaks to professional organizations and at genealogy conferences.

 

 

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

WordFest will feature accounts and stories about Bigfoot on Tuesday, November 14, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

Popular naturalist and writer Robert Michael Pyle will read from his book, Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide. First published in 1995, the book has been recently re-issued with a new chapter examining evidence that suggests such a creature may exist. Awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to investigate the legends of Sasquatch, Bob trekked into the unprotected wilderness of the Dark Divide near Mount St. Helens where he discovered a giant fossil footprint and more recent tracks. He interviewed Indians who told him of an outcast tribe, the Seeahtiks, who had not fully evolved into humans, and met scientists, hunters, and others who have devoted their lives to the search. The result is a moving and witty narrative investigation of not only the phenomenon of Bigfoot, but also of the human need to believe that something is out there beyond the campfire.

Bob​ is the author of eighteen books, including Wintergreen, Rambles in a Ravaged Land, Chasing Monarchs, Sky Time in Grays River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place, and a poetry collection Evolution of the Genus Iris. A Yale-trained ecologist and Guggenheim fellow, he is a full-time writer living in Wahkiakum County.

You can watch an interview with Robert Michael Pyle about Bigfoot on BookChat.

 

 

 

Captain H.J. “Pete” Pettersen will read from his novel, Port Orford’s Youngest Fisherman, the story of a young boy who goes to live with his grandfather following the death of his parents and learns the art of fishing. Living in a fisherman’s shack in the little coastal village of Port Orford, Oregon, the boy works through his grief, finding a new home and a new life.

 

 

Pete has spent most of his life at sea. Raised in the San Juan Islands, he was commercially fishing with his dad and brothers on the Pacific coast and in Alaskan waters by the time he was eight, and was captaining a fishing boat in Alaska at the age of thirteen. After obtaining his Captain Oceans license, he worked and traveled the world. Recently retired, he and his wife Kat live in Longview.

 

 

 

 

 

William Alton will be reading from a novel he is co-writing with John Saxon, titled A Change in the Wind. Set in Central Europe at the beginning of the 19^th Century as Napoleon is building his empire, it chronicles a spiritual battle spreading across the quiet villages and bustling cities of the Germanies. Räder Wunderwahn, a young man with a past he cannot remember, is searching for his identity, which is tied to the darkness rising where the old gods are intent on conquering the world and establishing a new Reich.

Bill was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2010. He has written a collection of flash fiction, Girls, two collections of poetry, Heroes of Silence and Heat Washes Through, a memoir titled My Name is Bill and a novel, Flesh and Bone. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

WordFest will feature stories about love between concert pianists, World War II from a German soldier’s perspective, and murder with questions of  justice, next Tuesday, October 10, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse, 1333 Broadway in Longview.

 

Laura Baird will be reading from her debut romance novel, Keyed Up:

As pianist with the Seattle Symphony, Penelope Dixon is unexpectedly reunited with Sebastian Mauer, her first love from ten years earlier. Sebastian, once a famed performer, had foolishly pushed aside his love for Penelope, thinking it for the best at the time. Now a reclusive composer, he’s wants to prove they deserve a second chance together, and Penelope is forced to face her buried desires and the impact of those desires on her career.

 

 

A dental hygienist for more than seventeen years, Laura has been writing steadily during that time, resulting in three of her stories recently being accepted by three different publishers.  Copies of Keyed Up will be available for purchase at WordFest. Second Time Love (Evernight Publishing) and Resort Virgins (Wild Rose Press) will be appearing in six to nine months.

 

 

 

 

 

Philip Brock will be reading from his novel, Silk Cocoon, set during World War II:  With a beautiful wife and child and a successful business, Hans Schultz is living an almost idyllic life in pre-war Germany. He believes the future is bright and promising under the new Nazi government with its vision of Germany becoming a world leader once again. But with the onset of war, his world spins out of his control. He’s called to military service in the infantry and, as the war progresses, begins to question the actions of his government. When he witnesses the slaughter of men, women and children at the Plunda Work Camp, Hans realizes the country is run by monsters. Eventually, he will have to answer for the part he was forced to play in these atrocities.

Philip, a 1972 graduate of Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington, worked for more than 30 years as a Certified Public Accountant. Now retired, he lives in Cathlamet, Washington, on the shores of the Columbia River. His interest in Nazi Germany began as a child living in Wurtzburg, Germany. He remembers lying in bed, watching the morning sunlight streaming through a bullet hole in the window shutter, playing in a back yard still pock-marked from exploding shells, and finding his landlord’s garden shed filled with Nazi uniforms, flags and other memorabilia.

 

 

Kevin Hunter is president of the Longview Downtowner’s business group and an international video broadcaster and podcaster. As host of The Business Forum Show, he produces content seen and heard in 220 countries and territories around the world. He will be reading from a book he wrote with his wife, Stephanie, titled Justice was Served.

Though fiction, the story is based on a true event about a young nurse who disappeared from a hospital parking ramp after finishing her shift. The investigation into her disappearance bogs down in the dead of winter, but in the following spring, her body is discovered with the melting snow. As the perpetrator is awaiting his trial, some people think that three meals a day, cable TV, and a warm jail cell isn’t really justice for snuffing out the life of young vibrant woman. The FBI say the case may be compromised. What if he is set free? How will they know that justice was served?

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local judge and storyteller Ed Putka will kick off WordFest’s fall season next Tuesday, September 12, 6:00 pm, at the Cassava Coffeehouse.

A WordFest favorite, Ed has been compared to Garrison Keillor for his popular Cleveland stories, set in the Polish neighborhood of his youth. Once again combining memory and humor, Ed will share another tale of how the old gang helped the new kid with the all-time worst name get through school.

 

 

 

 

Steve Anderson will read excerpts from the third in his Book of Hours trilogy. The resplendent fifteenth century Book of Hours has been restored and presented to Pope Gregory XVII, but what will happen to the ancient shreds of parchment that Brother Alphaios and archivist Inaki Arriagi found within its covers?

 

 

 

 

The parchment holds a deep secret that undercuts one of the very pillars of Catholicism. Will Alphaios be able to continue a monastic life or be driven from it for his disobedience?

Steve lives and writes in Longview.

 

 

 

Alan Rose will read from his recently completed novel, As If Death Summoned, about the AIDS epidemic. Alan was involved in the epidemic, first in Australia in the 1980s, and then working at Cascade AIDS Project in Portland through the 1990s.

 

 

 

 

Alan has written two earlier novels, The Legacy of Emily Hargraves, a paranormal mystery, and Tales of Tokyo, a quest novel set in modern day Japan, as well as a novella, The Unforgiven, a psychological mystery published by Bold Strokes Books in 2012.

 

 

 

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

 

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the next WordFest event on Tuesday, July 11, 6:00-8:00 p.m., British-born author Hannah Dennison will read from her latest mystery, Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall.

Hannah is the author of The Vicky Hill Mysteries (Constable Crime) as well as the Honeychurch Hall Mysteries (Minotaur), both series set in the wilds of the Devonshire countryside. Hannah originally moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. She has been an obituary reporter, an antique dealer, and a Hollywood story analyst.

 

Now living in Portland, she teaches mystery writing workshops at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program in Los Angeles, and has served on numerous judging committees for Mystery Writers of America and currently serves on the MWA Board of Directors for 2016-2018.

In her most recent mystery, a missing manuscript, a dead postmistress and the gruesome remains of a woman thought to have vanished during the English Civil War in the seventeenth century, are uncannily connected in Murderous Mayhem at Honeychurch Hall, the fourth adventure in the mystery series featuring antique dealer Kat Stanford and her romance writer mother, Iris.

You can watch the Book Chat interview with Hannah here.

 

Cam Parvitee will be reading from the second book in her Black Dragons series. In Book One, a group of Tai Chi practitioners (most in their 60s and older) helped young teenagers in their community from being bullied by the Snakes, a street gang.

In Book Two the seniors who have now undertaken the care of the children, begin to wonder if they were crazy for accepting the challenge.

For much of her life, Cam has been involved with the activities of teenagers and young adults. She got the idea for this book series one evening during a Kung Fu class, when she, at 75, threw a teenaged “attacker” to the floor at her feet.

 

Alkaid Tsuki will be reading from Book Two of her Young Adult (YA) Liberation series entitled Hope Filled Moon.

The characters of the earlier book, Freedom’s New Moon, travel to the city of Lunaria, where they meet the fourth and final Sentry, a young man named Sol who conjures Angels. As their brotherhood continues to grow, difficult truths come to light and members have to choose whom to trust. The as yet unpublished series is currently a tetralogy.

Alkaid Tsuki is the pen name of Caleigh Maffett, a student at Lower Columbia College. Her short story, “Entanglement,” received an Honorable Mention in the Metamorphose Short Story Writing Contest, and will be published by Metamorphose in their fall issue.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, at Cassava, 1333 Broadway in Longview. The events are free and open to the public.

Cassava offers a dinner menu for those who wish to enjoy a meal with the readings, as well as local wines and brews.

For more information, contact Alan Rose at www. Alan-rose.com.