Join us for a “virtual book club” to discuss Alan’s haunting novel about the AIDS epidemic, As If Death Summoned. The story explores how ongoing grief can erode a life, and also how finding one’s way through grief can rebuild, renew, and deepen life.
The Zoom event on Friday, February 12, at 1:00 pm. is free and open to the public. People on the WordFest newsletter email list will receive an invitation link Friday morning. People do not need a Zoom account to participate.
People not on the WordFest email list can subscribe here. (The monthly newsletter is free and one can unsubscribe at any time.)
Vikki J. Carter, host and producer of Authors of the Pacific Northwest podcast, will lead the conversation. Participants will have the opportunity to ask the author questions about the book and the true stories on which the novel is based. But the discussion will also explore how participants have experienced their own personal losses, and what helped–and didn’t help–them through life-shattering grief.
It is not necessary to have read the novel to participate.
Three popular mystery writers read at the WordFest on Zoom event on Tuesday, February 9, at 7:00 pm., although only one of them read read from her mystery series. See the video below:
Hannah Dennison will be reading from her home in Devon, England. A member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the Willamette Writers, and British Crime Writers’ Association, Hannah is the author of five books in the Vicky Hill Mystery series and six books in her Honeychurch Hall Mystery series. She has recently published Death at High Tide, the first book in her new Island Sisters series. Coincidentally, her mother is a docent at Greenway, Agatha Christie’s summer home, which has been turned into a museum.
USA Today best-selling author Marty Wingate will read from her latest book, Glamour Girls (Alcove Press), a historical novel that follows Spitfire pilot Rosalie Wright through both the physical and emotional dangers of the Second World War. Marty also writes The First Edition Librarymystery series (Berkley) set in Bath, England, about the curator of a collection of books from the Golden Age of Mystery. In book two, Murder Is a Must, an exhibition manager is found dead at the bottom of a spiral staircase—a la Dorothy L. Sayers. Marty also writes the Potting Shed and Birds of a Feather mystery series.
Jan Bono is author of the Sylvia Avery mystery series, set on the Long Beach peninsula of the Washington coast, but at the next WordFest, Jan will be reading from her new collection of poems, Fisher Girl, Fisher Wife, Fisher Poet, in preparation for this year’s Gathering of Fisher Poets, February 25-27, in Astoria, Oregon. Due to Covid-19, the popular event will be available on Zoom for the first time.
The WordFest on Zoom events are free and open to the public. One doesn’t need to have a Zoom account to participate, but one must register for the free, monthly WordFest newsletter here to receive the Zoom invitation link.
Watch the video of the January WordFest on Zoom below.
WordFest coordinator Alan Rose will read from his new novel at the next “WordFest on Zoom” event, Tuesday, January 12, 2021, 7:00-8:00 pm. Released on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2020, by Amble Press, As If Death Summoned tells the stories of people caught in the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s. Alan, who worked at Cascade AIDS Project in Portland from 1993 to 1999, captures the pathos, resilience and the death-defying humor of those years. Foreword Reviews calls the book “as heartwarming and hope-giving as it is heartbreaking,”
About the Book: In 1936, a man was caught in a blizzard on Australia’s Bogong High Plains. Found unconscious by a search party, he was taken to the nearest township where an old aborigine woman made the cryptic comment, “They brought back only his body.” He died soon after. In the decades since, there have been reports of a lone figure seen wandering in the region. When approached, the man vanishes without a trace.
Almost sixty years later, a young American returns from Australia, exhausted after ten years on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic and haunted by dreams of the Bogong High Plains. He, too, is lost in a kind of blizzard, struggling to remember a time when life was about more than death. Working at an AIDS organization in Portland, Oregon, he will eventually come to understand the old woman’s words and his mystic connection to the Bogong High Plains: When he returned to the States, he brought back only his body.
The historical event known as the Mt Bogong Tragedy is the seed for this fictional story of profound loss and profound healing. With expected pathos and unexpected humor, As If Death Summonedtestifies to the power of grief to erode a life, and—for those who can find a way through their grief—the power to rebuild and renew it.
Hold the Dates:
Book Signing (properly masked, socially distanced) from 1:00-4:00 pm, in the Merk in downtown Longview on Saturday, January 16. Paperbacks Galore will sell copies at a discount of $17.
Virtual Book Discussion with Alan via Zoom on Friday, February 12, 1:00-2:00 pm, hosted by Vikki J. Carter, producer of the podcast series, Authors of the Pacific Northwest. (Register for free Zoom invitation link with Alan at [email protected], or Vikki at [email protected])
Dayle Olson, a poet and short story writer living in Wahkiakum County, will read “What Sets Us Free,” which first appeared in Seaside Libraries’ 2019 short story anthology.
Dayle’s short stories were selected two years running by Seaside Libraries for publication in their annual anthology. She lives with her husband David and two opinionated cats in Cathlamet. Her poem, “Water Highway/SR 4 at Stella,” was one of eight chosen statewide for inclusion in Washington State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna’s Washington Poetic Routes broadsheet project. In addition to writing poetry during the pandemic, Dayle has been researching the stories of early residents buried in the local Pioneer Cemetery.
Longview poet and essayist Mary Lyons is a WordFest favorite, known for her often humorous accounts of life in the (now) twenty-first century. Mary will be reading a short story, “Joy to the Whirled!” about preparing for the Christmas season during the current pandemic, involving domineering cats, two grandchildren, and three Baby Yodas.
The WordFest on Zoom events are free and open to the public. One doesn’t need to have a Zoom account, but one must register for the (free) monthly WordFest newsletter here to receive the Zoom invitation link.
For more information, go to www.alan-rose.com
About WordFest
A monthly gathering of local writers and readers, celebrating the joy and magic of words, with public readings, discussions, and networking opportunities.
WordFest is a free event and open to the general public.
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