Two writers of YA (Young Adult) mysteries will be reading from their debut novels at the next WordFest event on Tuesday, May 9, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Cassava Coffeeshop.

Kelly Garrett will read from her novel, The Last To Die, published by Poisoned Pen Press in April 2017.

Harper is no saint, but she doesn’t deserve to die. When her teen burglary ring goes terribly wrong and one of her friends dies, she faces a moral dilemma that will make or break her–and if she makes the wrong choice, it will get her killed.

Sheryl Scarborough, an award-winning writer for children’s television, holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. To Catch A Killer is her debut novel, published by Tor Teen.

As a toddler, Erin Blake survived three days alongside the corpse of her murdered mother. Fourteen years later, Erin has ramped up her forensic hobby into a full-blown cold-case investigation. Now a new murder makes her certain she’s close to the truth, but all the evidence is pointing the authorities to Erin.

 
Kelly and Sheryl will also discuss “When writing is murder,” exploring the intricacies of writing mysteries for young adults, including plotting out the story and developing realistic characters.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations at 7:30 pm. People are welcome to read their writing for ten minutes each.

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.

Mark is the author of six books, including The Green Age of Asher Witherow, named a #1 Indie Next selection by the American Booksellers Association, Lost Son, a biographical novel about Rainer Maria Rilke (the author of Letters to a Young Poet), Date of Disappearance, a collection of short stories, and Partisans, a dystopian work about unbridled surveillance, constant war, and technological upheaval, which was a finalist for the Flann O’Brien Award for Innovative Fiction. He recently edited and wrote the introduction to Funny-Ass Thoreau, a collection of humorous extracts from the writer of Walden.

Mark’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals including The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and Alaska Quarterly Review, and he is a frequent contributor to the Books section of The Oregonian. He founded the independent literary press Atelier26, and is a contributing editor for Moss, a journal of contemporary literature from the Pacific Northwest. He lives in Portland, where he facilitates the Atelier26 Creative Writing Workshops and teaches at Literary Arts.

J.S.(Steve)Anderson will be reading from his novel, Book of Hours: Unholy Error, the second book in his trilogy featuring Brother Alphaios.

While recreating a resplendent fifteenth century Book of Hours as a gift for the pope, Brother Alphaios and archivist Inaki Arriaga discover ancient shreds of parchment hidden in its covers. They pursue the few haunting words that remain only to stumble into a battle between the Roman Church, which wants to destroy the parchment or bury it forever, and its owner, real estate billionaire Salton Motice who wants to use it for his own nefarious purposes.

Steve, who lives and writes in Longview, has a lifelong interest in Western religions, art and cultures.

Fred Hudgin will be reading from The Three Hour War, Book Two of his The End of Children series.

After some graduate students discover how to open a wormhole, an alert is sounded by detectors planted on the moon fifty thousand years ago by the species that raised humanity from apes to people. Because there is now no way to stop humans from developing starships using the wormhole technology and spreading their warlike attitudes and greed throughout the galaxy, humanity is selected for elimination by simply turning off their ability to have children.

Living in Ariel, Washington, Fred has been writing poetry and short stories since he took a Creative Writing class at Purdue University in 1967.  His short stories and poems have been published in Biker Magazine, on Poetry.Com, The Salal Review, The Scribbler, and in two anthologies, That Holiday Feeling, a collection of Christmas short stories, and Not Your Mother’s Book on Working for a Living.

Popular storyteller and WordFest favorite Ed Putka will host the evening.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations at 7:40 pm. People are welcome to read their writing for ten minutes each.

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.

Two popular and delightful mystery writers will join WordFest next Tuesday, March 14, 6:00-8:00 pm, at Cassava Coffee shop in Longview.

Kate Dyer-Seeley is a Vancouver author who writes the Pacific Northwest Mystery Series. Her intrepid young journalist Meg Reed discovers murder wherever she goes–on Mt. Hood (Slayed on the Slopes,) while windsurfing in the Columbia Gorge (Silenced in the Surf), or climbing Angel’s Rest (Scene of the Climb.)

Kate also writes the Bakeshop Mystery Series under the pen name Ellie Alexander. The series is set in Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and features the amateur sleuth/professional baker Juliet Capshaw in books that whet the reader’s appetite as well as chill the reader’s backbone, including Meet Your Baker, A Batter of Life and Death, Fudge and Jury, and Caught Bread Handed.

(At the time of this media release, we’re not sure whether Kate or Ellie will be attending.)

Cindy Brown is a Portland author who writes the Ivy Meadows Mystery Series. Cindy’s background in theater is apparent in her mysteries, which include MacDeath, The Sound of Murder and Oliver Twisted, and display her wit and knowledge of comedy and drama onstage and off.

Kate and Cindy (and we assume, Ellie, too) are friends as well as fellow writers and they recently participated in a Book Chat episode at KLTV that is delightful, fun and funny to watch as they discuss a number of topics: where they get their ideas, on writing a series, first drafts, rejections, agents and publishers, and tips for other mystery writers (“You must have a body by page 30.”) You can watch the episode here: Book Chat

There will be an open mic period following the presentations at 7:30 pm., where people are welcome to read their writing for ten minutes each.

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.

WordFest offers a variety of storytelling next Tuesday, February 14, 6:00-8:00 pm, at Cassava Coffee shop in Longview.

Kate Ristau is a Portland folklorist and author of young adult and middle grade fiction. She read from her first novel, Shadowgirl, (published in 2015) at last September’s WordFest.

On Tuesday, she will be reading from her new novel, Clockbreakers:

On her eleventh birthday, Charlie receives a key to go back in time. But time travel isn’t easy. Before she blows out her candles, Charlie lands in Greece with her best friend Maria and her former best friend Trent. She’s a Clockbreaker, stuck in a Greek myth, on an action-packed adventure with a mission: to save her father, and perhaps even save the world.

Kate taught at the University of Oregon and Western Oregon University, and with colleague Maren Bradley Anderson edited an anthology of poems, essays, and short stories called Coarse Grounds: A Coffee Anthology. Currently, Kate is the Portland Chapter Chair of Willamette Writers.

She was recently interviewed for KLTV’s ”Book Chat” program with local fantasy writer Alkaid Tsuki. You can watch their interview here:
Book Chat

Lilly Robbins Brock will be reading from her book, Wooden Boats & Iron Men, which was featured in The Daily News last year. The project began when she found letters from her now deceased father written while he was on the battlefront in World War II. The letters inspired her to find a living WWII veteran to tell his story. The result was this true life war tale of an 18-year old Oklahoman and his love of the PT motor boat he served on.

Lilly’s preferred genre is historical fiction. She has written a novel about a family in the 1850s travelling by paddle wheel steamship from New York to the Pacific Northwest via the South American route. She has also written and published the book, Food Gifts Recipes From Nature’s Bounty, based on organic gardening. She is currently working with a 99 year-old veteran on a book to be titled Ever a Soldier.

E. Bryan Calhoun will be reading from A Taste of Honey, in his Max Harper, Detective series. It’s a modern-day dime novel set in the fictional Three Rivers, Washington. Max Harper is a bottle-scarred private eye with a painful past and an uncertain future. Then Honey Meadows walks into his life, a mysterious woman with a fake name and real problems of her own. Max and Honey take on murder, mayhem and each other as they go after the treasure that is hidden somewhere on a mountain in the Great Northwest.

Native to this community, Bryan grew up watching TV detectives  and has always had an interest in storytelling. He works as an employment specialist at Another Option, Inc., helping individuals with disabilities get jobs in the local community, and writes in his spare time. He is currently seeking an editor for his Max Harper, Detective series.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations at 7:30 pm. People are welcome to read their writing for ten minutes each.

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.

Portland author Jamie Duclos-Jourdon will be reading from his debut novel at the first WordFest gathering of the year, next Tuesday, January 10, 6:00-8:00 pm. at Cassava.

Froelich’s Ladder, published by Forest Avenue Press, is a tall tale about a tall ladder and the two German immigrant brothers who built it. Set in the Pacific Northwest of the 1870s, it combines the historical with the fantastical.

Local folklorist Leslie Slape talked with Jamie about his book recently on KLTV’s Book Chat. You can watch the interview here: Book Chat.

David Martin will be reading from The Secret of the Lake, first in his six-book Middle Grade fiction series, titled The Adventures of Sugar Dog, about “one very special dog and four boys who are at that magical age of twelve.”

There are rumors of old treasure buried out near the lake just west of Capeview.  When a book on the town’s history is stolen from the public library, several strange events and the boys’ curiosity lead to a frightening encounter with the hermit who lives on the spit between the bay and the ocean.

David is a singer, songwriter, musician, poet, disc jockey and news reporter, based in Astoria.

There will be an open mic period following the presentations at 7:30 pm. People are welcome to read their writing for ten minutes each.

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.