Authors I Admire

April is my favorite time of year in Spokane. Not just because spring arrives, but because it’s time for Get Lit! During this amazing literary festival, authors and readers worship the written word. The festival began in 1998 as one full day of readings and was sponsored by Eastern Washington University. Now, more than ten thousand people come to the yearly event to enjoy a week of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction literary events. I’ve been a festival volunteer every year, since I moved to Spokane. This year, I’m moderating a panel featuring three amazing authors: Rebecca Zanetti, Danica Winters, and …

Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun and sometimes you neglect your own blog because you’re too busy playing on other websites and at conferences. I just returned home from an amazing few days at the American Writers & Writers Program (AWP) conference in Seattle. I graduated from Eastern Washington University with an MFA in creative writing (non fiction) back in 2010. For the first time, the university sponsored a reception for current students and alumni during the conference. It was so much fun meeting up with old friends who are now scattered all over the states in different jobs, …

The Golden Heart deadline is coming up and, as usual, I’m scrambling to write my synopsis. The good news is that I have polished manuscript to an extra gleaming sheen while I procrastinated the summary part. As you can tell, I’m not a fan of summarizing my masterpiece in 5 pages or less.  I’m getting better at it though. This is largely because of some awesome tools that generous writers share on their websites. In the spirit of prolonging the inevitable a bit longer, I decided to share the most useful ones I’ve found here, with you, as an early …

I’m not a good poetry reader. Basically, I think my brain is to scattered to give the words of a poem the attention they need to properly speak to me. For a long time, I was sad that I couldn’t appreciate good poetry. But then, I realized that I am an awesome poetry listener. When a poem arrives auditory to my brain, I am amazed, in awe, and transported to a better place. Today, this happened via this video. I’ve watched it five times and still get chills down my spine. Powerful. Precautions generico cialis on line may lead to …

I’m on Bark today, talking about how much I learned about voice from Sophie Littlefield’s Stella Hardesty series. Stop by and join the conversation. As an extra bonus, your comment enters you into a drawing for an author-signed copy of A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, the first book in this fantastic series. “Very early in my writing life, I shared a story with some local writers during an event at the library where I lived in California. My prose told of an adventure involving pirates, pick-pocketing urchins, and buxom wenches. The writers read my tale and after a long moment …