Hagridden‘s publisher, Columbus Press, has put the call out for photos of my novel out in the world for Fall/Halloween — readers in costume with the book, or the book in scary locations, or the book in Fall scenery . . . . Whatever you fans (they’ve started calling y’all “Hagriddenians”!) come up with. And so far, the response hasContinue reading “More readers celebrating Halloween/Fall with Hagridden”
Category Archives: writing
Free ebook on self-publishing
Last week, I met with a creative writing class in Salem, Oregon, to talk writing and publishing and Hagridden. A few of the students were interested in my experience with “traditional publishing” (short answer: sunnyoutside press and Columbus Press have been GREAT to me!), but I began my reply by explaining that, actually, “traditional publishing”Continue reading “Free ebook on self-publishing”
Readers celebrating Halloween/Fall with Hagridden
As regular readers already know, I like to share photos of folks reading my books, or my books on folks’ shelves, etc, and now Hagridden‘s publisher, Columbus Press, wants to see those pix, too! They’ve had the fun idea to solicit more photos of Hagridden out in the world — you in costume with my bookContinue reading “Readers celebrating Halloween/Fall with Hagridden”
Reading from Hagridden at Chemeketa Writes
Yesterday, I drove down I-5 in the rain to Salem, Oregon, where I joined students, faculty, and community members at Chemeketa Community College for their Chemeketa Writes program. They’d invited me to read from my novel Hagridden. Almost a year ago, on November 12, I did almost exactly the same thing, except at the time, HagriddenContinue reading “Reading from Hagridden at Chemeketa Writes”
NaNoWriMo and my first published novel
Five years ago, I embarked on my first real attempt at National Novel Writing Month. I signed up, planned my schedule, roughed out an outline, and buckled down. November 1, 2009, I began writing. Two weeks later, I raced past the 50,000-word mark. The ending was rushed and the details were hazy and the charactersContinue reading “NaNoWriMo and my first published novel”
A new review of Hagridden, and FREE BOOKS!
Today has been a good-news day: I woke up this morning, silenced the alarm on my phone, and saw a Twitter notification that The Austin Review (a fantastic literary magazine, by the way!) had published Paul Adams’s review of my novel, Hagridden. And what a review! Adams does an amazing close-reading of the text, picking apartContinue reading “A new review of Hagridden, and FREE BOOKS!”
The book that made me a writer
The other day on Facebook, as a fun twist on Throwback Thursday, author and publisher Michael Seidlinger asked a “throwback” question: “The first book you read that blew your mind?” The question elicited a few hundred responses, many of which felt nostalgic for me: Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” which remains one of my favorite long stories ever; Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,Continue reading “The book that made me a writer”
EJ Runyon’s new book, A House of Light and Stone
My friend EJ Runyon published a book last month and I’ve been meaning to tell you about it! It’s called A House of Light and Stone: Told in uncompromising clarity through the eyes of a child, A House of Light and Stone is at once full of heartbreak and hope, offering respites of warmth inContinue reading “EJ Runyon’s new book, A House of Light and Stone”
New publication
For the past few months, I’ve been writing new short stories related to my Civil War novel, Hagridden. Each story involves a minor character or two from the novel, people who have some important moments in the book but are definitely supporting characters to the main narrative; in these stories, those folks get their own narrative. Today,Continue reading “New publication”
An appointment with loads of amazing writers
A couple of evenings ago, I went over to The Jade Lounge in Portland to hang out with Dena Rash Guzman, Yuvi Zalkow, Julia Clare Tillinghast, and Parker Tettleton as part of Timothy Gager‘s book tour for his new novel, The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan. We had a grand time. Despite the noise in the kitchen andContinue reading “An appointment with loads of amazing writers”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 