Word Craft is a Wrap! (For 2023)

Thank you to everyone who has come out to Word Craft this year, especially our nice crowd of regulars! I’m so proud of the little community we’re building. Special thanks to our 2023 guests: Danya Kukafka, Jamie Ford, Matt Ruff, Matt Kracht, Jason Hough, and Nicola Griffith! Also, I wasn’t really using this page when we started the event series, so a belated website thanks to our 2022 guests: Laurie Frankel, Kelli Estes, Terry Brooks, Cherie Priest, and Martha Brockenbrough! I’m so, so grateful to all these wonderful authors for being so generous with their time and expertise.

We’ll be back in 2024, so stay tuned here, on social (if social media still exists by the time 2024 arrives, and I’m not going to lie—I’m kinda hoping it doesn’t) and at Brick & Mortar’s website :)

Ongoing Event Series: Word Craft

As of spring 2022, I’ve been hosting an event series at my local bookstore: Brick & Mortar Books in Redmond, WA. Occurring approximately every six weeks (we maintain some wiggle room to accommodate guest authors), the events dive into different aspects of the writing and publishing process. So far, events have ranged from Worldbuilding with Terry Brooks to an “Ask a Literary Agent” event with Danya Kukafka! We’ve also covered topics like writing for children and historical accuracy (and inaccuracy) in fiction. And there’s more to come! (As of this writing, our next event is “Time and Place: Tips and Tricks for Establishing Setting” with none other than Jamie Ford!

Let’s be honest, I’m not going to update this site with every event. BUT! The bookstore does keep their calendar up to date. (Thank you, Brick & Mortar!) Curious when the next Word Craft will be? Check here!

New Novel News!

Big news, folks! My next novel is not only finished, it has a title and a (tentative) release date. FORGET ME NOT is coming your way March 2, 2021. Thanks for your patience; I’m pretty darn proud of how this one came together. Book description below:

She was born for all the wrong reasons. But her search for the truth reveals answers she wishes she could forget in this suspenseful and deeply moving novel from the author of The Last One.

What if your past wasn’t what you thought?

As a child, Linda Russell was left to raise herself in a 20-acre walled-off property in rural Washington. The woods were her home, and for twelve years she lived oblivious to a stark and terrible truth: Her mother had birthed her only to replace another daughter who died in a tragic accident years before.

And then one day Linda witnesses something she wasn’t meant to see. Terrified and alone, she climbs the wall and abandons her home, but her escape becomes a different kind of trap when she is thrust into the modern world–a world for which she is not only entirely unprepared, but which is unprepared to accept her.

And you couldn’t see a future for yourself?

Years later, Linda is living in Seattle and immersed in technology intended to connect, but she has never felt more alone. Social media continually brings her past back to haunt her, and she is hounded by the society she is now forced to inhabit. But when Linda meets a fascinating new neighbor who introduces her to the potential and escapism of virtual reality, she begins to allow herself to hope for more.

What would it take to reclaim your life?

Then an unexplained fire at her infamous childhood home prompts Linda to return to the property for the first time since she was a girl, unleashing a chain of events that will not only endanger her life but challenge her understanding of family, memory, and the world itself.

FORGET ME NOT (March 2021)