Do nudge me to update my website! I would rather be writing, so I don’t do this nearly often enough.

I recently read a short story, “Fall Back,” at the Story Catcher Festival in Gunnison, Colorado. This delightful and enriching conference ran from April 8-10 and was hosted by Western Colorado University and the Mari Sandoz Society.

Thankfully, I was awarded an Emerging Writing Award, and had the chance to meet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, along with other wonderful writers and teachers: Joe Wilkins, Sean Prentiss, Claire Boyles, Laura Pritchett, and others. It was a fabulous event! I highly recommend you attend next summer if you are able, either remotely or in person.

*I’ll post the livestream of the reading of Mari Sandoz award winners when I have it–you can listen to me read this wild and wacky story about migraines!

On May 18, 2022, from 5-7:30 p.m., we had a moving reading of veterans from Northern Colorado, hosted by Ross Atkinson and Colorado State University. For event details, see the attached flyer. The anthology, Charlie Mike, was converted to digital format and is now available to read electronically. For more information about the CSU Veterans Writing Workshop, watch this short video clip. With a huge thanks to Ryan Lanham, who got this off the ground as the first facilitator. Veterans Writing Workshop w-EET logo

I read on April 24, 2022, as part of the International Women’s Writing Guild and their All Voices Open Mic program. IWWG is an incredible organization that does important work, reaching a broad stretch of the writing community. Do support them if you can.

Details: Sunday, April 24, 2022. 7 p.m. start EST. (I’ll try to get the Zoom recording for those of you who missed this!) / 5 p.m. MST. Sign ups here: Register

 

The Road She’s Traveled launched at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, Colorado on October 24, 2021. What an outstanding group of storytellers and content curators! Honored to be part of this astonishing group of women. Watch a clip here of “The Story Behind the Story”: LINK

 

I have two essays / interviews in this anthology about twenty-four amazing women, who advance civilization every single day, in Colorado and around the world. Cheers to Dani Grant and the team who pulled this anthology together! https://www.wolverinefarm.org/product/the-road-shes-traveled/

I read an excerpt of “Aspen Leaf Ultimatum” at the FoCo Book Festival on October 22, 2021 as part of the Local Writers Read program. Always a joy to spend time with a live audience!

Chiaroscuro released in October 2021. You’ll find several of my works here, to include both fiction and poetry. (Look hard to figure out which story is mine, but under a pen name.) LINK

The “Fresh Starts” anthology launched on April 9, 2021. This collection  of short stories, essays, and poetry is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, KOBO, Apple Books, BarnesandNoble.com, and author-author.com

Avalon Literary Review published my poem “Harmony of Circles” in its April 2021 quarterly magazine, just in time for #NationalPoetryMonth. http://www.avalonliteraryreview.com/

“A Serenade in Cerule” was featured on the Loveland Poet Laureate Facebook page, as part of the communal celebration of Joy Harjo coming to Loveland, Colorado to share with us of her wisdom and experience. I wrote this for my father-in-law, Kulwant S. Mahal, a stellar human being, who truly did possess a “lapis lazuli turquoise cannon of a spirit.” https://www.facebook.com/lovelandpoetlaureate/posts/490794662284936

Three of my poems received an Honorable Mention in the Summer 2021 National Federation of State Poetry Contests. Find more information on my poetry page. 😀

I read at LitFest in June and again in September 2021. Those readings were only open to Lighthouse writers and Book Project members. But I’ll be reading again in the months ahead. Reach out if you want details.

Book Project update: I switched to a different novel and sent the draft out for a close-up line read, thank you Dino Enrique Piacentini (Buy Dino’s Invasion of the Daffodils here). Thanks to my wonderful mentor, Erika Krouse (buy her latest books! Find Save Me, Stranger here and Tell Me Everything here), I graduated in August 2023, am still focused on a queer retelling of My Antonia, and having the time of my life. (Yet sidetracked by my MFA, where, to follow my precedent ha ha, I started an entirely new book. Which means I’ve now got five full novels. Look for any and all to be published, someday . . .) *fingers crossed <3 **An additional thank you to Rachel Weaver, who read my latest book, absurdist to the extreme. You’ll find Rachel’s website here and her latest book, Dizzy, available here.

Thanks, as always, for your support / encouragement! Yes, I’m still writing snail-mail letters to anyone who is longing for a pen pal as the pandemic persists in one form or another. Simply request one and I’ll write you a long and hard-to-read missive.