Summer in Words 201 4 Instructors & Speakers
Keynote Speaker Matt Love
Matt Love lives in Astoria on the Oregon Coast and is a lifelong educator and publisher of Nestucca Spit Press. He’s the author/editor of 11 books about Oregon. In 2009, Love won the Oregon Literary Arts’ Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for his contributions to Oregon history and literature. His latest book is Rose City Heist: A True Crime Portland Tale of Sex, Gravy, Jewelry and Almost Rock and Roll. His website is http://www.nestuccaspitpress.com
Karen L. Azinger has always loved fantasy fiction, and always hoped that someday she could give back to the genre a little of the joy that reading has always given her. Eleven years ago on a hike in the Columbia River Gorge she realized she had enough original ideas to finally write an epic fantasy. She started writing her epic medieval fantasy, The Silk & Steel Saga, and never stopped. The first five books of her epic fantasy, The Steel Queen, The Flame Priest, The Skeleton King, The Poison Priestess, and The Knight Marshal, are published and getting great reviews. The sixth and final book of the saga, The Battle Immortal, is slated to be published in Oct 2014. Before writing, Karen spent over twenty years as an international business strategist, eventually becoming a vice-president for one of the world’s largest natural resource companies. She worked on developing the first gem-quality diamond mine in Canada’s arctic, on coal seam gas power projects in Australia, and on petroleum projects around the world. Having lived in Australia for eight years she considers it to be her second home. She lives with her husband in Portland Oregon, in a house perched on the edge of the forest. You can learn more at her website, www.karenlazinger.com or at her Facebook page for The Steel Queen. Karen loves to hear from her readers!
Kelly Williams Brownis a writer, blogger, reporter and agency creative living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of the bestselling “Adulting: How to Become A Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps” which has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and on the Today Show, among others. After a seven-year career in daily newspaper reporting, Brown now splits her time between working as a columnist for The Daily Beast, writing for magazines like Brides, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour with work as a copywriter and creative for Leopold Ketel, a boutique Portland advertising agency. In her free time, she likes to craft, read, dance, spraypaint Goodwill furniture, cook shrimp and placate her angry tabby cat, Marigny Treme Brown-Gervais.
John Ellis is a mad scientist on the web. He translates geek into English helping small business owners (authors) leverage the power of the modern web to build their brands, acquire more readers, and sell more books. After 20 years in technology, web development, and SEO, he is excited to live in a time when the web is about people and their content, not the sites they put it on. When not learning, writing, coaching, and engaging about the web, John enjoys everything else around him.
Cathy Lamb has written eight novels and six short stories for Kensington Publishing in New York City. Most of her books have been written between ten at night and two in the morning. She spends a great deal of time daydreaming, then transforms the daydreams into stories. She should be working on her ninth novel but she is not. She will get to it at some point in the future, probably when she sees a hummingbird. Her latest novel is If You Could See What I See. She blogs about life and writing, and interviews other authors at CathyLamb.org. You can also visit her on facebook where she likes to chat with readers.
Jessica Page Morrell understands both sides of the editorial desk–as an editor and author. She writes with depth, wit and clarity on topics related to writing and creativity and is the author is the author of the upcoming No Ordinary Days: The Seasons, Cycles and Elements of Writing as well as Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us, A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected; Bullies, Bastards & Bitches, How to Write the Bad Guys in Fiction; The Writer’s I Ching: Wisdom for the Creative Life; Voices from the Street; Between the Lines: Master The Subtle Elements Of Fiction Writing; and Writing Out the Storm. Her work also appears in anthologies and The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazines. Morrell founded and coordinates three writing conferences Summer in Words, Claim Your Story, and Making it in Changing Times. She works as a developmental editor, a columnist, and is a popular speaker at writers’ conferences. Morrell lives in Portland, Oregon where she is surrounded by writers and watches the sky in all its moods and permutations.
Randall Platt writes fiction for adults and young adults and those who don’t own up to being either. Platt, a lifelong resident of the Upper Left Hand Corner, has been a full-time writer for twenty-five years which is certainly long enough to know better. Platt finds no shortage of fascinating characters and stories that spring from the beautiful Pacific Northwest which explains why nearly all Platt’s novels take place in Washington or Oregon, with exception to the latest, Liberty’s Christmas, which takes place in Texas during the Depression. Coming in the fall of 2014 will be Incommunicado, a coming of age story set during the first turbulent months of World War Two.A film, Promise The Moon, has been made of Platt’s humorous western, The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko.
Platt’s novels have won several accolades including twice winning the Willa Literary Award and twice winning the Will Rogers Medallion for best young adult literature. Six novels have been recently released as audio books. Several times a week Platt puts away the words and heads for the nearest handball court. She is a sought-after speaker and presenter at conferences, schools, and libraries, specializing in fun and honest answers shot straight from the hip.
Lorelle VanFossen is a keynote speaker, trainer, writer, and consultant on web writing, web design, and blogging, especially working with WordPress. Called a blog evangelist, on Lorelle on WordPress she writes about everything WordPress, blogging, and social media, covering more than you may want to know about how all this blogging business and social media stuff works. Lorelle is also the author of the popular Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging, the ebook, Social Media for Crafters: Covering the Basics of the Social Web. On Lorelle on WordPress, she shares her many years of online journaling, web writing and publishing, and blogging experiences as one of the first website owners and publishers on the web. She is also editor, producer, contributor, and official disruptive thinker for Bitwire Media and a regular columnist for the Blog Herald, Blogger and Podcaster Magazine, Darren Rowse’s Problogger, featured for writing and photography in many national and international magazines, newspapers, and ezines. She is also one of the founding members of Successful Online Business Conference (SOBCon) with Liz Strauss, celebrating five years of changing people’s business life online in 2011. She is also a long time member of the 9Rules Network. Blogging since 1994, before the term “blog” was developed, Lorelle is also involved with WordPress as a volunteer helping to write and develop the WordPress Codex and assisting others on the WordPress Forum.
Summer in Words 