This summer I had two author appearances of note. My friend (and fantastic writer himself) Mark Stevens invited me to the Mesa Verde Writer's Conference in Mancos, Colorado. It was an opportunity to pimp my books in a new venue and meet writers new to me. I gave a workshop on writing motivation, Demons and Angels, Why You Don't Write and Why You Do, and participated on a panel, Versatile Voices, about finding and presenting your voice across genres.
My fellow panelists, left to right: Jim Tritten (retired US Navy aviator), Lisa C Taylor (conference co-director), Catlyn Ladd (writes horror and the metaphysical), and Shannon Lawrence (fantasy author).
After returning from Mancos, I followed up on a invitation from the Regis University's Mile-High MFA in Creative Writing and the Center for the Study of War Experience for a veterans' reading and Q&A. From left: Ryan Charaba, Steven C. Dunn, and me. Zooming in: Khadijah Queen. Off camera: Jeff Curry. The other vets on the panel read from their non-fiction memoir, sharing pointed and poignant recollections from their military experience. I was, as usual, the outlier, since I've never written about my military service, and my observations are filtered though fiction. In my earlier work, I tended to go for absurdities and low-brow humor, but remember:
The deepest truths are found in fables.
Coming soon: More fables as in a collection of my published short fiction and my crime novel. Stay tuned.
