We’re eclectic rather than radical, with diverse tastes we’ve acquired from years of writers’ group memberships and workshops where we’ve listened to, read and critiqued manuscripts that ranged from a single page to book length and beyond to sequels and series. About Our Editorial Director
Jan Walker writes fiction for adults and young adults. She is a retired community college instructor who tau
ght offenders inside female and male prisons for 18 years. Her published works include a prison teacher’s memoir, Dancing to the Concertina’s Tune, and a young adult novel, An Inmate’s Daughter. Both were named “Washington Reads” books by the Washington State Library in 2008. Jan is releasing the third edition of Parenting From a Distance: Your rights and responsibilities, a book written for adult offenders, in use since 1986. She currently volunteers with Rebuilding Families, Inc., a support and mentors’ group serving Washington’s female offenders. Her adult novel, A Farm in the South Pacific Sea, will be available from Plicata Press in October, 2010. It’s based on an American woman’s experience establishing a spiny lobster nursery on a small island in the Kingdom of Tonga. Excerpts from the book are posted on Jan’s website, www.janwalker-writer.com
About our Marketing Director
Kathleen O’Brien writes fiction for adults and has authored a human interest column, “Time to Talk,” for a local newspaper for 12 years. She also writes sales personnel profiles and articles for real estate industry journals. Kathy, as she’s known locally, is the former director of the intimate and critically acclaimed Gig Harbor Writer’s Conference that brought nationally known authors, literary magazine publishers, literary agents and editors to our community. Moving from conference director to partner in a publishing company was a natural and oft-discussed step. Her novel, A Light in the Heart, will be available from Plicata Press in 2011. It follows a female protagonist from an accident that ends her east coast modeling career, and almost her life, through her emotional recovery in Montana’s Gallatin Valley. There she rebuilds her life and establishes a healing community for burn victims. Excerpts from the book are posted on Kathy’s website, www.kathleenmobrien.com
About Our Members
(In no particular order)
Colleen Slater is a local newspaper columnist who writes essays, articles, poetry and short fiction. Her work has appeared in anthologies, local and national magazines and online. She proofreads and edits special interest sections of a monthly newspaper. As a member of the Northwest Independent Editors’ Guild, she edits book length works for area writers. Her first published book is a local history, The Key Peninsula. Colleen, with son Rob Slater, will release Blue Deer: Four generations of poetry, 1945-2010, in Fall 2010. One of her poems and more about the family poets are posted on her website. Erne Lewis, a former Seattle architect and Oregon salmon aquaculturist, is a world traveler who always returns to Puget Sound where he spends his free time sailing. Erne’s political interests led to him writing a political thriller that is receiving critical acclaim. An Act of Self-Defense, Erne’s first novel, was released by Plicata Press in August 2010. Excerpts from the book and more about Erne appears on his website, www.ernelewis.com
