Kay Snow Writing Award

I was just informed that an excerpt from my young adult, fairy tale-inspired manuscript, tentatively titled The Drowning Lake, received third place in the Willamette Writers' Kay Snow Writing Awards for the category of Adults Writing for Juveniles. I'm thrilled to bits!

Equally exciting is the bonus that I've been invited to attend an awards banquet featuring filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk).  He's the Willamette Writers Conference's winner of the Distinguished NW Writer Award.  I actually just spotlighted Van Sant's newest film, Restless, over at Suburban Vampire.

Thanks so much, Willamette Writers!

And, yes, I just revealed my newest book's title for the first time. :-)

More Pacific Northwestern Fairy Tale Inspiration

For our 4th of July morning activity, my family and I hiked on one of our nature trails in the middle of a Pacific Northwestern forest. I've taken a two-month break from my contemporary bedtime tale manuscript, so I grabbed my camera and took more woodsy photos to give me fresh inspiration for diving back into my Oregon story.

I'm not yet saying much about the plot, but I will reveal that water is involved.
I love this shot because you can't quite tell what's beneath the creek's surface.

Our woods swallow up everything in the
summer, which is perfect for a dark tale.

Trees shrouded in moss—not just for Southern Gothic fiction.