The weekend of April 17^th, Saige and I had some much-needed, creation-focused time together in Spokane attending the Get Lit! Festival.

Get Lit! is put on by a nonprofit of Eastern Washington University and features a diverse and talented panel of writers and creatives.

While, as you all probably know, I’m more of a genre writer than a literary artisan (I wish), I still love to be in creative spaces, surrounded by others who carry a similar passion for the act of storytelling. So this was a really great mini writers’ retreat with Saige!

We rolled into Spokane on the morning of the 17^th, not without some struggle. To make a long story short, I hit some debris on the highway just as we were approaching the city, and the debris put a hole in one of my tires as well as damaged the radiator, coolant tank, and one other thing whose name disappeared from my brain as soon as the mechanic said it (I’m clearly not a car person).

We were just grateful that nothing terrible happened before we could get the car to the people who could fix it up. Unfortunately, this meant taking Ubers and bothering my very kind and helpful cousin Walt (hi Walt!) for rides.

We were off to a great start!

After all the drama with the car and a bit of settling in, we finally made it to our first Get Lit event- Daring to Debut: The Journey to Publication.

This panel was led by Ally Ang and Lauren Westerfield. They discussed a bit of their experiences being published by small presses and what it took to make that happen. We also got a little peek behind the curtain at the process of going through submissions, as they also both have experience in manuscript selection. That was very eye-opening. The most important thing I learned from this panel was that un-agented publication is a long and often discouraging process, but ultimately rewarding and affirming when your perseverance pays off.

I also just found Lauren and Ally to be very charming and fun. Ally is the author of Let the Moon Wobble, a series of poems (recall my poetry exploration post from a few weeks ago—I’m actually really getting into more poetry!). Lauren’s newest work is a memoir titled Woman House.

Saige and I took a brief lunch break and had some fantastic food at Nudo Ramen House in downtown. We also tried a flight of flavored sake! I think this may have been the best ramen I’ve ever had.

Next up in the evening was The Writer’s Memoir, possibly my favorite panel of the whole weekend.

This panel featured five writers that I am now obsessed with: Tessa Hulls, Mita Mahato, Maya Jewell Zeller, Lauren Westerfield, and Margaret Albaugh.

Fun fact! Maya Jewell Zeller was one of Saige’s favorite professors in college, and she’s also incredibly sweet and funny.

In this panel, our authors each read a bit from their respective works, then discussed the writing of their works and the art of the hybrid memoir. It was endlessly fascinating and every single reading convinced me to go down to the book fair and purchase their works. Seriously. I came home from this with 15 new books. Click on any of their covers below to check them out!

That was it for our first day, after which we retired to Walt’s house and enjoyed a relaxing evening of family time and reading.

On Saturday, Saige and I found ourselves with a much fuller plate.

First up was Spirituality & Friendship Across Genres, the one panel I actually remembered to take a picture at.

This panel featured writers Prageeta Sharma, Teresa Carmody, Maya Jewell Zeller, and Laura Read. They each did a short reading (my favorite part of every panel!) and then discussed their own close friendships (Prageeta & Teresa are best friends, as well as Maya & Laura. How fun!) and how their relationships have affected and enhanced their own lives and writing. It was very fun to see these writer BFFs discuss their relationships while sitting beside my own writer BFF.

Click on any of their covers below to check out these lovely ladies’ works.

After that, we had another lovely lunch break where Saige ate (actual quote) “The best BLT of my life” at Heritage Bar & Kitchen. After that break we headed to the next event, the EWU MFA Publisher’s Roundtable.

This was an informative and intimate discussion on the process of forming, assembling, and promoting your own independent press. While Saige and I don’t (currently!) have any plans on starting our own press, it was very educational to learn a bit about the inner workings of these publishers and what their submission process often looks like. We did set our sights on a few of these publishers for future submissions. Look out, you guys! The panelists there represented: Willow Springs Magazine, Banana Slug Books, and Croak Lit Magazine.

We went straight from there to our last panel, Worlds Beyond: A Reading and Discussion on Speculative Fiction.

When I saw “speculative fiction”, I thought I’d finally found the one panel about genre fiction. I understand now that such a classification is a much larger umbrella term, and these panelists were writers of seriously beautiful and thought-provoking literature. Our panelists were Leyna Krow, TJ Fuller, and Lindsey Drager. These readings were, again, so good that I immediately wanted to purchase all their respective books. I learned what exactly spec fic can mean, and how it can open doors to ways of thinking without being as direct and on-the-nose as general fiction. Click the covers to check out their awesome works!

This brought us to the end of our planned panels. From here, we picked up my poor car from the mechanic, then headed to Walt’s for a lovely family dinner, a nice writing session, and finally a highly enjoyable round of Hues and Cues.

We didn’t have any plans for Sunday’s virtual Get Lit! events, so we spent that day wrapping up our stay, eating pizza, and escaping from a room! Saige and I loved our first escape room experience, and while we did take a photo of the four of us after, I’m not posting it here. I’m making the world’s ugliest face. I wish the guy who took it had taken at least a few shots just in case. Boo.

If you’re at all interested in great literature and being surrounded by other creatives, I highly recommend checking out next year’s Get Lit! Festival. Most of the events and panels were totally free, and the one paid event we attended was very reasonably priced, only about $35 if I’m remembering correctly.

I definitely plan on going again next year. It also gives me an excuse to see my family in Spokane and eat lots of great local food!

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Monthly Writing Goals Update

24,846 / 20,000 words

Oops.

So, I finished the first draft of Kaja yesterday. I hit my all-time record for most words written in a day: 9,142. But cut me some slack- I was in the avalanche of knowing exactly how the rest of the story is going to play out, and I had to just vomit it out.

Time to revise! I have a post upcoming about what I love and don’t love about the revision process, so stay tuned for that.

You may notice that I’ve removed the “coming soon” status from Kaja on the Current Projects page. That’s because I’ve decided that, at least until I get enough rejections to deter me, I’m going to try to get her published by an indie/small press. I know, I know, lofty. But I really believe in this story and I think it’s some of my best work yet. It’s definitely the most cohesive and engaging plot I’ve written so far (not saying much, I’m terrible at plot).

So, wish me luck! Now that she’s drafted and I’ve gone above my monthly word count goal, I’ll probably be spending a lot of time revising and not writing. But we’ll see what grabs my attention. I have gotten the wheels rolling on something new, exciting, and different that I’m dying to announce. But you’ll just have to wait!

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