{"id":1818,"date":"2025-04-25T10:06:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alan-rose.com\/wordfest\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2025-04-25T10:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:08:09","slug":"may-wordfest-features-memoirs-and-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alan-rose.com\/wordfest\/may-wordfest-features-memoirs-and-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"May WordFest features memoirs and murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Memoirs and murder highlight the next WordFest on\u00a0Tuesday, May 13, 6:00-8:00\u00a0pm, at St. Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd<\/sup>\u00a0Avenue in Longview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paul Summers<\/strong> Jr.<\/strong> will be reading from his memoir\u00a0Hide and Seek: A Dad’s Journey from Soulless Addiction to Sole Custody.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0In the chapter titled “Come Undone” (chapters are named after songs) Paul has come to a ‘do-or-die’ moment in both his sobriety and in his role as a parent. He has to make a decision: Either advocate for his daughter by asking a judge to issue an Emergency Parenting Order, or risk something terrible happening to her because of her mother’s continued dangerous choices around active addiction. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Paul is a multi-dimensional artist, singer\/songwriter, touring musician, Las Vegas Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recipient, as well as sole custodial father for eleven years, husband, step-father and grandpa. One of his guitars is a punk scene artifact at the Punk Rock Museum, and he is a 528Hz Solfeggio frequency guitarscape Sound Healer.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Tom Larsen<\/strong> will be reading from Getting<\/strong> Legal<\/strong><\/em>, the second book in his Wilson Salinas Mystery of Ecuador <\/em>series. Having had some success as a private investigator, Wilson decides it\u2019s time to \u201cget legal\u201d\u2014get his P.I. license\u2014even though his attorney tells him \u201cIn Ecuador, there is really no such thing as an Investigador Privado. The concept doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d Yet, that fact doesn\u2019t keep the attorney from hiring Wilson to investigate the disappearance of his spoiled grandson, heir apparent to his lucrative legal practice. Wilson enters an unfamiliar world of wealth, lies, adultery, extortion and murder, putting his newly-won sobriety in danger, and, eventually, also his life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Tom was born and raised in New Jersey and was awarded a degree in civil engineering from Rutgers University. The author of six novels in the crime fiction genre, Tom\u2019s short fiction has appeared in \u201cAlfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine\u201d, \u201cMystery Tribune\u201d, \u201cSherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine\u201d, \u201cBlack Cat Mystery Magazine\u201d, and \u201cBlack Cat Weekly.\u201d\u00a02025 marks the third year that Tom\u2019s stories appear in the anthology Best Mystery Stories of the Year<\/em> from Mysterious Press.\u00a0\u00a0For more information, visit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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In her third memoir, Portland-based author Caroline Kurtz<\/strong> walks the coast of Oregon, carrying her shelter and food, seeking solace and renewal after the death of her husband. Grieving, she reflects on her long, and at times rocky, marriage to Mark, whom she had known and loved since they met as teenagers in boarding school in Ethiopia. As she navigates the adventures of the trail–leaky tents, hitching rides, chance encounters, and beautiful landscapes–she intertwines historical events of coastal Oregon with her spiritual experience, providing space for the ending of an old identity and the emergence of a new self.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Caroline spent her early life in Oregon before her parents moved her and her siblings to a remote corner of Ethiopia, where she spent her childhood and teen years. She returned to the US for college, where she reunited with and married Mark. The two lived variously in Chicago, Portland, Salem, Ethiopia and Kenya. Caroline retired to Portland after Mark’s death.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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An open mic will follow the presentations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Memoirs and murder highlight the next WordFest on\u00a0Tuesday, May 13, 6:00-8:00\u00a0pm, at St. Stephen\u2019s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd\u00a0Avenue in Longview. Paul Summers Jr. will be reading from his memoir\u00a0Hide and Seek: A Dad’s Journey from Soulless Addiction to Sole Custody.\u00a0In…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more May WordFest features memoirs and murder<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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