Tag: Member News

  • MEMBER NEWS: Preservation by Deborah Sale-Butler Featured

    MEMBER NEWS: Preservation by Deborah Sale-Butler Featured

    “Preservation” Included in “Amazing Stories Best of 2025 Anthology”

    This new anthology celebrates the year’s most imaginative science fiction—featuring a classic cover illustration by legendary artist Kelly Freas.

    For over a century, Amazing Stories has stood at the forefront of science fiction, introducing readers to bold ideas, visionary storytelling, and unforgettable journeys beyond the known. Now Amazing Stories: Best of 2025 gathers the magazine’s most exciting stories of the past year into a single dynamic collection.

    Edited by Lloyd Penney, Amazing Stories: Best of 2025 showcases a diverse range of authors and perspectives, from emerging voices to established storytellers. These tales explore alien encounters, daring space exploration, unexpected technological breakthroughs, and the complex human stories that unfold when imagination pushes beyond the limits of the present.

    From distant star systems to the fragile future of Earth, the stories in this collection capture the wonder, excitement, and thought-provoking speculation that define modern science fiction. Each story offers a different vision of tomorrow—sometimes thrilling, sometimes mysterious, sometimes deeply human—but always driven by the spirit of discovery that has fueled the genre for generations.

    The collection is further distinguished by a striking cover illustration by the legendary Kelly Freas, one of the most celebrated artists in the history of science fiction. Freas’ iconic artwork helped define the visual identity of science fiction magazines for decades, and his cover brings a classic sense of cosmic wonder to this new anthology.

    Together, the stories and artwork in Amazing Stories: Best of 2025 celebrate both the rich legacy and the vibrant future of science fiction.

    Find out more at Website, Facebook, or Instagram.

  • MEMBER NEWS: New Release by Arwen Spicer

    MEMBER NEWS: New Release by Arwen Spicer

    Arwen Spicer announces the New Release of A Soldier in the Borderlands. On a planet racked by drought, fourteen-year-old soldier Tánashen has done terrible things to protect his brother from the raiders who butchered their parents. But when the so-called “raiders” capture Tánashen, he must face the fact it’s all a lie; he is serving his oppressor. Now, to save his brother and liberate his homeland, he must betray the people who raised him. The problem is most lies contain some truth.


    “A heart-rending yet hopeful tale of a child soldier fighting for his own humanity in a world of warring states, fragile ecosystems, and vanishing cultures.” – T. K. Greenleaf

    Find out more at website.

  • MEMBER NEWS: New Release by Gerri Almand

    MEMBER NEWS: New Release by Gerri Almand

    Member Newly Released by author Gerri Almand, Over-55 Conniptions: An Old Biddy Battles Aging.

    “What happens when a free-wheeling seventy-four-year-old woman gives up her carefree RVing lifestyle and moves into an over-55 community?”

    Follow Gerri Almand’s real-life efforts to adjust to her new home, complete with poignant insights about growing old. Her angst mushrooms into a nervous panic as she looks around her neighborhood and questions whether she belongs with all these old people.
    This true story of finding gravity in an over-55 community will bring laughs, groans, and aha moments of understanding in anyone over the age of forty. This book is a baby boomer’s delight.

    Find out more at their website.

  • MEMBER NEWS: Appearance by Anthea Kreston

    MEMBER NEWS: Appearance by Anthea Kreston

    Willamette Writers member Anthea Kreston is performing her one-woman show based on her upcoming book, Crescendo, a Memoir of an Adventurous Life in Music at Chatter PDX, a spoken word and music series in downtown Portland. January 11@10:30 am. Music and Stories from Crescendo.

    Internationally renowned violinist Anthea Kreston has travelled the world with Yo-Yo Ma, been featured in the New York Times and NPR, and shares the story of her life on stage. “Crescendo: Stories and Performance from an
    Adventurous Life in Music
    ” is a show which combines spoken stories and live music from the memoir, Crescendo. Weaving together music and stories, world-renowned violinist, Anthea Kreston, takes us from Tajikistan to Carnegie Hall on a whirlwind adventure.
    Crescendo is a memoir of a classical performer’s struggles, tragedies, and triumph as she navigates her world.
    Told in a lyrical, storybook style, Crescendo is a deeply personal reflection on art, ambition, and the choices that compose a life. This is how Anthea embraced her journey, with open arms, a full heart, and a violin always nearby.

    WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
    “I was amazed with the honesty, humor, and
    humanity, both in music and in storytelling.” -Dan Arbogast
    “…Anthea is a soloist of the Heifetz- Shaham-Vengerov caliber, whose musical instincts could make even a mere bagatelle thrill the soul and stir the senses to a frenzy.” -The San Diego Reader.
    “Kreston — who demystifies the process of classical music — details M the real lives of performers, behind the scenes. This tale sparkles through hilarious exchanges, always taken with a light heart by the author.” -Blair Tindall, Author of Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music.”

    Follow Anthea at Instagram or Facebook or join her book launch group on her website.

  • Member News: New Release with Gail Pasternack

    Member News: New Release with Gail Pasternack

    Member News: New Release with Gail Pasternack

    Willamette Writers member Gail Pasternack is celebrating the release of her group’s anthology, “The Rooster Princess and Other Tales: Jewish Stories Repopulated with Spunky Heroines, Wise Women, Brave Crones and Powerful Prophetesses.” This innovative collection puts a modern, feminist spin on Jewish folklore by replacing traditional male protagonists with female characters.

    The official book launch takes place September 6 at Havurah Shir Hadash in Ashland, OR. Portland events include the Eastside Jewish Commons on September 17th, Annie Bloom’s Books on October 6th, the Feldstein Library on October 21, and Bold Coffee & Books on October 25th.

    The Jewish Women’s Storytelling Collective began in 2022, shortly after Gail graduated from a maggid (Jewish storyteller) training program led by Maggidah Debra Gordon Zaslow and Rabbi David Zaslow. She, Debra, and four other female graduates expressed frustration with the lack of female protagonists in Jewish folklore. They decided to create a collection of adapted folktales and original stories in which women took center stage. Over the next two years, five more maggidot (plural for female maggidah) joined by adding their stories. The shared vision of the Jewish Women’s Storytelling Collective is to offer Jewish stories from a uniquely female perspective and to make those stories accessible to modern audiences.

    Find out more