Susanne Bacon

Author Nancy “N A“ Walker lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with her husband and two poodles. She is a retired Lutheran pastor, but religion does not play much of a part in her books. She honed her writing skills on sermons but has only been writing novels for about six years now. A Planet Called Imagine, her first book, was published in March of 2023. She is a member of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, and Authors of Manitoba. When Nancy doesn’t write, her hobbies include gardening, camping, playing the mandola in a mandolin orchestra, drawing, knitting, and of course, reading, especially science fiction.

Author Katrina Zari lives in the U.S. State of Texas and works in an IT company that produces accounting software. She started writing only two years ago and published her first book in 2023. Since then, she has published three more books. The series is called Warriors of Mirral and consists of four books that are all connected. She doesn’t belong to any writing groups yet but would be happy to meet other inspiring authors. You can look up her website at https://katrinazaribooks.com.

Author Erica Miner lives just north of Seattle, Washington. Retired from her former career as a violinist with the Metropolitan Opera, she now makes her living from her novels, her lectures, and as a journalist writing reviews and interviews for major arts organizations. She has lectured on opera and writing throughout the U.S. as well as in Australia. Erica has been writing since the age of seven or eight when she was placed in an afterschool program for Creative Writing. Her first book, Travels with My Lovers, was published in 2003; it won the Fiction Prize in the Direct from the Author Book Awards. Her latest project over the past three years has been her Julia Kogan Opera Mystery series published by Level Best Books. The first book in the series, Aria for Murder (2022), was a Finalist in the 2023 Agatha Christie Murder & Mayhem/Chanticleer Independent Book Awards and Eric Hoffer Book Awards; the sequel, Prelude to Murder (2023), was a Distinguished Favorite in the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards; Book 3, Overture to Murder (2024), was a Distinguished Favorite in the 2025 Independent Press Awards. Erica Miner is a member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Music Critics Association of North America, Sisters in Crime, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. When Erica isn’t writing, she enjoys collecting, and sometimes even cooking, recipes from Facebook reels. She still likes to read for pleasure but finds most of her reading is related to her profession as a writer. When the changeable Pacific Northwest weather allows, she likes to nurture her modest but pleasurable container garden on her back porch.

Authors of the Greater Gig Harbor Literary Society will sign their books at the 39th Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival.

What started as one man’s idea during Covid, has turned into a private Facebook group with over 270 members this year – the Greater Gig Harbor Literary Society (GGHLS), a group of authors, aspiring writers, and readers. What connects the Facebook group members is the passion for literature and literacy. Various authors of this group have gathered at various events and venues, selling and signing books across the Greater Gig Harbor area, up and down Kitsap Peninsula, but also in Tacoma, Lakewood, Steilacoom, and Eatonville. As the diversity of GGHLS has grown over the years, so has the need for event participation, furthering education, and spreading the mission (please, see the bottom of this article).

Undeniably, summer is officially coming to an end, and for all Steilacoom kids and youngsters “Back to School” is written on the horizon in big letters. But what if this is sweetened up a bit by an event at which they can meet old friends and make new ones even before they get back into the classroom?

Only in August, a large number of kids and youngsters flocked to The Bair Drug and Hardware on Lafayette St. in Steilacoom. And they as well as all other kids and youngsters from town are encouraged to return there on Sunday, October 26, from 2 through 4 p.m. What do sponsor and philanthropist Harriet Heyda and host Sara Reid have up their sleeve at the restaurant this time?

It was a sunny morning, that September 23 in Steilacoom, and nobody anticipated that within a few moments one of the most beloved places in town would be hit by tragedy. The Topside Coffee Cabin was buzzing with customers, the Anchor Room was looking forward to a wine tasting the up-coming Saturday, and the kitchen staff at the Topside Bar & Grill had just rolled in to prepare for another busy lunch service. Within moments this changed. Fire.