Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Mark Stevens

Tasha Christensen believes the best love stories are found in the geekiest places. When not composing tuba closet make-out scenes, she enjoys playing volleyball, getting way too competitive about board games, and exploring the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. Tasha lives with her husband, daughters, and an overly affectionate dog named after her favorite Stranger Things character. Tasha’s Itaska High book series chronicles the romantic shenanigans of a high school marching band in Minnesota.
On the podcast, Tasha talks about recently being named a finalist as the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year and about a short story she will publish as part of the upcoming RMFW short story anthology, WITHOUT BRAKES, FINGERS CROSSED.  Oh, and Tasha drops some personal news that is a bit of a headline all on its own.  
By the way, upcoming podcasts will include interviews with the other two Writer of the Year finalists, Tom Farrell and Zac Diamanit.
More about Tasha:
www.tashachristensen.com
Intro Music by Moby Gratis:
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Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs:
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Ryanne Glenn began writing as a way to battle depression and continued because she believed she had a story to share. An avid reader herself, Ryanne wanted the chance to add to the bookshelves of young adults everywhere. She is currently signed with Atthis Arts LLC to publish her first young adult fantasy trilogy.
Ryanne Glenn is a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers in Denver, CO, where she works as an image analyst for a bioscience company. She has a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. She loves to golf, though after playing for twelve years, her handicap should be much lower than it is. Between writing and work, she often visits her hometown of Fruita, Colorado, to spend time with her family and dogs, Coco, Pebbles, and Captain Carl. Ryanne’s recent writing news is her story There Will Always Be Peaches is being included in the upcoming RMFW short story anthology, Without Brakes, Fingers Crossed.
On the podcast, Ryanne talks about coming back from a long creative burnout after publishing her trilogy. 
More about Ryanne Glenn:
https://ryanneglenn.com/about/
Intro Music by Moby Gratis:
https://mobygratis.com/
Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs:
https://danosongs.com/

Justin Weaver, who writes as J. Warren Weaver. is the author of the award winning, international bestselling Shadow of a Spy Trilogy. He lives in small town Colorado, where he enjoys the bountiful great outdoors with his wife, daughter, and three dogs. When his infant child isn't demanding his complete and undivided attention, he writes page-turning thrillers with thought-provoking mysteries. The third volume in Justin’s trilogy, Solace for the Forgotten, comes out in April and he’s got his first short story being published in RMFW’s upcoming anthology, Without Brakes, Fingers Crossed. Also on the podcast, we chat about a book fair Justin is putting together in May in his hometown of Fruita.
More about J. Warren Weaver:
https://www.jwarrenweaver.com/ 
Intro Music by Moby Gratis:
https://mobygratis.com/
Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs:
https://danosongs.com/
 
 

How do you shift easily among writing a variety of genres? Aimie K. Runyan knows a few things about that, especially with the release of her debut women's fiction this month after writing a variety of historical fiction novels.
Aimie K. Runyan writes to celebrate history’s unsung heroines. She has been honored as a Historical Novel Society Editors’ Choice selection, as a three-time finalist for the Colorado Book Awards, and as a nominee for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year. Aimie is active as an educator and speaker in the writing community and beyond.  Aimie lives in Colorado with her amazing husband, two (usually) adorable children, two (always) adorable kitties, and a dragon. Aimie’s contemporary Women's Fiction debut, The Memory of Lavender and Sage, just released this month.
More about Aimie:
https://aimiekrunyan.com/
Intro Music by Moby Gratis:
https://mobygratis.com/
Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs:
https://danosongs.com/
 
 

This time on the Rocky Mountain Writer podcast, we get to know the folks behind the Writers Who Read podcast — Gary McBride, Mira Landry, and Whitney Pinion.
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Gary McBride founded the Writers Who Read novel study group back in August of 2018. After meeting at the Boulder Book Store, the group moved to the Boulder Public Library in 2019 after its adoption as part of the Boulder Writers Alliance.
Gary McBride lives just outside of Boulder with his wife Deb and their cats Wallace and Vincenzo. A fourth-generation Denverite, Gary has visited over 70 countries, worked in more than 50 of them, and lived for over a decade in Europe and Southeast Asia. Gary has written a reference guide for Writers Who Read, entitled Literary Forensics, which will be published in 2024.
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Born and raised in British Columbia, Mira Landry now resides in Colorado with her husband. She has a Creative Writing Certificate from Simon Fraser University, and works both as an associate literary agent at Corvisiero Literary Agency and as a wedding and portrait photographer.
She serves on the board of directors for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and when not writing, she can be found frolicking on the high peaks of the Rockies or knitting sweaters that likely won’t fit anyone properly.
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Whitney Pinion fell in love with books when her parents gave her a set of mystery-adventure stories in which she and her cousins and friends were the main characters. She wrote poetry as a kid—and in college—where she studied literature and earned a BA in English. After working her way up from editorial assistant to magazine editor at a publishing company in Washington, DC, she and her husband moved to the Bay Area, where she further honed her writing and editing skills at a San Francisco PR firm. The drive to write more meaningful stories led her back to school, where she earned a Master’s in English and Creative Writing.  Whitney has written a collection of short stories and is working on a novel. When she isn’t reading or writing, she’s hiking with her family in the stunning Colorado mountains, trying out new recipes (like cocktails for the next Writers Who Read podcast), and traveling. She lives with her husband and son in Boulder.
More about the Writers Who Read podcast:
https://garyalanmcbride.com/writers-who-read/
 
Intro Music by Moby Gratis:
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Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs:
https://danosongs.com/
 

Linda (L.V.) Ditchkus has written her whole life. But until eight years ago, her writing was either technical, scholarly, or in travel magazines. In 2015, she jumped into novel writing with both feet. After drafting her first chapter, which only amounted to a few hundred words, she realized she had plenty to learn. So she found a network of writing friends—many through RMFW—who gave her writing tips and pointed her toward writing resources like how-to books and classes. She’s grateful for her fantastic writing pals. Being a judge for the 2022 Self Published Science Fiction Competition and a 2023 youth writing competition has deepened her understanding of what makes books and stories stand out. Since her Sasquatch Series won First Place in the Colorado Authors League 2021 Book Awards for Sci-Fi and her short story was included in the last RMFW’s anthology (Bizarre Bazaar), Linda plans to stop calling herself a debut author. In addition to marketing the Sasquatch Series, she’s recently released the first book in her new series about two time-traveling women from the distant future working desperately to repopulate the world with men.Terrorist factions, a nefarious artificial intelligence, and their own government fight against them. While they struggle to save the unborn babies, the laws of time and space have their own imperatives, and saving everyone they love may be beyond their reach. When Linda’s not writing, she leads adventure travel trips for the Colorado Mountain Club and travels with her husband. She’s been to more than 100 countries and hiked or climbed in many of those. Linda and her husband live selfish lives (without plants or pets) above 7,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies.
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Paul Martz has been writing science fiction short stories for five years, though his love for sci fi began decades earlier. When he was six, he saw 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen, which lead him to a collection of Arthur C. Clarke’s short stories--and a lifelong insatiable appetite for mind-bending sci fi. 
But his hobbies and interests extend far beyond the science fiction galaxy. He has authored books on programming and holds a data encryption patent. Like all true nerds, he runs his own web server. He recently learned to read braille and can solve a tactile Rubik’s Cube. He has traveled the world to view multiple total solar eclipses. He has a life-long interest in music. He has ripped his entire vinyl collection to MP3, recorded his own original digital compositions, and played drums since childhood. Currently, he’s teaching himself to play piano. Paul has been published in Uncharted Magazine. He lives in Erie Colorado with his wife and loyal cat.
Short stories included in FINGERS CROSSED, NO BRAKES:
Where the River Ends by J. Warren Weaver
Beyond Carbon by Rachel Delaney Craft
The Tamarisk Hunter  by Paolo Bacigalupi
Our Sprinkler System by Lesley L. Smith
Rightsizing by Jeff Jaskot
Attack of the Third Planet by Collin Irish
Iphus by Laurel McHargue
Visited by a Crane by Rick Ginsberg
Sticka by Natasha Watts
The Cistern by Mark Stevens
Stokes the Happy by Cepa Onion
We’ll Always Have Peaches by Ryanne Glenn
A Blip in Time by Pat Stoltey
 
More about Paul Martz:
https://paulmartz.com/blog/ 
More about Linda Ditchkus:
https://www.lvditchkus.com/
Drum sound by Holy Ghost Party:
https://freesound.org/people/HolyGhostParty/sounds/71133/
Intro Music by Moby Gratis:
https://mobygratis.com/
Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs:
https://danosongs.com/