Jennifer Nightingale.

Pete Young concedes he came somewhat late to the party as a novelist.

The Ocean Park, Washington, resident drew on his years as a U.S. Navy aviator in Vietnam for his over 800-page novel, “One Hundred Stingers,” published in 2021.

He is eager for the spring publication of his second, “Another Death at Gettysburg.” The novel is about the murder of a Civil War re-enactor during a 1997 restaging of Pickett’s Charge, a turning point in the 1863 battle.

His research was helped, in part, by details offered by re-enactors from the Northwest Civil War Council, whose members have staged battles and encampments at Fort Stevens State Park and the Clatsop County Fairgrounds.

Young is among local authors looking forward to creativity in the new year.

“I knew at the beginning somebody was going to end up dead after the re-enactment when people are not supposed to be,” Young laughed, recalling his early inspiration, “I didn’t know why or who shot him!”

Historical detail was gleaned from his Washington, D.C., childhood amid neighboring streets named for Civil War generals, plus a lifelong fascination with military history.

His father, Bob Young, was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune who covered the White House. Family visits included trips to Gettysburg, where President Eisenhower had a farm (now a National Historic Site).

Young hopes the Gettysburg book might spawn a series.

‘Surreal’

Florence Sage, an Astoria-based poet, is relaxing after the publication of two contrasting books over the past couple of years, “The Man Who Whistled, The Woman Who Wished,” about her Polish-Canadian ancestors, and a poetry compilation, “What To Do With Night.”

The latter’s cover sports a distinctive painting by Astorian Dave Ambrose called “Blue Bunny.” “I chose him because he sits waiting at night in a bus depot like a man, but isn’t one, and has the most odd rabbit ears, a bit surreal — all of which goes with the poems in the book,” Sage said.

She emcees the Ric’s Poetry Open Mic event on the first Tuesday evenings each month at WineKraft in Astoria and enjoys reading her work at other gatherings, including at senior citizens’ centers.

“Besides needing to lie fallow to improve my soil, the poems I’ve put out in my first three books are still alive in my head and I can’t seem to go on and leave them behind,” Sage said. “I hear snippets reciting themselves as I go about my days and nights. I’m still in love with them, or nuts, as it should be if they’re truly yours, like your children.”

She hints it won’t be long before creative impulses return.

“I might even write short prose this year for the first time, a series of very little stories without the steady meter of poetry — if I can turn my meter off,” she joked.

‘Cool’

Kama O’Connor wears a number of hats, including romance novelist. When she moved to Astoria to begin teaching at Clatsop Community College, her book “Brought Together by His Baby,” was being published by Harlequin’s medical fiction line.

Now, with her first classes at the college completed, she is enthused about what 2024 bodes and has joined the board of The Writer’s Guild in Astoria.

“With free and low-cost writing programming offered to the Clatsop County community through the guild, I hope to connect with many more aspiring artists and maybe teach a romance writing class or two,” she said.

As a writing instructor at the college, she’ll serve as a faculty mentor for a literary publishing course that builds the annual Rain Magazine. “We’ve got a cool edition with the theme of food,” she said.

She expects to see the publication of five books under her pen name, Kristine Lynn, during the new year.

“2023 was a furiously busy writing year, so it will be fun to see that hard work — and those early writing mornings — come to fruition in 2024,” she said.

“Here’s hoping I can maintain that pace and keep bringing lovely love stories to the community. And who knows? Perhaps a few will feature our quaint, vibrant town as the backdrop.”

‘Exciting’

Jennifer Nightingale has been active on the North Coast literary scene since she moved to Astoria from Seattle a few years back.

She also has a career in health care administration. Poetry has formed much of her creative output these past few years, including being featured in Hoffman Center for the Arts’ publication The North Coast Squid.

She’s happy to continue to receive positive reactions to her debut novel, “Alberta and the Spark.” In the book, a teenage girl’s coming-of-age story is set against the background of oyster farming in the 1970s.

The book highlights the blustery North Coast weather and the perils of the ocean while addressing bullying and racism against Polish and Vietnamese immigrants.

Its cover art was by John Stromme, who has a gallery in McMinnville. Nightingale’s latest project is a collaboration with him. “He had this notion that we could do a series of short stories based on entering the paintings that he’s done.”

The first of six was done in early December. “It gives you a lot of flexibility, sort of like magical realism. I have never written anything like that at all, but it’s very exciting,” Nightingale added. “I am looking forward to completing the book.”

Texture

Robert Michael Pyle’s 28 books and his reputation on environmental issues, especially championing the Monarch butterfly, have traveled the world. The Grays River, Washington, author has two books of poetry being published soon, “The Last Man in Willapa” will be published in the spring and another is likely the following year.

“These are poems that come out of the rich texture of having lived in this land, this valley, for 45 years now,” Pyle said.

“Beyond that, I am excited for the coming year to be working on — and I hope completing — a sequel to my novel, ‘Magdalena Mountain.’”

While he is known as a naturalist and writer of non-fiction and poetry, his novel brings him significant joy.

“I’ve never had more fun writing than I have with fiction,” he said. “‘Magdalena Mountain’ took me 44 years and 10 drafts to get it right, and served as a long apprenticeship in fiction. I don’t have that kind of time for its follow-up.

“I have a good start on the new one, named ‘The Silver Satyr,’ and I very much look forward to diving into it as a major part of my work in 2024. As with my first one, butterflies come into it, and some of the same characters will reappear.”

His zeal shines. “I write largely to bring pleasure and a deeper sense of the physical world that supports us to my readers, and few forms can do that as well as a good story — so that’s what I am after,” he said.

Scripts

Jan Bono is a retired Long Beach schoolteacher who has almost made a second career out of writing. For years, she penned humor columns for the Chinook Observer, earning state awards, later reprinting the best in her first books.

She followed with other works, including a series of six cozy mysteries set on the Long Beach Peninsula, a humor book of short stories, and then a fictional thriller about a serial killer.

After spending the years on either side of the coronavirus pandemic “dragging totes” of her books to author fairs, she is branching out, having enrolled in two screenwriting classes. These included learning what is expected in Hallmark’s Christmas movies.

Beyond following the rigid formula on content and tone — including the early “almost kiss” and the happy-ending kiss — she discovered that having a script selected for filming requires networking. “It is all about who you know,” she said.

Bono is proud that she has 11 plays under her belt, including many that have been staged by Peninsula Players in Ilwaco and at the Raymond Theatre.

“Instead of printing more books, which you have to sell to come out even, I am going to focus more on scripts,” she said. “I love writing dialogue. It’s my favorite thing.”

History

Sydney Stevens’ books and newspaper stories have kept locals entertained for decades.

The Oysterville author has spearheaded a history forum inspired by a conversation with longtime area leader and Lewis and Clark historian Jim Sayce, who lamented that local anecdotal stories were in danger of disappearing. This informal club was also inspired, in part, by the community historian concept at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco.

“At the back of my mind is not only to educate people and inform them about our histories, but hopefully write them down — so that is kind of my mission,” Stevens said. “How do we perpetuate our stories and those of our forebears, and how can we get people to do that?”

Partnerships

Since moving to the region, Marianne Monson has emerged as an energetic figure in the North Coast writing community, reinvigorating the local Writer’s Guild to help literary neighbors while developing her work.

“The Opera Sisters,” researched during the pandemic and published in 2022, was a fictionalized treatment of the true story of two British women who used their hero-worship of European opera stars to mask a campaign to help Jewish people preserve valuables from the Nazis.

She is delighted that it will become a required text for a study abroad program at Brigham Young University in Utah.

“I was a student on the same program a few decades ago and the experience was an impetus for writing the novel, so it’s very exciting to me that students will have the opportunity to learn about the Cook sisters’ story during their time in London,” she said.

Monson’s current projects include a young adult work, set partly in Astoria, and a sequel to her 2016 book, “Frontier Grit.”

“I’ve enjoyed looking for new frontier-era women to write about,” she said. “I’m very excited for the chance to share these incredible stories. “

Her enthusiasm for the Writer’s Guild includes fresh partnerships with other organizations while continuing interviews with regional writers on KMUN’s River Writers show.