The Harpies are a Cottage Grove based creative writing group.
We generally meet twice monthly,
providing critiques, conversation, and comradery with our members.
Our goal is to produce a forum for local authors to showcase some of their short stories, essays, and poems. In addition, the Harpies hope to encourage these writers to come together and create a little bit of a writing community for our unique area. Writing tends to be a solitary endeavor, and writing groups in many regions are typically splintered and isolated from one another. The Harpies look forward to hearing new voices and developing an author network where we can offer encouragement, writing tips, and resources for us all.
The core members of The Harpies are:
Sara Blakey
Moved to Cottage Grove from Sonoma County, California in 2016. Having survived the move encased in a small SUV with one husband, one cat and three dogs, she has vowed to never move again. As a lifelong reader of every genre, she at last made reality her dream of writing a novel. Sara is currently neck deep in rewriting the first draft of a Young Adult Fantasy, the first in a three book series. When she isn’t conjuring words to page, she can be found puttering in her garden or slowly stirring the dubious contents of her cauldron.
James Burke
Retired Navy OB/GYN, Dr. Burke has written 8 books including The Jake Matthews series, a time-travel sci-fi, political satire, and the TAO of Thermodynamics. He lives a quiet life moonlighting as a grammar Nazi and curmudgeon.
Leslie Houghton
Early in life, Leslie discovered she could disappear into an endless number of realities. She could travel to exotic lands, live multiple lives and have unending adventures—all in the pages of books. That happy discovery engendered a lifetime love of reading, books, and later, writing. She has just completed her novel, Morfphology, which will be the first book in a
Speculative Fiction trilogy by the same name.
Before arriving in Portland, Oregon at eleven years of age, she lived in five different states and attended six grade schools. She has lived in Oregon ever since and now resides in Eugene with her husband. For the past year and a half, The Harpies have generously welcomed her as a member of their Cottage Grove writing group.
Ken Roe
Ken is a former truck driver and retired hippie. Originally from Colorado, he does not qualify as a native Oregonian in spite of 38 Willamette Valley winters. Though unpublished and late to the craft of creative writing, he enjoys the search for unique words and combinations of words among the millions from which to choose. One motto employed is-"Everyone has a story to tell". Another is-"It always happens to somebody else until it happens to you."
Gary Vaughn
Retired US Maritime ship’s captain. Moved to Cottage Grove from “Little Chicago” (formerly Boulder, Colorado) in 1998. Gary enjoys final draft editing, hiking with his dog, and writing short stories. Currently working on his novel Abandon Ship, a collection of “tall sea tales” gleaned from thirty years of sailing the Seven Seas with fellow misfits, miscreants, madmen and malingerers. I’m usually “down below,” “up topside,” “back aft,” or “front forward.”
Rod Williams
Author of two novels (An Americana Singer for the Twenty-First Century and The Light Don’t Shine No More) as well as the anthology Celestial Springs and Other Stories. He and his wife have lived in Cottage Grove since 2014.
