NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Feb. 26.
SEQUIM — Romance novelist Karen Papendrew and poet Jon Eekhoff will be the featured artists this [Friday] evening during Fourth Friday Readings at The Lodge, 660 Evergreen Farm Way.
The free event, held in the media room, begins at 6:30 p.m.
If you’re looking for a bit of romance or a dash of fun, these two speakers have you covered, organizers say.
Papandrew
Papandrew — who uses the pen names “Jayne Nichols,” “Jordan Dymes” and “Margaret Dymes” — writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels.
She calls her trio of personalities, the “three faces of Jayne” — each with separate tastes and aspirations.
You can meet all the authors that make up the three faces of Jayne at www.nicholsanddymes.com.
“I didn’t discover romance until my husband and I traveled to Greece,” Papendrew says on her website.
“It was hot — I mean really hot — and we ducked inside the Athens Hilton to bask in their air conditioned gift shop. I was looking at a rack of paperback books and picked up one entitled Born in Fire by someone named Sarah Hardesty.”
Papandrew then stayed in her air-conditioned hotel room for “two days reading that novel nearly non-stop and decided then and there what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” she said.
“I wanted to write romance.”
Since then, Papandrew has learned that “every romance story needs two things,” she said.
“A love story and a happy ending.”
Building on those basic ingredients, her series of books offer a lively variety for different tastes, she said.
Eekhoff
Eekhoff was born in a small Kansas town and has spent a lifetime trying to escape that fact, he said.
He has spent more than 25 years teaching English and is currently employed at Sequim High School.
His stories and poetry have been published in Peninsula College’s Tidepools magazine and last year’s Rainshadow Poetry Anthology.
Eekhoff currently is working on three quirky novels, he said.
For more information about Eekhoff, visit joneekhoff.com.
Open mic
An hour of 5-minute open-mic readings will follow the two guest speakers.
Interested writers should come early to submit their names.
For guidelines, contact Rmarcus@olypen.com.
