Byrd’s ‘Calamity’ details Heppner flood

Joann Green Byrd, a Spokane Daily Chronicle reporter and editor in the 1960s and 1970s, has just published a book about one of the Northwest’s deadliest natural disasters.

“Calamity: The Heppner Flood of 1903” (University of Washington Press) tells the tale of the disastrous flood that killed 225 people after a cloudburst washed out a debris dam.

Heppner, Ore., is about 40 miles south of Hermiston in northeast Oregon.

Byrd, whose name was Joann Gibbs when she worked in Spokane, grew up in eastern Oregon and worked for the East Oregonian newspaper in Pendleton before coming to Spokane.

After she left Spokane, she had a distinguished career in journalism and served as The Washington Post’s ombudsman for many years.

Byrd is scheduled to read from her book at Auntie’s Bookstore, 402 W. Main, on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. This sounds like a great way to learn about this dramatic, yet little known, episode in Northwest history.

Linda Lael Miller signing

Linda Lael Miller, the hugely popular Spokane author of Western romance-adventures, will sign her newest book, “Bridegroom” on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m., at the Borders in Coeur d’Alene, 450 Wilbur Ave. It’s part of her “Stone Creek” series.

By the way, the phrase “newest book” has to be used carefully when it comes to this prolific author; she has published three other books this summer alone.

She’ll sign some of her other books, also.

Local ‘Global Warming’ author

Carol Ellis, who has taught first grade in Spokane for more than 25 years, is one of the contributors to a new anthology, “Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories About Global Warming” (Penguin Classics/Union of Concerned Scientists).

She’s in good company. The foreword is written by Barbara Kingsolver.

In Ellis’ essay, “In Defense of Ice,” she writes about backpacking in Glacier National Park and witnessing the decline of the glaciers. She also writes about the ice at Waitts Lake, where she has a cabin, and the changes she has noticed over the decades.

This book is being offered to readers in several innovative ways. You can read it free, online, at www.ucsusa.org/ americanstories. Or, you get can read it as a free e-book at http://us.penguin group.com.

Or, if you’re the traditional type that likes to actually hold a book in your hand and leaf through the pages, it’s available as a hardback for $24.95 at www.ucsusa.org/ americanstories/ buy-the-book.html.

‘Write on the River’

Poet Tom Davis will be the featured reader today in “Write on the River,” the Peaceful Valley Neighborhood Center’s monthly poetry series.

Davis will read from his works and also host an open mike for anybody with a poem to share, either their own or one by a favorite poet.

“If it’s river-related, so much the better,” said Davis, a Peaceful Valley resident.

The reading begins at 7 p.m. The center is at 214 N. Cedar St.

‘Cowgirl’s Justice’

Creston, Wash., author Dawn Nelson has just released her novel “Cowgirl’s Justice: A Novel of Romance, Intrigue and Murder,” from local publisher Gray Dog Press.

The story, set in fictional, Danville, Wash., is about a woman who returns to a ranch near her hometown, only to be entangled in a conspiracy.

Nelson is also the author of a memoir, “A Cowgirl Remembers When …” Both books are available at local bookstores or at www.graydogpress.com.