Everybody's got a Story

Local Laguna Beach author Pamela Knudsen shares her inspiring journey from freelance copywriter to published children's book author. She discusses her award-winning LA Times essay on online dating, her passion for cats, and how a magical moment with her cat, Lexington, under a disappearing moon sparked the creation of her enchanting children's adventure story.

Host John Tynan explores the fascinating connection between flash fiction and music, demonstrating how beloved songs function as complete short stories set to melody. Through analysis of classic tracks from Icehouse, Jim Croce, Peter Gabriel, and others, listeners discover the essential elements of effective flash fiction writing, including strong imagery, character development, and narrative surprise.

Host John Tynan explores the fascinating connection between flash fiction and music, demonstrating how beloved songs function as complete short stories set to melody. Through analysis of classic tracks from Icehouse, Jim Croce, Peter Gabriel, and others, listeners discover the essential elements of effective flash fiction writing including strong imagery, character development, and narrative surprise.

Artist, illustrator, and author Shane Pollard takes us on a journey through his fantastical mind and his first novel, Show Yourself, a quirky mystery thriller that blends dark humor with deeper questions about life and meaning. In this episode we hear how Shane originally dreamed of being a rocket scientist (or at least working for NASA) before a near-tragic accident provided the opportunity to pivot to the arts and the world of illustration (make sure to check these out as well on his site).

Shane has an ardent belief that "...We create our future, it can be anything we want it to be. This is our power. To forge the future and the life we choose. And this is done by what we have experienced in the past. Every second of our confused, lost lives, is a gift. We cannot change the terrible things which have already happened, but we can keep them in our mind, heart, and soul to discover their purpose and not let our pain be our end—while living our lives more beautifully than what anyone thought possible."

As you listen to Shane speak and read, Show Yourself, I believe you will feel the power of these beliefs for yourself.

Join host John Tynan for a solo episode exploring the vibrant writing community in Laguna Beach and beyond. From local author spotlights to innovative storytelling techniques, discover valuable resources for writers of all levels while celebrating the creative spirit of Orange County's literary scene.

Andrew Tonkovich, longtime editor of the West Coast literary arts journal the Santa Monica Review and founding editor of the online Orange County quarterly Citric Acid, joins Amy Dechary and me to preview the inaugural Laguna Beach LitFest. Andrew will moderate a lunchtime panel, Telling the California Story, and will lead a workshop entitled, Small Press Journals: Their Role in the Writer's Journey. Lisa Alvarez, Andrew's long-time publishing partner and wife (who could not make todays' show) will give the conference Key Note - Being a Literary Citizen. 

Throughout this episode, Amy and Andrew dispense invaluable writing advise, highlight numerous online resources and journals, breakdown the key points of the Laguna Beach LitFest, and give a well-deserved shoutout to Chapman professor and author, Richard Bauch, who will be presented with a literary award at the a reception on January 9, 2026.  

A co-founder and lead of the Laguna Beach-based nonprofit, the Third Street Writers, Amy Dechary spent most of her childhood in Connecticut until her dad's new job took her to four states in 8 years where books became constant friends. ​A graduate of the University of Virginia, she was staff writer for the Cavalier Daily, and went on to study publishing at the Radcliffe Publishing Course in Cambridge, MA. After a career including assistant to a literary agent in Washington, D.C., ​and a middle school English teacher, Amy returned to writing with her work appearing in OC Kids Magazine, the Laguna Beach Independent, Juste Milieu, and the Beach Reads anthology series.

In edition to his editiorial duties, Andrew hosts a weekly books show, Bibliocracy Radio, on Pacifica’s KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California.  He co-edited the landmark anthology Orange County: A Literary Field Guide with Lisa Alvarez and is the author of two collections, The Dairy of Anne Frank and More Wish Fulfillment in the Noughties and Keeping Tahoe Blue and Other Provocations. His short stories, book reviews, essays, and journalism have appeared in Ecotone, ZYZZYVA, Faultline, Solstice, Journal of the Plague Years, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. For many years he was a regular contributor to the OC Weekly.

Poet Ellen Girardeau Kempler and I get into a very robust discussion about the differences between lyrics and poetry, and related topics, during this episode. Our conversation's point of departure is the controversy around Bob Dylan's 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for Literature. Ellen expounds her views on this very interesting topic in her essay, Tangled Up In Words.

Ellen also provides some fantastic advice for anyone who wants to enhance their ability to appreciate poetry or just advance in their writing journey by listening to the spoken word. Ellen includes among her recommendations Libro FM, Poetry Unbound, and The Slow Down.

Former journalist & communications strategist, now book reviewer and lecturer, Randy Kraft is the author of three novels and two story collections in print, ebooks and audio. Randy holds an MAW [Masters in Writing] MBA & BA, Lit.Raised in NYC, writing in So. California. You can check out her on-line book reviews at OCbookblog.substack.com

A great friend to the show and a leading light in the Laguna Beach writing community, Randy joins us in this episode to talk about her latest work, Where You Are, a collection of ten short stories that asks the question: Is where you are the last stop or the next step? The stories in this new collection reflect the setbacks and second chances we encounter as we age. Loss and longing. Displacement and disenchantment. Surprising desire. New aspirations or latent ambitions. The transitions from where we have been to where we might yet be.


Randy also gives a couple of well-deserved shout-outs in this episode to the fabulous photographer artist Jacques Garnier, who generously donated the art work for the cover of Where You Are and Diane's Books of Greenwich (CT), perhaps the greatest Independent Book Store in the US.