{"id":14574,"date":"2026-01-29T08:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/?page_id=14574"},"modified":"2026-01-29T08:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:38:26","slug":"eliot-treichel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/eliot-treichel\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliot Treichel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here is how it happens: I am six years old and The Empire Strikes Back<\/em> has just come out. I am at a Chinese restaurant with my mother and father and grandparents after church. There are no other kids. To keep me occupied, my mother gives me some paper and a pen, but instead of drawing pictures I decide that I am going to write the sequel to The Empire Strikes Back<\/em>. I am going to write what comes next for Luke and Leai and Han. I will save them all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I write in my best penmanship, skipping every other line just like at school, fill a whole page, front and back. My mom tells me what a good job I\u2019ve done. I read my story, turn the paper over and over, proud of how much there is, but also aware of how much is missing. There\u2019s no dialogue, no suspense, no edge-of-your-seat action. It\u2019s nothing like a movie, and I feel disappointed. I want to write something as good as a movie but don\u2019t know how. I want to know how. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how it happens: I am in high school. I am sitting at the drafting table in my room, waiting for a ride to the mall to meet my girlfriend. I have plans to go to college and become an architect, maybe a wildlife biologist. For some reason I decide I should write my girlfriend a poem. The poem comes out saccharine and overearnest. I steal lines from the music I am listening to. But there is something about the act of writing the poem that feels exciting, something creatively rewarding. Maybe I could be a poet, <\/em>I think to myself. When I share my poem with my girlfriend and she laughs at it, I put that idea on hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how it happens: I am in college and one of the classes I\u2019ve signed up for gets canceled due to low enrollment. I am now majoring in outdoor education. A friend suggests I take the Intro to Fiction class he\u2019s in. It\u2019ll be easy, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the class, I write my first real story. I stack a boombox on top of a word processor and start typing. I write about the idiosyncrasies of Northern Wisconsin, where I\u2019m from, a land so different from Arizona, where I\u2019m attending school. Something clicks, and I finally begin to wrap my head (barely) around all the storytelling devices I wondered about in that Chinese restaurant so long ago. When I get my story back from my professor, she tells me it has promise. She offers revision suggestions and encourages me to submit it to a writing contest being held by the college\u2019s literary journal. I do, and it wins first prize. I change my major again, this time to creative writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I am a writer, teacher, trail runner, and river rat. My books include the YA novel A Series of Small Maneuvers<\/em> and the story collection Close Is Fine<\/em>. My work has been recognized with a Reading the West Award, an Oregon Book Awards Readers\u2019 Choice Award, and a Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award. A Series of Small Maneuvers<\/em> was also included in Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Acceptance in Teens and Tweens<\/em>. I live in La Grande, Oregon, where I am Assistant Professor of English\/Writing at Eastern Oregon University and serve on the board of directors of the literary arts organization Fishtrap, Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regal House Publishing is proud to bring you Eliot Treichel’s Damien Mayhew’s Secret Recipe for Life<\/em> in the spring of 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is how it happens: I am six years old and The Empire Strikes Back has just come out. I am at a Chinese restaurant with my mother and father and grandparents after church. There are no other kids. To keep me occupied, my mother gives me some paper and a pen, but instead of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-14574","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9DpGh-3N4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4380,"url":"https:\/\/regalhousepublishing.com\/mary-hill-wagner\/","url_meta":{"origin":14574,"position":0},"title":"Mary Hill-Wagner","author":"Jaynie","date":"December 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a professor, former newspaper journalist, and author of the memoir, Girlz 'N the Hood: A Memoir of Mama in South Central Los Angeles, to be released by Pact Press in 2021. 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