ENTERPRISE — Fishtrap Fireside returns Friday, Dec. 2, with readings from local Wallowa County writers Al Bell, Gregg Kleiner and sixth generation Oregonian Madeline Lau.

It begins at 7 p.m. Friday at Fishtrap, 107 W. Main St. Admission is free.

Staying home? Join on Fishtrap’s Facebook page or watch the recording afterward at Fishtrap’s YouTube Channel and at fishtrap.org.

December’s Fishtrap Fireside is sponsored by Terminal Gravity.

Bell

Al Bell, 81, is a retired peace officer. He has worked inside six prisons, two probation and parole offices, as a police officer and as an elder abuse investigator. He is writing a series of books called “The Red Tail Lakes Saga” about a village located at two high mountain lakes in Northeastern Oregon. The village becomes so popular they have to incorporate. Tourism is their primary source of income so they call their law enforcement officer a “Constable” and give him and his deputy a used housekeeping golf cart as a patrol vehicle.

Bell writes under the pen name Shade Owen. He has two of the books finished and is working on the third and fourth.

Kleiner

Gregg Kleiner grew up playing in creeks outside various rural backwaters of Oregon. For summer vacations, his parents took their five children on extended backpacking trips, which instilled in him a love of the outdoors, wilderness and mountains — especially the Wallowas.

At 16, he spent a year as an AFS exchange student in the mountains for northern Thailand, where he lived for a month at a Buddhist monastery under the tutelage of an aged monk.

In the winter of 2003, he served as the Fishtrap Writer-In-Residence, living at the head of the lake with Lori Salus, and their two children, teaching at all three high schools and getting to know the residents of Wallowa County. He and Lori now call this county home.

Kleiner is the author of the novel “Where River Turns to Sky,” which was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize and the Oregon Book Award, and was optioned for a feature film by Fox Searchlight. His first book for kids (and their grownups) “Please Don’t Paint Our Planet Pink!” He has worked as a wildlife biologist, journalist, visiting professor, communications professional, dairy goat farmer and is currently the project coordinator for the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium.

Lau

Madeline Lau is a sixth generation Oregonian from a small grass seed town in the Willamette Valley. She’s been a creative dilettante as long as she can remember and recently realized she has profound ADD.

She’s a mom of three boys and partner to her extremely patient significant other.