S arah Rooney had extreme stage fright.

For a writer, that doesn't pose too much of a problem, but when Rooney felt moved to participate in Spokane's open mic scene, they had to address it head-on.

"I attended [Neato Burrito's] Broken Mic, but I couldn't always make it on Wednesdays," Rooney says. "So I figured I would make my own as a way to push myself into regularly getting up in front of people to perform."

Rooney started hosting an open mic called Speakeasy at Bijou on Spokane's South Hill. The event (and that location of the bar, which still operates in Browne's Addition) is now defunct, but Rooney says the camaraderie that came out of Speakeasy was the catalyst for bigger things to come.

Through local author Sharma Shields, Rooney was connected with another writer, Greg Bem, a

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