April 2025 Story Sparks
Only a Month
I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until that first book review for Across the Crying Sands came out. It did today and it’s from Booklist, a coveted review source of the American Library Association. Here are some of the words that helped me breathe.
“Jane Kirkpatrick opens her Women of Cannon Beach series with a powerful 1888 story about the timeless demands and strength of women at the intersection of ambition and family…this captivating start sparks with the promise of discoveries still to come.” Booklist@ala-booklist.bsky.social Couldn’t be happier!
On my Instagram site, my webmaster and great-niece Sarah Robinson with Robinson Design Co. has also been posting photos and captions to introduce readers to characters in Across the Crying Sands.
We have historical photos of Mary when she’s older; John too. So these are imaginings of what the young copper-haired Mary might have looked like with her horse, Prince. While that’s happening, I’m busy being interviewed on podcasts, one from London called P. English Literature that – just a warning it’s 48 minutes long, See it here! I’m working on the edits of the second book with a title not yet ready to be revealed. The cover will come soon after that first book is released May 20.
Someone asked if I’m still excited about a new book after 40 of them and the answer is Yes! There’s also a fair amount of anxiety with number 41. Will people who live on the Oregon coast feel that I’ve given a good account of their beloved landscape? Will local historians affirm my version of Mary’s story? Will book one be compelling enough that readers will want to dive into book two (and three) that won’t come out for several months? Will the first book sell enough that my publisher will publish books two and three? And most of all, will readers accept my blend of fact and fiction as an authentic story that inspires? Nothing to do but trust and wait. And thank you all for your patience! You can also still pre-order with a 40% discount and please encourage your friends to sign up for Story Sparks to be included in the drawing of Seashore Sorts of Treasures! We’re almost there. And that first review will let me sleep tonight!
Alert Circles
Whoa! Hands against the walls, Rupie trembling between my feet. Keeping my balance through the motion and the rumbling sound. A pause. A cautious step; the shaking starts again. The glass candleholder on the table roils around like a basketball on the rim – before it settles. “Did you feel that? Are you alright?” I call to the hospice aide who has just taken Jerry in for his shower. “All good. 5.2!” She shouts back. She’s a native Californian – and she was right. It was a 5.2 earthquake about 2 hours from us in San Diego County. But we’re on the same Elsinore Fault Zone. My phone goes off with an “earthquake alert” just seconds after the shaking stopped. People closer to the epicenter said their alert went off seconds before the shaking started. All is well. Nothing broken. Back to normal.
While perusing the internet for more information, I came across this short video from the San Diego zoo. The elephants’ actions brought tears to my eyes. They circled the most vulnerable among them with what zoologists call an “alert circle.” Vulnerable, a word that comes to us from the Latin word vulnus meaning wound.
I shared the video with a number of people in my life with the notation, “you are in my circle.” One friend commented that we are all vulnerable. Yes. Many in my circle are wounded by deaths, illness and challenges in our world so profound they can barely describe them without tears. I have survived these last months in part through a circle of friends in our poetry, peace and prayer zoom, letting art and connection heal. It is a constant concern of many about the vulnerable for whom the “alert” comes too late. Who is circling them? How do I circle them?
The vulnerable may be a grandchild or that toddler down the street. Perhaps it’s an elderly family member that keeps coming to mind but it’s too hard to imagine the ruckus of intervening. For me it’s the children of Ukraine kidnapped and bombed. The Baptist hospital staff — the last hospital operating in Gaza — bombed on Palm Sunday. The loved ones of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas with no news of steps effectuating their return. The list goes on. You have your own vulnerable communities you’re concerned about. How do we circle so many wounded?
One circle at a time; joining with others; prayer.
On that last action, a friend sent me a body prayer from Julian of Norwich from a century long past. It’s becoming a morning practice. It has four prayer postures all starting with the letter A. Await. Allow. Accept. Attend. I might humbly now add Alert when confronted with the most vulnerable which might even be ourselves.
I’m reminded of the research that said men responded to stress with “fight or flight” while women “tended and befriended.” I shared that once with a colleague and she misheard “tend” thinking I’d said “mend.” And maybe that too is a good word to add to circling the vulnerable. Choose a wound to mend as best you can. Do that by reaching out through faith and other communities. As the poet Amanda Gorman wrote “turn your ache to act.” Risk seeking joining with people you don’t know. Make the calls, write the letters that make you sweat, expressing how you feel. Do one thing every day that demonstrates the power of love, that challenges those driven by a love of power. Do not shame yourself if you are already doing all you can. Await. Allow. Accept. Attend. And on certain days, with courage, alert, knowing you’ve created a circle to alert with you.
Rupie’s Renderings
WHEE! My mom’s teaching me to stay in the crate I’ll ride in on my first plane ride from Palm Springs to Redmond, Oregon. She’s been putting treats inside to get me to jump in. She doesn’t have to do that. I’m not going to tell her I like to ride in it (Watch a video of me here). The wheels come off and the tray can go into the overhead bin. Just don’t put me there! And I only have to lay down during take-offs and landings when statistically – whatever that means – most accidents happen. My mom knows all about that. Their friend Sandy is flying down to help us on the two-hour flight back to Redmond. I like her. She always brings me toys and I remember which ones came from her. A neighbor will drive our car back that my mom says she’ll stuff to my muttonchops with the things we’ll need when we get back. My bed will be the first thing packed. It’ll be a lot cooler in Oregon. My dad’s not crazy about that but he says we’re in a state of transition. I think that means we’re always moving from here to there. My mom says “so are we all.” It’s a dog’s life and a pretty good one too. Woof! Woof!
Events
Schedule – check the website for additions in between Story Sparks editions
Book Release event at Paulina Springs Books
May 20, 2025 Release Day! – 6:30pm – Paulina Springs Books, 252 West Hood, Sisters, Oregon, presentation and signing – Release Date of Across the Crying Sands
Book signing event at Waucoma Books
May 31, 2025 – 12 – 2:00pm -Signing at 212 Oak Street, Hood River, OR
Book signing event at Cannon Beach Museum
June 7, 2025 – 2:00pm – Cannon Beach History Museum, 1387 Spruce St., Cannon Beach, OR 2:00pm presentation and signing with coastal poet Dana Huneke-Stone, #Sticksandstonespress, publisher of Amuse-Buche, A Taste of Melancholy. Please join us! First coastal event for Across the Crying Sands.
Cannon Beach Library
June 7, 2025 – 5:30pm – Can’t make the museum event or want a double dose of Stories? Join Jane at the Cannon Beach Library. Jane will celebrate Mary’s story through a presentation and signing at the library, 131 N. Hemlock, Cannon Beach.
Seashore Silhouette at Aurora Colony
June 11, 2025 – 10:00am – Seashore Silhouette. Jane will speak about Emma’s “Terrible Temporary Times.” Brunch follows along with a fabulous fashion presentation “100 Years of Hems.” Laughter, lunch and books to sign. Tickets available at $45 for members; $55 non-members. 503-678-5754.
Book signing event at Tillamook Library
June 13, 2025 – 5:00pm – 1716 3rd St., Tillamook, OR. Presentation and signing, co-sponsored by the library and the Tillamook chapter of the American Association of University Women. Jane will be joined by Wheeler poet Dana Huneke-Stone who gave permission for Jane to use a poem from her book Amuse-Buche, A Taste of Melancholy, #Sticksandstonespress.
Book signing event at Beach Books
June 14, 2025 – 11:00am-2:00pm – Beach Books, 616 Broadway, Seaside OR Signing. Drop in and chat.
Roundabout Books
July 10, 2025 – 6:30pm, Roundabout Books, 900 NW Mt. Washington, #110, Bend Oregon. Presentation and signing. Ticketed event, ($5 or purchase of a book). 541-306-6564. Support your local independent bookstore.
Word Whisperings
Murder by Degrees
By Ritu Mukerji
Simon and Schuster, 2023.
One of Oregon’s first female physicians left her son in the care of woman’s advocate (of the 1870s) Abigail Scott Duniway. Something Worth Doing is my book about Abigail’s story but it is also about a woman breaking norms like one seeking a medical degree and how women helped each other. Dr. Bethina Owens-Adair studied at the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania, one of the few places women were allowed to study medicine and is the very college highlighted in this novel. Author Ritu Mukerji introduces us to a fictional female physician working with local detectives to solve the murder of the death of one of Dr. Weston’s patients. Detailed medical procedures of the 1880s Philadelphia blend well with the mystery of what happened and who did it. Murder by Degrees is an exceptional historical novel, full of suspense, exquisite detail – it could be a reference book for early medical practices as well as for the delicate maneuverings of a professional woman in a man’s world of the late 19th century. The creation of a woman working in a teaching hospital was so compelling I wondered if Ms. Mukerji might also be a doctor. And yes, she is and she studied at a medical school in Philadelphia where the story is set. She wrote the novel early in the morning while managing a busy practice. The book was nominated for an Edgar for best first mystery as well as other accolades. I found it fascinating and it’s always sweet to find out someone else writes early in the morning.
When you read this, Easter will have come but not gone. May the promise of that day stay with you all your life long. Have courage in the earthquakes, circle the vulnerable the way Jesus did when he tipped the tables of injustice. As the poet John O’Donohue notes in “For a new Beginning.”
“Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will home in to a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
See you next month.
______
Warmly,
P.S. I often get requests from those wishing a book list of my titles. Incidentally, Wikipedia has some errors. Visit my Bibliography webpage for the real scoop.
