July 2024 Story Sparks


Boom! Silence

This is our second summer at our home and we’d never had a power outage. Fires burned south of us and it’s possible this was a planned outage but we didn’t know. I checked the electrical panel. All looked normal. The evening had lots of light left so I stepped into the yard wondering just how long we’d be without power.

Across the fence I saw the top of my neighbor’s head. (What was that show where the wise-one we knew just from his hat on the other side of a fence?) “Sheldon,” I said to my neighbor’s hair. “Do you have power?” He didn’t know as he’d been working in his garden. “Let me check,” he says. He goes inside, returns and says, “Nope. No power. Can you use some pea pods and radishes? They’re ripe.” I told him sure and headed out our gate to his gate where I supplemented our salad fixings and we chatted about his green thumb and my purple one.

Bringing the goodies back to the house, I happened to check my phone and it was down to 26% power! I had a battery backup but not the right charging cord. I figured I could charge it in the car. Jerry decided he might like a change of scenery so he came into the garage to sit in the borrowed wheelchair while we waited. Rupie ran from here to there, happy to explore the neighborhood until my call to rein him in. The garage door does open with human power and Sheldon, a retired fireman, had me back the car out so we weren’t filling the garage with fumes. He met Jerry for the first time. Soon a tattooed neighbor wove through his two new Harley Davidsons (parked across the street) with his Pit Bull (on a leash) and said power was expected back about 2:00AM and it was already coming back on in the city proper. Then another elderly neighbor sauntered by to get her mail, saw Jerry whom she knew had built her husband’s light industrial building some years before and stopped to chat. She commented that she’d given away her copy of Homestead and never got it back. I happen to have a few copies so gave her one and then Sheldon as well. (The Pit Bull owner had taken his dog for a walk or he’d have been gifted too). Rupert (now leashed) kept pulling toward the neighbor’s house on the other side. They’re traveling and I’m rabbit-water-checking. Sheldon’s wife awoke from her nap and with her walker, joined us. Down the street, the guy who works for the power company wasn’t home…. Speculation, he was working on that outage.

Soft conversations. Laughter. Getting acquainted, really.

So the light faded into night. I realized my car cord would work on the charger inside so we could stop running the engine and drove the car back into the garage. Jerry’s seat in the wheelchair started to not feel that great so he was ready to come in. Rupert reluctantly sniffed back into the darkening house. The neighbors returned to their respective homes with a “we should do this again sometime. How about the Fourth of July.” My phone got charged up. We went to bed in the dark. Early. Boom! Out like a light — until the light returned!

What was best about our power outage was a gathering with neighbors.

It’s been said that to reduce fears on an airplane ride, get to know your seat mates. That way, if things go wrong, you’ll have a community to help you through the disaster. Our little power outage (that was a planned one to assist with fire fighting) wasn’t a disaster. It did remind us though that we needed to have flashlights beyond the iPhone. But more, it spoke to the importance of old-fashioned cul-de-sac connections and that we don’t have to wait until the power goes out. We can sit outside in the twilight and boom! A community appears. And who knows when we might need that community — or be able to give back to it. May you find your neighborhood right next door too.

A Celebration View At Cannon Beach

Photo From Suzy Wintjen

The first book in my new Women of Cannon Beach series is finished! The settled-on title is Across the Crying Sands. The title is taken from an Indigenous story that the sands of Cannon Beach on the North Oregon Coast, have a unique sound as people walk across the grains. The sound is reminiscent of crying, something that happened following a recorded tsunami of January 26th, 1700. That tsunami was the result of the Cascadia Earthquake. When the sea pulled out and women bent to collect mussels and clams in a widened beach — they perished when the tide became that wall of water that comes as a giant wave. But that’s the saddest part of this new story! Its anchor is a remarkable woman, Mary Edwards Gerritse, who is known most for being the first woman to deliver the mail on horseback on the rugged Oregon coast – over mountains, sometimes fighting the tide and driftwood, but committed to delivering the letters and potatoes and whatever else early settlers depended upon their mail carriers to put on their horses and deliver. Mary was a married woman. She and her husband had four young children. “Some people thought I was “tetched” Mary said in an interview. But I saw her as a woman struggling to listen to her heart. There are other remarkable characters — some real — some imagined. I hope you’ll enjoy all their journeys toward purpose and hope. Release date: May 20th, 2025. But I’ll have a cover to share before then. Stay tuned for the next delivery.


Older Title News

Riecke’s Bayside Gallery on the banks of Flathead Lake in Bigfork, MT is going to carry my latest, Beneath the Bending Skies, (2022) the story of an area woman who has a lake named after her, Lake Mary Ronan. If you’re in the area tell Tammy the owner, thank you! I love that books are showing up in art galleries as a recognition of the power of story through many venues. In this case, books but the gallery carries fine art, jewelry, pottery and much more. Also good news is learning from a reader that One Glorious Ambition, the story of early mental health reformer Dorothea Dix, is on the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution suggested reading list for 2024. How cool is that! The DAR was founded in 1890 to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism. July is a perfect time to celebrate Dorothea’s life. Finally, I didn’t know this, but some European libraries pay a royalty to authors for having translations of their books in their libraries. Imagine my delight in receiving a nice check from the Author’s Registry who collects such fees and sends them along to authors. My surprise check came from libraries in the Netherlands which I love not only because several of my titles have been translated into Dutch but because John Gerritse of Across the Crying Sands, whom you’ll meet next May, was from the Netherlands. At 16, he ran away to the sea, sailed around the world jumping ship in Astoria, OR where his life truly began by meeting Mary. I love how stories weave together.

Events

Interview with KVC-RArts Radio
Interview with David Fleming of KVC-RArts Radio, out of Southern California chatting about art and story and The Healing of Natalie Curtis. Look for the link at my author Facebook page or this public radio website in the next week or so.

Will Rodgers Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony
October 19th, 2024 – Ft. Worth, Texas. Recipient of the Will Rogers Lifetime Achievement Award, Details on their website for tickets and hotel information.

Book Release
May 20 – 2025 – Release date for Across the Crying Sands. Details forthcoming.

Cannon Beach Historical Museum
June 7, 2025 – 2:00pm – Presentation at Cannon Beach Historical Museum, Cannon Beach, Oregon. Stay tuned for more details

Tillamook Library
June 13, 2025 – Tillamook Library presentation, Tillamook, Oregon. Stay tuned for details.

Word Whisperings

Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck
S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, 2023

This first novel was a Booklist Editor’s Choice, a NY Times Editor’s Choice, A USA Bestseller and it was a Deschutes County (Oregon) Library’s A Novel Read. But I read it because a friend at my church said, “I think you might like this book.” She’s a retired teacher and I admire her, so I took her advice. It’s an astonishing read. I went from “What is this? The newlywed becomes a shark? Really? How much reality can I suspend?” To being totally intrigued. I stayed up late to finish because, well, it was so compelling. And the language rich and wise from this 25 year old author. “Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will. Soulmates, like her and Lewis, were not theoretical and found. They were tangible, built.” And when I finished, I cried. I cried for the “mutations” happening in my own life, Jerry’s life, those I love; grateful for the systems to support these changes that cannot be stopped, can only be “built” by love, as the character Wren expressed. Shark Heart is a jaunt through emotion and hope.

Three other self-published books caught me recently, too. The Search for Pauline: Based on a True Story by Connie Horn. This story of an adoption gone wrong is a moving story of family, persistence and the bonds of love that endure beyond physical separation. It was a family mystery and then the family wrote the story. I was moved and highly recommend it.

Lee Barker, a former partner of Jerry’s in the construction business has penned a fun, inventive memoir called Plausible Gumption:The Road from a Christmas Toolbox to the Barker Bass. From the table of contents (with photographs) to the wit and wisdom, this author takes us on a journey of creativity. He built the cabinets on our ranch, exquisitely constructed. But that was only one iteration of this creative man’s life that has included creating instruments sold around the world. I’d say, “wood runs through his life” but Lee has said it better. A great read. I’ve already loaned it out and now wonder if I’ll ever see it again!

A third book, Fat Quarters A Patchwork of Stories for Quilters by Oregon author Mary Krakow, will warm quilter hearts. But even if you’ve never stitched a thread, these small scenarios of relationships with the comfort of a quilt somewhere in the story will give you a lift. Mary is signing her slender book at the Sister’s Quilt Show this month but if you live far away, you can order her book and Connie Horn’s and Lee Barker’s on Amazon. Congratulations to these enterprising writers who published their own because the story wouldn’t let them go.

Finding Resilience: Stories that Reflect Us

Me and Rupie at the Painted Sky Art Center in John Day, Oregon

In June, I spent a few days in Eastern Oregon, a beautiful part of the country with snowcapped mountains and rivers running blue. Resiliency was the subject I was asked to talk about and I had a dozen examples of the women I write about to share. But I was also talking with resilient men and women. One of women told me what my stories had meant to her as a young “country woman” as she called herself. She recalled that they’d get on the list at the library, waiting for their turn, wait to see the book up on the shelf and know that soon, they’d be reading about some remarkable woman. She said a lot of the books that had been available to them as young girls had boys as the main character and they weren’t always boy characters they wanted to read about. But then my books arrived and they could see themselves inside these stories. “Give me, me in a story, and you’ll have a reader for life” wrote E.M. Forester who wrote A Passage to India. This young woman’s story of the encouragement of Country Women comes to me as highest praise and a humbling of the importance of telling true stories even when they are fictional.

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I hope you find stories where you find yourself this month and celebrated the 4th with a good story of your own, maybe by a happy encounter with a neighbor.

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.