June 2025 Story Sparks
What a joy to see so many of you at events on the North Central Oregon Coast, the site of Across the Crying Sands. Several of you came to venues where poet Dana Huneke-Stone shared the dais with me. I love this photo of Dana signing my copy of her book Amuse-Busche. There was laughter. There were tears. There was applause. Most of all there were readers enjoying the connection with other readers around a story of a remarkable coastal woman, Mary Gerritse. At each site I had friends and helpers including Suzy and Collin Wintjen of Seaside, Kathy Gervasi of Tillamook AAUW and Joe Salsman of the Tillamook library, Liz Scott of the Cannon Beach History and Museum Center, Jen Dixon and Doug of the Cannon Beach library, Alexa and crew at Beach Books in Seaside and friends Gary and Margie Waite who hosted me for a few days in Cannon Beach. At home, granddaughter Mariah looked after Jerry in fine form with the two great-grands making him happy Father’s Day cards while Mariah fixed the broken shower and cleaned the filter on the fridge. She’s amazing. I also fit in a meeting with a 30+ year book group gathered in Forest Grove having read This Road We Traveled. I also participated in Emma’s Day at Granny Fi’s Shortbread and tea House in Aurora where we had a presentation of One Hundred years of Hems from the Ft. Vancouver, WA, costume archives. It was fabulous and helped make for a busy whirlwind eight days. Some of you brought us gifts of Farm Fresh eggs and pear butter, wine, a silk scarf, books and more for which I’m grateful. Most of all I’m grateful for your joyous reception of me, Dana, our books, Rupie and sharing in the joy of community.
At Cannon Beach, Tillamook and Seaside, we – Rupie and I – made new friends/readers from all other the country. When people tell me they’ve never read anything I’ve written I tell them, “You’re in a select group of millions of people.” Fortunately for a few days in June – and thanks to all of you – we made that select group a little smaller. One of the booksellers who covered the Cannon Beach History Center event – that featured cupcakes from Suzy Wintjen’s SeaStarCupcakes – gave me a fine review at the end of the event. She said her store staff love selling my books. “The history is well-researched, the stories are full of compassion and beautiful writing and the subjects are always bad-ass women from the past.” Thank you Beth from Cannon Beach Books! You made my day.
Actually being in Mary’s country, walking where she might have walked, traveling over Neahkahnie Mountain in the safety of a car while thinking of Mary riding her horse over that same terrain on a wintering, wind-whipping day, was sobering. I’ve been there before but after living with Mary and her family for years now, I feel more for her resilience and how she formed relationships with the landscape, the people of the coast, her work and how her spiritual journey was informed by family, friends and her faith. I may have been trying to tell Mary’s story, but I learned about myself as well. That’s what writing does – so think about writing your stories down. You might discover a new career as I did with the penning of Homestead.
The Treasure Trove of Goodies has found its winner!
Congratulations to Texan Karen Casey Fitzjerrell. She’s the winner of the Seashore Sorts of Treasures celebrating the release of Book One of the Women of Cannon Beach. Karen is a writer herself and was picked at random from the subscribers of Story Sparks. She posed these goodies for the picture. (I forgot to include Across the Crying Sands. Sent separately). Now I have to figure out what to include in a Seashore Sorts of Treasure trove for book two. Those of you who have read book one, what would you recommend in keeping with the themes?
‘
Speaking of Book two:
The second book in the three-book series has now been titled AND the cover approved. Here it is: With the Enduring Tides.
For those who have asked, yes Jewell and Olivia are a part of book two along with another woman of Cannon Beach fame and some fictionalized souls making their way, helping Mary come to terms with the challenges in her and John’s life. There is a reason Mary remains an icon beloved among coastal communities and I think part of that admiration for her is because of the nature of the difficulties life on the Oregon coast gave her. Like the tides, she endured and leaves us with lessons for how we too can “harden, bear and maintain,” all meanings from the French language that gave us the word endure. I think Mary might say “how to stay no matter how.” Release date? April 21, 2026. More about pre-ordering with discounts in future Story Sparks. I’m working on book three and soon there’ll be activity for a title and cover of it. Any ideas for a title? I have to submit 10 to the publisher when I finish the book. Oceans Eleven? Hmm, I think that’s been taken but one can’t copyright a title so who knows. Send me your ideas.
Liquid Joy
This article about the newly-freed Klamath River in Oregon and Northern California warmed my heart. The river played a part in my series about Marie Dorion (Tender Ties Series).
I also referenced several of these tribes in book two – No Eye Can See – of the Kinship and Courage Series. The removal of the dams on the Klamath is an all-around win for the farmers, fisherman, tribes, power companies and most of all, the river and all it serves. Years of hard work, many conversations and compromises brought about this result for these indigenous youth. So happy for them, for us and for the earth.
Events
Schedule – check the website for additions in between Story Sparks editions.
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 any book, not just mine). 541-306-6564. Support your local independent bookstore.
Sunriver Books and Music
August 16, 2025 – 5:00pm, Sunriver Books and Music, Sunriver, OR. Always a great venue. More information to follow.
September – stay tuned.
July-October – writing book Three!
Word Whisperings
The Frozen River
by Ariel Lawton
Knopf Doubleday Publishers, 2023.
As a huge bestseller and a GMA (Good Morning America) book club pick, this title doesn’t need promotion but it’s such a well-crafted story set in the 1790s (with some return to the 1730s) in Maine, that I can’t pass up encouraging you to find it and read it. Told in first person by a midwife with five living children, we meet a warm and responsible husband and antagonists you’ll love to hate (that Harvard educated doctor, that judge, those gossipy women). Readers get the full range of emotion. The dialogue is fresh and snappy and sprinkled with Shakespeare. Details about Martha’s midwifery, her wisdom and occasional impulsiveness and the murder of a man accused of raping a pastor’s wife, adds to the mystery. That Martha could not testify in court unless her husband was present or that she had never learned to read until her husband taught her reminded me of how far we’ve come in three hundred years. At least a woman doesn’t have to buy her own clothes when her husband dies as Tabitha Moffat Brown did in This Road We Traveled. I like to think things were better in the west but maybe not. The Frozen River is just a good read. The author, a mother of four, lives with her husband in Tennessee and says “she splits her time between the grocery store and the baseball field.” My kind of author!
Rupie’s Renderings
Oh. My. Goodness! I was the star, I know I was, at the book events my mom took me to. People petted me and they oohed and aahed at my soft fur and just meeting me! They’d seen my photographs in my mom’s newsletter and she talks about me on something called podcasts she puts links (sausage?) to on her Facebook author page. People in London have heard of me! At her events, she waves her hands to talk like she does. (She says it’s because she grew up in the Midwest and people there talk with their hands to move bugs away from their mouths.) She held my leash at the same time. I couldn’t even lay down! Fortunately, her friend came and rescued me. You can see how I suffered in the photograph. It’s not my best side. But the real treat was the ocean! I ran with my friend Charlie and then I saw it: a seagull hopping on the sand. I went after him – just to make friends – but he took off and flew toward the top of Haystack Rock. I ran after him when Oh. My. Goodness! I ended up in the sea, waves splashing against me and salt water in my eyes while he screeched and flew away. My mom was screeching too and running toward me. Spitting salt water, I got put on a leash. Again. Maybe next time I’ll catch that gull. Thanks for reading my words. Someone told my mom I might be a rival so don’t be surprised if one month I’m not here to share my wit and wisdom. Naw, she loves me too much. Woof! Woof!
The Finish
June is almost over. It was mental health month, a celebration of Juneteenth when freedom reached the last slaves of Texas in 1865. It’s the start of summer in the Northern hemisphere, pride month and Father’s Day too. For me, June is also a celebration of Jerry’s birthday. He’ll be 95. We aren’t having a party, maybe a piece of pie. Oh, the stories he knows and like a good fisherman and hunter, he tells with very little variation. I suggested once he was “story impaired” because he never added any flourishes. He says “why mess up a good story.” Here’s to all you storytellers ready for the summer adding flourishes or not.
Thanks for paying attention to mine all these years.
_____
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.
