Hundreds of times in my life I have traveled from Portland to our Oregon Coast through the Coast Range. At least a quarter of those times I have stopped at the one rest area off Highway 26. Once, yesterday, I actually took a few minutes to view the historic kiosk located there, usually too eager … Continue reading A road to the coast
Oregon
Teach our children well: a story about trillium
I keep meaning to get to that next novel. Write it, that is. (The one that lies in wait, somewhere, inside me.) Instead, other words infiltrate my not-still brain, urging it on with a different, pressing demand. Another blog. My brain is obsessive. It rapidly composes, adding words to one another, making it hard to … Continue reading Teach our children well: a story about trillium
Time to March on
Yesterday would have been Dad's 89th birthday. It seemed a fitting day to share my final book talk on My Music Man...and to serve cookies. If you've read my memoir, you may recall this excerpt. TWO MONTHS AFTER Dad's death and a few weeks after his memorial service on the steamer Portland, Russ and I … Continue reading Time to March on
Real Oregonians do: in defense of umbrellas
Fellow Oregon author Matt Love penned a terrific book titled Of Walking in Rain. In it, Matt writes about what it is to live in one of the rainiest places on earth - a Western Oregon trait we worry may dry up with time. Anyone living in the Pacific Northwest must read this book, as I … Continue reading Real Oregonians do: in defense of umbrellas
The snow made me do it
Yes, once daylight appeared I had to set out to do my most favorite thing. Walk in the fresh snow, even if only a mere inch or two. And it made me remember this excerpt from my memoir. Had I known then, my snow-deprived self would have been jealous to have learned about the boisterous snowstorm … Continue reading The snow made me do it
Did you say Jolabokaflod?
Yes! Kudos to my friend and local author Margaret Pinard for taking it upon herself to create a fabulous new Portland book opportunity: Jolabokaflod. After all, what could be more exciting than entering 2019 with new reading titles for dark, cold nights? Even better, what greater way to support and discover local authors than to … Continue reading Did you say Jolabokaflod?
Using what we know to imagine what might have been
This post was first published by Women Writers, Women Books at http://booksbywomen.org Weaving technical expertise into creative writing Had you asked me five years ago if I would ever write a memoir, I might have answered “maybe.” If the query had been about writing a novel? Never! My brain, schooled and journeyed through decades of … Continue reading Using what we know to imagine what might have been
Four feet of greatness
For Chloe Clarke – George Gill Montgomery’s grandmother; my great-great-great grandmother; Emily’s great-great-great-great grandmother – music provided a simple but serious pleasure on her arduous journey aboard the Lausanne. At twenty-one years old, Chloe left her hometown of East Windsor, Connecticut to join the Jason Lee missionary expedition of 1839; sailing around the horn of … Continue reading Four feet of greatness
Hair and formaldehyde, power and health
Life occasionally delivers moments when my newer author life intersects with my thirty-year industrial hygiene profession. I didn’t expect Brazilian Blowout to be captured within the pages of The Female Persuasion, as I leisurely read this 2018 novel by Meg Wolitzer while on vacation. This chemical hair straightener briefly shocked me away from my traditional … Continue reading Hair and formaldehyde, power and health
