40 years of Oregon with Jane Kirkpatrick

My home state is Wisconsin and growing up, we often chortled about those tourists from Illinois, our neighbor, coming north to escape the cities and find peace on the shores of our state’s many lakes. I’ve heard similar stories from other neighboring states about those crossing state lines.  Now that I’ve written more than two dozen historical novels and lived in Oregon for more than 40 years, I’ve become especially attuned to comments about Californians, our neighbors south. Rather than see California’s visitors as unwelcome, my research has led me to discover how symbiotic our two states are.

          

In the early 1800s, Oregon Territory ran from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and from what is now the Canadian border south to Alta California which today is Northern California.  Fur trappers followed Lewis and Clark harvesting hides for the Asian market and they often worked their way down the Willamette Valley into Northern California. This area was named because the trappers of Oregon were mostly French Canadians who wintered in that milder climate. In my Tender Ties Series, Marie Dorion, an Iowa Indian woman who was the only woman in the Astor expedition, remained in what became Oregon.  Documents of the fur trappers include mention of her husband and her being in French Camp, California, too.  (A Name of Her Own). Those trappers found a warm welcome in California and the locals enjoyed trading for goods brought south.

           

A few years later, as families began exploring the west, the first group hoping to bring wagons through the Sierra Nevada in 1844 found themselves snowed in at what today is Donner Lake, named for a tragedy two years later.  The Stephens-Murphy-Townsend wagon train got stuck there first. They made different decisions and the party split up. Eight women, one man and 17 children were stalled in eight feet of snow at the head of the Yuba River in California and it was Oregon Mountain men who arrived at Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento and who had the gear, energy and heart to head into the Sierras to attempt the first rescue. My latest novel (One More River to Cross) is based on that incredible journey of Canadians and Missourians including two babies headed into the challenges of California.

           

California of course had a major population change with the discovery of gold near Sutter’s Fort in 1848. As news reached the east, mostly men headed west seeking their fortune in the rivers and creeks of California. So many arrived in that once Mexican province, that California became the only state to become a state without first becoming a territory. They reached the 10,000 people threshold in less than two years. But there weren’t enough farmers left to feed the miners and those from Oregon, too, seeking their fortune.  Enter Oregon! (Change and Cherish Series. beginning with A Clearing in the Wild)

Oregon farmers, lumbermen, orchardists and more found their fortune in shipping goods south to serve California. That still goes on though today the goods flow both ways. One of the main trails in Oregon is named for this trade route — The Oregon-California Trail —and an African-American former slave named Letitia Carson who homesteaded with her white common-law husband along that trail sold butter and cheese to travelers to support her family.  (A Light in the Wilderness). Grain from the Willamette Valley (Salem, Eugene) and lumber was shipped from the forests of Oregon to support the growing population in California.

As more settlers headed west on the Oregon Trail, friendships formed that often survived after the decision point as it was known, when wagons either headed north into Oregon or south into California. Relationships were sustained (and sometimes strained) despite the distance. (Kinship and Courage Series beginning with All Together in One Place). In the late 1800s, citizens of Oregon’s southern coast spent more time in  San Francisco and Burlington, CA than in Portland. Oregon women had their dresses made in California, got their hair styled and saw physicians near the Golden Gate (a land formation whose name preceded the bridge) because they could take ships. Until the railroad arrived, a visit to Portland took days through thick coastal shrubs on dangerous roads in uncomfortable stagecoaches.   When the 1906 earthquake devastated San Francisco, the first ships sending food and lumber came from Coos Bay, Oregon. (A Gathering of Finches)

           

Social movements also found bonds between the two states with interaction during suffrage efforts and beyond.

           

Like it or not, we Oregonians are bonded through history, family, public policy and trade. And if we Oregonians are honest, we love the attitude of Californians coming for respite to hike our trails, scale our mountains, and fish and float our rivers (and spend their money, too. And we Oregonians equally love that California sunshine that calls to us in the winter making many in our state snowbirds.  In fact, this year, my husband and I will head to the California desert to learn even more about our state-wide bonds. Who knows what books may come from that! Come travel Oregon and then head south to California as we are!

Jane Kirkpatrick is the author of 33 books mostly historical novels based on the lives of actual historical women or incidents. She’s a NY Times Bestselling author and winner of numerous awards and starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and BookList. Her latest novel, One More River To Cross will release September 3. Jane lives with her husband Jerry and one Cavalier King Charles Spaniel near Bend, OR.

Learn more about Jane Kirkpatrick here:  www.jkbooks.com

As a special treat, Jane Kirkpatrick is giving away a copy of One More River to Cross to the lucky person who leaves a comment!  Remember to also leave a form of contact or email Annette with your contact information using the Contact tab.

(all info provided and released by author)

Oregon’s Beauty in Writing, Views and History-See What These Talents See

Jane Kirkpatrick:  Come Visit the World in Oregon

Have you ever been to Rome...Oregon? People from around the world converge on this tiny town because float trips on the Owyhee River begin at Rome. To take that trip is to step back in time as the river meanders through rock pillars that look as much like Utah or Yellowstone as eastern Oregon. 

           

I’m intrigued by Oregon’s many towns named for places better known somewhere else. As I write historical novels based on the lives of actual women and men, it interested me that so many Eastern/Anglo names of towns speckle Oregon’s landscape while our northern

neighbor, Washington, hosts dozens more mountains, cities, creeks etc. that bear native names. In researching frontier diseases, I learned that the malaria mosquito that arrived on the Columbia River on “Boston ships” of the 1870s, never crossed the Columbia into Washington. Instead, the mosquitos afflicted the vulnerable tribes of Oregon. My theory is that when settlers arrived in the 1840s, there were few Indians left to say what that river or mountain was called. So white settlers named the places from their traditions, reminders of “back home.”

One of the rivers that does bear an Indian name is the Coos River on the southern coast. I invite you to Charleston — Oregon. Near-by is beautiful Shore Acres State Park overlooking the Pacific. My book A Gathering of Finches tells the story of the woman who inspired the creation of that park. You can stay in a B & B in Charleston on your way to enchantment visiting the five acres of formal garden that Cassie Simpson’s husband created for her.

www.oregon.com/attractions/shore-acres-state-park  

How could I not talk about Portland — Oregon? Years ago, when I worked with families whose children had disabilities, a story was told of a Portlander visiting a classroom of Downs Syndrome children in Sweden. “Are you from the Portland on the east coast or the Portland on the west coast?” asked this preschooler shattering the then held view that Downs Syndrome children could not learn. Those Swedish kids knew of two Portlands and where they were in the United States. Oregon’s Portland is at the confluence of the Willamette and the mighty Columbia Rivers. In my latest novel Everything She Didn’t Say, Portland plays a part. But so do cities and rivers across the west as the subject of this book — Carrie Strahorn — traveled for twenty-five years with her husband developing railroad opportunities and actually building cities in the west. Portland was an important hub for railroad development and Carrie in her 1911 memoir Fifteen Thousand Miles By Stage wrote of that city and rivers that flow through Oregon’s history and our very contemporary lives. (sign up for a chance to win one of two copies of that book out in September at my site.) 

www.jkbooks.com.

          

Leave a comment here to win a copy of this new release!  Jane offers this great prize to 2 lucky winners! 

Please come to Oregon and visit Dallas and St. Louis and Jacksonville and oh, so many more cities whose history comes from the east but lives on in the west — and most of those places have a creek or a river that runs through them and are lovely to sit beside.

Jane is internationally recognized for her lively presentations and well-researched stories that encourage and inspire.

A New York Times Bestselling author, her works have appeared in more than 50 national publications including The Oregonian, Private Pilot and Daily Guideposts. With more than 1.5 million books in print, her 30 novels and non-fiction titles draw readers from all ages and genders. Most are historical novels based on the lives of actual historical women often about ordinary women who lived extraordinary lives. Her works have won numerous national awards including the WILLA Literary Award, the Carol Award, USABestBooks.com, Will Roger's Medallion Award and in 1996, her first novel, A Sweetness to the Soul, won the prestigious Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage and National Cowboy Museum. Her novels have also been finalists for the Spur Award, the Oregon Book Award, the Christy, Reader's Choice and the WILLA in both fiction and non-fiction. Several titles have been Literary Guild and Book of the Month choices and been on the bestsellers list for independent bookstores across the country, in the Pacific Northwest and the Christian Booksellers Association. Her books have been translated into German, Dutch, Finnish and Chinese.

Helen Picca: Oregon- an Incredibly Diverse State

Diverse geologically and climatically.  It is a rather large state, ranking 9^th overall in land size, but much further down the scale in terms of population.  We rank 27^th in population, but 40^th in population density—that’s 39.9 people per square mile!

Along the I5 Corridor, a major west coast interstate, lie the big cities:  Portland, an eco-friendly city and home to the Portland Trailblazers, the Japanese Gardens and the International Rose Test Garden, containing over 10,000 roses; Salem, the capital city set amid parks and gardens, featuring the Ale and Cider Trail; and Eugene, a college town, known as “A great city for the arts and outdoors.” 

East of that major artery are the Cascades, a mountain range of extraordinary peaks extending from Mt Shasta in northern California all the way to British Columbia, Canada, with 11 peaks over 8,000 ft in Oregon. 

 Within that range lies Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the USA, and perhaps the most pristine.  Almost 2000 ft. deep, this bluer-than-blue lake within the crater was formed when Mt. Mazama blew its top and it is the only National Park within the state. 

Further east of the mountains, lies dry, flat plains that are desert, and high desert filled with manzanitta bushes and majestic Ponderosa pines, and not very many people.  There are mostly small towns, remnants of frontier outposts that supported cattle ranchers, many ranches still active today.  

But on the west side of the Cascades is a whole other environment—the lush valley, where much of the state’s agriculture is grown and on out to the very edge of the continent, to the Oregon Coast.  Otherwise known as “The People’s Coast,” where the beaches are designated as public land.  

The coastline is dotted with fishing and resort communities from Seaside in the north to Harbor in the south, all 363 miles of rugged coastline, where monolithic rocks—called sea stacks—can be spotted all along the ride on U.S. Highway 101, the scenic coastal road. This scenic byway is one of the most famous in the United States and is a tourist attraction in itself.  For more information see the brochure at https://visittheoregoncoast.com/pdf/OCVA_PCSBBrochure.pdf  

Yes, it rains a lot seven to eight months a year, but the rest of the year is gloriously sunny and, with a fairly constant ocean wind, is mildly temperate—80 degrees would be considered a heat wave!

The southern coast of Oregon, Curry County, is where I call home and where I was inspired to write.  Several years ago, I was sitting on a bench in the town of Port Orford, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, taking in the scene before me: a working fishing dock, majestic rock heads to my right and to my left nothing but trees, green evergreen forests as far as my eye could see, near to the California border.

There were no houses, no golden arches, no big box stores.  Just nature—the sea, the forest, the mountains of the coastal range.  I was transfixed by its raw beauty when I was struck with an idea, loud in my head, “write a book about Port Orford.”  That was the start of my writing career. 

 In “The Last Frontier of the Fading West,” a work of historical fiction, I tried to capture the sense of this small fishing community, where everyone knows each other.  With a population of 1190 in 1.56 square miles, small may be an understatement.  I started by researching the town and the county and discovered a little-known fact that this town was the place where survivors were brought when an oil tanker was sunk by a Japanese submarine during WWII.  I knew that was where my story would begin…

“I remember it like it was yesterday—the chaos, the fear, the uncertainty. . .the first time I saw him.   The immediate attraction, that queasy, sort of stomach-turning sensation that set me all aflutter.  I was young—so young—naïve, isolated in a small world of safety and comfort too soon shattered by a phone call.”

One of the things I truly love about living here on the southern Oregon coast are the hiking trails.  Nowhere else that I have found can one hike all alone, not see another human being, and find patches of wild berries to gorge upon, like Thimbleberries 

or Huckleberries

  With enchanted forests, misty fern grottoes and breathtaking ocean views, one can escape to serenity, where the imagination can run free.  For more information go to: 

https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2016/04/8_great_day_hikes_on_the_orego.html

It was in this environment, so pristine and bucolic—where I can ride down the highway and see fields of cows and sheep, pass countless blueberry and cranberry farms (and very few cars)—that I was able to forge my path to happiness.  Here, I was inspired to write my story, of my life getting on and running on the hamster wheel and going nowhere. Then, getting off, searching for greater meaning in life, to finding peace and contentment. In other words, happiness. From New York to Hawaii to Oregon, the first part of this book is memoir, recounting a life not fully lived; the second part contains 10 aspects of life I worked on, the 10 Easy Steps, that led me to the ultimate goal of happiness.

When was the last time you asked yourself, “Am I happy?” Do you feel like you are running on a hamster wheel and going nowhere? This practical 10-Step guide offers a way to jump off the wheel, slow down and experience a more fulfilling life. 

Brimming with wry humor and insightful anecdotes, here is Picca’s personal odyssey--a search for greater life satisfaction. Within these pages lies a proven path to a state of peacefulness and genuine contentment. You, too, can abandon the futile hamster wheel, add meaning to your life, and find lasting happiness. Are you ready to be happy?

For more information about the great state of Oregon, go to https://traveloregon.com/  to find places to go and things to do. 

For more about me and my books go to:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B074NRDVW1 where my books are available in both paperback and kindle versions. 

Follow me at https://www.facebook.com/HelenPiccaAuthor/   

or on Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17029583.Helen_Picca

Please comment below, letting me know if you’ve ever been to Oregon and do tell me where you live.  One lucky reader will receive a signed copy of “The Last Frontier of the Fading West.”  (Sorry, US only)

H.L. Wegley Brings Oregon-Land of the Golden West:

My wife and I were both raised in the same community in Oregon. In our day, every school kid learned the Oregon state song, Oregon, My Oregon. The first line ends with the words, “land of the golden west.” But the second verse calls Oregon, “land of the setting sun,” for good reason.

The Oregon Coast boasts some of the most spectacular sunsets in the world. Despite the muddy picture that mid-winter on the Oregon coast conjures up, it’s a great time for sunshine, between rainstorms of course. Here’s what the January sun can produce at Lincoln City.

The Cascade Mountains, separating Eastern and Western Oregon, are lined with spectacular volcanic peaks. Mount Hood is the most prominent.

Further south, outside the tourist town of Sisters, are three sibling peaks known as, what else, the Three Sisters.  In the clear air of Eastern Oregon, the sisters are visible from 50 to 60 miles away. The picture of the Three Sisters was taken from Paulina Peak, near Lake Paulina, 60 miles from the farthest sister.

The Deschutes River flows northward along the eastern slopes of the Cascades. This river provides the best steelhead fishing in the world and hosts its own brand of cascades, such as Steelhead Falls.

Sometime soon, I’m going to set a scene at the falls. It looks like a great place to get shot at … well, if they don’t hit you.

North of Bend Oregon, near the small town of Terrebonne, the deep canyon of the Crooked River cuts through the desert for 125 miles. This miniature Grand Canyon provided the setting for part of the classic 1967 western movie, The Way West, in which Sally Field made her movie debut. The view from the canyon rim is stunning, but sometimes a bit hazy during the summer when wildfires sometimes create a smoky haze.

On a plateau along the Crooked River, avid golfers will find one of the best kept golfing secrets in the United States, an incredibly beautiful course with magnificent vistas. Irrigation makes the Crooked River Ranch Golf Course, which lines the canyon, an oasis in the desert.

Brave golfers can try to drive across part of the canyon to shave a stroke or two off their score. If a golfer comes up short, regrets are as deep as the canyon (400 - 500 feet). Just drop another ball and take your penalty strokes. You aren’t gonna’ find your dimpled darling. It’s gone!

My latest novel, No True Justice, uses Lake Billy Chinook, near Madras, Oregon for several action-filled scenes. The lake, formed by Round Butte Dam at the confluence of the Deschutes, Crooked, and Metolius Rivers, meanders through canyons, some lined by 500- to 800-foot-high cliffs. It’s a bad place to be caught when a helicopter approaches with a black ops team using RPGs to take you out. Oops. That was a bit of a spoiler. Or maybe a teaser. Regardless, Lake Billy Chinook provides some panoramic views of Mount Jefferson.

The main verse of the Oregon State Song ends with, “Hail to thee, Land of the Heroes, My Oregon.” I would have to add “land of heroines,” because some of the finest hours of any heroine in print are lived in my four novels set in this great state. Of course, I’m not a bit biased.

If you leave a comment, you’ll be entered into a giveaway for my recent release, No True Justice. It is set in Oregon near 5 of the 7 pictures in this post. This romantic suspense tells the story of Gemma Saint, a young woman coerced into WITSEC to silence her as part of a conspiracy to influence a presidential election. You can read more about this story, including 4 chapters, here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FLLW3DJ/ or you can visit my author page: http://www.hlwegley.com and look under the Books tab for the Witness Protection Series.

My Oregon, Jane Kirkpatrick

“Oregon, My Oregon” is my state’s song but it’s also how native Oregonians and converts like me feel about our great Northwest home. Despite what you may have heard about Oregon — that it rains all the time, that we’re all moldy and that we want visitors but not new residents— Oregon is an all season, all weather, all welcoming state. She welcomed me 43 years ago (from my native state of Wisconsin) and I’ve become a true convert meeting my husband here and beginning my writing life here. 

The Emerald State is bordered to the south by California and the north by the Columbia River. For twenty-seven years, my husband and I “homesteaded” not far from the Columbia River on a remote ranch. There my writing career began with my memoir Homestead the story of pursuing a dream. Very Oregonian as thousands crossed the plains seeking a dream.  Our homestead, seven miles from the mailbox and 11 miles from a paved road. www.jkbooks.com 

My state was once a territory that ran from the Pacific Ocean to the Western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Noted historically for its many indigenous people who welcomed Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery in 1804-06, the first settlement of Astoria wasn’t formed until 1811. One woman, an Iowa Indian woman named Marie Dorion, made that journey west to establish that fort with 60 men, her husband and two little boys. (She inspired my three books called The Tender Ties series and fed my own interest in writing novels based on the lives of historical women). https://www.nps.gov/lewi/index.htm. The pioneering spirit of strength, innovation, neighborliness and endurance shown by early settlers continues today. 

Emigrants arrived here on the now famous Oregon Trail from the 1840s onward.  This Road We Traveled is one of my Oregon Trail stories about a 66 year-old woman traveling west from Missouri who was later named the Mother of Oregon by the legislature. Free land meant homesteaders made their way into the lush Willamette Valley where, honestly it does rain a lot.  

But the state boasts several unique landscapes. The Oregon coast has both rugged and serene beaches that lure kite flyers http://www.oregoncoast.org/lincoln-city-summer-kite-festival/  and surfers. We celebrated our 50th year of Oregon’s Beach Bill allowing public access to all of Oregon’s beaches, a unique and rare law. Travel east over the coast range and you’re in the Willamette Valley (that captures the University of Oregon Ducks in Eugene and the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis. Such gentle water-related mascots we have!) The state capital Salem, and the largest city in the state, Portland (home of National Book Award Winner Ursula LeGuin), and most of Oregon’s population, is in that valley between the coastal mountain range and the Cascades. Southern Oregon brings us the Shakespeare Festival https://www.osfashland.org/ in beautiful Ashland, OR. Not Game of Thrones; better. Our one National park is in southern Oregon as well: Crater Lake. 

The Cascade mountains like a string of beads graces our state from north to south. (Remember the volcano Mt. St. Helen’s? Not in Oregon, but close and part of the same mountain range). Residents and visitors pursue- skiing on Mt. Hood and Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Thielson along with mountain climbing, mountain biking — the longest mountain bike trail of more than 600 miles just opened in Oregon— hiking, hunting, camping and fishing. The Pacific Coast trail goes through the entire state as well. Three Sisters Mountains The view on the way to my favorite Independent Book Store, Paulina Springs, in Sisters, Oregon.

What many people don’t know is that the largest land mass of Oregon is high desert with less than 13 inches of rainfall a year. Big wheat ranches and orchards frame the Columbia River region to the north. Small farms dot the area east of the Cascade mountains where the largest city is Bend (where I live). https://bendchamber.org/ Bend was chosen as Dog City USA a few years ago by Dog Fancy magazine. Bend sits in the 4th fastest growing county in the US and has more microbreweries than dogs. Well, maybe not.

The largest demographic of our growth in Central Oregon is for people between the ages of 20-35. I came here first in 1974 (in that demographic). Met and married my husband next to the Deschutes River, directed the mental health program, stayed ten years then left for 27 years to homestead and write. We returned a few years ago. It’s a different place but I love the vibrancy, energy and young people and families drawn to our “green lifestyle” and the great landscapes. The region blends old ranching and logging lives mixed with University students, high tech and clean energy jobs. Oh, we also have a lot of retirees here who love the sunshine and being 15 minutes from the airport and the many golf courses.

Our Central Oregon region boasts over 300 days of sunshine so no web feet here! Today’s newspaper reported that outdoor recreation brought in $16 billion dollars to our state last year. Reporters had stories about biking with dogs, fishing in the high lakes and the results of the Cascade Cycling Classic.  We have nearly 200 State Parks to enjoy the many landscapes of this state, too.

As a historical novelist, I love Oregon’s commitment to history. Local historical societies keep that history alive. I find dozens of story ideas in this state including in those parks like Shore Acres, five acres of formal garden on the Southern Oregon Coast.

My latest historical novel, All She Left Behind, is an Oregon story based on the life of one of the first women physicians in the state. Readers will meet Jennie Pickett Parrish who reflects many of the state’s pioneering values: people who learned to put their past behind them in order to move forward and to accept the help of others in tough times, then pass the goodness on. Maybe it’s my mental health background…but I find these historical women have much to teach us as they touch us with their lives.  

Jane Kirkpatrick me and my dogs Caesar (l) and Bodacious Bo (r). 

So if you haven’t taken the modern Oregon Trail by plane, train or automobile, this might be the year to do it. You’ll find rest and relaxation, history and inspiration for whatever kind of writing life you’ve chosen. And you’ll be welcomed — with or without your dog. Don’t forget to comment to be eligible to win a signed copy of All She Left Behind. Thanks for making room in your life for these stories!   Don’t forget to comment in order to win a prize! Please leave a form of contact. 

More about Jane Kirkpatrick and her extensive talent of fiction, short fiction and nonfiction right here at her site: http://jkbooks.com

Oregon Art Scene: T.L. Cooper

 

 

Oregon is well known for its outdoor life. Last year I focused on some of Oregon’s hiking trails, so this year I decided to turn my attention to a few of artistic offerings of Oregon. Oregon is filled with people who love art in its myriad forms whether they are participating in its production or enjoying someone else’s endeavors or both, like me.

The Oregon theatre community chooses plays and musicals that span a wide variety of topics, points of view, and genres. From professional theatres like Portland Center Stage in Portland and Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland to smaller theatres like Brushcreek Playhouse in Silverton, Albany Civic Theatre in Albany, and Majestic Theatre in Corvallis, there are opportunities for both professional and amateur actors and actresses in Oregon. In just the past few years I’ve had the pleasure of attending Sex with Strangers, Ain’t Misbehavin’, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dog Sees God, Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, and Les Miserables among others.

Several ballet companies, like the Eugene Ballet, offer interesting and sometimes surprising shows like a ballet based on The Great Gatsby or one based on Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd. Both were breathtaking performances.

The Portland Art Museum is a wonderful place to fuel one’s inspiration. They often offer special collections in addition to their collection. Every visit I’ve made to the Portland Art Museum has sparked my creativity.

The Oregon coast offers several glass blowing shops where one can buy beautiful pieces by the glass blowers as well as watch pieces being made. Some, like Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio, offer a glass blowing experience/class where one, along with the assistance of a professional, makes their very own piece of blown glass. I’ve participated in this even twice, making a paperweight in 2009 and a bowl in 2014. I cherish my pieces and highly recommend trying this experience!

There are several festivals throughout the state highlighting the beauty, diversity, and vast array of talent to be found in Oregon’s diverse landscape. I’ve sold books at the Wilsonville Festival of the Arts in Wilsonville, a family friendly event where the main attraction is work by local artists as well as The Florence Festival of Books in Florence. I loved watching the kites take flight at the Summer Kite Festival in Lincoln City a few years ago. The array of tulips with Mt. Hood in the background at Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn is

spectacular and, to my mind, a work of art. 

Whether one wishes to hike a mountain, enjoy other people’s artistic endeavors, or try one’s hand at artistic expression, or all three, even in the same day, Oregon welcomes one and all.

Leave a comment to be randomly selected to receive a signed copy of my book of poetry, Vulnerability in Silhouette: Poems.

T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a no vel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. When not writing, she enjoys yoga, golf, hiking, and traveling. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

See more of T.L. Cooper using these links:

www.tlcooper.com

www.writewithtlc.com

www.facebook.com/tlcooperofficial

www.twitter.com/TLCooper1