Category: Seal Rock Oregon

New Beaver Creek Novel Almost Here

Beaver Creek Road. Photo shows a gravel road leading into trees that hang over the road like a canopy. There's a long narrow shadow from a signpost.

PD is walking up Beaver Creek Road with her dog Rocky when he runs off into the trees. She splashes over the mud and across the creek calling for him, but the big, dopey golden retriever doesn’t come. She has never been in this part of the forest before and worries about getting lost. Then she hears singing. Singing out here? She follows the sound and finds her dog making friends with a woman people call The Witch.

Thus begins Between the Bridges, the newest book in my Up Beaver Creek series featuring the adventures of PD Soares and her friends. They went through so much in the last two books. What else could possibly happen? Well, it’s early 2020, the beginning of a year none of us will soon forget.

After a fun year of writing, many (!) revisions, and a good going-over by my wonderful Beta readers, Between the Bridges is close to publication. On New Year’s Eve, I finished the final rewrite. Now, I’m in what I call “formatting hell,” worrying over spacing, page numbers, copyright notices, and such. My cover designer is working on the cover. I’m hoping to release the ebook on Feb. 1 and the paperback soon after. You will be able to order it not only from Amazon but from all your favorite booksellers through Ingram, the distributor used by most bookstores.

It has been 11 years since I started the first book, Up Beaver Creek, which I fully intended to be just one book, not a series. I spent years on that book, writing, rewriting, and trying to sell it to an agent or traditional publisher. Finally, I decided that since nonfiction was my main career focus, I would self-publish my fiction as the fun thing I did for myself. Readers liked the first book so much I published a sequel, Seal Rock Sound, in 2022.

Self-publishing these days does not mean paying a printer and storing hundreds of books at your house. Print-on-demand technology means we can write and format the books online and have copies printed when orders come in. We can use the power of social media, Goodreads, Amazon and many other online venues to sell our books.

Anyone can self-publish a book these days. Doing it through Amazon’s KDP program is free, and the royalties are higher than most traditional publishers offer. The trick is to publish a book that is just as good as those put out by traditional publishers. Books that are poorly written, edited, and designed make self-publishing look bad for all of us. Books that we don’t promote like crazy go nowhere.

Doing it yourself is not easy, but it does have advantages. You can write the book you want to write without worrying about whether it will sell. You can release the book on your own schedule. The average traditionally published book takes two years from acceptance to publication.

The publisher has the final say on editing and cover design. By self-publishing, you make all the creative decisions. You’re also responsible for the creative mistakes. That’s why revising, having other people edit and proofread, and hiring a skilled cover designer are so important. I have a whole talk I could give on that subject, but let’s move on.

PD and her friends are as real to me as anyone reading this blog. I have to keep reminding myself that I cannot drive up Beaver Creek Road (shown in the photo) and see the Rainbow House and Donovan’s cabin on the right because they aren’t really there. I realized with a shock last night that I’m older than every character in the book and would not fit into their world, not in reality. But in my imagination, I’m 43, just like PD, singing harmony with her and Janey.

I don’t know if I can let them go after this book. PD’s stories have been well-received, and I already have ideas for another sequel. It might be different, perhaps from another’s character’s point of view, but there will be troubles, there will be love, and there will be laughs.

As soon as Between the Bridges becomes available, I will share the cover and links for purchase. Stay tuned for news about launch events and readings. Meanwhile, I have to check the page numbers and margins again.

Thank you to Pat, Samantha, Bonnie, Nancy, Stacy, and Kathryn for your eagle-eyed examination of the Between the Bridges manuscript. I’d be lost without you.

Happy New Year! May God bless us all in 2024.

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Seal Rock is more than just rocks

For a writing project, I have been researching the area around Beaver Creek (remember where I got lost a few weeks ago?) outside of Seal Rock.

It’s amazing how many narrow, winding dirt roads there are around here. You could get lost in the trees forever just a few miles from home. On my expedition up North Beaver Creek Road last week, I didn’t get lost, and I managed to navigate the muddy roads without falling off or running into anything. I turned around 7.3 miles in. It felt like the end of the civilized world and the road kept getting narrower and more slippery, but there’s a house out there.
My car was covered with mud from tires to roof. I had to wash it when I got home, despite the cold, cloudy weather. Maybe someday I’ll find the courage to go all the way to the end of the road, but I probably shouldn’t do it alone.
Back on the highway and a mile or two south, I treated myself to lunch at the Diner at Seal Rock. This used to be the Bears’ Cookie Den. The bears are gone, the cookies too, but it’s attractive and affordable, and the food is really good. Open from 8 to 3, it serves breakfast and lunch. On Thursday, the specials were a breakfast pizza and a southwestern hamburger. Last time I ate there, they had marionberry pancakes. I pigged out on a Reuben sandwich overflowing with meat and sauerkraut. This time, I went for the turkey sandwich with cole slaw. Delicious. The turkey sandwich is dressed with a blend of cranberry sauce and cream cheese.
The diner, housed in a white building with blue trim that also houses a beauty salon and a real estate office, is full of light, with racks of newspapers, postcards and handknit scarves near the door, plus a case full of little pies. Country music plays in the background as the ladies who run the restaurant cook and serve the food. They take time to chat and make sure you have everything you need.
After lunch, I decided to check out the Seal Rock store. Bad news. They’re closed.
The Windemere real estate sign says “Quintessential Mom and Pop store. Mom and Pop want to retire. Equipment, appliances, fixtures. Two propane fireplaces.” You can buy it for $225,000. Dating back to 1923, the store still has most of the fixtures and merchandise inside. Wooden floors. Fishing gear, firewood, beer, milk, Coke, homemade tamales . . . It reminds me of where the Waltons shopped (remember Ike Godsey’s store?). I can just picture folks hanging out on the porch, making calls in the old-fashioned phone booth out front, or waiting for the bus.
Of course there’s more to Seal Rock than a restaurant and a store. There’s the rock itself. More than one rock actually, visible at the state park on the west side of the highway. The rocks are huge, with waves crashing against them, seals lounging nearby, and tourists hunting at low tide for shells and agates. It’s a beautiful park with lots of parking and no admission charge.
Once upon a time, when the only way to travel north or south from this area was by ferry boat, Seal Rock was a busy resort town. Visitors came from all over to relax by the beach and enjoy the ocean view. With the coming of the Yaquina and Alsea bridges in the 1930s, the towns to the north and south of Seal Rock grew, but Seal Rock remained a small community, not incorporated as a city, although it has its own zip code.
Today it has a few bed and breakfast inns, the diner and a Japanese restaurant called Yuzen, a post office, laundromat, numerous antique shops and real estate offices, a glass-blowing shop, a fudge shop, several art galleries, including the marvelous McEneny woodcarving gallery, and a surprising number of wooden teddy bears. Once upon a time a chainsaw artist named Ray Kowalski carved life-sized human figures of all sorts and displayed them at a theme park called Sea Gulch. Ray and the park are gone now, but you can still see the remnants of the old saloon, and his descendants are still carving bears and other things to sell.
For most of us, Seal Rock is just the place on the highway where we have to slow down to 40 mph, but it’s definitely worth a stop.
And if you decide to explore up Beaver Creek, remember there are north and south Beaver Creek roads and they go to completely different places. If you opt to drive on past where the pavement ends, do it with caution, with a full tank of gas, and preferably not alone. Don’t go farther than you are comfortable. Don’t do it late in the day. Take your cell phone, flashlight, maps, snacks and water, blankets, dry shoes and socks, and a coat, just in case.
See you in Seal Rock.