I am participating in Lisa's Book Blurb Friday, from over at Writing in the Buff. It is fun, and you can play too! Pretend that the picture of the old car below is the cover of a book. On the inside jacket, you have 150 words to entice the reader to buy your book. Lisa gives us a week to think about next week's entry (she's gracious like that). Please CLICK HERE to read what everybody else wrote!
This week's photo prompt was taken by my friend Lynn Obermoeller, who has three blogs:
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| Present Letters ~ Lynn Obermoeller |
Living The Dream: Ft. Rock, Oregon
Ruth Watson slipped her 90-year-old legs out of her daughter's car, thereby placing them back onto the sage-brush covered homestead of where she had grown up, in Fort Rock, Oregon. She hadn't visited the old place since she had left it in 1938 at age 17, after marrying Harvey.
Besides the old well, stones from the chimney, and her father's old car, there was nothing left. The house had burned to the ground in '45, and her parents had taken that as a sign to finally move back to the Ohio Valley. Ruth smiled at the thought of how happy Mama had been to return home, after years of harsh living on the lonely, windy high desert of the Oregon Outback.
Join Ruth as she reminisces about an unlikely community of later Oregon pioneers who did their best to tame the wild country they had chosen to call home. (149)
I made that little story up, but Ft. Rock is a real place, and people did move there to try and tame it. Many were sold a bill of goods by developers' advertising, promising it to be a good place to put down roots. It wasn't like the rest of Oregon though. Prior to Mt. Mazama blowing it's top and creating Crater Lake, the Indians lived in the area and seemed to like it well enough, but after the volcano erupted it changed the climate, and they left.
For folks like Ruth and her family, water was hard to come by, there weren't many trees for firewood or building, and they were isolated. Few people stayed, and few live there today. It is about a 40 minute drive from our home, and Cary and I visited it in January. Here are two blog posts that I did about our day trip, and the slide show that goes along with it.
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14 comments:
Kathy---This would be a marvelous book to read.
If you have not read Sandra Dallas' "The Diary of Mattie Spenser" you might enjoy it. It is well written, is about a pioneer woman, and is full of twists.
I wouldn't say this unless I meant it, but if you aren't already, you should consider writing this book.
(And needless to say--your blog's photographs are phenomenal!)
Kathy, you always give me more than I expect. I ought to know better by now. You opened up a side of Oregon I didn't know existed. Oregon to me is a lush landscape with the mountains and the coast. I can see from your photos that this place must have been hard living for people. Beautiful, but not a first choice given the offerings elsewhere in the state. Great blurb, too. It sounds like a poignant memoir that I would love to read.
This sounds like a story to relish:-)
Oh my gosh....what an excellent write up. I'd buy....I'd buy. It just gotta be a winner of the N Y Bestselling list in no time.
We Had TWINS
Have a great weekend.
I loved how you gave us more than just the blurb. I went to college in Eugene, Oregon and met quite a few people from Eastern Oregon and it seemed like it was a totally different place than the rest of the state. Seems like you revealed a bit of that in this blurb.
How many times have I seen chunks of an old foundation with part of a chimney left and wondered what story lay there.
I'd want to read further.
What an interesting blurb and history lesson. The place looks very harsh from the pictures, so I am surprised anyone would have wanted to stay there.
I love that your story is based on truth...it lends a whole new perspective that some real people lived here at one time. I'd buy this book for sure.
~Jean
P.S.Love your blog.
The Oregon Outback in your slide show does look a lot like the prompt photo. I didn't even know such a place existed.
— K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
Thanks, Kathy, for such an atmospheric piece - certainly gave me a view of Oregon I couldn't imagine.
I love the blurb and story idea. I love reading pioneer books, and I enjoyed that titbit about Ft Rock. Thanks for the info, Kathy!
Wow--if the blurb itself was this informative, the book must be amazing!
Sioux, thank you! I'll check out the Sandra Dallas book, it sounds like I would learn a lot about this type of writing. Actually, when I get my act together, I have a series of these types of books, all telling about different parts of Oregon.
Lisa, thank you too! I work for praise, and you always are there to cheer me on. I'm with you; who would choose it with everything else around. I think it was because of the homesteading part of it ... you could get all of those acres for free if you farmed the land; except that it was way hard to do on this land.
Janice, I'm glad that you think so. Thanks so much.
Anni, gosh, if I can pull it off, that sure would be worth my time ... NY Bestseller List? In my dreams! Thanks so much for your encouragement.
Jenners, yes, it is quite a bit different from Eugene and the rest of the valley. Thank you so much; I'm glad you enjoyed my "extra credit" part too.
Hi Patti, sometimes the foundation will also be there, but they didn't have a cement plant out there then, I don't think. I always figured it was fire that could take out everything else.
Susan, some did stay though, but not many. There is a very rustic beauty, but the lack of water would have been disturbing. Especially if you needed to farm or at least have a garden. They had to walk to the neighbors who had wells and bring water back until they got their own wells dug. Not many creeks or rivers around.
Hi Jean, thank you so much! I think that is where I am headed with my stories ... I am new to writing and historical fiction captures my imagination.
Kay, yeah, when I saw Lynn's picture that is right where my mind landed: Ft. Rock, Oregon.
Hi Dorothy, thanks so much for visiting. I love your term "atmospheric piece"! You guys are really helping me decide to go forward here.
Grace, thank you, I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.
Hi Tammy, thank you ... well, there sure is a lot of material to work with, lol.
kathy,
I'm just now catching up. Thoroughly enjoyed your post and especially the histopry attatched. The slide show was icing on the cake.
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