That was the view from the window of the cabin where Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) and I spent the week last week. We were on the north shore of Lake Quinault, over on the Olympic Peninsula. Lockaerie Resort is a half-dozen cabins built in the 1920’s and subsequently updated, but quaint and cute just describe them.
If you look closely, Rain Forest, where folks do the writer’s retreat is on the right edge somewhere, so that should give you some idea of where we were.
That’s the view further left, showing the top end of the Lake itself. We were just at mile marker 4, and the lake is barely longer, but it was gorgeous and serene. You can also keep going up the North Shore Road for a ways, and then cross a bridge to South Shore Road, and the whole round trip to the little town of Amanda Park (right at the point where the Quinault River exits and heads to the coast) is a little more than thirty miles, if I remember right. And you have to take it round, because if you keep going up either road, you eventually end up at trail heads.
I looked, but there are no roads that go over the top and through the center of the Olympic here, or I would have driven that. I don’t mind Aberdeen and Hoquiam, but they’re cities. and I prefer the view of the countryside.
Each morning we wrote, because that’s what we do. In the afternoon, one day we took a drive that ended up passing through the Quinault reservation and emerging on the coast at Moclips. Heading south along the coast (instead of going up to Taholah on the reservation), we enjoyed the drive, but at one point passed into the twilight zone.
There is this “town” on the coast called Seabrook that honest to God looked like something you encountered in a horror movie. I kept expecting to look back in the rear-view mirror and either the town would have vanished, or we’d see a mob of Stepford Wives pursuing us. Seriously, big, boxy houses with a fully planned community being constructed.
We talked to some locals when we got home and they had the same opinion. Stepford land. But those folks are aiming for people from Seattle and Portland (and maybe the East Coast), to buy a vacation home and then rent it out most of the year when they aren’t around.
I’m not trying it, but you’re welcome to try your luck. 🙂
The other neat place was Amanda Park, right at the bottom end of the lake. Two restaurants, one of which is an “internet cafe” where the computer in the main room was running Windows XP. The other was a Mom and Pop place that kind of had everything on the menu, including pizza. Post Office nearby, as well as fully-automated gas station/pumps. A little convenience store in the middle that had some fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as other things, like videos for rent. Small town corner, in the middle of nowhere.
The High School is right there, as well as a really nice library that is part of the Timberland Regional Library. Small, but the ladies there were lovely people. We ended up going in three days, just to get out of the cabin and to do some heavy lifting on the internet.
Let me put it to you this way: Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) and I are talking to some other writers about maybe getting the big cabin or several, next May, and doing a writer’s retreat with a large group. The week was that good, and the people we met were that awesome. (If you wanna join us, send one of us an email for details.)
What else new?
NaNoWriMo is going to start next week, and hopefully some of you are going to participate. the annual NaNo story bundle is still available, and has lots of useful books for authors at every stage of their careers, whether you are just starting out, or have just started your twenty-first novel, like me.
The Year of Production continues. This year, I’m not working a day job, so I’m producing a lot of novels, most of which won’t come out until next summer, give or take, when you’ll see the flood gates open. As part of the craziness, two weeks ago I got contacted about putting a novel into a military SF bundle, but I didn’t have anything immediately available. However, I was also at the end of a novel, so I could transition quickly and push a little.
The result was a new Handsome Rob novel (the first, following Can’t Shoot Straight Gang in Boundary Shock Quarterly 003). There has been some weirdness around the actual date of the bundle, as it was supposed to go live in about 4 days, but has been pushed back (not my fault. Yay.) The novel itself will come out in November, replacing a few other things I had originally planned to drop.
Past that, hard at work reading the stories for Boundary Shock Quarterly 005: Boneyard of Lost Dreams, coming out in January. Thanks to everyone for the support thus far, and remember to tell your friends.
cheers,
blaze
West of the Mountains, WA