Writing and the Inland Northwest
As my tagline states, this blog is about writing and the places that inspire. I’ve been focusing on places in the Inland Northwest: it’s now time to connect them with the writing part of the blog. Back to the past: To…Continue reading→
The Growers of Green Bluff
A day on the bluff: Tourism brochures tout Spokane both as a city ‘near nature, near perfect’ and one blessed with ‘four distinct seasons.’ Basically, all that is true [though I personally think winter here is top-heavy, and summer could go…Continue reading→
Urban Wilderness on Tubbs Hill
The wages of greed: During Coeur d’Alene’s wild-west years in the late 1800s, Tony Tubbs, a German immigrant, had his own get-rich-quick scheme. He bought a 138-acre hill alongside Lake Coeur d’Alene for a modest price and attempted to sell lots,…Continue reading→
Coeur d’Alene: The Lake City
What’s in a name: Coeur d’Alene is a small city in northern Idaho with an exotic name. This lilting French phrase refers not only to the city but also to a lake, a river, and a tribe of Native Americans in…Continue reading→
Manito: A Park for All Seasons
Every Spokane tourism brochure worth its salt includes Manito Park as a must-see destination. When I first read about the park, I – fresh off the plane from San Juan, Puerto Rico – thought, ‘how nice, the Park of the Little Hand,’…Continue reading→
Spokane: Capital of the Inland Northwest
Spokane is the largest city and the hub of the Inland Northwest. In spite of its spelling, the city is pronounced as if the final ‘e’ didn’t exist – Spo-can, not Spo-cane. The word means ‘children of the sun’ in the…Continue reading→
What Is the Inland Northwest?
My new posts focus on the Inland Northwest U.S. But what in fact is this? Also, why do we sometimes hear it called the Inland Empire? And how does it relate to the region known as the Pacific Northwest? When I…Continue reading→
Transitions
The minute I stepped out of the airport into a chilly April day in Spokane, the reality of my month in Valdivia began to slip away. Valdivia had converted to a far-off place, in the same way Spokane had while I…Continue reading→
Valdivia: The Last Day
For my last full day in Chile, I remained in Valdivia, taking in the sights and sounds of a city that had become very familiar to me. After locking the gate to my Airbnb house, I made my way along a…Continue reading→
Back to the Novel: The Snow Globe
As mentioned at the start of this blog, I spent a month in Valdivia, Chile in part to research my novel-in-progress. Those who have followed these posts regularly have been fed bits and pieces of the story along with my travel…Continue reading→