COVER STORIES
Posted November 2, 2020
Granted, I’ve lost a lot. A few times over. Somehow, I see myself as fortunate — despite it all. I have always been aware of my abundant opportunities and experiences. Since childhood I’ve wondered about luck and fate. Although I’ve credited it mostly to plain ol’ luck o’ the draw, good fortune, I also i see it took lots of hard work, as well as a certain part of me that dives in, gets going, raises and waves my hand in class, and takes the risk. I was, and still am, always up for adventure, at least for finding out more.
In these weird times, and at my age, still wobbling without my inn to tun, or farm to farm, I have no idea what the future holds for me personally/professionally. Not to mention for our nation and the world. That gets too big, too quickly so I draw in. Today I’m thinking about one small corner of the world, one of the few things I do feel certain, and excited about, and that’s my new finca. No, not a place. The book. La Finca. The all important cover is done! and It’s being printed as we speak.
I could leave it at that. Et voila! But that's not as fun as celebrating the bits and pieces — the adventures and the real personal connections that went into it. I marvel at all that goes into even a cover. Boatloads of luck, ten years of work, and a lifetime of going for it.
You may wonder, for example, how did I end up with Rebecca Wells’ glowing words on the cover? As well as Alice Waters, and a whole host of amazing folks who were kind enough to read and comment, on the back? It's not like my publishers or a PR team randomly send it out there. Nope.
Like its predecessor, the inn La Finca, the book, is all about people that helped build it, from actual help with the editing or digital design process, encouragement, and others who provided the fodder for all the stories inside. For me connections with people are always as good as it gets. The big payoff and the secret, sacred ingredient. Like, how I know Becca…
I was five months pregnant with my first child, in Anchorage, when my brother offered me free tickets to Mexico were going to expire if not used right away. I cleared it with my doctor and midwife; I was just barely in the safe zone for air travel —so we took off. Little did I know that my luggage would get lost and that my life would be changed by this trip.
When you're that enormously pregnant and you arrive in a beach town it's hard to find clothes that fit. So there I was walking down the beach in the only thing that did; a purple and white striped string bikini. We were looking for a hotel and a group of people waved to us, inviting us to check out theirs, the funky Hotel Omar. They said we looked like we would fit in. I don't know if they were referring to me in the bikini or not. One of those smiling faces was the divine Ms. Rebecca Wells, then an aspiring young actress and playwright from Seattle. The whole crowd was from the Northwest. Needless to say we moved in, made fast friendships with all of them and in the course of the week together, my husband and I decided make a stop in Seattle on our flight home to consider moving there. We did, and we did.
One year later with a six month old, Becca took me under her gracious southern hospitality wing, and help me find our first house there and connected me to my first job, through a ladies clothes swap and chili feed she hosted in my honor. Becca read to my children when they were little. I read her first manuscripts, and designed the poster for her play, Gloria Duplex. (A few Seattleites might remember I ended up posing for it because it was too expensive to get a union actress to do a nude shot (Gotta be serious about seizing adventures). From there on out, our friendship drifted in and out over the years, all 36 years of it…but she was there for me when I wrote her for early publishing questions a few years back. Now she lives close enough to visit, and we do.
It’s a good reminder to raise my hand, jump in, grab or create or write, or call an old friend. Even in these challenging, nerve-racking, hard to get motivated times, we can’t let the bad guys beat our spirits. Who knows what good things result and sweet words might come our way?
((And, if you’re just on the edge of your seat to know how Alice Waters came to review La Finca, well…that’s chapter 12. Guess you’ll just have to get the book. Pub date is January 26th. :) ))
Onward, Corky
