Women Writers

Who says you can’t go home again? Well, some of us do return, and my friend A. Lynn Ash writes about that in her new book Eugeneana.

Born in Eugene, Oregon, Lynn grew up there in a home over the grocery store pictured on the book cover. Then she left.

Eugeneana is a story of the hometown she came back to.

I wonder how many people take the words to heart that they can’t go home again. Do they look with longing on a past they fear can never illuminate the future? An opening theme that cannot repeat in the coda?

Lynn dared to test that when she returned to her hometown.

The book will definitely speak to people of Eugene, those who share the city’s history, as well as newcomers who want to know more.

But I think the book will also speak to those who’ve contemplated going back to other hometowns. Maybe they haven’t tried–yet. Maybe they did and it didn’t work out. Or it worked out fine and they want to link arms with Lynn and share her triumph.

I’m guessing Lynn would say you can’t go home and find it as you left it. But life’s repetition isn’t so much a circle as a spiral, each round offering a different perspective.

In a collection of vignettes, she’ll draw you into her story, but more. She’ll draw you into Eugene’s story in this memoir of her hometown, a story more poignant because she dared the return.

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Three friends from my Eugene writing group trekked east with me this weekend for some western flavor at a Women Writing the West conference at the Eagle Crest Resort near Redmond, Oregon.

The highlight for me was meeting my editor Erin Turner. Erin, shown with me at right, is the Editorial Director of TwoDot Books, the Globe Pequot imprint for A Place of Her Own and for my next book as well, The Shifting Winds.

Here we are after the Saturday lunch in front of a Pendleton blanket displayed for the evening’s raffle.

It was great meeting Erin face to face and having a chance to sit down and talk with her about the upcoming book and just to chat. She’s a wonderful editor. I feel like a very lucky writer.

At the book signing Saturday evening I had the pleasure of sitting next to Molly Gloss, keynote speaker for the conference, bestselling author of Falling from Horses.

Molly’s many awards include the Oregon Book Award, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and the PEN West Fiction Prize. Molly also wrote Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, Wild Life, and The Hearts of Horses.

My friends and I rented a condo at the resort for the weekend, a lovely place nestled among the tall junipers, a bit apart from the conference center, so quiet only the delightful twitter of birds surrounded us. We each had a room of our own in the two-story building. We decided we could live there if we took a notion. At right is a glimpse inside.

And at the front door of our condo, below, my good friends and fellow travelers show a little attitude at the end of an intense weekend of workshops, networking, bookselling, and fun. From left to right: Elizabeth King, Lynn Ash, and Carol Brownson.