Amy’s Adventures in the Pacific
Northwest—Part 4
Birds
By Amy Lane
Of course
my childhood adventures in Brother Bus (previous
posts here, here and here) aren’t
the only times I’ve been up to Oregon, Washington, or Canada.
There was
a class trip to Vancouver with my high school marching band—not only did we
come in third out of seventy-five bands, we also got to visit the Bouchart
Gardens, which were astounding, and
knock around Victoria. The trip must
have made an impression, because I asked my husband to go back for our tenth
anniversary, and he must have loved
it too, because he took me there while he attended a conference, around ten
years later.
Of
course, when you convince somebody to go somewhere, you really hope the place is as good as you remember it. One of my best memories of the tenth
anniversary trip was the night we arrived in Anacortes, a small town on the tip
of Washington, on the ferry route from Seattle to Vancouver. It was still very bright at nine o’clock at night in June, so we took a walk
from our hotel to see what this tiny city that was mostly an island had in
store.
There is
a promontory—don’t ask me where, which part, how we got there, this was sixteen
years ago!—but I remember the promontory.
We stood up there, feeling a brisk wind, and looking down at two bald
eagles playing tag in the air currents.
They’re really big birds—but in the vastness of the promontory, they
didn’t look quite so huge, or even majestic. They were frolicking, really,
flying because they could.
“That,”
said Mate, “is so very, very cool.”
And I
knew that he loved it too.
When we came back to stay in Vancouver, a little more than ten years later, I got to take a daytrip by myself to Grouse Mountain, where I rode the tram and saw brawny young men with scarred faces do amazing things with axes, and where I found out that the Bald Eagle may look very majestic, but he’s actually a thieving, conniving, nest-wrecking, egg-eating sort of bird with very little integrity. The handsome young ranger who was doing the bird presentation in fact made a stunning case for a certain kind of falcon to be Canada’s national bird, specifically because it tended to kick the shit out of the Bald Eagle on a regular basis, and quite frankly, I was on his side. He was handsome, a little shy, and had a stunning smile—I may or may not have been on his side if he’d told us all to strip down and sunbathe in the overcast day. Well, that, and I’d heard enough locals to complain about the Canadian goose to think that was not necessarily a healthy state bird to have either.
I loved that trip by the way—I got to
wander around a walkway that wrapped around a cliff and a tree, I learned that
vultures have big holes in their beaks and a special claw that they used to
clean the decaying flesh out of the holes so they could breathe, and I got to
ogle the young mountain men who sounded exactly as Canadian as someone wearing
flannel and suspenders should. They were
redheads—I was in lust.
And a lot
of that trip—and the others that came before-- must have stuck, because when
Riptide asked me to write for the Bluewater Bay series, I could not wait to jump back into that area, even
if it was only in my mind. And when I
tried to think of an alternate life for my beleaguered young fisherman, Cal,
the one thing I kept coming back to was “birds”.
I wanted
to see him on that hillside in Grouse Mountain, talking about birds, getting to
fly every time he set one free.
If you’ve
read Nascha, which is in the Lights, Camera, Cupid collection, Cal
gets exposure to majestic predatory birds at a very young age. Although Cal doesn’t have a career locked in
his mind at the end of Deep of the Sound,
I’m thinking that’s the one we should all wish for him. Cal needs to
fly—let’s give him some new friends to show him how.
Cal McCorkle has lived in Bluewater Bay his
whole life. He works two jobs to support a brother with a laundry list of psychiatric
diagnoses and a great-uncle with Alzheimer’s, and his personal life amounts to
impersonal hookups with his boss. He’s got no time, no ambition, and no hope.
All he has is family, and they’re killing him one responsibility at a time.
Avery Kennedy left Los Angeles, his family,
and his sleazy boyfriend to attend a Wolf’s Landing convention, and he has no
plans to return. But when he finds himself broke and car-less in Bluewater Bay,
he’s worried he’ll have to slink home with his tail between his legs. Then Cal
McCorkle rides to his rescue, and his urge to run away dies a quick death.
Avery may seem helpless at first, but he
can charm Cal’s fractious brother, so Cal can pretty much forgive him anything.
Even being adorkable. And giving him hope. But Cal can only promise Avery
“until we can’t”—and the cost of changing that to “until forever” might be too
high, however much they both want it.
Amy Lane exists happily with her noisy
family in a crumbling suburban crapmansion, and equally happily with the
surprisingly demanding voices who live in her head.
She loves cats, movies, yarn, pretty
colors, pretty men, shiny things, and Twu Wuv, and despises house cleaning, low
fat granola bars, and vainglorious prickweenies.
She can be found at her computer, dodging
housework, or simultaneously reading, watching television, and knitting,
because she likes to freak people out by proving it can be done.
Connect with Amy:
Website: greenshill.com
Blog: writerslane.blogspot.com
Twitter: @amymaclane
Facebook group: Amy Lane Anonymous
Goodreads: goodreads.com/amymaclane
Giveaway
Every
comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for an eBook package of all
of Amy Lane's backlist titles with Riptide! (Excludes The Deep of the Sound and
anthologies.) Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on June 20, 2015.
Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Don’t forget to add your email so we
can contact you if you win!
Love Amy Lane. Especially the promise series. Looking forward to reading the Deep of the Sound.
ReplyDeletegigglesvi88@hotmail.com
DeleteThank you so much! I hope you enjoy this one!
ReplyDeleteThanks for another wonderful post! amaquilante(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteI loved the blog post. I loved Bouchart Gardens and the Pacific Northwest when I vacationed there.
ReplyDeleteLoving your trip back in time. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys for following along!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post accompanied by stunning photos! Thank you so much! I am enjoying this blog tour!
ReplyDeleteOops!
Deleteree.dee.2014 at gmail.com
You could write a list of ingredients and I'd buy it and read it. Without a doubt, you're one of my favorite authors, so having another book from you is a treat! Off to buy ...
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great post! I love Vancouver, too. But, I could never do that walk around the cliff - I would have an anxiety attack.
ReplyDeletejen(dot)f(at)mac(dot)com
The cliff was not as big close up-- because usually I am THE biggest chicken, and I managed this one!
ReplyDeleteI have been wanting to explore Vancouver forever (but not that high up off the ground, please)!
ReplyDeleteTrix, vitajex(at)aol(Dot)com
I've been to the East side of Canada but would Love to travel the West. Sounds and looks like a great area to visit. Your book sounds great, Amy. Much success!
ReplyDeletetaina1959 @ yahoo.com
Thank you for sharing the pictures with us. The walk around the cliff and tree sounds so scary but looks so cool.
ReplyDeletehumhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
Looking forward to reading this! I was in Vancouver three weeks ago and we drove through Anacortes on our way back to Seattle! . Beautiful trip and I had the best clam chowder in Anacortes. :)
ReplyDeleteJojo
What a great post, I love Amy's books and Canada rocks! I am glad you liked your visits. I was born in Vancouver and live in Edmonton Alberta now. If you noticed, except that Canada Geese are quite beautiful, most of the animals we claim (see our coins) are not the prettiest out there! The falcon would be a nice Canadian representative, just not as pretty as the boys!
ReplyDeleteGreat post - really powerful.
ReplyDeleteNeeneiv at Gmail dot com