Intersection Column | How Readers Change Writers
- mtlmagazine
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
by Jane Kirkpatrick
“I have your next story!” She stood in line at the Woodland, Washington’s Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens to have me sign a book I’d written. My smiling reader had the enthusiasm of a primary school teacher—which I later learned she was. She’d driven several hours from the Oregon coast to tell me, “I’ve read all your books and you’re the perfect writer to tell Mary Gerritse’s story.”
It was 2012 and while I hated to quell such enthusiasm, I was already writing a novel about another historical woman, combining both fact and fiction. My faithful reader chatted about this remarkable Mary who was the first female to deliver the mail at the rugged coast when there were few roads except along the unpredictable seashore or over Native American and game trails carved out of the mountainside. Suzy’s enthusiasm for Mary’s courage and tenacity perfumed the air like the fragrance of lilacs. She gave me a book about the area where Mary lived.
“It sounds like a wonderful story.” I thumbed through the history book. “And I know that if Mary’s story calls my name, I’ll learn something about myself I never would have learned,” I said, “but I wouldn’t learn what you’d learn if you wrote it, because you’re the keeper of her story.”
Suzy sighed. “I’m so not a writer. I just know this story is yours to tell. I can help with research if you’d like. I live near where Mary lived, at Cannon Beach, Oregon.”
I knew about Cannon Beach. Its golden sands spread out to iconic features like Haystack Rock as the Pacific Ocean rolled in around it. The town hosts a large Christian conference center where I’d led women’s retreats and had loved walking the beach that apparently Mary had walked on too.
“I’ll send you more information,” Suzy said as she waved good-bye.
Over the years, she did, teasing me with documents about early coastal life, census records, and maps, which are my weakness. Suzy gave me links to local museum archives where we found a poem Mary wrote. We watched a film made about Mary. She sent me tickets to an annual cottage tour of Cannon Beach historic homes. I found myself reading the news of the Oregon Coast, wondering about the danger Mary faced from sleeper waves or landslides on Neahkahnie Mountain where Mary and her horse Prince carried the postal bags on narrow trails 800 feet above the sea. I was even surprised when the two hosts of the National Dog Show gave each other gifts as they celebrated the show’s 175 years. One treasure was a painting of the host and his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (we have one of that breed, too) sitting at the beach near Haystack Rock at, yes, Cannon Beach.
Suzy continued to send notes about Mary, but we also talked about our lives. She fell in love and got married. Her husband engaged us in helping them celebrate their anniversary. We exchanged visits, got through Covid. We cheered her son’s interest in running. More than a reader, she became a friend which, posthumously, Mary was becoming too.
Ten years passed. My 92-year-old husband’s health deteriorated, our old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, died. We decided to downsize. My proposals for a new novel didn’t appeal. Perhaps God was telling me it was time to retire, write my monthly on-line newsletter Story Sparks and just forget about novels. Afterall, I’d written ten more books since I’d met Suzy. Perhaps it was time to stop.
I don’t know when the change happened. Maybe after the house sold and we settled in a new city. (The Gerritses moved many times.) Maybe it was getting a new Cavalier puppy. (Mary had two dogs.) But prayerfully, an idea formed as I learned Mary had undertaken her unusual profession when the Gerritse’s had four children at home. What made her decide to take on this task at such a demanding time in her life? I chatted with my husband, then Suzy, then my editor at Revell. I proposed writing a series to explore these unanswered questions: Where did Mary and other Cannon Beach women draw their strength from during trying times? And how did they help and support each other? Mary’s story would anchor the series.
My editor loved the idea, Suzy loved it, so did my husband. And now, two years later, Across the Crying Sands is book one of Mary’s story. She—and Suzy—were very patient. I hope my readers fall in love with Mary as I did, thanks to Suzy.
About the Author
Jane Kirkpatrick is the New York Times and CBA bestselling and award-winning author of more than forty books. Her works have won the WILLA Literary Award, the Carol Award for Historical Fiction, and five Will Rogers Gold Medallion Awards. Jane divides her time between Central Oregon and California with her husband, Jerry, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Rupert. Learn more at JKBooks.com.
About the Book
In 1888 Mary Edwards Gerritse is a witty and confident young woman who spends as much time as possible outdoors on the rugged Oregon coast where she and her husband, John, have settled. But as Mary faces struggles of young motherhood, she finds an unconventional way to recapture the spark she lost.
Did You Know?
National Invasive Species Awareness Week occurs each February to inform the public about the threat of plants or animals introduced to an area where they are not native and cause harm. Kudzu—the green vine with broad leaves, growing in clusters of three—is a notorious invader and can be seen along southeastern United States roadsides, covering fences, telephone poles, trees, tractors, barns and other buildings.
Known as the plant that ate the South, this invasive species can grow more than a foot a day in the summer. Some even claim they can see it growing!
Kudzu smothers native plants, alters ecosystems, damages infrastructure and is difficult to control.
The vine was introduced to the U.S. in 1876 from Japan and marketed as a way for farmers to stop soil erosion. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the government provided jobs for people to plant kudzu all over the southeast. (Today the government provides jobs to get rid of kudzu.)
A kudzu science experiment gone bad leads to evil plans that could threaten the world’s global food supply in book 2 of my Sweet County Secrets series.
-Sally Jo Pitts, Sweet Double-Cross