March 15, 2018

Fort Messages 3

After working on the jetty fort for an hour, I took the path through the dunes and reached the other fort, the one with the tin box containing writing materials and an invitation to leave a message.

Sanderlings darted to and fro around the fort and nothing brings me greater joy than watching sanderlings on the beach. So I sat down on a driftlog, drank water, ate chocolate, and watched them.

There wasn’t another person around. A few droplets of rain fell. I got up, added a couple spars to the fort, and then opened the box to see if there were any new messages. There was. It read: “Enjoying a gorgeous day on the beach with our pup Lakoda…cherishing that it may be her last. Her memory will always be here, one of our all time favorite spots. Enjoy your family, including those fur babies!!!”

The message ended with three emoticons: a heart, peace sign and smiley face. It was signed M & T.

(Suddenly I liked emoticons, the handwritten ones, that is.)

I knew something about cherishing final moments on the beach with a beloved dog. Mine with Sonny occurred not far from here, almost two years ago. Has it really been almost two years?

I returned the message to the box, closed it, and secured the box inside the fort. I considered writing a message, but didn’t. I prefer reading them at this time. I prefer creating this opportunity for people and plan on creating more opportunities. I love that people are taking me up on it. We are collaborating in such a way that probably suggests a new branch in my publishing life.

(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.)

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The Old Crow

Book Club

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In December of 2020, author Matt Love moved to Portland to care for his elderly father.

Returning to the Rose City jolted Love after 23 years residing on the Oregon Coast. In the Sellwood neighborhood where he lived, Love met a homeless man named Mark. They formed a friendship over literature and the unforeseen magical discoveries in street libraries. They created The Old Crow Book Club, and yes, sometimes that involved drinking Old Crow on a sidewalk.

The club also included several other Sellwood homeless men and women cut from John Steinbeck's Cannery Row cloth.

In due course, Love learned the members' stories of homelessness and how they survived. He wondered what happened to his beloved state of Oregon and attempted to help Mark get off the streets only to run up against the seemingly futile policies to address the crisis.

Along the way, he had the best conversations about books in his life and wrote The Old Crow Book Club, where he recounts his interactions with the homeless people in his neighborhood and offers some suggestions how to alleviate what he considers the greatest man-made American humanitarian disaster of his adult life.

The Old Crow Book Club is available for purchase here and select independent bookstores in Oregon.

Choice Cuts

of Oregon Fiction

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Choice Cuts of Oregon Fiction by Matt Love contains 20 stories, all set in Oregon. The cast of characters includes a depressed Santa Claus, Steve Prefontaine, Jack Ramsay's fast break offense, socialist squirrels, a clearcut, a dead deer, a junior high football team, a high school tennis player, a dissipated teacher, a man who evolves into a beaver, a homeless vet, a jilted preacher, a double date to a prom, rural degenerates, a wily caterer, and much more.

The publication of the collection culminates a quarter century of the author's writing about Oregon and rambling around the state.

Choice Cuts is available for purchase here, through Amazon, or select independent bookstores in Oregon.

The Savage

of State Street

Nestucca Spit Press is proud to present The Savage of State Street: The Thieving and Literary Lives of Smoky Epley. He is the greatest unheralded writer in Oregon history and also one of its more mediocre, colorful and persistent thieves.

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In 1973, Oregon State University Press published Men in Exile: An Anthology of Creative Writing by Inmates of the Oregon State Penitentiary. Twenty-two of Smoky Epley's pieces appeared in the book.

Smoky spent most of his adult life in state and federal prisons for robbery. In 2008, during one of his brief stints of freedom, Smoky became friends with Matt Love, an Oregon author and publisher. They met after Love discovered Men in Exile and wrote a newspaper column about the landmark book. Smoky read the column and reached out.

He returned to prison in 2009 after forging a check. Upon his release in 2011, Love encouraged Smoky to write a memoir. He completed half of Auto before dying in February of 2013.