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  • Sue the Screenwriter: A Writing Retreat/Staycation on Whidbey Island

    Sue the Screenwriter: A Writing Retreat/Staycation on Whidbey Island

    BY SUZANNE KELMAN
    August 30, 2017
    All photos by the author

    One of the most wonderful things about being a writer is being able to write from home, and one of the most challenging things about being a writer is writing from home!

    Anyone who works from home knows exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, we love getting up, working in our PJ’s on our own schedule, writing when and where we want, and even with the pressure of a deadline, it’s pleasant to tackle it from your sofa. But the challenge of writing from home is that your house is not always the best environment for working because so many other things often get in the way to challenge your day. Animals that want my love and think lying across my keyboard is the best place to garner it, also, family members and household needs to take care of, kind friends who stop by believing you might need some company, or even the UPS man can be enough to knock off your writing rhythm for the day.

    So, with a need to get ahead on my latest word count, I decided to go on a writing retreat for four days with two other writers. One is also my literary agent, Andrea Hurst, and the other my developmental editor on my last book, Cate Perry. We decided we would share the cost of accommodation and be able to support one another through our writing process.

    The house we stayed in

    As we started to look into places where we might want to stay, it became apparent to all of us that the best idea would be to stay right here and have a staycation on Whidbey Island.

    I’d heard about staycations, where you stay and shop locally, your home is close by if you have forgotten anything, but you are officially away from home. As we started looking into different places to rent, we settled on a lovely three-bedroom house in Beverly Beach.

    Beverly Beach is a beautiful, quiet neighborhood, and the house was a short walk to the water. We decided to do lunch at home, but eat out together each evening and quickly fell into a rhythm. I loved the luxury of starting my writing day with a beautiful view of the water without the usual need to feed furry people or empty a dishwasher or even make my bed. In fact, I didn’t make my bed for the whole week I was there.

    The walk to the beach

    One of our first evenings out, we went to Gordon’s in Freeland. Anyone who’s local knows this is a lovely place to eat, and as we sat around the dinner table looking out at the water and the sunset, I asked the other writers why they enjoyed writing retreats.

    All of us agreed that being able to pause our daily lives was one of the best benefits of having a writing getaway, taking seriously our commitment to being a writer, and paying to be away from home meant that we took that responsibility seriously. Uninterrupted time to nap, write, or read, and the support we received from one another in the process was also important.

    Beverly Beach

    It became apparent as the days wore on that we all had different writing schedules. I always liked to get up and do my writing early, looking out at the water as I wrote. This freed up my day for walks, reading or a nap if I needed it. The other ladies tended to like to sleep in and write late morning. No matter what our schedules were, we found it helpful to come together in the afternoon or the evening and share our work, giving each other much-valued feedback. We also enjoyed walks on the beach where we’d talk, and share our lives. The idyllic neighborhood of Beverly Beach is definitely the right environment for all of those pursuits.

    The last evening, we went to Prima Bistro in Langley for our dinner.  A lovely place for a meal, and over delectable food, we talked about all the different ways the retreat had benefited us during the week. One of the most lasting was that we felt inspired to go home with new vision for our writing, acquired by the luxury of working through story lines with uninterrupted thoughts. By the end of the retreat, I’d written 6,000 words and the other women with me had written similar numbers. We all felt very invigorated by the experience.

    Andrea Hurst and Cate Perry my retreat writing buddies

    So, there really is no need to travel off the island if you want to have uninterrupted time to write, and I highly recommend dividing the cost with friends so you can have the support.

    I feel so fortunate to live on beautiful Whidbey Island, and every time I take time to do something like this, it reminds me of how wonderful it is to live in this incredible community. I want to thank you all, the readers of my blog, for the support you’ve given me over the five years I have written for this fabulous magazine and for sharing my writer’s journey with me. Have a wonderful fall, and I look forward to seeing you out and about on the island.

    Dessert at Gordon’s

    Suzanne Kelman is the author of “The Rejected Writers’ Book Club” and “Rejected Writers Take the Stage.” She is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright and was a Nicholl Fellowship Finalist at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Kelman was awarded Best Comedy Feature Screenplay at the L.A. International Film Festival, received a Gold Award at the California Film Awards, and received a Van Gogh Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival.

    Read the other story published this week

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    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Minding the Sky || This May All Disappear

    Minding the Sky || This May All Disappear

    BY JUDITH WALCUTT
    August 23, 2017
    All photos by the author

    The golden plums of Honeymoon Bay are finally ripe. They were still green when last I wrote. There is no hurrying them. Pick too soon, they never ripen. Pick too late, and they cook in their own fermenting sugars, turning their gold skins tawny, as the fruit combusts from the inside. I walked up the road and found a handful of them on the verge of perfect.

    A handful of golden blessings in the tree

    “Perfect.” What a funny word! It means so much, to so many! But none can define it for themselves, let alone for someone else. What was perfect for me in a suit of clothes, even a mere ten years ago, doesn’t feel or look perfect to me now. Why should it? We are volatile, vulnerable beings in a changing world.

    One for the ground

    And in a changing world, it behooves us to remember, even change wears a mask and plays at illusion. The wonderful French phrase: “Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose” (the more things change, the more they stay the same) evokes a whiff of that overly heavy perfume conjuring the feeling of reeling in some kind of nightmare we can’t quite get the meaning of. Is this change? Or is this not only the same old thing, but the same old thing—only, possibly, worse?

    One for the sky

    The series of events of the past few weeks—from playful threats of “limited” nuclear holocaust to the recent vindication of hate-centric mayhem have me stumped. I have tried to find an equivalent moment in all my nearly 65 years to measure this against, and I come up with a real hodge-podge of horrors, many of which I didn’t experience firsthand, but some of which I have lived through.

    Born in 1952, like all children growing up at that time in the U.S. of A., I was protected from the reality of the Second World War, which I had not lived through. I saw only renditions of it on television, in black-and-white movies which, from my childhood perspective, seemed to come from forever ago and the pictures, as portrayed by Hollywood, made it all look glorious in a “God is My Co-Pilot” sort of way.

    Later, scratchy black-and-white footage would emerge, documenting the depth and level of atrocities.

    The fact that my parents, my uncles, everyone else’s parents, sons, and daughters, had actually all gone through it—was a story I heard only in limited pieces. No one really wanted to talk about it. Everyone was happy to put it in the past. The war. So many dead. So many losses. V-Day in the end. That was WWII, as it was abbreviated in the history books, freshly printed, in the post-war boom.

    Plenty for the many

    I didn’t begin to know what it meant until I read “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Every time I thought about it, that little girl living in the walls of a house in the midst of that kind of mayhem—deep hatred, out of control—my heart hurt, my solar plexus ached, and I felt something that made me want to help her, or someone like her. I wanted assurances from the grown-ups around me, that that would never happen again.

    All these years later, as a practicing Buddhist, I still see and feel that moment in my body again when I think of Anne Frank, and I recognize the feeling as one of raising compassion in my heart and mind, raising what is termed “bodhicitta,” or “awakening mind,” which is the feeling of wanting to benefit others, wanting to help, wanting to ease the pain of another.

    I believe this feeling in our gut is our higher self “phoning home,” checking in with this human condition we’re in: “Hello heart? Hello soul? Anybody or anything there?”

    One for the heart, beneath the tree of golden blessings

    More experienced and knowledgeable Buddhist practitioners would say—there is nothing there! Thoughts do not exist. Consciousness just is. Everything you perceive with your eyes or ears or even fingers is a product of your own mind—and since thoughts don’t exist, this whole deal, the whole banana, does not exist.

    Sometimes that thought about things not really being real helps, and sometimes it just feels like nihilistic escapism. In either case, it is a good attitude adjuster, if you can go with it for even a moment—or moment-by-moment, just resting your mind in the sky and getting some perspective on the busy-busy world below.

    A changing sky

    So, what am I saying about this particular moment in time? The one I just can’t wrap my mind around, because it is too confounding? By the time you read this, the eclipse will have had its day, and the change it embodies will have had its moment, and then, like the illusion of unity it presents, the light will change, the headlines will change, and we, together and alone, will change.

    A pin-hole perspective

    I am considering that the best way to make it a change for the better, is to let it evoke higher emotions and not baser ones. Think of Anne Frank. Think of Heather Heyer. Let yourself ache with the yearning to help, like an armless mother aches for her child who is drowning, feel the pain of that deep love and with that feeling, feel the urge to help and decline the urge to harm. This is the raising of bodhicitta in action.

    Above all: remember—this may all disappear. For better or worse, what we have here is temporary—all the more reason to rise above and not sink below.

    Once in a lifetime view

    Of all the human activities that help us negotiate our way through changing realities, hard times, painful juxtapositions, and disharmonious outcomes, Art in all its forms is at the top of the list. Here on Whidbey, we have so many talented artists among us, keeping our collective consciousness healthy and thriving. We can pay them back for the mind-clearing service they render us by going to see their work, by basking in their extraordinary visions and reshaping of worlds both inner and outer. With their articulations of beauty and their shaping of realities beyond our grasp, we need art and artists more than ever.

    Shadow painting by the sun and moon on August 21, 2017

    I am grateful I live in a place where creativity and the will to do good over harm prevails, in a local, daily way. I can see it with my own eyes and believe it.

    Ever ephemera

    Judith Walcutt is a writer and producer living on Whidbey Island for three decades while practicing Buddhism for two—still a newcomer and a beginner. She began writing “Minding the Sky” in 2012 as a means to wrestle with the ordinary, luminous details of island life and the bigger picture.

    Transient testament to time

    Read the other story published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Rock Bottom Line || Visiting and Eating – How We Spend Our Summers on Whidbey

    Rock Bottom Line || Visiting and Eating – How We Spend Our Summers on Whidbey

    BY HARRY ANDERSON
    August 9, 2017

    Mid-summer is the best time to live on Whidbey Island — but often also the busiest. My spouse and I have now completed the first two of four visits by out-of-state friends fleeing hot weather and seeking cool experiences on our Rock. I do love catching up and sharing time with these dear friends and being their tour guide, even if it sometimes cuts short my afternoon nap and patio reading time.

    Of course, our half dozen friends make up less than a tiny fraction of the huge number of visitors expected on Whidbey this summer. By one estimate, we may see as many as a million folks from April through October — including the growing number of day-trippers from nearby “America” looking for a brief escape from rush-rush life and gridlock.

    Gathered with friends for brunch at the Compass Rose in Coupeville (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    Tourism isn’t the biggest industry on Whidbey, but it’s what drives our growing reputation as a beautiful, peaceful, rural, amazing, wonderful (insert your own superlative here) place. According to recent economic data, only about 15 percent of jobs on the Rock are related to hospitality and leisure businesses. (The military and civilian governments are by far the largest employers.)

    But the two-percent hotel/motel tax we charge our guests will generate about $250,000 for Island County this year, and my calculator tells me that will be drawn from about $12.5 million paid by overnight visitors. Not too shabby. And the county is budgeting a nifty 13 percent increase in the sales tax it expects to receive this year to $16.7 million. That, my calculator says, will be drawn from taxable sales of almost $188 million. Since a goodly share of those sales is made to visitors, that’s also not too shabby.

    The Pavlova at the Compass Rose (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    What’s remarkable about those numbers is that they are generated by generally very small, private businesses in the state’s second smallest county (San Juan is the smallest). They show that we have a diverse and growing economy. And they also show that there’s a lot for visitors to do and buy while they’re here.

    Through the years, we have taken our visitors on the jet boat tour under Deception Pass Bridge, on whale-watching tours in Admiralty Inlet, to the Kite Festival and the Shakespeare Festival, to the Whidbey Island Fair, the MusselFest, Penn Cove Water Festival, Oak Harbor Music Festival, Coupeville Arts and Craft Festival, and gone-but-not-forgotten Choochokam.

    With friends from Texas at the Orchard Kitchen (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    We’ve also gone on memorable hikes and beach walks. And we have eaten unforgettable meals. Ah, yes. The foodie experience! That’s what we concentrated on with our friends Lynn and Knick from Dallas last month. Incredible food. We began on a beautiful July evening at Orchard Kitchen, the wonderful “field-to-fork” dining experience run by Vincent and Tyla Nattress in Bayview. We got tickets for one of their infrequent “farm field” dinners, where we joined 40 or 50 other folks from on and off the Rock at one long table surrounded on all sides by fields of growing corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and squash.

    Before dinner, we enjoyed a guided tour of the three-acre organic farm that produced many of the vegetables we later ate. We watched as a whole hog roasted on an open grill, soon to be carved for our dinner. Then we sat down to four courses, beginning with a salad topped with edible flowers and capped by a dessert of freshly harvested Northwest berries of almost every variety.

    The roast pig at the Orchard Kitchen (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    The next day, we took our guests and four other friends to an equally special treat—a champagne brunch at the Compass Rose, the beautiful Victorian bed-and-breakfast inn run by Marshall and Jan Bronson in Coupeville. We bid on and won this matchless meal at a fundraising auction for the Island County Historical Museum. (In my years on Whidbey, I have learned a wonderful secret. The most treasured and unique things to do on this island are often the things you can bid on at fundraiser auctions—and there are lot of fundraisers on Whidbey.)

    Marshall and Jan are classic Rock “second acters” —folks who landed on Whidbey at midlife to begin a new chapter. Marshall is a retired Navy captain and foreign service attaché, and he and Jan have lived all over the world. They moved to Coupeville more than two decades ago, bringing with them Jan’s collection of Victoriana. The Compass Rose is chock-a-block full of antique stuff with fascinating stories behind all of it. Hold something up, and Jan and Marshall will tell you what it is and where it’s from. Before brunch, we needed some time—and a couple glasses of champagne—just to absorb the Compass Rose surroundings.

    The salad at the Orchard Kitchen (Photo by Harry Anderson)

    Then came the salad (locally grown, of course), the eggs Benedict (from chickens nearby and on home-baked muffins) and finally, the pièce de résistance: Jan’s stunning Pavlova meringue dessert topped with local berries. We all needed a nap after that meal.

    Orchard Kitchen and Compass Rose were our show-stopping foodie experiences last month. But, never ones to turn down a meal, we also savored the famous Mel’s Scramble breakfast at Knead and Feed, the Island’s best fish and chips with a glass of Parrot Red ale at Toby’s, and a couple of barbecues with Three Sisters beef at our home. All of us gained a little weight in those five days, but it was worth every new ounce we now squeeze into our jeans.

    Now it’s back to fat-free yogurt and veggies from my garden until the next set of friends arrives. Summer may be busy on the Rock, but it really is the best time to eat, drink, and be merry!

    Once upon a time, Harry Anderson made an honest living as a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Los Angeles Times. He now lives in central Whidbey where he spends his time gardening and ruminating on things that interest him.

    Read the other stories published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Pigments, Perspectives, and Pandas || Pssst. Can I interest You in A Vermeer?

    Pigments, Perspectives, and Pandas || Pssst. Can I interest You in A Vermeer?

    This weekend marks the fifth year of Forgeries@Froggwell and, in my not-so-humble opinion, it’s going to be a doozy of a show. What began as sort of a visual bón mót has grown to be a much-anticipated biannual event.

    From small, quiet sketches to all-out virtuoso feats of painterly brilliance, this show has something for everyone. The exhibition features more than 30 artists, with works ranging from Ernest H. Shepard’s sketches for “The House at Pooh Corner,” to Vermeer’s “Woman in a Red Hat” and a Francis Bacon self-portrait.

    From “The House at Pooh Corner” by Anne Belov after E H Shepard; pencil on paper

    The question of “why” always comes up when I talk about the show. One answer is that it’s a whole lot of fun, not to mention a challenge. I can’t answer for every artist in the show, but for me, it boils down to a couple of things: I think that visual artists learn by looking rather than reading about how to do something. Trying to replicate what they see visually requires lots of trial and error, decision-making, and experimentation.

    Self-portrait by Bruce Morrow after Francis Bacon; oil on canvas

    One might ask, where is the challenge of copying something that another artist has done, something that already exists. I say, go ahead and try it, then get back to me about how easy you thought that was. (Hint: It’s not.) You have to try to enter into another artist’s mind: How did they mix that color? What kind of brush did they use? How did they make that line? Is that color achieved by layering or mixing? What decisions did they make to achieve that mood?

    Portait of Berthe Morisot by David Maclean after Edouard Manet; Oil on canvas

    For centuries, artist training was a process of apprenticeships and making master copies. You trained your eye as well as your hand to translate what you saw onto the canvas. You learned color theory and how to work with specific materials in a way that transcends those materials. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

    You won’t want to miss this year’s show. It celebrates the diversity of artistic expression as well as the varied influences that have inspired, instructed, and excited the participating artists. It may give you added insights as you view this year’s exhibition and think about each artist’s own original works.

    Not to mention that Froggwell Garden is a much more convenient excursion than heading to The Louvre or The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    This year’s show will be held at Froggwell Garden, 5508 Double Bluff Road in Freeland; Friday through Sunday; August 4, 5, and 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parking is limited, so please carpool if possible.

    All illustrations are courtesy of the artists participating in Forgeries@Froggwell 2017.

    Anne Belov lives and works on Whidbey Island in an undisclosed location. Her paintings can be seen at The Rob Schouten Gallery in Langley and at The Fountainhead Gallery on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. You can find her peculiarly political panda satire at Your Brain on Pandas, and her books at Moonraker Books in Langley or on Amazon. Feel free to follow on Twitter where she is @pandachronicle and visit The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire on Facebook. Her latest collection of panda satire. The Panda Chronicles Book 7: Don’t Call Mee Boo Boo, has just been released

    Read the other story published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

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  • In Search of Truth and Beauty || Quantum Entanglement and Spooky Action at a Distance

    In Search of Truth and Beauty || Quantum Entanglement and Spooky Action at a Distance

    BY JONI TAKANIKOS
    July 19,2017

    This is not the first time I have landed at the quantum field intersection.

    “Quantum entanglement,” according to Wikipedia, “is a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. Instead, a quantum state must be described for the system as a whole.”

    I am writing this entry from the East Coast—Brooklyn, New York—in the neighborhood of Fort Greene. I arrived here the evening of June 30, and the next day ventured to the Brooklyn Museum to see the magnificently curated special exhibit “Georgia O’Keeffe, Living Modern.”

    Two bridges (Photo by Joni Takanikos)

    I love this quote, found on the exhibit literature, from her longtime friend, Frances O’Brien: “Georgia O’Keeffe has never allowed her life to be one thing and her painting another.” The exhibit was very much an illustration of her life. It even included her clothes, which she carefully crafted herself.

    Moving through the rooms that held iconic images of her, witnessing her strokes of paint on the canvas and stitches in her garments, I felt Georgia’s presence. I was traveling through time and space looking out of her eyes, moving from city to desert and from young to old. My daughter Jasmine and son Max, both Brooklynites now, were with me on this journey, and we were all profoundly moved by the experience. We left the cool confines of the museum and wandered next door to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was late in the day, and we happened to be the last visitors, which gave our walk a wondrous and otherworldly quality. We were with each other and the gardens and had a sense of being completely isolated from the city that surrounded us.

    Joni at the Brooklyn Museum (Photo by Jasmine Takanikos)

    A wise friend once told me that our children are a piece of their parents’ hearts, walking around completely exposed. I agree with this sentiment, and that is why, when Jasmine flew off to Greece the very next evening, part of me accompanied her every step of the way.

    She is there now and, thanks to modern technology, we have clear conversations, both voice and visual, and send lots of pictures and videos, too. Quantum entanglement, or as Einstein called it, spooky action at a distance.

    Max and Jasmine at the Brooklyn Museum (Photo by Joni Takanikos)

    I am in Greece with Jasmine and also here in Brooklyn with Max and his fiancée Natasha, being wined and dined and walking the enchanting neighborhoods.

    During my two weeks here, we ventured to Manhattan only once. We landed at the doors of the Whitney Museum and were ready to explore the rich whipped cream nature of astounding art and its curation. The Whitney special exhibit until October 23 is “Calder: Hypermobility.” As we all walked into the large room filled with Calder sculptures, Natasha leaned over to whisper in my ear, “This reminds me of Robbie Cribbs’ work.” In that moment, I was back on Whidbey, and I began to tell her and my son about the wonderful new moving sculpture on Second Street by Jerry Wennstrom. From the Calder exhibit on the eighth floor, we walked outside, marveling at the view and headed down the stairs to the seventh floor for the exhibit, “Where We Are: Selections from The Whitney’s Collection, 1900-1960.”

    Max and Natasha at the Calder exhibit (Photo by Joni Takanikos)

    The exhibit is organized around five themes: family and community, work, home, the spiritual, and the nation. It was an almost too rich meal of art that breaks your heart and mind wide open. We followed this by going to the sixth floor to view the Whitney Biennial 2017. After that viewing, we all agreed that we could not eat another morsel, so we headed down and out the front doors.

    Turning left, you have the lovely option of walking up to the High Line. The High Line is a city park built atop an abandoned elevated railway that winds through the southwestern side of Manhattan 30 feet above street level. It transports and elevates you on every level of your being. There are lovely gardens, walkways, mini forests, and lots of small seating areas interspersed, so that you can just sit or lay back and become a part of this thriving walkway. The High Line also offers some of the most astounding perspectives of the city avenues alongside the complicated and moving geometry of the Manhattan skyline.

    Perspective from the High Line (Photo by Joni Takanikos)

    The modern architecture next to the elegant older buildings, when viewed from the High Line, seems unapologetic and somehow a perfect puzzle of old and new. We even got our appetite back and stopped for gourmet popsicles made in Brooklyn. I got the cucumber, basil, and lime popsicle; it was a grand way to taste and digest our Manhattan day. We discussed whether to stay in the city for dinner or head back across the bridge to Brooklyn. It was an easy decision to head back to Fort Greene.

    I returned home to Langley late last night and am preparing this entry now to send to WLM.

    Here, there, and everywhere, leaping from field to field, heart-to-heart and hand-to-hand. Let’s hold these golden moments with reverence and gratitude. There’s no place like home.

    Joni Takanikos is grateful to have had a two-week vacation, exploring the worlds within worlds, spending time with children and her granddog Bear. She is also grateful to have a sweet home to return to.

    Bear on his throne. (Photo by Joni Takanikos)

    Read the other stories published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Magically Real || What To Do When You’re Feeling Extraneous

    Magically Real || What To Do When You’re Feeling Extraneous

    BY STEPHANIE BARBÉ HAMMER
    July 12, 2014

    Friends, I don’t know about you, but I feel extraneous these days. The political situation (which, is distressing, if not downright depressing, no matter where you stand politically), combined with the long ferry lines to and from the island, and the losses of the Whidbey MFA program, the Coupeville radio station, and the Coupeville pharmacy (I’m not sure that’s related, but I’m throwing it in anyway because I really miss it), along with the financial threats to the local hospital make things feel difficult here. I can’t, for the life of me, get a community college to hire me as an adjunct lecturer, although I’ve won two teaching awards and have three graduate degrees.

    Yup, it’s time to face facts: I’m extraneous.

    So, what am I doing? I’m reading a bunch of books — novels and poetry — I’m writing (working on three or four different projects), and I’m going to volunteer at the Island Shakespeare Festival in Langley.

    OK, Langley people, I admit it. You do have very cool events in the “southern” part of the island.

    Downtown Coupeville at 1:17 a.m. (Photo by Stephanie Barbé Hammer)

    The Island Shakespeare Festival is staging one of my favorites, “Hamlet,” as well as “Comedy of Errors” and Chekov’s “The Seagull.” I am crazy for “Hamlet.” I’ve seen it, read it, and taught it multiple times. It’s the perfect play for our dysfunctional political moment (“Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark”). “Comedy of Errors” is great too. The missing link for me is “The Seagull,” which I’ve never read or seen.  So, now I’ll have to read and learn about it this summer.

    It’s important to remind yourself every day that, even if you’re extraneous, you can still educate yourself about things that interest you.

    As a volunteer at the festival, I will get to see the plays for free and come early to get a great seat. If you haven’t seen a play in a while, allow me to remind you that seeing plays is awesome. There’s something about live performance that is, well, enlivening. I just talked to my daughter, who went to a professional wrestling event with her spouse out in Long Beach, California, and she tells me that she’s still “high” about it.  And if New Japan Wrestling isn’t theater, then I don’t know what is (Will Shakespeare would dig it for sure).

    Live performance connects us with others in complex and interesting ways.  First, we are members of a collective group (a.k.a. the audience), and there is a real pleasure in being with other people at a live performance. If the performance is outside, and especially if it is during daylight (which lasts till past 9 p.m. here), we can really see our fellow-watchers, unlike when we go to the movies. Watching others as we see the show is meaningful.

    I remember kids gasping last year, their eyes widening in fear, when Julius Caesar got assassinated in last year’s production of that play. I got to witness these kids’ reactions and, as a result, I shared them. I felt a fear and sorrow at the assassination of Julius Caesar that I had never felt before when watching that scene (and I’ve seen that play many times). I felt something new because I experienced those kids experiencing the play in such an intense manner.

    Island Shakespeare Fest actors in last year’s Julius Caesar (Photo courtesy of Island Shakespeare Festival)

    Second, there are the ways in which we connect with the on-stage actors as we watch them perform. It’s fascinating how we come out of a live performance, feeling as though we have “lived” it ourselves, even though we’ve just been watching the whole time. That’s the magic of performance. We get to live lives we’ll never know through our regular, limited means.

    When I watch a live performance, what my friend Robert calls “the heat of the real” takes over, and I feel engaged and intensified. I forget myself and my extraneousness, and I lean in and drink in the energy of the performers. I come away feeling not just better, but somehow like I matter more. Like we all matter more.

    I’m looking forward to my volunteer time at the Island Shakespeare Festival. And it sounds like they need volunteers. So, for a little while at least, I will not feel extraneous.

    To learn more about the Island Shakespeare Festival, see their website. You can learn more about Shakespeare here.

    Stephanie Barbe Hammer is writing a new magical realist novel, a new collection of poems, and a possible biography in poems and prose about her best friend from the university where she worked. You can follow her on Twitter and read 13 sonnets by wonderful poets for 13 different senators on her website, Magically Real.

    Read the other stories published this week

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    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Minding the Sky || Coming to Fruition

    Minding the Sky || Coming to Fruition

    BY JUDITH WALCUTT
    JULY 5, 2017

    Summer is upon us. Fruit is ripening everywhere —cherries on the tree, strawberries in the field, raspberries in the patch, and blueberries on the bush—they are all coming to fruition. It is time to get out and get some of the bounty we have so readily available, right here, right now, where we live.

    Slow good food available on Whidbey (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    Maggie’s U-Pick at Featherstone Farm, which is located on Bailey Road in Clinton, has a changing assortment of offerings throughout the summer, all U-pick (contact Maggie at maggiej@whidbey.com to be added to her mailing list). Bell’s Farm in Coupeville has been providing Whidbey with strawberries since 1946. They have a lot of other produce as well. The U-pick price for the berries is a great deal at $1.60 per pound.

    We have at least two on-island, certified organic blueberry farms. Mutiny Bay Blues in Freeland offers a variety of blueberry types, all of them full of flavor, a profound flavor, which is practically the Platonic ideal of blueberryness. Hunter’s Moon Farm, north of Oak Harbor, also organic, provides a U-pick option and has some raw honey available from the bees that pollinate their fields.

    Blueberries becoming blue (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    These are just a few of the local farms and farmers. There are more, and you can find them by taking adventuresome alternate routes up and down the island. This is the time of year to explore the place you love with new eyes—explore it like a tourist. Don’t stint yourself on golden moments on the beach and breathtaking views of mountains across the water. Why leave home, when you can be here?

    Inspired cabbage head (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    If you can’t get to the farms, you can still get to the farmers markets and sample some of everyone’s produce. It is a good idea to patronize local agricultural endeavors for the sheer sense it makes in terms of supporting our local food sources and preserving access to truly “farm fresh” food that is naturally non-GMO, organic, and grown with love by friends and neighbors. Think how much more nutritious that is!

    Jubilant cherries on a neighbor’s tree (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    And it’s more fun. I have wonderful memories of my kids and me going out to fields up and down the island, picking our lot of berries, as we ate our fill along the way. Those boys are grown and gone for now, but I know wherever they are, whenever they eat strawberries, they will remember those summer days past, the slate-blue sky, the red-jewel berries buried beneath the dusty green plants, the taste of the summer sun on their tongues.

    Strawberry memories linger (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    No matter how busy you are this summer, coming and going, don’t forget to stop and taste the fruit and make new, happy memories with your children, your friends, your parents, your beloveds.

    Go to the fields—pick the food together, cook the food together, eat the food together. Stay up late and watch the moonrise and bright stars appear on the horizon together. Put the phone down. Turn off the computer, the TV, the tablet. Look up; look around; look where you are. Please: Smell the lavender; taste the fruit.

    Lavender feeds the soul (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    As for me, I have my eyes on my usual favorite trees for gleaning fruit, the unwanted and unnoticed golden plums of Honeymoon Bay, which I have been tracking since their first blossoms in the spring, to their evolution into hard green fruit, to the long slow ripening I observe on a daily basis as I take my usual walks up and down the road, as I have done for so many years now. 

    Wild golden plum blossoms in early spring (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    I look forward to capturing those golden plums again this summer, when they are ready for picking. I have a commitment to those trees to show up and be there for their completion. Since I am the only one who does, I feel a certain sense of obligation. In a sense, I have trained these plum trees to expect me. I have trained them to keep giving fruit. I am their witness. I have tamed their wildness, and it is my responsibility to gather their gifts and not waste them.

    Wild Plums ripening slowly (Photo by Judith Walcutt)

    There is a metaphor in this somewhere, and I think it has to do with arriving at an appreciation for the process of maturation. You cannot hurry the process of fruit ripening on a tree. We must be patient—as with all acts of creation—the plum, the apple, the peach, the pear—each has its perfect moment of fulfilled potential.

    I’ve been struggling with this trope in my life, as it has manifested in the book that will not end, the fruit that would not ripen. Begun nearly twenty-two years ago, and returned to over the past three years in deep rewrite, the book I am finishing now, I find, is quite a different one than that which I began. Of course, I am a different person than I was when I began it and that has had its environmental impact on the final outcome.

    I think I am almost there now, though, and I am hoping to make some good jam out of the fruit of my labors soon. Some things in life are like that—they take a really long time to come into their own, to reach “fruition.”

    Fortunately, real jam made with real berries doesn’t take that long. You can get the berries today and have jam within twenty-four hours. Here’s my recipe:

    Ingredients

    • 4+ cups of strawberries washed and cut into pieces (if starting with raw fruit, add ½ cup more to compensate for cooking down)
    • 2 cups sugar mixed into a 3-quart-sized pot with the berries
    • A good-sized strip (2 x 1/2 inches) of lemon peel cut into a few pieces and added to the berries
    • A squeeze of lemon juice, which helps the preservation and setting up of the jam

    Instructions

    Combine ingredients in the pot and ignore for a while, as the sugar pulls the juice from the berries. Put on a back burner at low, with the lid on. Keep the temp at low throughout the process and you will have a better jam and avoid burning the bottom of the pot by inattention. Continue to stir intermittently.

    When the fruit begins to bubble, remove the lid and keep stirring, intermittently, as the fruit cooks down. Don’t forget to encourage the fruit, bring out the best in it, by loving it as you stir.

    When the lemon peel has reached transparency, the fruit is stiffer in the stirring, and you have reached 220 degrees Fahrenheit at least once during the process, you probably have jam. If you find you’re scraping the sides of the pot often to remove the build-up, you probably have jam. When it cools, you will know for sure.

    Yield: three to four, 8-ounce jars or six to eight 4-ounce jars.

    Mix with yogurt and enjoy!

    (P.S. Preserving the jam for later use is easier than you think. Buy canning jars at the grocery store and follow the clear instructions that are included.)

    Mutiny Bay Blues at sunset (Photo by Britt Fletcher)

    You’ll find a list of farmers markets, farm stands, and CSAs on Slow Food Whidbey Island’s website. Goosefoot’s updated and printable Roadside Farm Stand, Farm Store, and Farmers Market Directory is here.

    Judith Walcutt is a writer and media producer who has enjoyed the fruits of Whidbey for many years with her husband, writer/performer David Ossman. Since their boys left home, Judith and David have been birthing books and batches of jam side-by-side, with no retirement date in sight. “Memoirs of a Modern She-Noodle” or “Dining Out with the Hungry Ghosts,” a comedic/erotic picaresque novel will be coming out soon, from Neopoeisis Press.

    Read the other stories published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Sue the Screenwriter: It Takes a Village to Launch a Book

    Sue the Screenwriter: It Takes a Village to Launch a Book

    BY SUZANNE KELMAN
    June 28, 2017

    Yes, I do love living in a small town. I love everything about a community that works together to support local artists. I also believe in keeping local money in our own communities whenever we can. So, it was an easy decision when I came to launching my next book, “Rejected Writers Take the Stage,” to have a party downtown, especially as my book is set in Langley!

    It’s always exciting for authors to get their hands on the first copy of their work. I don’t know about other writers, but it always makes me cry. It is as if all those electronic manuscripts, internet emails, and flat graphic covers are a fantasy until you actually hold that work in your hand as a physical book.

    Holding my published book for the first time always makes me cry. (Photo by Matthew Wilson)

    This was the second book in my Southlea Bay Series, and it was the most difficult piece of writing I have attempted yet, for many different reasons. First, I had some health challenges for a lot of the time I was writing it and being in acute pain is not the best environment to write comedy from. Secondly, I felt that “second book” pressure, I didn’t want to let down the people who had loved the first books so much. And lastly, I had to figure out some difficult, key plot points.

    So, it was with joy and relief that I finally received the copy that had cost me so much in time and energy.

    After the cake was ordered from Payless, it was time to arrange for entertainment. (Photo by Matthew Wilson)

    With my new book in hand, all that was needed was to plan the physical launch party. I decided on Ott & Murphy for my venue. If you haven’t visited this wonderful place, I highly recommend you do this summer. Located on First Street, with its stunning views of the sound, fabulous wine, and marvelous entertainment, it is well worth stopping by for a glass of vino and plate of cheese.

    Next was the books, and of course I wanted to include Moonraker, our local bookstore, which is also on First Street.  I do get author copies, but I wanted this to be a celebration of the small town I live in, so inviting them to participate by providing the books seemed the right thing to do. As I went to check final arrangements with them, not only was my book in pride of place on their counter, but they had also filled the window with copies, too.

    My books were already in the window at Moonraker. (Photo by Matthew Wilson)

    Have I told you yet how much I love my small town?

    With the venue and books arranged, and the cake order from Payless, all that was needed was to organize the entertainment for the event. Once again, my small town came to the rescue. A talented group of local actors agreed to bring my characters to life, pulling them straight from the page in their own unique interpretation of the parts. It was wonderful to sit back and be read to and also to see hidden depth brought forth from the characters as they were re-created in front of me.

    Here is a photo of them hard at work.

    Acting out scenes from the book (from left to right) are Eric Mulholland, Sandy O’Brien, Kim Wetherall, Melinda Mack, Kathy Stanley and Christina Parker. (Photo by Christopher Wilson)

    As the event went off without a hitch, I felt my heart swell, I’m so glad I decided to write about a small town and that I get to reap the benefits of living in one every day.

    A big thank you to all of you who contributed to this wonderful launch.

    Suzanne Kelman is the author of “The Rejected Writers’ Book Club” and “Rejected Writers Take the Stage.” She is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright and was a Nicholl Fellowship Finalist at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Kelman was awarded Best Comedy Feature Screenplay at the L.A. International Film Festival, received a Gold Award at the California Film Awards, and received a Van Gogh Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival.

    View the other stories published this week

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    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.

  • Play That Song Again: When Two Things Come Together

    Play That Song Again: When Two Things Come Together

    BY ERIK CHRISTENSEN
    June 21, 2017

    As usual, the key is paying attention. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you’ll see how, like magic, things line up. “Coincide” from its early Latin roots means to “fall together,” something that’s not really random, but two things that fit together perfectly. It’s surprising—although it shouldn’t be—how often two random things have brought me to some good music.

    Here are my all-time, top-five musical coincidences:

    Musical coincidence number five

    In the early ‘90s, my younger brother discovered a Georgia folk singer named Kevn Kinney, who I knew as the leader of the band Drivin’ and Cryin.’ Kinney had a new record out titled “McDougal Blues.” Since it was produced by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, my brother (a big fan) had to have it and sang its praises to me. “OK, sure,” I thought, not really interested. A few days later, at Seattle’s Peaches Record Store with friends Dean and Sherry, I heard a great song being played over the store’s sound system. Then another. After a third interesting song, I was really drawn in as we were browsing records, and even my friend Dean perked up at this couplet:

    Not everyone was born with a golden crutch
    And if you don’t lend a helping hand, do me this much…

    I thought, “This is a cool record they’re playing,” and decided to go ask about it. “Oh, it’s Kevn Kinney’s new record. Peter Buck produced it and plays guitar all over it. It’s pretty cool,” the lady behind the counter said. “All right,” I thought, “Little brother, you got me.” I bought the record, and it remains a favorite to this day.

    Musical coincidence number four

    Billy Joel isn’t exactly an unknown artist, but sometimes he can sneak in under the radar. I have long been a fan and have seen him in concert many times. I remember finding a limited-edition CD of his Russian tour. He was the first big American artist to play in Russia during the Glasnost era, and there is an outstanding documentary of his trip—I still have it somewhere on an old VHS tape. The “Live in Russia” CD lived in my car for a few days, which led me to break out some other Billy Joel music (1976’s “Turnstiles” CD is still a favorite). That Friday, after being immersed in all things Billy, a copy of American Songwriter magazine showed up in my Coupeville mailbox with Billy Joel on the cover. He hadn’t released any new music in a long while, and wasn’t really newsworthy, but just happened to be featured after I had spent four straight days listening to his music.

    Musical coincidence number three

    I’ve written about Jason Isbell several times (here and here), but I remember first hearing about him in the print world of No Depression magazine. (Named after the 1936 Carter Family song “No Depression in Heaven,” it was the quintessential monthly Americana/Folk music magazine that went online-only for a while and is now back in print as a quarterly.) Isbell was described as the young hotshot who joined the Drive-By Truckers band and quickly gained renown as a guitar player and songwriter. Years later, while listening to music online, in the margins of my YouTube feed, I noticed links for Jason Isbell, the guy I had read about in the magazine. There was a link to a song titled “Danko/Manuel.” Well, I know those names; that song must be about the members of The Band, Bob Dylan’s old group. Click. Amazing song! Another link. “Decoration Day.” Click. Another great song! “Streetlights.” Click. OH MY GOSH, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?! How did I not know about this great songwriting? A few clicks later, I had ordered all three of his solo records and spent an entire summer immersed in his music. Remember the mathematical formula: Music magazines + YouTube = spending money on CDs.

    Musical coincidence number two

    As I wrote in the “Safe Compilation” blog entry, a great source for music and music journalism is the southern literary magazine Oxford American. There, I read an interesting write-up of a Midwest songwriter Kevin Gordon. The CD that came with the magazine included a great duet of Gordon and the great Lucinda Williams on “Down to the Well.” That was another live-in-my-car-for-six-months disc, and I thought about it often, but never got around to checking out more of Kevin Gordon’s work.

    About three years later, a friend of a friend named Karl came to one of my gigs and said, “Wow, your music sounds a lot like this guy I’ve been listening to. I think you’d really like his stuff.” A few days later, he delivered “Gloryland,” a new CD by someone named Kevin Gordon. It had been so long, at first the name meant nothing to me. I popped it in the CD player in my car, and a few minutes in, I realized, “Gaa! This is the ‘Down to the Well’ guy! Finally!” The planets align, especially when you have hip friends like Karl who listen to and share interesting new music.

    And now, my all-time, number one musical coincidence

    This one is the most recent, and just one more example of two things falling together like magic. For the past two months or so, my listening obsession has been Chris Shiflett’s (guitarist for the band Foo Fighters) “Walking The Floor” podcast. It’s an every-other-Monday series of interviews with country, Americana, and honky-tonk musicians. The interviews have all been great, so I have taken to plowing through the archives in the evenings, listening on my headphones as I’m cleaning up or doing the dishes.

    On June 3, after listening to an hour discussion with BJ Barham of the band American Aquarium (both new to me), I thought, “I wonder if this BJ Barham guy is touring around here anytime this summer.” I looked up his website and, amazingly, found Tractor Tavern, Seattle, Washington listed as his next show. On June 4. “Uh, tomorrow? Tomorrow! Holy cow, I guess I’m destined to go to that show!” The next night found me in the front row of the Tractor Tavern, laughing to myself about musical coincidences. I was not disappointed; it turned out to be a fantastic show—solo acoustic, with riveting songs about his hometown from his new CD “Rockingham.”

    So, these days, I pay attention. Things come together in a beautiful way. Let me know what you think of any of the above artists, and let me know what you’re listening to or reading. I’m sure it’ll fit together with something of mine.

    Erik Christensen teaches at Oak Harbor High School, writes songs and poetry, and is working up BJ Barham’s “Reidsville” to play at upcoming gigs. The Erik Christensen Band plays:

    • Thursdays, July 20 and 27 at the Clinton Farmer’s Market from 4 to 7 p.m.
    • Saturday, July 29 at Flyers in Oak Harbor, 7 to 9 p.m.
    • Saturday, August 5 at the Taproom at Bayview Corner, 8 to 10 p.m.  

    View the other stories published this week

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    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.    

  • Eidetic Island | Rooted Vision

    Eidetic Island | Rooted Vision

    BY HOLLY CHADWICK
    June 14, 2017

    I’ve been thinking of the word “eidetic” to describe the nostalgia of long-time Whidbey Island residents. Eidetic is defined as mental images that are so vivid and detailed that they seem real, and sometimes my vivid memory of the island skews the current image of it. I am a long-time resident who experiences this phenomenon. Having lived primarily in the same house on Whidbey Island for more than 35 years, I’ve seen a lot of changes. Despite being a filmmaker and looking around with a motion camera in the present day, I am prone to nostalgia. Sometimes, the distinct vision of Whidbey Island in my mind’s eye conflicts with reality or emphasizes that I’m living a sort of magical realism.

    An example of the latter is roller skating. Do you remember roller skating at the Roller Barn as a kid? I remember it as being mostly a magical experience gliding around the floor with the pulse of disco lights and ‘80s and ‘90s music. The skates were smelly, like bowling shoes, and the food was salty. Socially awkward teenagers, I’m sure, had many tears and falls, but it was magical for me.

    Aging athletic ability aside, roller skating at the Roller Barn is still magical. However, now the experience is coupled with a bit of competition. That’s not necessarily a bad thing! If you display an inkling of interest in the sport and demonstrate that you can skate backward without tripping too badly, a roller derby girl may try to recruit you for the local roller derby team! Suddenly, the fantasy of being Drew Barrymore and wanting to direct Whidbey’s own version of “Whip It” flashes through my mind.

    I also have an example of this more conflicted eidetic island vision from boating. I bet I’ve gone over Deception Pass a million times via car and taken many photos from the beach and bridge. I’ve always appreciated its sheer beauty. However, I never went through Deception Pass on a boat until we bought our 36-foot Uniflite, “Rubicon” two years ago.

    Heather Willoughby, Holly Chadwick, and James Olmstead on the Rubicon’s maiden voyage in October 2015. (Photo by John Willoughby)

    On its maiden voyage from Bellingham, dear neighbors Heather and John Willoughby, my husband, and I reached Deception Pass on a slack tide and motored through without a hiccup on our way to Oak Harbor. That was a rather idyllic first adventure and what I expected since an easy crossing was always my experience from land. However, every time we’ve motored through Deception Pass since then, it has been different and, in turn, has conflicted with the initial perspective of the pass. Being boater newbies, we navigated under the bridge a few times when it wasn’t slack tide.

    Not as easy as it looks from above: The Rubicon goes a bit sideways as it
    navigates Deception Pass with James Olmstead at the helm. (Video by Holly Chadwick)

    I certainly was still aware of the beauty of the area, but the danger of Mother Nature, that sheer cliff face, and those hidden rocks were in the forefront of my mind. I personally had never seriously considered the fact that the area is rather dangerous!

    I realize that this was rather naïve of me to think as, of course, the area is dangerous. Think about all the boats that have traveled through the pass when there was no bridge. Think about smuggler Ben Ure hiding among the islands and risking it all during a flooding tide. Think about the dangerous construction of the bridge. Think about the sheer power of the current that could drag you under if you fell in from your boat! No, this is my eidetic island and somehow those thoughts get buried, and the idyllic beauty vision of the pass returns! It’s funny how fickle perception can be.

    I like playing with this concept as an artist, and maybe that’s why I mostly make fictional pieces and not documentaries. My latest project, “Sounds of Freedom,” is a series about a servicewoman who returns from the Iraq war and a Vietnam Veteran named Charlie. Reality is not what it seems to these characters.

    Charlie recalls a battle while smoking on his front porch in “Sounds of Freedom.” (Photo courtesy of Holly Chadwick)

    With this series, I try to capture the magical realism that Whidbey Island holds.

    In the larger context, my project is a prime example of what it’s like to be an artist and a Whidbey Island resident right now. To have any vision of a future, the past should inform the present and make constellations of progress that map the future. It seems that most contemporary artists struggle with visions of the future and see them as dystopic because an end of energy sources is in sight. Strife, conflict, and trauma make up the present and the predicted future, as wars over resources continue. As an artist, I strive to have an eidetic vision. It may be fantasy, but the magical realism that I get to live as a Whidbey Islander trumps dystopia.

    In preparation for my project, my director of photography Alex Walker, my crew, and I did a lot of tests with the RED One digital cinema camera that resulted in this look near Strawberry Point:

    From the heavy influence of my crew’s outside perspective, parts of it are a rather idyllic view of the area, making it what I call an “eidetic island” view. It’s interesting how a newcomer’s vision of the island matches closer with my nostalgic vision from the past.

    I think being able to articulate the concept of “Eidetic Island” helps me have a more rooted vision of the island, one that considers the past, accepts the reality of the present, and looks toward the future. Well, we’ll see how it plays out. Stay tuned for more blog posts from me featuring our Eidetic Island!

    Holly Chadwick resides on Whidbey Island (in the same house she grew up in) with her husband and two golden retrievers. She enjoys kayaking, boating, playing piano, extreme sledding, and off-roading adventures. As a filmmaker, she is continually working on the project “Sounds of Freedom,” which will soon to be available on worldwide video-on-demand platforms.

    View the other stories published this week

    __________________

    Enjoy more articles in the print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine, which you can purchase at local and off-island retailers or receive in the mail via subscription.

    WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. You may link to this story. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, please contact us.