oregon christmas stories

Oregon Coast Christmas Tales

NSP Meditations, Oregon Coast_History, Writing , , , ,

Friends of Nestucca Spit Press:

I present Oregon Christmas Tales, my latest book from Nestucca Spit Press, a perfect literary gift for the holiday season.

So many people suffer as the holidays approach . . . A neglected boy. A struggling single mom. An addled nurse. A depressed urban couple. A greedy developer. A suicidal young woman. A meth addict. A phony writer. A table of Trump fanatics. A forlorn newspaper staff. A homeless man in a wheelchair. A frustrated teacher. A teenager who has never seen the ocean. Thirteen stories of despair, delusion and dislocation.

They all desperately need some Christmas magic for total transformations of mind, body and spirit. The Oregon Coast will deliver it.

In Oregon Coast Christmas Tales, I tour readers through the lives of the troubled and unfulfilled, the mighty and the marginalized, the lost and the loveless, and lights up their souls with the spirit of Christmas.

The book costs $20 (with $5 for shipping). I also have a special price for purchasing two copies. If you buy directly from the website, you receive a signed edition, special bookmark and a bonus Christmas story called “Psilocybin Santa.”

You can purchase via Paypal via the Nestucca Spit Press website at nestuccaspitpress.com, through this blog, or make arrangements to pay by cash or check or some form of barter by emailing or messaging me directly. The book is also available at select independent Oregon bookstores. A print and e-book version are also available through Amazon.

Thank you for supporting an independent Oregon publisher and keeping my writing and publishing dreams alive.

A Slash Burn Christmas (Part 1)

Fiction, NSP Meditations , , , , , , , , , ,

At precisely one minute past the stroke of midnight, Matt Hancock, a direct descendant of John Hancock, the bold first signator of the Declaration of Independence, was matrixed out of the Clatsop County Jail. Matrixed meant Matt was granted early release because of overcrowding and thus he would not serve the full 30 days of his sentence for violating his probation after testing positive for methamphetamine. It was Matt’s 47th time of incarceration in the jail over a period of seven years, every one of them for a drug and alcohol-related offense or probation violation.

This is what passes for criminal justice and drug treatment in Clatsop County.

Matt walked out into the darkness and into a phalanx of rain that was taking no prisoners because December rain on the Oregon Coast has no rules of engagement. He had no coat, no belt, no money, no phone, no job, no food, no friends, no family, no place to live, no place to crash. He was, however, still addicted to methamphetamine and now homeless walking the streets of Astoria the day before Christmas.

This is what passes for rational reentry into society after incarceration in Clatsop County.

Matt wandered the downtown blocks and admired the holiday decorations. The nativity scene at the Methodist church especially moved him and he thought about sacking out under the straw, but figured he might get caught, but perhaps getting caught wasn’t so bad because he might return to jail and they would matrix out another addict.

Change interested Matt. Cleaning up interested him. Once there had been promise, as there had been for so many Americans with his disease. He could repair anything that didn’t involve using a computer, and had once held down a couple of decent-paying jobs. He liked to fish for surf perch.

There’s been a good girlfriend, too, and a mutt and a cool truck. He was approaching 40 years of age, but maybe he was 39 or 42. Was his mother alive?

Then came the flood of methamphetamine…there was that party….

Hold it right there! We will not delve into Matt’s back story. It doesn’t possibly matter to a holiday tale. What matters now is what people will do to help Matt so he can help himself.

Those people are out there.

Possible Christmas Tales

NSP Meditations, Oregon Coast_History, Writing , , , ,

Over the years, I have written various coastal Christmas tales and shared them with readers. I plan on writing and sharing another one this holiday season. Below are the titles and notes for possible tales. I still haven’t decided which one to pursue.

Sweet Home Stoned Oregon Christmas

A lesbian couple live in Astoria. One woman hailed from rural Alabama where her embittered, racist, homophobic and Trump-supporting father still resides. The couple invites the father to spend Christmas with them in Astoria, thinking he won’t accept because he has never traveled out of state. But he does accept and flies out to Oregon where he meets trees, beaches, driftwood forts, rain, dark beer, friendly, non-embittered people, and (unbeknownst to him) cannabis-laced Christmas treats. Slowly, something novel begins to stir within him, and he is sore afraid. The Oregon Coast spirit begins to take over and just in time for Christmas.

Christmas Crafting

A depressed millennial woman working social media for a cannabis corporation in San Francisco decides to commit suicide a couple weeks before Christmas. Her plan is to drive north up Highway 101 to the Southern Oregon Coast and somehow end her life (probably pills and booze). When she reaches the area, she sees a handmade sign advertising a Christmas craft fair at a county fairgrounds and decides to investigate. Inside the craft fair, she finds the true meaning of Christmas through old school crafters, lacquer, glue guns, crochet and baked goodies (non cannabis).

A Clearcut White Christmas

A young forester for the world’s most evil timber investment corporation with a secret headquarters in a clearcut above Seaside, undergoes a spiritual George Bailey-like transformation when he finds himself drunk and stoned in a snowy clearcut on Christmas Eve and surrounded by woodland creatures and birds when Santa lands his sleigh, confronts the forester, and helps drink his liquor and sample a cannabis candy cane.

The Hold Out’s Anti-Christmas Crusade

The lone hold out against a national big box retailer that built a massive superstore on a filled wetland is an elderly man whose Clackamas County Christmas tree farm maze delighted children for 20 years and became a local legend. The superstore’s construction surrounded the man’s property and ended public access to the maze. The man declares war on the retailer during the holiday season by erecting a nightly series of obscene outdoor Christmas displays (e.g. The Grinch having sex with an angel and a Wise Man; Santa Claus spanking Baby Jesus in the manger, etc) that become a First Amendment cause cé·lè·bre and draw the ire of the President of the United States.

An Oregon Tavern Age Christmas

A dissipating writer on the existential lam receives an invitation from some regulars in Oregon Tavern Age country to join them for a Christmas Day barbecue at a Rogue River campground. The holiday repast will feature hot dogs, venison and red and green-colored Jello shots. On the river, he finds the true meaning of Christmas in Oregon Tavern Age country.

Holy Dog Night

A dissipating writer on the existential lam volunteers at an animal shelter on Christmas Day and finds the true meaning of Christmas from shelter dogs when he smuggles in special meat treats and walks 23 mile with 46 dogs in one day.

RV Park Christmas

A dissipating writer on the existential lam finds the true meaning of Christmas by bringing a little ramshackle Christmas cheer to the dissipated residents of a ramshackle RV park on the Oregon Coast.

Bonnie and Clyde Christmas

A dissipating writer on the existential lam finds the true meaning of Christmas by staging a Christmas party near a river for two senior dogs named Bonnie and Clyde.

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