News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Author Jeanette Hubbard had the opening scene for a novel in mind - a suicide.
"What do you do with that?" she said. "It's kind of a downer."
You turn it into a comedy, of course.
And, because you love the area and visit it four times a year on camping trips to the Metolius River, you set the story in Sisters.
"I've loved the town for decades," says the Portland author. "I'm very familiar with the city - though I certainly don't know the dirt."
The set-up for "Secrets, Lies and Champagne Highs" rolls out like this:
"Comedy begins with a botched suicide and ends with a barn burning. Claudie O'Brien has driven to her favorite spot on the Metolius River in Central Oregon. She is armed with some very nice Champagne and a boatload of Percocet. But her best-laid plans of checking out are thwarted by Peter, a laid-off vice-principal working as a tow-truck driver.
"She comes to live in the converted garage that Peter's wife, Chrystal, has renovated. This doesn't please Mrs. Fowler, the noisy neighbor across the street who has problems of her own in the form of her meth-cooking son Marty.
"Chrystal is soon distracted by the handsome older spiritual guru who has breezed into town with plans to build a "transformational' retreat in the woods. He endeavors to help Chrystal clear her seven chakras in his luxurious suite at the Six Firs Resort. One person in town knows that he is a fraud ... and she's living in Chrystal's converted garage.
"How will Claudie reconcile herself to her new life, straighten out the mess in Chrystal and Peter's life, and bring about the comeuppance to the husband who walked out on her 40 years ago?"
Those looking for a roman a clef dishing the dirt on the lurid underbelly of Sisters will not find it. The setting is real, but the characters are made up and do not resemble anyone living or dead. Probably.
"It's a purely fictionalized version," says Hubbard. "I hope so."
"Secrets, Lies and Champagne Highs" can be found at online booksellers and at Paulina Springs Books in Sisters.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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