“Chance of Sun” is today’s Powell’s Books Daily Dose!
Yippee! Thanks to reviewer Brad!
Brad’s Comments
“Bold, witty and honest! I sat down to start this book and the next thing I knew, hours had flown by without a notice. I had a hard time putting it down and loved how much I was drawn into the setting of 70s, 80s and then 90s Oregon. Generous insight full of both heartache and humor.”
“Chance of Sun” in the Bend Bulletin
Thank you, Dave Jasper, for writing this great story about my writing and my books, published in yesterday’s Bend Bulletin! I’ll be reading tonight at Camalli Books in Bend, 6:30 p.m. Hope to see some of you there!
“Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir” Debuts Next Week
My book “Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir” releases Monday July 18!
It’s a story of sex, drugs and camping.
From the website of the publisher, Nestucca Spit Press:
In her debut as an author, Kim Cooper Findling’s Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir, unfolds the story of an Oregon girl coming of age in the 1970s and 80s, navigating her way through pick-up trucks, dive bars, higher education and backwoods trails before finding a place she belongs.
Beginning with her childhood in Coos County, Findling relates a rural upbringing spent walking beaches and hiking in the woods with her forester father, attending summer camp just over the hill from the Oregon Country Fair, road-tripping to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with schoolmates, and learning about the fickleness of love in campgrounds, beer joints and on the University of Oregon campus. Yet, following a move to Oregon’s biggest city after college, Findling lost her way and her connection to Oregon’s landscape, becoming caught up in the drugs and booze that flowed so freely in Portland’s restaurant scene. But it was Oregon that helped Findling find herself again later, this time on the east side of the mountains, where she found clarity in High Desert trails and a wide-open sky, as well as life’s most grounding phenomenon—love.
In 23 essays set over 20 years, Findling traces her own coming-of-age story against the beauty and complexity of the Oregon landscape. Nestucca Spit Press Publisher Matt Love writes,“In Chance of Sun, Kim Cooper Findling presents a fresh and distinct literary voice. I might even call it sexy. At long last we have a memoir by someone that captures the fantastically loose and earthy spirit of growing up in Oregon during the 1970s and 80s.”
Tour Dates:
Aug 3 Blackbird Wine Shop 4323 Northeast Fremont Street Portland 7 p.m.
Aug 5-7 Willamette Writer’s Conference Portland Airport Sheraton Hotel Time TBA
Aug 22 Powell’s on Hawthorne Portland 7:30 p.m.
Sep 3 Garibaldi Historical Museum Garibaldi 2 p.m.
Oct 13 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Portland
Oct 15 The High Desert Museum Bend 2 p.m.
Oct 29 The Book Parlor Burns Noon
Dec 3 Books By The Bay North Bend 1 p.m.
2012
January 19 Grey Skies Reading Series Swing Cafe and Wine Bar Olympia, WA 8 p.m. CANCELED to be rescheduled
January 21 Eugene Home and Garden Show 3:30 p.m.
Feb 11 Grass Roots Books Corvallis 2 p.m.
Feb 13 Linn Benton Community College 3:30 p.m.
Mar. 1 North Bend Public Library North Bend 7 p.m.
Apr 20 Homeword Bound Portland TBA
August 3-5 Willamette Writers Conference
More to come!
Chance of Sun is available at:
Between the Covers Books, Bend
Ekahni Books, Manzanita
Paulina Springs Books, Sisters
Multnomah County Libraries
Grass Roots Books, Corvallis
Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland
Broadway Books, Portland
To read more or buy, see www.nestuccaspitpress.com or www.kimcooperfindling.com.
BendFilm Rocks
I recently was invited to join the board of the BendFilm Festival. Here’s how I feel about that—(!!! ** (insert happy leaping around) ** !!!).
BendFilm is my very favorite event in the whole entire world. I could now, as a freshly minted board member, proceed to tell all of you how much I love love love BendFilm.
But, umm, I already have. This might be the first time I’ve had the opportunity to quote myself.
Here’s what I wrote about BendFilm in my recently-released travel book, “Day Trips From Portland, Oregon: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler.”
“My very favorite festival by far is the BendFilm Fest, held the first weekend of October each year in Bend, Oregon. Four days of independent films, parties, workshops, lectures and the camaraderie of festival become more than the sum of their parts. This event brings people together to talk about the things great film can urge us to consider—the mysteries and joys of life, pain and joy and happiness, and the ways we are all alike and yet unique. Like all forms of great art, independent films can make us see anew the beauty and connection that is around us already. See www.bendfilm.org for more information on the BendFilm Fest.”
And here’s the blog post I put up after the 2009 Fest:
BendFilm: The Portal to Blissville
And here’s the Travel Oregon blog post I put up before the 2010 Fest:
And here’s a profile I wrote for Central Oregon Magazine of local filmmaker Tim Cash, who edited the documentary “Back to the Garden,” which screened at the 2009 Fest:
I have been screening films these last two months in the documentary category and am already excited about this year’s festival, to be held October 6 – 9, 2011. I know in advance that the weekend will involve so many of my favorite c-words—cinema, connection, conversation, contemplation and cocktails.
C you there!
