{"id":2026,"date":"2025-07-11T16:55:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/2026\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:55:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:55:05","slug":"jane-kirkpatrick-heads-west-to-the-coast-in-new-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Kirkpatrick heads west to the coast in new series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jane Kirkpatrick heads west to the coast in new series<\/p>\n

Published 9:30 am Friday, July 11, 2025<\/p>\n

\"\"Jane Kirkpatrick\u2019s new book, \u201cAcross the Crying Sands,\u201d is the first in The Women of Cannon Beach, a trilogy of books inspired by pioneering coastal women.<\/p>\n

Popular Central Oregonian and New York Times bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick has the first of a new historical fiction trilogy out. The book is \u201cAcross the Crying Sands,\u201d and the cycle of books is called The Women of Cannon Beach.<\/p>\n

How she came upon the story of Mary Gerritse diverges from her usual means of making stories out of historical figures and events.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, some little thing happens and there\u2019s some unresolved question and I end up going, \u2018I wonder how that happened?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But the seed that was planted for \u201cAcross the Crying Sands\u201d came from a fan and constant reader named Suzy Wintjen, of Seaside.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 13 years ago, this woman who\u2019s now a friend \u2026 drove to Woodland, Washington, where I was signing books,\u201d Kirkpatrick said. \u201cShe said, \u2018I have your next story.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Historical fiction author Jane Kirkpatrick will make appearances Thursday at Roundabout Books in Bend and Wednesday at Sunriver Books & Music to promote her new book, \u201cAcross the Crying Sands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirkpatrick had her own ideas. Several, in fact, but hey, thanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to be gracious, and she was like, \u2018Oh, OK,\u2019\u201d Kirkpatrick said. \u201cBut through the years, she would send me stuff about Mary Gerritse,\u201d a mother and intrepid coast settler who delivered the mail in a difficult, treacherous part of Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would go through documents, and she located interviews that had been done with Mary, because she became quite iconic,\u201d Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n

The New York Times-bestselling author has lived in Central Oregon for many years, now calling Redmond home half the year, with winters spent near Palm Springs with her 95-year-old husband.<\/p>\n

About three years ago, she concluded she was done with writing, \u201cbut Suzy was, like, on my case. She said, \u2018Think about this. I think you could do something with this book.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wintjen got through to Kirkpatrick, who ended up proposing not just one, but three books based on the life of Gerritse and the development of Cannon Beach \u2014 with some help from Wintjen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of my husband\u2019s health, I knew I couldn\u2019t travel to do as much research, which is what I like to do, but she was a research wizard,\u201d Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe and her husband had four children, and she started delivering the mail, and they hired a nanny to look after the children,\u201d Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n

The unanswered question concerned Gerritse\u2019s modern lifestyle, one which \u201cI thought \u2026 was unusual for the 1890s, for a couple to have made that decision. Something Mary needed in her life, she was not getting by being a stay-at-home mom, so she chose to do rather dangerous and high-adventure work,\u201d Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think wealthy families at that time had nannies, but John and Mary, they were living on the edge. They were not a wealthy family at all,\u201d she said. \u201cA homestead on the coast was just treacherous. People abandoned so many homes because they couldn\u2019t make a living there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She learned a lot of interesting things about Gerritse and Cannon Beach, some of which she shared at Roundabout Books Thursday. On August 16, she\u2019ll visit Sunriver Books & Music (57100 Beaver Drive).<\/p>\n

The second book in the series is written but not yet titled. It is scheduled for release April 21, 2026. Kirkpatrick expects the third book will be published later next year.<\/p>\n

Gerritse lived until 1957. She had a long life, but not an easy one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third book I\u2019m really struggling with because there were a lot of tragedies with their children,\u201d Kirkpatrick said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of life, I guess, part of the journey, but how you deal with it is part of what I think Mary\u2019s legacy is. Despite terrible losses and terrible tragedies she found a way to keep going, and that\u2019s very inspirational for the rest of us, in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAbout David Jasper<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

David Jasper is features editor and a columnist for The Bulletin, where he’s worked since 2001. He can be reached at 541-383-0349 or David.Jasper@bendbulletin.com.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"email<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\tMore by David<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jane Kirkpatrick heads west to the coast in new series Published 9:30 am Friday, July 11, 2025 Jane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-2026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}