A View From Here

A View From Here.  A few years ago there was a writers conference held in the central Oregon coast town of Yachats, where I lived.  I listened to the late Ken Kesey, a frequent visitor to the area, tell a writer that this could be a hard place to write. “If you think you can sit there staring at the ocean for inspiration you’re wrong, it’s not out there, it’s in your head!”

He was right. It is beautiful here in Lincoln County. It’s the kind of beauty that makes concentrating on anything else tough. And since hearing that insight, I’ve written at a desk facing a wall  no windows opening onto a ocean view, although I have one, but it’s worked.

I’ve done, and do, different kinds of writing. As a freelance writer I’ve been a observational columnist, a humor columnist, a book and music reviewer for newspapers, magazines, and online.

However, as a creative writer, my heart belongs to fiction. In that genre I do short stories, road adventure stories, musical adventure tales, and in current production, are three small novels.

So really the purpose of this web site is to give you a glance of some of the things I’ve done, a preview of what’s coming, and hopefully, a view of what it’s like to be a writer living in a small town on the Oregon coast! – Rick Schultze