Cannon Beach Book Co. hosts book launch
Portland author Jim Stewart has North Coast music roots
CANNON BEACH — What is
it about the North Coast that
seems to grow writers? From
the Oregon Writer’s Colony
at Rockaway Beach to the
support for local authors pro-
vided by local bookstores,
Oregon’s rocky, sandy, windy
coast is fertile ground for cre-
atives. Jim Stewart is proud
to be counted among them. “I
have loved this area for more
than 40 years,” he says. “I’m
actually on a ¿rst-name basis
with an elk from the Gearhart
herd.”
Stewart, who will be cel-
ebrating his debut novel at a
launch part at 7 p.m. Saturday,
Jan. 16 at Cannon Beach Book
Company, has been a profes-
sional writer for over 25 years,
publishing dozens of stories
and essays, technical man-
uals and poetry. He lives in
Portland with his wife Laura,
though he started in the local
music scene.
Godot is
Coming!
Jan. 29,
30, 31
Feb. 5, 6
Photo by Natalie St. John
Submitted photo
“Ochoco Reach” by Jim Stewart.
Dan Driscoll will teach participants about oysters at an upcoming seafood workshop orga-
nized by the Sou’Wester Lodge set for Saturday, Jan. 23 on the peninsula.
Learn about crab, oysters
on a seafood excursion
Sou’Wester Lodge holds workshop
Submitted photo
Author Jim Stewart will release his first novel at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16 at Cannon Beach
Book Company. Stewart has performed music at local bars and coffee shops since the
1970s, though he now lives in Portland.
“We were a bunch of long-
haired kids trying to ¿gure out
how to make sense of Vietnam
and what our country was go-
ing through. Music, whether
folk, rock, or blues was our
way of sorting it out. Besides,
it was just fun,” he says. Stew-
art’s ¿rst bands started tour-
ing the coast in 1973. He has
played local bars and coffee
shops ever since, though he is
now based in Portland.
In Stewart’s new novel,
“Ochoco Reach,” the action
begins as a Portland-based
2 | January 14, 2016 | coastweekend.com
private eye, is approached
by a lovely new client. She
asks Mike Ironwood to help
her figure out some suspi-
cious activity on her cattle
ranch. Mike finds the case
intriguing and Willimina
even more so. Six days in,
the case has turned up three
dead bodies, an alphabet
soup of secretive feder-
al investigators, and Mike
is thinking that Willy just
might be The One. When
she is kidnapped by a cor-
rupt DEA agent, he follows
Submitted photo
Jim Stewart has been playing music on
the coast since the long-haired days of the
1970s.
the trail deep into Mexico,
and comes home with some
unfinished business.
“Ochoco Reach” was re-
leased Jan. 4 by Word Hermit
Press and is available in pa-
perback and on Kindle from
Amazon.
LONG BEACH PENINSULA, Wash.
— Learn all you ever wanted
to know about crabbing and
oystering on a guided hands-
on tour. The Sou’Wester
Lodge is organizing a Seafood
Excursion workshop from 10
a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan.
23.
Local crabbing expert Ja-
son Thorne will show par-
ticipants how to bait and set
the various styles of crabbing
traps and pots. Thorne will
talk about morphology, tides
and the art of timing involved
with catching crabs.
Then, at Oysterville Sea
Farms, participants will tour
the cannery and learn more
about the life-cycle and
aqua-culture of oysters from
oyster guru Dan Driscoll while
enjoying freshly shucked oys-
ters and hot tea. Wine and
lunch will be available for pur-
chase. You’ll be able to shuck
and taste an oyster fresh from
Willapa Bay.
Then participants will pull
up a crabpot from the dock at
the Port of Peninsula in Nah-
cotta and bring the catch back
to the Sou’Wester. The day
will end by learning how to
cook, clean and eat Dungeness
crabs.
Cost for the workshop is
$30 and includes crab, oys-
ters and hot tea. Optional
sack lunch from Surfer Sands
Workshop
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23
Register by Thursday, Jan. 21
Sou’Wester Lodge
3728 J Place, Seaview, Wash.
360-642-2542
$30
is available for purchase,
$7.50 pre-ordered through the
Sou’Wester. Find a menu on
the Surfer Sands Facebook
page.
Interested
participants
must RSVP by Thursday, Jan.
21 by calling 360-642-2542
or emailing souwesterlodge@
gmail.com. The workshop can
only run if eight people are
registered by Jan. 21; organiz-
ers will notify all participants.
On the day of the workshop,
meet inside the Sou’Wester
Lodge, located at 3728 J Place
in Seaview, at 10 a.m. Partic-
ipants will carpool to Willapa
Bay after a brief introduc-
tion. You should bring a valid
Washington shell¿sh license
and dress for the weather.
The workshop is open to
the general public. Guests
staying at the Sou’Wester can
use a special promo code for
20 percent off a stay of two
nights or more.