Any local stories?

Khelessindarae
Any local stories?

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Joined: Oct 1, 2004
Location: Gresham
Posts: 50
Posted on:
Oct 10, 2007 - 00 25

A setting for one of my projects involves a fictional dance studio in Gresham. Is anyone else writing any Portland/Oregon based fiction?
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Writing and planning magical realism since 2002.

Nanita
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Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted on:
Oct 10, 2007 - 15 50

Writing my third novel in a series (unintended). The first two take place in Portland (right of MLK - two doors down from me, conincidentaly). This last one begings in the same house as they are packing to go to Darfur, or somewhere near there. I sure hope they make it out of the country this time!

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Nanita

MSRenfrowGlowing Halo
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Location: Portland, OR, USA, Sol 3
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Posted on:
Oct 10, 2007 - 15 54

Mine's going to start off in Portland, 'cause the MC is hiding out here from her past. Then it goes into globe-trotting mode.

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My parents had the great temerity to name me 'Mary Sue'.
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sas_essay
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Oct 10, 2007 - 16 07

Mine takes place all over downtown Portland.

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2007: Project I-12 (WINNER AND FINISHED!)
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Sarurun Kamui
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Location: Beaverton, OR
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Posted on:
Oct 10, 2007 - 16 11

Mine takes place in an area at least based off of the Portland area, unless it actually was even more rainy several hundred years ago... XD It's an avian fantasy. At least, that's what I'm planning on... :P With this much time left before November, who knows whether my plot will change.

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grrlpup

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Joined: Oct 1, 2003
Location: Portland Oregon, USA
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Posted on:
Oct 10, 2007 - 19 11

My main character starts out at college in Portland but drops out to move to the desert. I think I'll enjoy the contrast.

Amandawolfe
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Location: Portland, OR
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Oct 10, 2007 - 22 21

I'm continuing the trilogy from last year. My MC started out in Portland in last years' book... she's on Mars now... causing all heaps of trouble (and she wouldn't be a proper MC of mine if she wasn't).

There may be more dream stuff in this one... I have fun with a dream sequence in last years' book, starting in Pioneer Square.

Okay, *smacks back of hand* I have to get my bee-hind to bed... been out sick all this last week, and have to stop playing hooky and go to work in the morning.. . urgh.

Amanda

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~~~~~~
Kermit: Fozzie, what are you doing with this typewriter on my table?
Fozzie: Kermit, I am writing the script for this week's show!
Kermit: What makes you think the show needs a script?
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Khelessindarae

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Joined: Oct 1, 2004
Location: Gresham
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Posted on:
Oct 11, 2007 - 00 11

Interesting. I thought I couldn't be the only one writing out ideas that at least start here or drift in and then back out. Hurrah! I've already started the bad habit of run on sentences. This year should be a breeze!

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Writing and planning magical realism since 2002.

Sarurun Kamui
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Location: Beaverton, OR
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Posted on:
Oct 11, 2007 - 20 34

I just wish that I could find something on how much it used to rain in the summer several hundred years ago, because if I could figure that out I'd know whether I could actually set my story here... the past just needs to be even rainier than it is now, and I'll be good. Unfortunately, none of my time spent searching vigorously on Google for facts has come up with anything... XP Anyone happen to know anything?

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WairoamGlowing Halo
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Joined: Oct 5, 2005
Location: Portland, OR
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Posted on:
Oct 12, 2007 - 09 32

Sarurun Kamui -

Here's a page with the Water Year Data from 1871 - 1999. I don't know how accurate it is or anything but maybe it will help. It appears that in the late 1800's it was more rainy here in the Portland area.

Hope this helps!

Sarurun Kamui
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Oct 12, 2007 - 09 46

Awesome. Thank you. Now, if it was that much rainier just over a hundred years ago, then several hundred years ago it ought to have been... really rainy. 0_o And most people here probably wonder if that's possible.
So. I can use the real Imbrion, and since no one knows how much it rained so long ago, it won't matter even if I do exaggerate it. And I can make Mt. Hood erupt... very fun... Go Oregon. :D

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WairoamGlowing Halo
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Oct 12, 2007 - 12 12

Exaggerate all you want! That's the beauty of it. I don't know how far back you are planning on taking it, but records only go back so far.

Also, FYI, according to the USGS, Mt. Hood has erupted before. In fact, they state that the last major eruption of Mt. Hood happed in the 1790s, just before the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Sorry, I'm a bit of a Portland history buff...

Night Silver
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Posted on:
Oct 14, 2007 - 18 47

Hi there all!

I'm amazed there are so many of us writing local stories. Personally, I like to get "away" from where I live when I write my NaNo, or any given story. It's nice to get away from the world we live in sometimes....

Now, to contradict that logic....my NaNo this year takes place in Downtown Portland. It starts out in a nightclub, but at the end of the first chapter, a huge mysterious "wave" hits the city. It destroys it completely, and when the MC female wakes up, she finds she's one of the few left alive, and the ones who died are all crazy, killing, lunatics....of course she might turn out to be a lunatic too, since she wakes up with a devil and little angel on her two shoulders....

Anyway, that's my Portland story. It'll be interesting! I may never look at our downtown streets the same again....
Night Silver

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I may fall, my heart may shatter, my will might be broken again and again, but I'll always have the strength to ignore all that pain......I just need someone to offer a hand, and even if I don't take it, I'll pull myself up from the sand.

CitizenKeen

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Joined: Oct 13, 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Posts: 10
Posted on:
Oct 18, 2007 - 18 41

Portland, all locales. Characters from Sellwood to the 'tron, from St. John's to Milwaukie to Lake Oswego.

hogwartsbound1

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Location: Wherever Squidlius is...
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Posted on:
Oct 18, 2007 - 18 46

My story's about my house. My rug to be exact. (It may sound stupid, but it's going to be really cool.)

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shane_mayhem

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Joined: Oct 22, 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 3
Posted on:
Oct 22, 2007 - 23 31

Cool shizz! I live on MLK too. :) I'm writing local; a story about a trannyboi's adventures in Portland.

JayneAintNoGirl

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Joined: Oct 24, 2005
Location: Milwaukie, Oregon (I've never heard of it, either)
Posts: 7
Posted on:
Oct 24, 2007 - 23 45

Mine is based in a fictional town in the Cascades, near Lebanon. The prologue shows that my MC moved from Fort Wayne to Portland for a brief time before heading south down the valley. I'll probably work in a Powell's reference or two somewhere in the book - and maybe VooDoo Donuts.

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This be the verse you grave for me:
"Here he lies where he longed to be,
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."

schristopher
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Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted on:
Oct 27, 2007 - 18 12

Gravitas is fairly obviously Portland to anyone familiar with the area, and I started in on another one set here too.

Sadly, I needed a new idea for this year because I've already written part of the second one, and I just can't see how a superhero story set in Portland would fly. No pun intended.

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--
In one brief moment of clarity, he saw the whole picture: life, the universe, and his place in it. If he can do it again, he has a chance to achieve what everyone wants.

Gravitas

darthmaulanie

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Joined: Oct 2, 2006
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4
Posted on:
Oct 29, 2007 - 22 36

Yes...Portland and Spokane Wa in the early 1900s. A lot of research to see what was around back then. You'll definitely be reading some Shanghaing!
Darth Maulanie

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Miss Melly
Head of HR for Hula Hooping
"The Force is strong with this one..."

Ameagari

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Joined: Nov 3, 2006
Location: Oregon
Posts: 14
Posted on:
Nov 2, 2007 - 23 31

My story starts in portland. Then the rising stars of the portland indie scene go on tour, taking the MC with them.

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Do you know what my hanging braid's for?
Do you know what my chambermaid's for?
And do you know what I... What I have in store for you?"
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DarkMatter
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Location: Portland, Ore-"gone"
Posts: 3
Posted on:
Nov 4, 2007 - 09 49

Part of my story takes place in Kennewick..does that count?

DarkMatter

lunarobverse

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Joined: Oct 24, 2006
Location: Portland, OR, USA
Posts: 4
Posted on:
Nov 4, 2007 - 16 15

My story is about a Congressional race in Oregon's Third District... against a fictional Congressman who is not like Earl Blumenauer at all... mostly.

thecoyotejester

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Joined: Oct 25, 2007
Location: PDX, OR
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Posted on:
Nov 4, 2007 - 19 10

Mine takes place in a futuristic/alternative reality Pacific NW area including PDX, Seattle, and some other places.

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don't you know there ain't no Devil/only God when He's drunk
-Tom Waits

revjenGlowing Halo
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Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 00 12

Oh, yeah. A good portion of this year's project is set in modern-day Portland, though other locations include Colonial Connecticut, 17th century Western Africa, Maryland in the 1950s, and the modern-day Idaho high desert.

I've got a walk-in, a demon, and a pair of vampires running about having all sorts of fun. ;)

-- jen

revjenGlowing Halo
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Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 00 13

schristopher wrote:
Gravitas is fairly obviously Portland to anyone familiar with the area, and I started in on another one set here too.

Sadly, I needed a new idea for this year because I've already written part of the second one, and I just can't see how a superhero story set in Portland would fly. No pun intended.

What? No Super JavaMan?

:)

-- jen

pdxmattGlowing Halo
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Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 4
Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 00 31

I'm heading my MC and accomplice of sorts from Vegas, via Brooklyn NY into Portland. I'm still waiting to see what actually happens there, or if they even get here...

schristopher
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Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 00 39

revjen wrote:
schristopher wrote:
Sadly, I needed a new idea for this year because I've already written part of the second one, and I just can't see how a superhero story set in Portland would fly. No pun intended.

What? No Super JavaMan?

:)

It's difficult to take even a superhero seriously when he wears socks with sandals! Besides that, I find it much easier to destroy buildings when I don't have to perform meticulous research to figure out exactly where pieces of masonry will land and if there's actually a parking meter right in front of a particular bank....

--
In one brief moment of clarity, he saw the whole picture: life, the universe, and his place in it. If he can do it again, he has a chance to achieve what everyone wants.

Gravitas

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--
In one brief moment of clarity, he saw the whole picture: life, the universe, and his place in it. If he can do it again, he has a chance to achieve what everyone wants.

Gravitas

hikr3

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Joined: Nov 1, 2007
Location: Portland
Posts: 1
Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 14 41

Mine is a near future speculative fiction piece set all around Portland, the Columbia River, Astoria, etc. Mt Hood doesn't erupt in mine, but Yellowstone does!

revjenGlowing Halo
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Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 16 30

schristopher wrote:

It's difficult to take even a superhero seriously when he wears socks with sandals!

Hey! I'm wearing socks with sandals right now -- of course, that's because it was chilly this morning, and I really love my Keens. ;)

-- jen, probably not a superhero

TamyranevGlowing Halo
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Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted on:
Nov 6, 2007 - 16 40

This is the first time I've set a novel in Portland. I've written others that were set in different parts of Oregon, but I'm excited to be able to include some of my favorite Portland locations this time around. My characters have already taken a drive up Terwilliger. :-)

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HealingHandsGlowing Halo
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Location: Portland, Oregon
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Posted on:
Nov 8, 2007 - 03 37

My Nanovel is set in Portland in a hospice inspired in part by the ones I've worked in.

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