I tried to read the first Twilight book, I really did, if nothing more than for its second degree Utah connection. I attempted the Harry Potter books for a slightly different second degree connection. I discovered that the Twilight series was heavily marketed by the author in Utah because of her affiliation. A very astute and intelligent marketing move. I only wish I could market my own writing with such effectiveness. But I live in Utah and I have a direct connection to one of the best pedigrees (Mormon royalty) in the state and haven't yet published a book.
I tried Harry, both the first book and the first movie for two reasons: one, my god-daughter Wilhelmina loves both the books and movies; two, because of her love of all things Harry I was asked to be the cranky, prone to obfuscation, "leave me the hell alone and I won't bite" one-eyed character called Mad-eye Moody(?) at a masquerade Christmas party held, with Wilhelmina as the host, at our house.
What did these books have in common besides the slightly different Utah connections? What do they have in common with the Olympic Peninsula? For both books: fog. Early morning, lunch, and evening fog that springs up at a whim. Fog has always been a spooky thing for me growing up in Colorado where I can count all of the foggy days I can remember on a span of two hands. It wasn't the fog we have in Utah that stings the eyes because of the industrial and exhaust particulates. Yet, in "real fog" I'm attracted to the thrill of not really being able to see. Things fade in and out like dreams. But riding a bike in the fog is not only cold but scary. What if the car coming up behind me in the fog can't see my small flashers blinking in panic from my day pack? What if I can't see a downhill curve soon enough to keep from sailing off of a ledge into the Strait of Juan De Fuca? What if I stop to take a picture of rocks sticking out of the fog along the sea and a were-wolf or vampire sneaks up on me from behind? The Olympic Peninsula is, after all, the place that the Twilight series characters call home.
There is a store in Port Angeles that sells only Twilight Series stuff including post cards of the west coast of the peninsula where the Twilight vamps live. The movies were filmed elsewhere. The author lives in Arizona and her marketing target was Utah. Yet to my knowledge there isn't a Twilight-centric store in Utah.
I can see why vamps would like this place to live. It's green, it has ocean, it has mountains, and it has lots and lots of fog. Oh, and it also has lots and lots of traffic: small cars, electric cars, hybrid cars, cars that have hoods large enough to land small planes on, and trucks: logging trucks full and empty, dump trucks likewise loaded, semi-trucks with double trailers, and flat-beds with wide-loads that stick out into the meager bike lane. It can get really spooky at times! I hear a heavy truck coming and I start to pucker up, then whoosh, it speeds by me trying to suck me into its vortex.
But between trucks and cars there is silence broken only by the occasional vocalization of a coast crow. The landscape is all shades of green sprinkled with a wide variety of wild flowers. This color palate is in open fields, barrow pits along the roads, and on logged-off sites. Yesterday I stopped to put my windbreaker back on because of the fog and found a very large patch of wild raspberries. I foraged like a bear, a true primordial hunter/gatherer in biking shorts and a chartreuse windbreaker. But, then. . . .what's that noise in the bushes? Or did it come from the wisp of fog that suddenly rolled over me shutting off the wider world, forcing me to look at the much fore-shortened world immediately around me. Vampire? Sasquatch?
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1 comment:
You've twice commented about Sasquatch now. You should know that he is nice and safe, under the table, chewing on a hammer. :p
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