Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
October 27, 2016
By Pat Edwards

As I write this, I have just returned from a wonderful day attending and participating in the TEDxVeneta event held at the Applegate Regional Theater on Central Road. I am sure that Sandy Larson will have a nice article on it, so I won’t go into much detail, but it was very well-organized by my friend and co-editor of Groundwaters, Jennifer Chambers. Some time ago, she invited me to be one of the speakers. She asked me to talk about the changes that have occurred throughout my life and, although I accepted, I was not sure what I had gotten myself into. I’m not a trained speaker and, as I mentioned at the end of my talk, “Writing is my passion, but speaking is especially hard for me. I’ve found throughout my life that the words flow much easier from my fingers and hands than vocally, but I feel that facing this particular challenge is another difficult source of change and growth for me that I must embrace.”

Lorane was well-represented in today’s talks. Beth Robinson of Lorane and my “up-the-hill-neighbor, Evelyn Searles Hess, were also featured speakers and it was fun working with them and the others who had such varied and interesting presentations.

Thank you, Jen, for believing in me. Despite all of the stress I felt in being out of my comfort zone, the experience was a very positive one. If you didn’t get to make it to this year’s event, be sure to mark your calendars for next year, because I understand that Jen hopes to continue these TEDxVeneta events.

There are several people in Lorane needing dry firewood. If you have any on hand… and especially if you deliver, you might check out the requests on the Lorane, Oregon Facebook page or post information about your firewood on the Lorane Directory page.

Our Groundwaters LIVE! event held last Sunday afternoon to introduce our 2016 edition of the Groundwaters anthology was, in our opinion, a huge success. We had a good turnout, the Applegate Regional Theater was a welcoming and impressive venue, the readings were entertaining and got great reviews, and the support that Jen and I felt from everyone was amazing. The only “problem” we experienced was that we sold all 100 books that we ordered and some people had to return home without theirs. I have made arrangements, however, to deliver books to those who didn’t get them as soon as the new shipment arrives next week.

When I get the new order, they will be at the Lorane Family Store and we will try to get them into local bookstores, too. If other local businesses want to take them in on consignment, that can be arranged as well. Just let me know at edwards@groundwaterspublishing.com. We will, of course, leave a copy at the Fern Ridge Library sometime next week for those of you who are waiting to check it out. There are 63 local authors, poets and artists represented in this year’s anthology. Go to our website at http://groundwaterspublishing.com/anthologies for more information.

Jim and I became great-grandparents again on October 21. Not-so-little Hayden Rae Furlong was born in Roseburg, weighing in at a hefty 10 lbs. 5 oz. We were not able to see her for several days afterwards as we were in Portland at the time with our son while he underwent a heart procedure. Hayden is doing great, as is Rob, so we are very thankful for both.

I hope your Halloween was a fun one. We had some exciting events last weekend to enjoy. I wasn’t able to make it to the barn dance, the Lorane Trunk or Treat, or the Crow-Applegate-Lorane Halloween Carnival this year, but they were all generating a lot of interest within the community. The Applegate Community Theater was also hosting a Halloween celebration. There were lots of fun things to do and I hope that each received a good turnout.