I was born and raised in Yakima, Washington, a relatively small town, and my husband grew up in Colville, Washington, a quintessential small town. When Wayne got his driver's license, Colville had the only stop light in the entire county. After Wayne and I were married we moved to the Seattle area and our first child was born on February 17th. Had we lived in Colville, Jody would have been the first baby born that year.
We're terribly spoiled here in Port Orchard where Wayne and I chose to settle and raise our family. We have all the advantages of living close to the big city: plays, concerts, the Seahawks (in case you haven’t guessed, we're rabid football fans) but suffer few of the big city problems such as congestion, heavy traffic, high housing costs, etc. As I said, we're spoiled. When I plotted out the Cedar Cove series, I went with what I'm most familiar with and that's life in a small town, not unlike the one in which I was raised and where we now live. One of the steps in creating a series is to set up the town and the location of the businesses. It might seem minor, but trust me, if I make a mistake the readers notice and rightfully call me on it. And so I decided to use Port Orchard as the basis for the Cedar Cove series. While I do enjoy life here and have spent the better part of thirty years as part of this community, there is a reason why I chose to make Port Orchard into Cedar Cove. I did it because I wouldn't have a problem remembering where everything is. Yes, there is a library with a mural and a totem pole by the marina. And yes, there is a courthouse close by and restaurants thinly disguised by small changes in their names. So now you know the real story . . . . For more from Debbie, visit
her website!