redwood trees
mountains
map
motel van
traffic light
street
cabins
rock hotel
three coffees, one tea
$20 bill
ice
snow
lodge
knock knock jokes
cocktail
cherries
felled sequoia
pinecones
pinecone booth
Beefy snood-taunter
queues
grated cheese
chest hair
inky taste
stained-glass bear
Prior Yates (beverage)
Prior Yates (t-shirt)
frosted window
spooning ski models
strange building
spilled purse
sleeping bags
broken doorknobs
room service cart
man's belt
missed belt loop
fire
fireplace
okay signs (hands and full body)
hotel robes
complimentary toothbrushes
long dimples
red couch
eggplant wrap
evening gloves
rolled-up sleeves
hotel hallway
warm salad
244
1000%
business card
cups
envelopes
stomach medicine
fireplace bellows
Adding on...
Fair's cerebellum
brain kiss
wealhtheow adds (thanks!):
evening gloves, wet
evening gloves, dry
snowball fights
building ears
hair pencils
brain kisses
needy aunts
Carly suggests...
platonic arms;)
being cozied up to
And a few more that crossed my mind...
boiler
snowtmeal
1-800-FAIR-CAN-HELP-MAYBE-OR-PROBABLY-NOT billboard
10th window
hottle
ruffles
Okay. Anything else? I realize there are a couple of cross-overs with the Wilfair list, but I couldn't not include evening gloves!
The Stuff of Redwoodian
The Laughing Rule
There are a few moments and phrases that reoccur in the books.
A biggie, at least for me? The characters have to laugh together at some point in every book. Having the friends trade zingers is one thing but seeing people lose it together is a thing I personally love, in real life and in fiction.
Call it The Laughing Rule.
Monty, Gomery, and Fair laugh, if not together, then at the same time in "Wilfair" when Fair stands at her bedroom window and sees Gomery looking up at her. She then does something dorky that sends him into a small fit.
The group-laugh in "Redwoodian" comes when Sutton talks about Prior Yates and his devotion to products that bear his name and/or likeness. She's trying to keep quiet because she'll wake people but she ends up crying with giggles into Fair's shoulder.
Fair has not yet heard Gomery's big laugh.
Tell Me: Your Favorite Hotel
What's the best vacation you've ever had? And why?
This is the Ahwahnee in Yosemite Valley. I love lodges, and the Ahwahnee was one of my "Redwoodian" inspirations, along with four other famous, woodsy, nature-close hotels. (I'll talk about them down the road; oh, and one actually isn't very near nature at all.)
The morning we checked out I saw climbers on the granite rockface behind the lodge. Kind of made my feet tingle, actually.
There were also bear signs in the driveway. Bears! The signs were not for the bears, I should clarify, but for the humans, and how we should act should we see a bear.
What would a sign intended solely for the bears look like? Now I'm wondering.
Wilfair and Redwoodian Words
A word cloud visit tells me these are some common words in each book.
WILFAIR
Sorry
Motel
Tar
Two
Bed
Lobby
Know
REDWOODIAN
Window
Gomery
Smiled
Night
Thought
Pool
Now
Haven't word-clouded STAY AWHILE yet, or what there is of it, but I know for a fact I overuse love, looked, thing, big, and beautiful far too much.
Redwoodian Songs
Some songs I had on repeat:
Academia by Sia
Knocks Me Off My Feet by Stevie Wonder
My Junk from Spring Awakening
Autrefois by Pink Martini
All My Stars Aligned by St. Vincent
My Love by Paul McCartney & Wings
By Your Side by Sade
Hang with Me by Robyn
I'll Be Waiting by Adele
Pyramid Song by Radiohead
When We Fall In by Sean Hayes
Tongue Tied by Grouplove
Suddenly Stars by Stereolab
On/Off by Snow Patrol
You're All I Need to Get By by Aretha Franklin
She's Electric by Oasis
Monster Love by Goldfrapp
Asleep at the Party by Memory Cassette
Sway by The Perishers
Midnight by Yaz
The Real Places of Wilfair
I like stories flush with magic realism. But I also like them to be set in places I can visit, if possible.
Just my thing.
With that in mind, Wilfair, Redwoodian, and future books will all incorporate at least one or two real California locales.
They are, so far:
Wilfair
La Brea Tar Pits (a tar bubble figures prominently in the story)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Fair, Monty, and Gomery pay a quick visit)
Original Farmers Market (Sutton's fruitcher shop)
Oh, and let us not forget Wilshire and Fairfax. It's a real Los Angeles intersection that's within walking distance of the aforementioned places.
Redwoodian
Owens Valley (it's along Highway 395 near the eastern Sierra)
Alabama Hills near Lone Pine (where the gang stops for coffee)
Sierra Nevada (The Redwoodian and the Stay Awhile Cabins would be in the Mammoth Lakes area)
Redwoodian Summary
The second in the Wilfair series.
Nineteen-year-old hotel heiress Fair Finley must steal a motel and its pool from Monty and Gomery Overbove, her handsome, friendly neighbors. But places are changing places with other places and the world is going weird, and only the cousins' moms can help.
Fair, the guys, and her best friend Sutton leave LA and make for the Sierra Nevada mountains in order to find the ladies. Their journey is not easy.
Problem one? A large, underground building is hot on the group's tail. Problems two and three? Fair's favorite movie star shows up in the mountains, as does her longtime rival, and neither will stay out of her snooded hair. Then there's the curious inky taste in air at The Redwoodian. Ick.
But the biggest issue of all? Fair's desire to toss the kindly cousins out of their motel home continues to falter. Fail, really. Kaput.
If the young hotelier doesn't steal the little motel and its pool then Thurs Mathers, the crisp-shirted tycoon of front-page fame, will snatch her hotel and fast. Meaning she can't get any closer to the cousins, and Gomery in particular. Because getting involved with someone you're trying to finish off? Bad idea.
Especially when the person you're trying to finish off isn't exactly stopping you. Especially when he's kind of helping.
