Beyond the Pages: An Interview with Theresa Verboort

Dive deeper into the creation of Cast By The Sea through an exclusive interview with Theresa Verboort. From learning about her childhood in the small coastal town of Bandon, Oregon, to comparisons with Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, discover the inspiration behind Verboort's newest novel.

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CP: Your first career was a fire lookout in a tower. Can you tell me about that?

TV: My first big job… when I graduated from high school. I manned forest fire lookouts for three summers when I was working my way through college.

CP: That makes me think of Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums and On the Road. He was also a lookout. He stacked the place with books and didn't do anything for months except radio call if he spotted lightning or a fire. Does that sound about right?

TV: Yeah - it was three months of reading and writing and enjoying the view. My first [lookout] was on top of this bold knob on the southwest coast. It had an old wood cook stove, which was also my heat.

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CP: In terms of growing up in a small town, Bandon is more of a rural area, right?

TV: Yes, Southern Oregon is quite rural. I guess you would say it's kind of an area on its own. The northern part of the state is where most of the population is. It's very wooded… very rugged… with lots of mountains.

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CP: Describe a little bit about your craft and what inspires you to write what you do.

TV: Well, I write what I know. I've done a lot of things: raised six kids and worked as a librarian. I've also sung in choirs in several places. When I wrote Cast By The Sea, it just started out as a series of short stories, but I wanted to connect them. I was writing about what I observed when I was growing up in Bandon in the 40s and 50s, and I just took off from there.

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CP: The sea and the wind seem like characters in your book. Can you expand upon that?

TV: I spent a lot of time just staring out at the ocean when I was growing up. I'd go sit on top of the hill and look down into the valley below. Now that’s described in my book. That is from real life. The ocean really influenced my life…

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CP: When you're writing a book, what are your hopes that your readers will come away with?

TV: I just think of myself as a storyteller. I just enjoyed the people, the characters took over for me. The characters tell the story.

Interview by Chris Pomeroy: Author of Growing Up Aspen

Chris was born in the mountains and raised from infancy in Aspen, Colorado. He left the valley in the 1990s to pursue a career in Newspaper management. He worked at three newspapers over the span of a decade, The Aspen Times, the Fort Collins Coloradoan, and the Athens Banner-Herald.