Booking & Media Kit

Booking for Peg Willis can include:

  • Author visit (book club)
  • Book presentation: Building the Columbia River Highway or Rise Above
  • Educational tour of the Columbia River Highway
  • Old-time music event

For booking, send me an email through the contact page telling me the type of event you have in mind as well as the date and location.

Media Resources: Here are some things you can use to advertise your event.

Building the Columbia River Highway

Peg Willis

In the distance behind Peg Willis lie the remains of the Mitchell Point Tunnel, the five-windowed tunnel which became one of the historic highway’s most recognized and photographed sites.

When nine-hundred-foot ice age floods carved the Columbia River Gorge through the Cascade Mountains to the sea, little space was left for man to form a highway of his own. It took an artist-poet-engineer extraordinaire to conquer this reluctant piece of real estate and produce the nation’s first scenic highway. Meet Sam Hill, the mover and shaker, and Samuel Lancaster, the polio survivor, who turned modern engineering on its ear to create a poem in stone.” Today, Oregon’s historic Columbia River Highway is hidden among the trees, where it meanders past spectacular waterfalls and dramatic views. Ride along with Peg Willis as she explores the beginnings of this miracle highway and the men who created it.”

Quotes from reviews – Building the Columbia River Highway:

The author writes as someone on my level, clearly excited to share the news she’s learned of a fabulous treasure discovered.

Loved! Loved! Loved! Picked it for a book club book.

As a member of the Historic Columbia Highway Restoration Advisory Committee for the Oregon Dept. of Transportation I say it is “required reading”. ~ William D Pattison

Peg Willis has been a state treasure for many years.

The background on the founders was great. Always glad to learn more about my native state. The author is very clear and her writing style is easy to read.

Rise Above

Monday, June 15, 1903, the day after the great Heppner flood.
George Minor’s house with the Episcopal Church in the background.

On the evening of Sunday, June 14, 1903 a massive flash flood devastates tiny Heppner, Oregon. Two young children, Lilyann and Gilbert Harmon, vanish. With nearly a quarter of the town’s residents dead—and some of the bodies buried deep in the mud of the Willow Creek Valley—most people assume that the children died and their bodies were just not found. But their father, Mac Harmon, refuses to give up hope and combs the Pacific Northwest for seven long years in search of them.

Heppner, meanwhile, struggles to remake itself. The struggle is very real, even in the midst of laughter and new life. Widows and widowers—some with children—abound, and the number of houses in town has been reduced by a fourth. Naturally, this results in many new “ready-made” families. New babies are born, and children begin to play again, even as they strive to make sense of something the wisest adults cannot understand.

Quotes from reviews – Rise Above:

I read it from cover to cover in a day … Exceptionally well written.

Great descriptions, wonderful characters, historically interesting, emotionally gripping, and seamlessly blended with ageless wisdom.

…  historical fiction at its best … a wealth of local history along with well crafted characters that bring the time and tragedy to life.

… an exciting, believable, gripping tale.

At some point it becomes impossible to put down.

Music Events

peg-music-events

Contact me if interested in an old time dance or other music event.