Then, Now and In-Between is a compendium of essays and prose, many that first appeared on the author's blog, Musings About Life in Oregon. This series of writing is accompanied by photos and digs into old Oregon, with a nod to today, weaving in memories and stories with humor, sadness, and melancholy.

A multigenerational mystery set in the Pacific Northwest. Months after spying a bottle wedged into a fallen cottonwood snag in the Columbia River, Ernest pulls it from the river. The bottle's note connects Ernest, an old man living in a tiny Oregon town, to teenage Annie, and provokes a mysterious and sudden friendship between Ernest's daughter Amelia with Sarah, the daughter of the most recent resident of the home Annie once occupied. The two middle-aged women are keen to learn more about...

It's 2024 in Astoria, Oregon. Celia's return to another crabbing season is over before it begins when the boat captain suffers a heart attack, hastening her decision that this would have been her final season anyway. Now all she has to do is figure out what to do next. Simple. Right.It's 1912 In Camas, Washington. Emma is proud of her job making paper bags at the Columbia River Paper Company, but resents her family's expectations for her to also take care of her younger siblings an...

A mosaic of memories, events, and reflections about Dede Montgomery and her remarkable mother, with insights into the generations and circumstances they were born into that informed the women they became.Dede Montgomery returns to her own roots in From First Breath to Last, and skillfully weaves her life with her mother's in a touching tribute to family and what matters most in their lives. She meshes passages from her mother's memoir, journals, published book, and dissert...

Salty air, low lying clouds, and crooning of seagulls near the towering Astoria Column and the flowing Columbia River set the scene for Humanity's Grace, a collection of linked short stories. Frank, Anne, Monica, and Sarah all reappear from the pages of Montgomery's novel, Beyond the Ripples. New characters: An elderly mother and her son, a police office and spouse, a childhood friend, a counselor, a bystander appear, are all uniquely connected to a murder in downtown Ast...

As Dede Montgomery moves through grief to accept the death of her father, the stories in My Music Man shed light on change, acceptance, and forgiveness amid close personal relationships and Oregon's natural landscapes.The reader is catapulted into autumn on the Willamette's riverbank in the 1960s with the author and her brothers, where they discover their father's own childhood stories and the intimate relationship he shares with the land. Tales about generations of family...

A mosaic of memories, events, and reflections about Dede Montgomery and her remarkable mother, with insights into the generations and circumstances they were born into that informed the women they became.Dede Montgomery returns to her own roots in From First Breath to Last, and skillfully weaves her life with her mother’s in a touching tribute to family and what matters most in their lives. She meshes passages from her mother's memoir, journals, published book, and dissert...

As Dede Montgomery moves through grief to accept of the death of her father, the stories in My Music Man shed light on change, acceptance, and forgiveness amid close personal relationships and Oregon's natural landscapes. Dede's deep connection to the Willamette Valley is evidenced by the stories she weaves into her writing from seven generations of her family including Salem's first "power couple" (Chloe Clark and William Willson), book publisher J.K. Gill, steamship engineer Sam...

As Dede Montgomery moves through grief to accept the death of her father, the stories in My Music Man shed light on change, acceptance, and forgiveness amid close personal relationships and Oregon’s natural landscapes.The reader is catapulted into autumn on the Willamette’s riverbank in the 1960s with the author and her brothers, where they discover their father’s own childhood stories and the intimate relationship he shares with the land. Tales about seven generations of family weave betw...