Spring in the Pacific Northwest

Whisper fans who don’t live in the Northwest may wonder what spring is like. Fictional Whisper is east of Seattle by about an hour. I place it just south and east of Duvall, WA. The roads that turn east to go to Whisper don’t really exist. In fact, if you get to the Joy Lake area, you’ll see that there’s kind of a narrow plateau before you get further up into the Cascade mountain range.

The idea of Whisper was to create a place that was magic in nature which left me the question as to why there was magic in Whisper. I also wanted to know the place, which meant I wanted to work with something I was familiar with. I lived in the Northwest for over thirty years in one place or another. When my husband and I moved to the small town of Duvall, I knew that this would be the kind of place I could settle my magical town. It was near a city but off the beaten path so it was easy to overlook, except that not everyone would.

So, to make sure it wasn’t Duvall and the residents there who might take exception to having magic invade their homes, I placed Whisper a bit further up into the mountains and a little south. The Starbucks in Duvall that Meg often stops for chai at when she travels through the Snoqualmie Valley is “my” Starbucks. I was there just about every morning when I started writing the Whisper series and the baristas there are a delight.

If you travel to Washington and want to check out Whisper, you’ll want to be sure to add the Snoqualmie Valley to your travel list. There are amazing hikes up in North Bend. If you happen to also love Twin Peaks, you can visit Twedes Cafe in North Bend which really does do a great cherry pie. Snoqualmie Falls is just down the road. Duvall is on the other end of the Valley but if you drive up Highway 202 and 203, you’ll drive through fields and wild flowers and farm country. You’ll see the city of Carnation and then followed the Snoqualmie River as it meanders through the Valley. When you get to Duvall, you’ll be able to stop and go for more hikes or just hang out and shop in the downtown section which has a number of locally owned shops that offer antiques, gifts, and used books. If you stop for lunch there, don’t expect a lot of big chain restaurants. Duvall City has encouraged small locally owned restaurants to thrive. I was always partial to the Duvall Tap and Grill.

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