The Last Frontier of the Fading West

The Last Frontier of the Fading West
254 Pages
ISBN 978-1975951924

Jennifer is a young, innocent girl, happily living a carefree existence in a safe, small seaside community, when on October 5, 1942, a fateful event changes the course of her life forever. The sinking of the “Larry Doheny’”’ by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Port Orford, Oregon, propels her into the horrors of World War II, where she meets Jack Long, a young Navy man rescued from the ship. Sensing that he is somehow different, she is drawn to him as she helps treat his wounds, relishing the chance to get to know someone from a big city—Los Angeles. But before she has the chance to learn more, he is whisked away by the Navy, and, just as unpredictably, she sets off to Portland as a Red Cross volunteer to care for the many casualties from the war in the Pacific.
Eventually, she returns home to make a life with her high school sweetheart and live happily ever after—or not. A memoir of sorts, spanning a half century, from World War II to Vietnam to Kuwait, this is Jennifer’s story of redemption—for those who bear the horrible scars of war; and of love—great love for a man, family and a town she chooses to call home, Port Orford. Isolated on the very edge of the continent, steeped in history and fraught with hardships, disasters, and tragedies, it is The Last Frontier of the Fading West.

Helen Picca

About Helen Picca (Ashland, Oregon Author)

Helen Picca

Helen Picca is a former Marketing Executive from NYC and holds a BA in English from Marymount College, where she learned to love the written word. She has traveled extensively, both internationally and domestically, and has lived in New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, and Oregon, the place she chooses to call home. She has found happiness there, with Jackson the Wonder Dog, and her husband Cory, whose discoveries and many insights are found within the pages of her latest book, From the Hamster Wheel to Happiness in 10 Easy Steps. Together they walk the beaches and hike the forest trails, living moment to moment, with gratitude.

She stumbled on Port Orford many years ago, and while sitting on a bench absorbing the raw beauty of the sea and southern Oregon coastline, she was inspired to write her first novel, The Last Frontier of the Fading West, a work of historical fiction, set in and all about life in that rural, seaside community. It begins in 1942, when a US oil tanker is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during WWII, changing the course of Jennifer’s life. Over the next 50 years in the heroine’s life, we share her love for a man, family and the town she chooses to call home.

We learn much more about the author’s earlier life in her latest book, From the Hamster Wheel to Happiness in 10 Easy Steps. Part memoir and part self-help, here she recounts her journey from the frenetic life in NYC, running on the hamster wheel from thing to thing to thing, moving to Hawaii and then central Oregon, constantly searching, still on that wheel of mindless pleasure-seeking. Until the day she realizes she is not yet happy, not satisfied with her life and, instead of buying something new, vows to find joy and meaning in the simplicity of life. In 10 Easy Steps, she shares what she learned, as a guide for the reader to the path she discovered. A path that leads to contentment and peacefulness, to the ultimate state of happiness. Filled with wry humor and witty anecdotes, she begs the reader to ask, “Am I happy?”

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