In 2010, we traveled from Portland to Plush, Oregon. The land of gemstones, hot springs and antelope, is also the land of mosquitoes the size of humming birds, gnarly cowboys collecting unemployment with ever-present  shotguns, and absolutely no vegan food, other than french fries.

And yet, we fell in love. What country. What beautiful country. We dug for sunstones at the mine now owned collectively by the hippie tribe who had migrated here from California in the 1970s, lots of teenagers with tie-dyed running the place now. We visited Hart Mountain, where we watched a herd of antelope gently gallop by and then found an isolated hot springs and went skinny dipping. We spent the night at a local ranch and ate potatoes cooked over an open fire and then slept so hard, so deeply, that the next day felt like a divine resurrection.

We were so struck by the ragged beauty of the area and the friendly people, naturally we decided to feature it in our latest book Blood and Whiskey. The action centers around a particular gemstone (plagiocalse feldspar), more commonly known as Sunstone. Just beyond the Plush General Store pictured above, there’s a feedlot where Vampires are harvesting humans for easy consumption. Sanguine: American Western Human Blood juice packaged conveniently with sippy straws. The discovery of the feedlot and the tragic people suffering and dying inside it nearly ends the lifelong friendship between Tucker and Lenny.сайт