In May 2022, my new book Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared will be released. Over the next few months, I will be giving readers a sneak peek at this 30th anniversary look at David Lynch’s film in the Twin Peaks franchise.
Over July 4th 2021, my wife and I left social media behind and took a trip to Snoqualmie, Washington to stay at the Salish Lodge & Spa. We booked a package that came with dinner and a message. (I never felt more like George Constanza in my life.) Five times from 2015-2019 we had visited the area where Twin Peaks had been filmed. Three for the now defunct Twin Peaks fan-run festival and twice on our own. But in 2020, as we all know, life changed. During that time of true lockdown, I was certain I would, not only never travel again, but never see those Snoqualmie Falls again. I told me wife if we somehow get out of COVID alive, we were going to treat ourselves to a stay at the Salish. (I have never felt more like Donna Meagle in my life, “Treat Yo-Self!”) I just wanted to see those falls one more time. And I got to.
In all the times we had gone to the area, we had never done the full Salish treatment. We left our rental with the valet and didn’t get back in a car for 24 hours. We hiked around the area, had the message, lunch on the patio, and dinner overlooking the falls that evening. We never left the premises and there was no reason to. The time we picked to go was perfectly chosen as there was no Delta variant, and at the time, Seattle had a 70% vaccine rate. We felt safe and were safe. The point of the trip was to learn to get back into the world and take a moment to celebrate surviving 2020. Another point of the trip for me was to grab some photos for my upcoming book, and to write a chapter that was hanging over my head.
I needed to write Chapter 11 which is called “The One That Is Meant to Help.” I had been putting it off for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that I didn’t want to write it. The fake reason was that I had decided that the only place to write it was IN Twin Peaks at the scene of the crime, if you will.
I had a story to tell and I wanted it to be in my FWWM book. The thing that is crazy about Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared is that it will actually be the first Twin Peaks book that I have written. I have produced or edited quite a few, but I have never sat down and wrote about how I have carried FWWM and Twin Peaks with me for thirty years. I had things to say about the history of the show and film, but also my history with it. You don’t start a magazine and launch more books on the subject than Frost/Lynch have overseen unless the show has some personal weight for you. I stepped out onto my balcony in room 301 (Couldn’t get 315 because David Lynch was staying there while he was filming Season 4. Nice guy. Real quiet.) and I wrote Chapter 11 without thinking or stopping to edit what was pouring out of me. I let it flow faster than Bobby forgets that a girl puked all over the place in the middle of the street. I knew I could edit what I was writing once I got home and make it presentable. I had things to share. Twin Peaks had been such a part of who I had become.
I’m excited for people to read the book to learn from the people who crafted the film about how they did what they did. But I am also excited (and nervous) to share how FWWM and Sheryl Lee’s performance helped me make it through my dark times. I am honored to also share my story of meeting Catherine Coulson in the very place that I wrote the chapter. I had a ton to be thankful that weekend. I had survived COVID, America, and I was just a traveller who was heading back to where it all began. Twin Peaks has been such a life long love and being there, looking at the falls and the Great Northern, I was “Falling” all over again.
Read Part 1 here. My next blog will cover my interview with Ron Garcia. Thanks for supporting all my projects and remember to order the Art issue of the Blue Rose which Blake Morrow (The Women of David Lynch cover) is curating.
Thanks, Scott Ryan
Preorder The Art Issue of The Blue Rose which focuses on the Art of Twin Peaks. New interviews and art by Michael Horse (Hawk) and Charlotte Stewart (Mary X, Betty Briggs) and over 50 other artists.
Preorder Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared
Order Scott Ryan’s latest book Moonlighting: An Oral History or But, Couldn’t I Do That? which gives you a play by play on how to self publish.