By Marissa Wells
Contributing Writer
“Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait,” by Yvonne Wakefield, is the second installment in the three-book “Babe in the Woods” series chronicling the author’s time living alone in a log cabin she built at the age of 18 on an 80-acre wilderness mountainside.
“No longer my primary residence, I continue to live there alone, relying on the same tools and skill sets I began to develop as a teenager that are required to live off the grid and with no cell phone connection,” Wakefield said.
A series of journal entries compelled Wakefield to create the “Babe in the Woods” series.
“I kept a journal in long hand while I was up there,” Wakefield said. “As I would read the journals I thought ‘well, ‘I’m going to make this into a story’ and that’s what inspired me because it’s just a good story.”
“Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait” will be enjoyed by readers of all backgrounds that enjoy a good story. Each book focuses on a specific era and developmental stage of the author’s life.
“Readers of the first book indicated they were ready for the sequel as soon as they finished ‘Babe in the Woods: Building a Life One Log at a Time,’” said the author. “From what I’ve learned through reviews and discussions, many readers were as inspired about what it takes to live alone in a wilderness log cabin as they were in how I negotiated early college life.”
Inside “Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait,” Wakefield encounters rogue bears, building with logs and she further develops herself as an artist and writer.
“‘Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait’” also shows local, down-to-earth characters who helped me both with physical work and in learning to trust people,” Wakefield said. “It is also a book about processing a painful past through artistic expression; and, learning about fear, imagined or real, in the form of black bears.”
In addition to being an author, Wakefield is an artist. She is based in The Dalles, Oregon. For more information about the author, her work, and to see a tour of the cabin, visit yvonnepepinwakefield.com.
“Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait” is available for $16.95 wherever books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingram Spark.
