Carmen Lane is a Pacific Northwest writer and artist based in Olympia, Washington. When she’s not crafting content in her little art studio, you might find her avoiding writing by watching movies, reading, traveling, enjoying the company of her partner Julie, or being at the beck and call of a sweet, sassy 15-year-old tabby cat named Cheryl Strayed) who adopted them. With a deep love for the lush evergreen rainforests and waters of the Salish Sea and the Great Pacific Ocean, Carmen draws inspiration from the beauty, quirks, and sometimes terror of life in Cascadia.
(She also happens to be the founder and host of Cascadia Writers.)
5/29/2026 UPDATE ON CHERYL STRAYED THE CAT: Cheryl is now CHUCK, apparently. After a health emergency and a visit to local kitty ER aka BluePearl Pet Hospital, the nice vet tech informed us that Cheryl Strayed is in fact a neutered male cat. A boy. Not a girl, like we've assumed for these last several years. We all got a good laugh. This is now the second "female" cat we've had for years that turned out to be male. Cheryl/Chuck is happy to be home and is doing pretty good for a senior kitty with heart and thyroid issues. Once she resumes skipping down the hall, we'll know she is back to her old self. Yeah, we have given up trying to correct her pronouns. Cheryl doesn't much care. She already knows how much we love her. She just wants snuggles and treats.
Writing-wise, too many projects started, unfinished, unpublished. It is a constant battle to grant myself permission to write creatively what I like, as I like, how I like, and without fear of judgment or retribution. So I started this Cascadia Writers group a few years ago to avoid my own writing demons by championing other writers to do what? To sit down and write with me. Isn't life funny.
What I currently write: Nonfiction business content (read: boring) and training materials for my work. Necessary but not exciting or entertaining. At all. I recently did a FOIA request from Washington State DOL for notary public statistics and reports and findings on Notary violations so I can use for my notary training. Boring. I know, I know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What I DREAM of writing: Nonfiction and fiction stories, poems, and essays. I'd love to interview others and be able to tell their stories. Let me champion someone else, please. I envision wonderful nerdy books filled with interviews of undiscovered Pacific Northwest writers. Or a series filled with the oral histories and sagas of our local PNW commercial and charter fishing captains. Something like television's scripted reality show "Deadliest Catch" but in book format for people like me who want to be entertained and inspired, and yet also learn something new in the process. (Quick! Somebody please write those books!)
Dreams are also sources of inspiration. I am in equal parts fascinated and repelled by horrific recurring nightmares -- some of which have terrorized me for as long as I can remember. ﹏𓂁﹏Orcas and great white sharks (my favorite, of course!), tsunamis and tidal waves (of course, we live in Cascadia after all!), bears, ghosts, witches, monsters, aliens, and good old-fashioned psycho murderers. Most dreams are nonsensical, silly, funny. Sometimes I have super powers. I can dive in the ocean without scuba gear/oxygen. I can fly. I can move objects with my mind. I can speak and understand all languages - people and animals. Other dreams are terror and feel so real I wake up still afraid. Fear of being abused and/or murdered by one or more estranged siblings and others is a recurring theme that keeps me glancing over my shoulder IRL and wishing sleep wasn't a biological requirement. These are the kinds of nightmares that I could see morph into a collection of short stories, a novel, maybe a screenplay. Or I'll let it remain a primitive personal diary.
I keep telling myself that if absolutely nothing further comes from my writing, maybe the act of capturing these nightmares is enough to banish them, or weaken their grip so they no longer haunt me. My busy brain that gives me nightmares also sees fit to provide me with hilarious dreams (the kind where I literally laugh myself awake) and funny thoughts to say aloud to make my friends and family laugh and fun ideas which may also be worth writing about. This life could all be comedy, if looked at it in just the right way. Nearly any situation can be funny with enough time. Or wine. And that's what I'll keep telling myself. Cheers! ~Carmen