quote [ The environments have a likeness to illustrated science fiction book sleeves in their fanciful scale, shapes and colours. […] Frank Herbert, another Pacific Northwest-based science fiction writer, had a similar experience flying over the state’s sand mounds, located directly south of Yachats, which inspired him to write Dune (1965). The drifting sand dunes along the coast were a problem for the state of Oregon through the 19th and 20th centuries, burying train rails and fertile soil while cutting further and further inland through a powerful, relentless coastal throw of wind and water. It was a natural force threatening to “swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers, highways”, Herbert wrote in a letter to his agent. ]