I believe there's a sunset book on hillside gardens for specific terracing ideas. Also, the sunset guide to western gardening will probably have a lot of general info for you on plants, it comes highly recommended.

www.amazon.com/exec/obido...418-0236664

are you actually building the terraces or just looking for plant info?

also (not for pictures necessarily) my favorite online garden stuff resource is the forums at gardenweb.com
they have a forum for every conceivable topic. There are several people in the landscape design forum in your area who can point you to local sites for inspiration.

If you have the patience and time, starting plants from seeds is a lot cheaper than buying full-grown ones. but it does take time and not everythign grows easily from seed.

Libraries are good for the garden books, but I like thrift stores. the pictures may be funky, but the advice really doesn't change over the years, so for technical things, it is the good, cheap, way to go.

Oo, also, train tracks, if there are any around you, are good places to pick up plants. Sometimes stuff from out of your area get carried by trains, and wierd things grow up there. Warning, though, this is usually also one of the best places to find things like drifters and dead bodies, so best take a freind.