HOW A NOVEL IS CONCEIVED
I grew up in western Oregon. It seemed, at least in terms of natural threats, a bucolic place in which to spend my youth. For instance, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes there were about as common as the Northern Lights in Georgia. Hurricanes were nonexistent. Such storms are born over warm oceans. If you’ve ever…
Read MoreLOOKING FOR A FEW THRILLS AT CHRISTMAS?
In my newest novel, BLIZZARD, a corporate executive undertakes a desperate journey through an historic Southern blizzard, but quickly realizes the storm isn’t the only thing that can kill him. A question that naturally arises is Could a true blizzard really smack the Deep South? The answer is yes. In fact, one did in the…
Read MoreTHE AUTHOR’S ABYSS
It occurs every time I complete a manuscript and send it out for comment. I can’t explain it. It just happens. I tumble into something I call The Author’s Abyss, a sinkhole of self-doubt. It’s recurring epiphany I have that, in plain language, reminds me I can’t write worth a shit. I realize the beloved…
Read MoreEl Niño and SUPERCELL (the novel)
Last week I blogged about El Niño and its connection, or lack thereof, to wintry weather in the Deep South. This week I’ll take a look at El Niño and its influence on severe storms–supercells and tornadoes–in the same region. There’s a late-winter/early-spring climatological maximum in Dixie of severe storms (before the focus of the…
Read MoreEl Niño and BLIZZARD (the novel)
As you’re undoubtedly aware, a powerful El Niño is expected to exert heavy-handed authority over our weather this winter. And before I go any further, please, please, please remember El Niño is NOT a weather phenomenon. It’s the name given to a particular Pacific Ocean temperature regime. El Niño exerts an influence on weather patterns,…
Read MoreCASCADIA–SLEEPING GIANT
Cascadia. If you live on the West Coast, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, the name will register with you. If you live elsewhere, it probably won’t, unless you happened to have read the article in the July 20th issue of The New Yorker titled “The Really Big One.” Turns out L. A. is off the…
Read MoreEL NINO AND EYEWALL
The Atlantic hurricane season is off to a stumbling start this year and doesn’t seem destined to become much better . . . or worse, depending on your viewpoint. So far, only three relatively flabby (but soggy) tropical storms have popped up, Ana, Bill, and Claudette. The Pacific basins, in contrast, have been spitting out…
Read MoreWHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU DIDN’T LIKE “GONE GIRL”?
It wasn’t that I didn’t like GONE GIRL. It was that GONE GIRL just never got going for me. I plowed through about 40 or 50 pages of the novel and raised the white flag. Not because the writing wasn’t good, quite the opposite. It was exquisite. Gillian Flynn can write circles around me and…
Read MoreA LOLLYGAGGER OF A HURRICANE SEASON?
The 2015 hurricane season forecasts are out (see Weather Channel graphic below) and the consensus is that activity in the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico) is going to be an underachiever. So, what’s that mean for you if you live along or plan on visiting the Atlantic or Gulf Coast this…
Read MoreSOUTHERN APPALACHIAN WOLVES
There are no wolves in the southern Appalachians. There probably haven’t been in over a century. They do, however, make a guest appearance in my most recent novel, Blizzard. In the book, I think I adequately explain their presence. What’s more interesting, perhaps, is how the animals made their way into the story in the…
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