Posts Tagged ‘Tsunami’
LIVING ON THE FAULT LINE
I believe there are two different ways Cascadia, my newest novel, is being read. It’s dependent, I think, upon where the readers live. When I do a presentation on Cascadia in the Southeast, where I reside, I’ve discovered I need to do a little extra. I have to set the stage for the drama, because most…
Read MoreAN INDIAN VILLAGE, A BOOKSTORE, AND A SCENE FROM CASCADIA
The opening scene in my newest novel, Cascadia, is set in a Clatsop Indian village on the Pacific Northwest coast over three hundred years ago. Based on research, I placed the village on the present site of Seaside, Oregon. I’m not entirely certain there was an Indian village there in 1700, the date of the…
Read MoreWHY I DIDN’T ADDRESS “COUNTING THE DEAD” IN CASCADIA
CASCADIA isn’t totally a novel. By that I mean it’s not completely fiction. The event the novel is set against, a massive earthquake and huge tsunami in the Pacific Northwest, is something that’s really going to happen. In my previous novels, EYEWALL, SUPERCELL and BLIZZARD, I depicted major weather events that, while certainly possible, are…
Read MoreYES, I KNOW THAT’S NOT WHAT A REAL TSUNAMI LOOKS LIKE
When I got my first look at what is now the cover of Cascadia, my left-brain (logical, factual) persona took over. I fired off an email to my publisher: “NO, sorry. The cover image looks great, but it’s much too Hollywood. A real tsunami doesn’t look anything like that.” Now most publishers, especially the majors,…
Read MoreTHE FIRST ONE-STAR REVIEW OF CASCADIA
Stormy, our five-year-old Shih Tzu, pads into my office and sits next to me where I’m working at my desk. “Hey, Storms, what’s up?” He doesn’t respond, just looks up at me with his big brown eyes the size of shooter marbles. I notice he’s sporting a tie. “What’s with the tie, dude? Haven’t seen…
Read MoreHOW 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 MoreGRABBING THE READER
I preach it all the time in my critique group, so I don’t know why I have such a struggle doing it myself: grabbing the reader in the opening few paragraphs of my book; embedding him or her immediately in the drama. Eventually, I always get things sorted out, but I usually have to get “slapped…
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