Desolation Ghosts is a 65,000-word adult literary fiction novel in the vein of The Human Stain. It is set in North Cascades National Park and is about a missing traumatized female veteran with alcohol and relationship addictions who changes her mind about killing herself, but then falls off a mountain and must survive in the wilderness while park rangers battle over how much effort should be spent to locate her. The story takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of law enforcement reforms following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. This book will appeal to readers who are interested in national parks, outdoor recreation, the Pacific Northwest, and the controversial issue of how emergency services treat people with mental health challenges. It includes exciting stories, based on real-life events, about using rock climbing and short-haul helicopter techniques to rescue a pack string mule who fell off a trail and a mountain climber who fell off a crag, a shoot-out and its impact on park rangers, a couple drownings, an aquatic body recovery and other sad outdoor tragedies, and funny and scary encounters with bears and other wildlife. If you like Jack Kerouac, Nevada Barr, Bree Loewen, Jon Krakauer, Michael Connelly, James Dickey's Deliverance, Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook or Scott Heim's Mysterious Skin, you may enjoy Desolation Ghosts.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Story Behind the Story

One of my writing teachers, the amazing Lidia Yuknavitch (who had Ken Kesey as a teacher once), is working on a big, new book. She jumps onto FB sometimes, then "goes back in", and I know exactly what she means. Another great writer from Lidia's Portland writing group, Chelsea Cain, is working on her 8th Archie and Gretchen novel and seems to take little coffee breaks here (on FB). She recently mentioned something Lidia taught her, which is to ask, "What's the story behind that story?" Maybe I'd heard Lidia say that, but it didn't mean much before it started happening to me. Lately, I'll look at flat pages of my writing and sort of see bumps in the words that can be punched out, like a pill through blister pack foil, and expanded into blossoms of mini-stories that enrich the larger one. It's exciting, but I'm starting to dread it because it means MORE WORK when I thought I was done.

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