Writing the novel In the Path of the Dragon

California wildfires are nothing short of a nightmare for the residents of the communities when they hit.  This year was no exception when more than 7,000 homes and businesses were burned in one single incident alone, the Santa Rosa fires.  Forty-two people lost their lives to wildfires in California this fall.  October can be frightening when the north winds begin, drying out the landscape and allowing even the smallest spark to take hold and turn into a raging inferno.  Many states west of the Rockies become a tender box with dry grasses and dying timber in the hottest months each year, from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona.

 When lightning sparked a wildfire near Prescott on Yarnell Hill in Arizona on June 28, 2013, it became one of those raging infernos that create its own weather.  The fire over took 19 firefighters belonging to the Granite Mountain Hotshots, killing all 19. A movie is now out recapping the incident.   Being born in Jerome and growing up in Northern Arizona, I’m fondly familiar with the Prescott and Yarnell Hill area where the fire took place. It is tragic the number of lives lost when fire becomes a wind driven monster, impossible to control.  It is even more tragic when the fire is started intentionally at human hands.

I started my novel In the Path of the Dragon following one such summer, when wildfires raged throughout California and her neighboring western states.  The story describes the tragic results of arson resulting in death not only of the environment, but of its inhabitants.  It surrounds the resilience of those whose lives are affected by such tragedy, and the terror felt when the wind driven dragon approaches to consume all that it encounters.  The story is filled with heart thumping realism, forgiveness, love, and the rebirth of the human spirit.