The novel I’m currently writing, Not So Convenient, has been a difficult book to write. More so than the other novels I’ve written, it’s tied to a specific place, and the catalyst was a single event.
On the morning of Thursday, November 8, 2018, I woke up at my usual time to get ready for work. At the time, I was teaching two days a week at a community college about one hundred miles north of where I live. I started getting ready but wasn’t feeling well, so I canceled my classes.
I’m glad I was home.
I was planning on going back to sleep, but I noticed an ominous, dark cloud above the tree line in the canyon behind my home. I’ve seen plenty of wildfire plumes in the time I’ve lived in California, but this one was different.
Based on the tweets I’d received from Cal Fire, a wildfire named the Camp Fire (because the origin was near Camp Creek) had started around 6:15 am, near the community of Pulga, about nine miles east of Magalia, where I live. Everyone in the area knew a fire was possible; we had a combination of high winds coming through the Feather River Canyon, low humidity, and no rain.
No one expected this, though.
By 8:00 am, the fire had reached the town of Paradise, just south of Magalia. The entire town of Paradise and the communities of Magalia and Stirling City were ordered to evacuate immediately. Because of where we live, Handsome Husband and I, along with the Evil Cat and Good Dog, evacuated by a route that took us further up into the mountains away from Paradise. We missed the nightmare that many Paradise residents had to endure.
Ultimately, most of the town of Paradise and half of Magalia were destroyed, and eighty-five people died.
Evacuation
Handsome Husband and I were lucky. Our home and neighborhood were on the northwest edge of the fire and survived unscathed, even though we couldn’t return home for three weeks.
While we were evacuated, I kept hearing reports of missing persons, including people I knew. One of the fatalities was an older woman I knew, but the rest of my friends were eventually accounted for.
The Idea
But I kept thinking, what if someone used this event to disappear? Maybe it wasn’t the original plan, but it made for an excellent cover.
I needed some time after the Camp Fire to find a emotional place where I could write about it, and I started writing Not So Convenient in 2021.
Dixie Fire
When I began writing, I based the beginning of the story on the Camp Fire and the later location of the story further up in the mountains in Plumas and Tehama Counties near Lassen Volcanic National Park. However, on July 13, 2021, the Dixie Fire started in almost the exact location as the Camp Fire.
Instead of burning south like the Camp Fire, the Dixie Fire burned north, eventually burning nearly a million acres, including into Lassen Volcanic National Park and very close to the location where I visualized the primary setting of the book.
I had to take a break for a while, but I’m working on it again.
Not So Convenient Prologue
The prologue to the book begins with a wildfire—loss, fear, and betrayal. I know, not exactly the start of a happily-ever-after story, but it can only get better from here.
Not So Convenient Blurb
I lost everything to the Owen Fire.
My home, my business, my entire hometown.
Oh yeah, and that asshole ex-boyfriend stole my life savings.
Nothing in the last year has been convenient. Rebuilding my life in a new town, so I don’t have time for distractions. And the hunky ex-con I just hired? He’s a distraction.
But that panty-dropping kiss rocked my world. And his excuse?
It was convenient.
I am his boss. I am his sister’s guardian. I am not, however, convenient.
Click here to read the beginning of Not So Convenient.
