Stormy Weather Makes Exciting Stories

By Chester Campbell

There's a thunderstorm booming away outside as I write this. My wife says I need to get off the computer, that a woman was hit by lightning while on her computer when her house was struck. I figure the odds are pretty long on that happening again. But the weather can do some decidedly dramatic things.

I've read some writers say you shouldn't talk about the weather in your book unless it's a central theme of the story. I respectfully disagree. I frequently describe clouds or wind or rain or snow as part of setting the scene. The recent heat wave has everyone thinking about the weather. To leave it out of our stories would be like avoiding smells and colors and other things that round out the description of what's going on about the characters.

In my newest book, Beware the Jabberwock, the weather frequently has a bearing on the story. Rain-slickened streets in Hong Kong are seen as a contributing cause to an accident. Weather conditions have to be just right for an aerial photography mission over an island off the Florida coast. A violent thunderstorm nearly wrecks a sailboat escape. And at the book's opening, a cold, blustery rain helps set the tone for a crucial meeting in Vienna of former Cold War enemies who agree on a diabolical plot.

I agree that giving elaborate details on the weather in a routine manner is unnecessary and a bit of overkill. But when a scene is outdoors, especially, a brief comment on atmospheric conditionns gives the reader a better feeling for what the characters are experiencing.

Of course, when a book's plot depends almost wholly on a weather phenomenon, there's no question of its relevance. I had never heard the term "derecho" until I read William Kent Krueger"s Northwest Angle. After the one that slashed across the Midwest recently, nearly everyone now knows it's a long-lived straight-line windstorm associated with a band of severe thunderstorms. They move at greater than hurricane force. Krueger's book deals with the storm and its aftermath.

The thunderstorm is gone as I finish this, and obviously I didn't get struck by lightning in the process. My wife is more fearful of the weather's vagaries. I was in a tornado when I was seven, and I've slogged through just about any kind of muck you can imagine over the years. I remember when my four kids were small experiencing a violent thunderstorm, with searing streaks of lightning hitting all around us, as we watched from a small cabin in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Everyone enjoyed the spectacle.

I say bring on the weather in our books. It adds an exciting dimension to the story.

Best Supporting Character Interview

You usually hear the best supporting character term in relation to movie actors, but in this case it involves a novel character. This woman plays the major role outside the protagonist in Beware the Jabberwock, a Post Cold War thriller available in the Kindle Store. Her name is Lorelei Quinn. Let's get to the interview.

MMM: Welcome to our blog, Miss Quinn.

LQ: My pleasure.

MMM: I understand you're in the travel business. Tell us a little about your background.

LQ: My dad worked in various embassy assignments, so I grew up well-traveled. I loved writing, though, and when it came time for college, I studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin. After graduation, I got a job a job as a reporter for the English language Herald Tribune in Paris.

MMM: That must have been a real plum.

LQ: I'll admit I got some help from an old friend of my dad's.

MMM: I hear by the grapevine that you made a little detour to Camp Peary in northern Virginia before journeying to Paris.

LQ: Somebody has been talking too much. But I've made no big secret that I once worked for the CIA. It's actually how I got into the travel business. I left the newspaper to work as a travel agent, taking tours around Europe, both East and West. It provided a handy cover for operating behind the Iron Curtain.

MMM: You followed in the footsteps of your father, Cameron Quinn, didn't you?

LQ: Dad began his clandestine career with General William Donovan in the OSS during World War II.

MMM: Doesn't your Clipper Cruise and Travel have a relationship with the CIA?

LQ: If I denied it, you would probably say I'm lying.

MMM: But you deny it?

LQ: Yes.

WWW: Your main office in Rosslyn has some beautiful paintings of old clipper ships. What's the significance?

LQ: I have loved sailing for years. I go out frequently with some friends.

WWW: I understand you were involved in a pretty scary sailing expedition related to Operation Jabberwock.

LQ: Somebody's been talking too much. But it's true. We were caught in a bad storm at night south of the Florida Gulf coast.

WWW: Didn't  you have some other pretty frightening experiences during that time?

LQ: I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to comment any further about that operation. Your readers will just have to refer to the Jabberwock report.

WWW: Thank you, Miss Quinn. Good luck with your future ventures. If you'd like to find out more about the exciting adventures of Lori Quinn and her friend, Burke Hill, you can access the "report" at this link.

Chester Campbell 

Visit me at Mystery Mania

The Story Behind the Story

My newest ebook, just available on Amazon for the Kindle, is titled Beware the Jabberwock. It has quite a story behind it. Actually, several stories. I wrote it back in 1990 after I retired from an eighteen-year career as executive vice president of a statewide trade association. I had written non-fiction for years as a newspaper reporter, free-lance writer, magazine editor, and a few other permutations. I had written two book manuscripts over the years and told everyone I intended to write novels when I retired.

I was an avid spy story reader all through the Cold War, so it was natural that I turned to this genre when I looked for a plot. I had read extensively about the KGB and CIA and had no trouble creating a situation involving both agencies. With the Iron Curtain shredding and the Soviet Union falling apart, clandestine warriors on both sides found their futures in jeopardy. I chose that as my starting point.

Since this was an international thriller, the setting was anywhere. I had been on a fifteen-day tour of Europe in the early eighties and spent a month touring the Far East in 1987. With that background, I had lots of possibilities to choose from. I started the story in Vienna, then moved to Washington, DC.guide I had to depend on guidebooks for scenes on Cyprus and in Tel Aviv, but I had visited Hong Kong and most of the locations in the States. I created a small island off the Florida coast south of Apalachicola.

For the main character, I turned to a man I had met back in the sixties when I was editor of Nashville Magazine. He was a close friend of one of my colleagues and I got to know him pretty well. He was an ex-FBI agent with a wild story to tell. I did a long interview with him, and we talked about writing a book. Then he had second thoughts about writing it as a true story. The statute of limitations hadn't run out on some of the things he had done.

According to his story, and my colleague vouched for his authenticity, he had gone to Washington out of high school and worked as a clerk at FBI Headquarters while getting an accounting degree. His job involved taking documents to Hoover's home, and he became closely associated with the director. He attended the FBI Academy after graduation and worked as a field agent. He was tapped by Hoover to be a member of his Goon Squad, a select group of agents who carried out sometimes illegal acts for the director. According to my guy, some of it involved cases outside the U.S.

Hoover and his assistant came up with a plan to infiltrate the Mafia and chose my agent for the task. He was told to resign from the FBI, commit a few crimes to establish his bona fides, and work to get in with the mob in Las Vegas. But after months of trying, he never managed to get connected. When he came back to Washington, Hoover refused to talk to him, calling him a failure.

All of this is covered in the background of my character, Burke Hill. I lost contact with the ex-agent but learned he died several years ago. It makes for quite a story. You can check out Beware the Jabberwock at  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VQJ3PY.

Chester Campbell

Visit me at Mystery Mania