JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: As I write this on Friday evening (yes, I procrastinated until the last minute, did you expect otherwise?) this is my local forecast:
I've been working at my kitchen table, next to the roaring wood stove, with water trickling in every sink in This Old House. I wrapped the exterior pantry door in plastic, hung two quilts over the drafty front entrance, and rolled throw blankets against every door and window jamb where I could feel the wind blowing in. It's deep, once-in-a generation cold here, cold enough for your skin to develop frostbite within ten minutes of exposure. The wind whistles and shrieks constantly, rattling the windows.
Now imagine there's a knock on the door.
Or that I'm trapped inside with someone who might be as dangerous as the windstorm outside.
Don't worry, I'm actually safe and sound with a grumpy cat and two Shih Tzus who haven't left their fireside bed all day.
But you can see why I love to use bad weather in my books. Now, you'll hear a lot of writing advice about weather. "Never open with the weather." "No one want's to read about a forecast" "Nature makes a weak antagonist." To which I say, "Come experience our balmy -43° windchill today and tell me that."
I love sending my heroes driving down roads during ice storms, searching for someone during blizzards, trying to escape through deep drifts of snow. I admit, my imagination tends toward the chillier side of the year, but I've read terrific books set against dangerously hot weather - like Paolo Bacigaloupi's THE WATER KNIFE, set in an arid near-future southwest, and Michael Koryta's THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD, where I could absolutely feel the stifling heat leading to a massive Montana wildfire.
My most recent read, the chillingly terrific YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS by Kay Rosenfield, has two opposing weather events as crucial plot points: the devastating wildfire that consumed over 17,000 acres in Maine in 1947, and the almost annual deep freeze of this state's many reaches - bodies of water stretching between the fjord-like points that make up the Down East coastline. Don't worry - I'm not giving anything away, other than a strong recommendation to get the book ASAP.
AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, my (never ending) work in progress, has Russ and Clare and their friends dealing with typical Christmas time conditions in the Adirondacks: unexpectedly heavy snow, bitter wind chill, and impossible-to-navigate roads. It's not the worst they've faced, but I like to keep them on their toes. Fortunately, over six (I think?) years in the area, Clare's gotten much better about wearing appropriate clothing.
All this is to say, as much as I joke about starting a series set in Hawai'i, say, or in the Virgin Islands, I'm going to stick to writing about the bone-chilling conditions I know and suffer through love. Why not, when I can simply open my door to challenges, struggles and danger?
Dear readers, what are some of the weather-dependent stories you love?
I much prefer reading about frigid winter weather than being out in it, so I’m definitely commiserating with Clare over the weather . . . aside from the treacherous winter weather the Millers Kill folks find themselves trampling through, I seem to recall a miserable nor’easter in one of Jenn’s Library Mystery books [“Due or Die”???] . . . there’s a killer hurricane in Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island” . . . and there’s the forever-winter of Narnia in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” . . . .
ReplyDelete"Always winter, and never Christmas." That struck me as unutterably bleak when I was a child, Joan.
DeleteWe're having the -14 and train-engine winds too, Julia. I'm so fortunate to live in a 1890 house that my Hugh took down to the studs and rebuilt the inside of after we bought it 13 years ago. It's insulated, tight, with good windows. Worth every minute (years) of living in a construction zone.
ReplyDeleteWeather-dependent stories - a couple of yours come to mind first, but names of particular books escape me. I'd like to read more crime fiction set in the desert. Having lived in landlocked West Africa, I know how deadly the heat and being without water can be. Floods provide potential, and earthquakes, while not weather, can be terrifying.
Edith, does Hugh hire out? :-)
DeleteDesert stories reminded me of a book I loved as a kid - I looked it up WALKABOUT by James Vance Marshall, about a white teen and her younger brother who get lost in Australia's outback and survive with the help of an indigenous teen on his walkabout.
Hugh absolutely hires out, although not much for the heavy sheet rock work any more. He's an expert interior painter, an accomplished handyman, and he travels an hour south to work for our friends regularly (you're about an hour north of here, I believe).
DeleteWALKABOUT sounds great, will check it out. As a teen I read several Nevil Shute novels set in Australia, including the iconic ON THE BEACH.
Camino Winds by John Grisham has a great hurricane. That 2 book series is really good, too. But Julia, I have to say that some of the most memorable weather events have been in your books. Clare running through snow drifts in the woods in her totally inadequate clothes and shoes, hiding from a killer! Russ breaking his leg in an icy graveyard. I like it when an author uses the weather as a part of the story, it is, after all, a part of our stories! Right?
ReplyDeleteThat's how I feel, Judy! There are precious few parts of the world where thinking about and talking about the weather aren't a part of daily life.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh, I should have said, I just finished reading Connie Berry's THE ART OF BETRAYAL. The constant rain and flooding eventually lead to a terrifying climax which is foreshadowed throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteWater rising and rising without stopping has to rank as one of the primal human fears, Judy. It's terrific in fiction and movies.
DeleteYeah, it's -26F/-32C this morning in Ottawa as I type this at 7 am. Yesterday's windchill was -44F/-42C with 30mph/50 km winds so I stayed indoors all day. It was supposed to be the first day of our Winterlude Festiival but they cancelled all the outdoor events due to the extreme cold.
ReplyDeleteAlong with JULIA's books, there are scary Wyoming winter blizzards in several of C.J. Box's Joe Pickett books. And the various Icelandic authors know how to make you feel trapped alone in a remote cabin during the cold, dark stormy winter.
wow Grace you win the booby prize!
DeleteGrace, we have the same weather here. The beginning of Carnaval de Québec that was supposed to be yesterday has been canceled and reported tonight .
DeleteDanielle
Such a shame about the weather for Winterlude opening. Luckily the temperatures rebound quickly. We love Winterlude although we probably won't get there this year. Enjoy.
DeleteNow I feel cannot complain about my minus 18 degrees when I got up and it has since zoomed up to minus 12. But I still can't get the indoor temp above 63 degrees. Don't even want to know about wind chill factor. Why do they always have to tell us that anyway?
DeleteDANIELLE: Ah, that's too bad about Carnaval. I enjoyed it the few times I managed to get to Quebec City in February.
DeleteJC: After being cancelled in 2021 & 2022, we were really looking forward to in-person Winterlude. Before this extreme cold, it has been unseasonably balmy, so the Rideau Canal skateway is still not open. Hopefully, the international ice-carving competition can start today. Those ice sculptures are really amazing to see.
Grace, that's how it's been here as well - unseasonably warm through January, with little to no ice fishing or snowmobiling. It feels like Mother Nature is determined to give us an entire season's worth of snow and cold in one three week period!
DeleteI like the cold winter stories for the tension it brings, but I prefer reading about the nice weather, even rain.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people share that approach, Dru Ann, which is why summer beach books set in Nantucket or coastal New England are a whole genre unto themselves!
DeleteWe are just coming out of a serious cold snap (it's moved east from here; sorry Grace!) that made staying indoors sane and sensible. Though the sunshine was glorious.
ReplyDeleteThe weather in Julia's books is memorable -- the scene where Clare and Russ are trapped in underground tunnels with rising waters -- I can't recall if that's weather related, is it? Regardless, when the elements become almost a character unto themselves wreaking havoc on the people in the story, I find it gripping, and I am always relieved when we all come out, more or less intact, the other side.
AMANDA: I'll stop whining. The extreme cold weather is only supposed to last until today. We will be back above normal in Ottawa tomorrow: forecasted high of 33F/+1C. I will go see the Winterlude ice sculptures on Sunday/Monday.
DeleteAmanda, when I look at the weather in your corner of the country, I’m happy to live in Quebec.
DeleteDanielle
Grace, Danielle: You know what we say here in Winnipeg -- "At least it's a dry cold!" Ha ha. Cold is cold, and I'm happy to be heading into single-digit temperatures, though still below zero Celsius.
DeleteI learned a new-to-me fact, Canadian friends, thanks to this once-in-a-generation cold snap: -40° is where the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales meet! Nice to know we can share our misery without translation.
DeleteSunny and in the low fifties now, predicted high in the low seventies. Spring has started here in central California, southern end of the Bay Area. Trees are blooming out mostly white but some pink too.
DeleteWeather can be part of the story but I have no preference for the adding of a weather character to a story. Obviously an effective story device.
DeleteYou know who else is very good at horrible weather, the Icelandic writers such as Arnaldur Indridiason and Ragnar Jonasson. Julia, this would be a good day to stay in and finish up that book!!
ReplyDeleteJulia, listen to Lucy, please! Thank you. Elisabeth
DeleteYes, those were the Icelandic authors I was thinking of.
DeleteLucy, I have to confess I spent more time yesterday obsessively checking my systems and the thermometer than I did writing. Today, I'll do better!
Delete“There was a desert wind blowing that night,” Raymond Chandler writes in the famous opening to his novella “Red Wind.” “It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks.”
ReplyDeleteLisa in Long Beach
Lisa, yes, one of the most famous opening lines in crime fiction, and it's about weather - well, about its effects on humans, which is what makes it interesting.
DeleteI remember those Santa Ana winds as a child!
DeleteHappily they just make my sinuses ache rather than triggering murderous impulses … so far.
DeleteLisa in LB
I moved from Northern California to Ottawa Canada in my twenties. I still remember my first winter which was in my mind still the worst winter I have ever experienced🙂, being woefully underprepared both clothing wise and mentally. So I definitely appreciate any character’s struggle with weather as a complicating factor in a story!
ReplyDeleteThis Southern Californian moved to Indiana. The first winter - snow then ice then snow, and always cold - I remember asking, "People live here voluntarily?" Now I've lived in New England longer than I lived in the Pasadena area!
DeleteI had an opposite experience: I remember picnicking on the beach on our second family trip to Hawai'i when the kids were small. There were happy families enjoying the sunshine and waves in January. Ross and I asked ourselves, "Why doesn't everyone live in Hawai'i?" (Answer: cost of living, limited employment.)
DeleteTake care! We had temps to minus 10 the days before Christmas. My daughters were stranded on I-71 in Kentucky, east of Louisville. They finally crossed the bridge into Indiana and found a casino hotel to take them for the night. What an adventure!
ReplyDeleteJane Harper, The Dry, set in the Australian outback
Daniel Woodrell, Winter's Bone, set in the Ozarks
WK Krueger, Desolation Mountain, set in northern Minnesota
Good examples, Margaret! And yes, we're taking care. I canceled movie and dinner night with my young friend Samantha, because I didn't want her out driving...just in case.
DeleteThe Three Musketeers (1844) starts,“C'etait une nuit orageuse et sombre,” which translates to, “It was a night stormy and dark.”
ReplyDeleteThe French version of Bulwar-Lytton's (in)famous opening line from Paul Clifford (1830):
Delete"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
Maybe early 19th century novelists were still working out how to use weather effectively? Of course, Alexandre Dumas' novel is still read, while his contemporary's... not so much.
I like when the weather is being part of the story. You do it very well Julia.
ReplyDeleteIn Louise Penny’s books, the season and the temperature are also integrated into the story like in Dead Cold (winter). Everyone who read her books knows what to expect when she comes here.
Danielle
I love how in Louise's books the season conditions are things people deal with every day, just as in real life.
DeleteWe dropped to -18 last night, plus wind chill. Our weatherman has been telling us for a few days now that its difficult to set record lows anymore with climate change. But still.
ReplyDeleteI guess Mt. Washington (NH) didn't break their record. Only got to -40 something air temp. But they had record low wind chill at -100 something. The same temp. as Mars, I read.
Books and weather -- sizzling hot Australia, THE DRY by Jane Harper. Also Russ breaking his leg on the ice, and Russ and Clare facing the rising water trapped in the basement of the building. Lots of tension! That's some good writing. We know they will survive because they go on to star in the next book and the next, but they don't know that and so we feel their anxiety in that moment.
They did break the record for lowest wind chill: -108 F.
DeleteI think at that temperature your blood would freeze inside you. Shiver!!
Thank you, JC! And yes, I don't think residents of New Hampshire would like the title of "Coldest spot of the four innermost planets!"
DeleteThe first weather that I remember in a book was the snowstorm on the prairies in Little House on the Prairie – don’t remember which one, but it was cold and terrifying to my young brain.
ReplyDeleteLove Claire and Russ and their struggles with the cold and wind, and wilds of what is terrain familiar to my life.
Try Jane Harper’s books for Australian heat – you can feel the sweat and dust.
As for outside – it is minus 23 C, with a horrendous wind blowing and 13C (55f) in the kitchen. Jack just said he put the last bag of chicken feed in the hopper a few days ago – why can he not plan ahead? – it will be Monday before we can get more feed.
Last night the news spoke of the weather station in New Hampshire where it was and still is -100 C with the wind chill. Compared to that we are absolutely balmy!
Planning ahead is the key when dangerous weather is on the way, Isn't it, Margo? You can tell Jack several New Englanders are clucking their tongues at him - pun intended.
DeleteThe Long Winter! I read that so many times.
DeleteLisa in Long Beach
Julia, I am eagerly awaiting At Midnight Comes the Cry! Please be careful and stay warm all of you who are suffering from the terrible cold! We had a lovely week here in Oregon with high temperatures in the mid 40's and lows in the 20'--plenty of sunshine and not much wind. Yesterday the rain returned and the temperature rose. I'm not complaining! I read a book years ago whose winter scenes really stuck with me. It was by Clare Francis and, appropriately enough, was called Wolf Winter, and it was set in Norway and the part of the Soviet Union that borders Norway. I knew nothing about Norway and was fascinated by the fjords, the bitter cold and the bleak beauty of the landscape.
ReplyDeleteWeather is part of our lives, so why shouldn't it be as important as a character in a book? I thought of Lost Man by Jane Harper. and both Lucy Burdette and Ellen Byron have had books where hurricanes played a major role. We were just in the teens last night so no big deal.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to use a fictional version of Hurricane Irene in a future book, Pat - hurricanes very seldom have much of an effect in New England and northeastern NY, but you can STILL see downed trees and carved-out creek beds from that storm.
DeleteJulia, you do extreme weather (in your books) so well! But I realize you have a lot of first-hand experience. In the heat of next summer is when I will want to read about frigid winters - hoping your book will be in my hand by then!
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed, Judi (inside a mitten, of course..)
DeleteAnnette Dashofy uses weather brilliantly, as does her pal Craig Johnson in his Longmire books. Lots of weather to have in the wilds of Wyoming, for sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's 20 degrees here in Cincinnati, with brilliant sun. I feel like I'm cheating on you guys!
Agree about Annette!
DeleteYes, Annette used weather brilliantly. And don't worry, Karen - the one sure thing about weather is that everyone will have a bad time of it at one point or another!
DeleteI love when weather becomes a character in the story, especially snow and wind. Your books capture this so well, Julia. We are coming out the other side of sub-zero temps and happy to do so. Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anon! I'm sticking close to my wood stove, don't worry.
DeleteYou've definitely proven how well the weather can up the tension in a story, Julia! I vividly remember those scenes that have been mentioned above. My absolute favorite book involving weather is Charles Todd's A COLD TREACHERY. Other authors who use the weather well are Nevada Barr, Dana Stabenow, and also mentioned above, William Kent Krueger and Louise Penny. Bonus: two of my favorite songs involving weather: Johnny Cash's FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING and Gordon Lightfoot's THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD. A good day to stay inside, put on some music and/or read-- it's 19F and partly sunny here in northern Ohio. Not complaining!
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness, THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD was one of my husband's favorite songs - I got to hear it a LOT. Interestingly, I just found out a few years ago that my Dad's grandfather, who had been a captain moving freight across the Great Lakes, lost his life in a storm. A real-life example of weather changing lives.
DeleteWow, Julia! (Flora)
DeleteI know, right? And my dad never told the tale until he was in his assisted living home.
DeleteNow I am singing. What a tragic story.
Delete"The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
T'was the witch of November come stealin'"
Julia, I echo everyone's comments about how well you do weather, although curiously, the Fourth of July sultry heat in book two (?) also stands out in my mind. And I also echo the hope that you're taking advantage of the cold-induced isolation to write!!! Push the dogs a little aside and make room for yourself in front of the stove! My most recent reads with effective temperature ramifications include the cold the young boy experienced in DEMON COPPERHEAD and the heat a different young boy experienced in the heart-wrenching SOLITO. I know in a short story I wrote recently, the weather was persistently windy and rainy, and when I would get up to take my dog out, I'd be constantly startled by the sunshine.
ReplyDeleteMeg, I've had that experience when I'm writing out of season as well! :-)
DeleteOh, so funny! I wrote THE WRONG GIRL, a blizzard book, in the dead of summer. I put a yellow reminder stickie on my computer that said: IT'S COLD.
DeleteDebs also uses weather really well in her series. Gemma's freckles increase in the sunshine and in the early books her car gets so hot in the summer she can't sit on the seat or touch the steering wheel. Then there is the winter scene where she and Melody are climbing an icy street trying to get to Andy. (THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS) That was the first book I read by any JRW author. Good memories.
ReplyDeleteThat's just about my favorite book in the series! (Flora)
DeleteExcellent point, Judy. Debs is a master at detail, and those small moments, like the too-hot car, are the ways we sink completely into the story. Gemma's world becomes ours.
DeleteAlthough I’ve lived in Connecticut all my life, I’ve never adjusted to the cold. If I didn’t look so much like my dad, I would swear that I was switched with a Florida-born baby as an infant!
ReplyDeleteJulia, over the years of reading your books, I’ve learned to wait until summer to read any of yours that are set in winter. They sit there waiting for me, and I know I’m I’m for a treat!
Yesterday afternoon I had to run an errand, and returned home just before 4:30. Because of the wind, I couldn’t get out of my car. I wondered if I would need to stay there until a change in the weather! My assigned parking space is in a parking lot behind my building. By the time I got to the front entrance, I couldn’t feel my fingers, and I fumbled with the key. I’m just grateful the current weather is unusual for us.
Back to my coffee!
DebRo
Stay safe and warm down there, DebRo!
DeleteHi, everyone - it's a bright and sunny 3° (-14° windchill) at my place this morning, and I'm just sitting down to JRW with a cup of hot tea after feeding the animals, changing the doggie pee pads, getting a fire going in the woodstove and, happily, starting my car. It complained and hesitated, not unlike me leaving my warm bed this morning, but it turned over.
ReplyDeleteJulia, I think you have the corner on the winter market! We're a toasty -18 right now, with evening chills at -22. Yep, it's Maine, yep, it's winter, yep, it's a great place to get your characters in trouble!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I can't think of a single book that uses heat as a character. There had to be some. I remember an Outer Limits that used an endless sun. That had to be 60 years ago or more and it still sticks with me. Craig Johnson does winter well, as does Paul Doiron - another Mainer.
When can I preorder AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY?
I have to finish it first, Kait - maybe staying indoors will up my word count!
DeleteI recall one of the Scandinavian writers setting a book during the "white nights," the period in midsummer where the sun never entirely sets, and people get a little loopy as a result. I can't remember the author or title, though - maybe someone else can fill that in.
I can appreciate this post more than usual, Julia, as I'm currently in MA and got to experience the -9 but feels like -31 last night. I can't really wrap my head around it. For reading, I enjoy reading about the season I'm in at the same time, if that makes sense. Sort of like only reading holiday books during the holidays.
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way, Jenn. You'd think it would be the time to fictionally escape to the Caribbean, but I want to read hot weather books in the summer!
ReplyDeleteHaving my own weather-related drama today with a few frozen pipes... One we were able to coax back to life. The other, TBD.
ReplyDeleteAnd my all time favorite weather related story is THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS which opens with a snowstorm and a truck sliding sideways.... by Nancy Pickard. She does it again with THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTNING.
Hallie, now I have to look up both of those books. I hope your second frozen pipe comes back to life.
DeleteI agree both of those Nancy Picksrd books are amazing!
DeleteHope for a successful resolution to the pipe issue! Yikes. I love the imagery in THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTENING. I'll have to look up Virgin. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Pickard.
Deletei LOVE both those books. Good luck with the pipes, Hallie.
DeleteI can't imagine what - 14 F feels like, let alone -39 with the wind chill. Take care of yourself, Julia! As for books with weather descriptions, one that immediately comes to mind is at the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, where Scout talks about the summer heat in Maycomb, Alabama, where "ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum." I remember summers as a child visiting my great-aunt in Monroe, Louisiana, when it was so hot and humid that even I, an active tomboy, didn't feel like running (unless it was in and out of the sprinkler.)
ReplyDeleteOh, so late so late! I just read a terrific terrific cold book--highly recommended--CITY UNDER ONE ROOF by Iris Yamashita. It's great--about a town in Alaska (based on Whittier but called Point Mettier in this novel ) where it's SO cold that everyone lives in the same condominium --and the stores and hotel are there, too, and the school is connected by an underground tunnel. And outsiders can only get there through a mountain tunnel that sometimes is closed by avalanches. Now I ask you--is that not a great idea? And she does it beautifully. Stay warm, all! It is now up to 11 here. (and Jenn, SO sorry! :-))
ReplyDeleteHank, I've got that one waiting on me!
DeleteEager to hear what you think!
DeleteOh dear, I lost the comments I'd started when I went to watch Debs and Rhys on the Poisoned Pen event. The event there was wonderful. So, I'll try to do a quick version of what I'd written. I love a snowy setting, and even better when it's a snowed-in setting. Julia, I have so enjoyed all the weather-related complications in your stories and how they affected the characters and the turn of events in the stories. You would think being snowed in at a cabin would be romantic and cozy, but you showed us that isn't necessarily the case. I think you are brilliant at making the snowy weather an integral element.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Paige Shelton's Alaska Wild series set in Benedict, Alaska, where the weather has to be respected, or it can kill you. Some stand-alone books set in snow that are favorites are The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf, The Night Visitors by Carol Goodman, One by One by Ruth Ware, and An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena.
What is interesting to me is that as much as I love a snowy setting, I love Jane Harper's books set in the Australian outback. It doesn't get much hotter or barren than that. Maybe it's the man vs. nature thing.
Great post, Julia! This reminded me of my high school English class assignment. Our homework was to write a story. I remember one of my classmates wrote "It was a dark and stormy night". I wonder how often readers see that opening sentence in a novel?
ReplyDeleteWeather dependent story? I think gothic novels are weather dependent?
Diana
Last month I read Ann Weisgarber's "The Promise" which turned out to be set during the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and subsequent flooding. Over 6000 people died! And just reading a Great Lakes Historical Society journal, I discovered there were ships lost in Lake Erie as a consequence of the high winds generated by that hurricane! I really enjoyed the book.
ReplyDelete