Robin Barefield's Blog - Posts Tagged "kodiak"
Writing as a Coping Strategy
I love to read, and while I read a broad range of fiction and non fiction, mysteries and adventure novels are what I enjoy most. To me, the perfect novel involves an intricate puzzle that can only be solved with a combination of intelligence, courage, and desperation.
Big Game was my first serious attempt at writing the type of book I would want to read. Experts advise to write about what you know, so that’s what I did; although, I was amazed by how much I did not know when it came to poisons, airplanes, and even air bag compartments in cars. I enjoy research and learning new things, so this aspect of writing is an added bonus for me.
Big Game is a story that evolved one summer when my father called me at my home on Kodiak Island in Alaska and told me that my mother’s last attempt at chemotherapy had failed, and she was not expected to live much longer. I flew back to Kansas as soon as I could, and as I sat in my mother’s hospital room watching her lose her slow, painful fight against ovarian cancer, I realized I had to do something to help myself cope. I was determined to remain strong for my parents. I refused to cry or surrender to my grief, but I knew I had to deal with my depression. I started writing so I could express the many things I would miss about my mother, but on a hot July afternoon as I listened to my mother’s rhythmic breathing and the pump that delivered her morphine, my writing took a sharp turn, my love of mysteries emerged, and suddenly in my mind, a car veered off the road in front of me and rolled into a wheat field. The driver of the car mumbled an incoherent string of words, and my prose took on a life of its own. Not only did my narrative become my escape from my mother’s hospital room, but it became a journey for me to the most memorable places in my life to that point.
I have been lucky to live an adventurous life in unique places that I wanted to remember, and writing this novel helped me cement those memories. I grew up in a small town in Kansas and graduated from the University of Arizona with a M.S. degree in fish and wildlife biology. I spent time in a hunting camp at Becharof Lake on the Alaska Peninsula, one of the wildest, most beautiful spots on our planet. I have lived in the midst of the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge for nearly thirty years. There are no roads where I live. Access is by float plane or boat, and bears, deer, and eagles are my nearest neighbors.
My life has been amazing, and in Big Game, I tried to describe some of the wild, beautiful places I have seen as well as places that have had an impact on my life. More importantly for me, though, this novel reminds me of the battle my mother fought against ovarian cancer. I never thought of her as being tough, but when she faced the fight of her life, she became a warrior, determined to win or at least determined to remain positive for the sake of her family. Anna Quindlen in her novel One True Thing was spot on with her description of the ravages of ovarian cancer and the effect the disease has on the patient and the patient’s loved ones. It is a devastating disease, and my mother fought it with dignity and courage. I hope if nothing else, my story is a tribute to her.
I am currently writing another novel featuring Jane, the protagonist in Big Game. This novel is set on Kodiak Island where I live, and I will write more about it in my next blog.
Robin
Big Game was my first serious attempt at writing the type of book I would want to read. Experts advise to write about what you know, so that’s what I did; although, I was amazed by how much I did not know when it came to poisons, airplanes, and even air bag compartments in cars. I enjoy research and learning new things, so this aspect of writing is an added bonus for me.
Big Game is a story that evolved one summer when my father called me at my home on Kodiak Island in Alaska and told me that my mother’s last attempt at chemotherapy had failed, and she was not expected to live much longer. I flew back to Kansas as soon as I could, and as I sat in my mother’s hospital room watching her lose her slow, painful fight against ovarian cancer, I realized I had to do something to help myself cope. I was determined to remain strong for my parents. I refused to cry or surrender to my grief, but I knew I had to deal with my depression. I started writing so I could express the many things I would miss about my mother, but on a hot July afternoon as I listened to my mother’s rhythmic breathing and the pump that delivered her morphine, my writing took a sharp turn, my love of mysteries emerged, and suddenly in my mind, a car veered off the road in front of me and rolled into a wheat field. The driver of the car mumbled an incoherent string of words, and my prose took on a life of its own. Not only did my narrative become my escape from my mother’s hospital room, but it became a journey for me to the most memorable places in my life to that point.
I have been lucky to live an adventurous life in unique places that I wanted to remember, and writing this novel helped me cement those memories. I grew up in a small town in Kansas and graduated from the University of Arizona with a M.S. degree in fish and wildlife biology. I spent time in a hunting camp at Becharof Lake on the Alaska Peninsula, one of the wildest, most beautiful spots on our planet. I have lived in the midst of the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge for nearly thirty years. There are no roads where I live. Access is by float plane or boat, and bears, deer, and eagles are my nearest neighbors.
My life has been amazing, and in Big Game, I tried to describe some of the wild, beautiful places I have seen as well as places that have had an impact on my life. More importantly for me, though, this novel reminds me of the battle my mother fought against ovarian cancer. I never thought of her as being tough, but when she faced the fight of her life, she became a warrior, determined to win or at least determined to remain positive for the sake of her family. Anna Quindlen in her novel One True Thing was spot on with her description of the ravages of ovarian cancer and the effect the disease has on the patient and the patient’s loved ones. It is a devastating disease, and my mother fought it with dignity and courage. I hope if nothing else, my story is a tribute to her.
I am currently writing another novel featuring Jane, the protagonist in Big Game. This novel is set on Kodiak Island where I live, and I will write more about it in my next blog.
Robin
Murder Over Kodiak
My second novel is based on Kodiak Island, Alaska, where I live. Most of the story takes place in the town of Kodiak, where Jane works as a biologist at a marine science center. Later in the novel, Jane travels to the west side of Kodiak Island to Uyak Bay to collect clams to test for the presence of a natural toxin. Her campsite on this field trip is approximately fifteen miles from my actual home in the Kodiak wilderness, so describing the ambient temperature and other weather conditions Jane might encounter on a July day, as well as what she would likely see and smell, is easy for me, because I’ve spent many July days in this pristine wilderness. At one point, Jane has an encounter with a bear, and since there more than 3500 Kodiak bears on the Kodiak Island Archipelago, seeing a bear in the woods or on the beach is a common experience.
When thinking up an idea for a new mystery, I like to think, "what if . . . ." In the case of this novel, I thought, what if a floatplane crashed not because of bad weather, pilot error, or a mechanical malfunction, but what if the cause was something much more sinister such as a bomb? How would the residents of Kodiak react when problems from the outside world invaded our normally peaceful island?
Kodiak Island is beautiful with lush vegetation, steep mountains that rise nearly straight up from sea level, fjord-like bays, and at times, some of the worst weather on the planet. We see a few storms each year where storm-force winds spawn waves towering over 30 ft. Throw 3500 bears into the mix, and you have an awe-inspiring setting that can evoke many “what if” questions in an author’s mind.
The rugged men and women who call Kodiak home include commercial fishermen, bush plane pilots, guides, fish and wildlife researchers, and Coast Guard pilots and rescue swimmers, all who do their jobs by being willing to brave the challenging environment in which they live and work. I don’t have to use much imagination to create colorful, inspiring characters for my books. In fact, I know some actual people who are so colorful that no one would find them believable as characters in a novel.
I am lucky to have this rich, unique environment to inspire me when I write. I think and hope my novels will appeal to readers who love mysteries, but also to people who enjoy reading about Alaska and the wilderness.
When thinking up an idea for a new mystery, I like to think, "what if . . . ." In the case of this novel, I thought, what if a floatplane crashed not because of bad weather, pilot error, or a mechanical malfunction, but what if the cause was something much more sinister such as a bomb? How would the residents of Kodiak react when problems from the outside world invaded our normally peaceful island?
Kodiak Island is beautiful with lush vegetation, steep mountains that rise nearly straight up from sea level, fjord-like bays, and at times, some of the worst weather on the planet. We see a few storms each year where storm-force winds spawn waves towering over 30 ft. Throw 3500 bears into the mix, and you have an awe-inspiring setting that can evoke many “what if” questions in an author’s mind.
The rugged men and women who call Kodiak home include commercial fishermen, bush plane pilots, guides, fish and wildlife researchers, and Coast Guard pilots and rescue swimmers, all who do their jobs by being willing to brave the challenging environment in which they live and work. I don’t have to use much imagination to create colorful, inspiring characters for my books. In fact, I know some actual people who are so colorful that no one would find them believable as characters in a novel.
I am lucky to have this rich, unique environment to inspire me when I write. I think and hope my novels will appeal to readers who love mysteries, but also to people who enjoy reading about Alaska and the wilderness.
