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Tornado Siren
An unlikely pairing between a woman scientist and a man whose existence seems impossible leads to a love that will be challenged by the ultimate forces of nature.
Tornado researcher Victoria Thomas discovers an improbable set of footprints in a muddy field near Memphis. They indicate that a man walked away unharmed after being engulfed by the full fury of a twister.
A year later, Victoria finds an identical set of mysterious tracks in Kansas and becomes obsessed with finding this odd wanderer. When she finally does find Ben Fulgar, Victoria can’t believe her own eyes or his outlandish story. She’ll risk her life to prove to herself that the world operates according to rational rules.
Tornado Siren is the story of two outsiders drawn together by the simple beauty and deadly destruction lurking on the Great Plains. Their relationship threatens to destroy everything around them.
Tornado researcher Victoria Thomas discovers an improbable set of footprints in a muddy field near Memphis. They indicate that a man walked away unharmed after being engulfed by the full fury of a twister.
A year later, Victoria finds an identical set of mysterious tracks in Kansas and becomes obsessed with finding this odd wanderer. When she finally does find Ben Fulgar, Victoria can’t believe her own eyes or his outlandish story. She’ll risk her life to prove to herself that the world operates according to rational rules.
Tornado Siren is the story of two outsiders drawn together by the simple beauty and deadly destruction lurking on the Great Plains. Their relationship threatens to destroy everything around them.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
3 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Gabridge
22 books32 followersMy novels include The Secret of Spirit Lake, Steering to Freedom, Tornado Siren and Moving [a life in boxes]. My work for radio has been broadcast by NPR, Shoestring Radio Theatre, Playing on Air, and Icebox Radio Theatre.
My full-length plays include Flight, Distant Neighbors, Lab Rats, Constant State of Panic, and Blinders, and have been staged by theaters across the country. My passion for history extends to the stage, and my historical plays include work about the creation of the English Bible (Fire on Earth), the astronomers Kepler and Tycho (Reading the Mind of God), a volcanic eruption on Martinique (The Prisoner of St. Pierre), 19th century Boston publisher Daniel Sharp Ford (None But the Best), and the 1770 Boston Massacre (Blood on the Snow).
I've been a Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company and with New Repertory. Recent commissions include plays and musicals for In Good Company, The Bostonian Society, Central Square Theatre, and Tumblehome Learning. My short plays are published by Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer, Smith & Kraus, and YouthPlays, and have received more than a thousand productions from theatres and schools around the world.
I have a habit of starting things: I helped start Boston’s Rhombus writers’ group, the Chameleon Stage theatre company in Denver, the Bare Bones Theatre company in New York, the publication Market InSight... for Playwrights, and the on-line Playwrights’ Submission Binge. I'm also a member of the Dramatists Guild, StageSource, and a board member of the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. I am currently the co-founder and coordinator of the New England New Play Alliance and am actively involved with the Boston theater scene.
My work has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Commission.
In his spare time, I like to farm and fix up old houses.
My full-length plays include Flight, Distant Neighbors, Lab Rats, Constant State of Panic, and Blinders, and have been staged by theaters across the country. My passion for history extends to the stage, and my historical plays include work about the creation of the English Bible (Fire on Earth), the astronomers Kepler and Tycho (Reading the Mind of God), a volcanic eruption on Martinique (The Prisoner of St. Pierre), 19th century Boston publisher Daniel Sharp Ford (None But the Best), and the 1770 Boston Massacre (Blood on the Snow).
I've been a Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company and with New Repertory. Recent commissions include plays and musicals for In Good Company, The Bostonian Society, Central Square Theatre, and Tumblehome Learning. My short plays are published by Playscripts, Brooklyn Publishers, Heuer, Smith & Kraus, and YouthPlays, and have received more than a thousand productions from theatres and schools around the world.
I have a habit of starting things: I helped start Boston’s Rhombus writers’ group, the Chameleon Stage theatre company in Denver, the Bare Bones Theatre company in New York, the publication Market InSight... for Playwrights, and the on-line Playwrights’ Submission Binge. I'm also a member of the Dramatists Guild, StageSource, and a board member of the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. I am currently the co-founder and coordinator of the New England New Play Alliance and am actively involved with the Boston theater scene.
My work has received numerous awards, including fellowships from the Colorado Council on the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Commission.
In his spare time, I like to farm and fix up old houses.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 21, 2011
I'm a big fan of contemporary, realistic fiction, and make only occasional forays into the realm of the paranormal. So TORNADO SIREN is the perfect read for me. The book feels grounded in reality, as the day-to-day work of tornado researcher Victoria Thomas is described with fascinating precision. Victoria's personal issues, as a busy, thirty-something scientist with little time for relationships, also feel quite real and compelling. And the details of life during and after a tornado are vividly painted. I've never seen a tornado in real life, but I could really feel the terror of watching a storm approach, or hiding while a storm rages, or waiting for help after being buried in rubble. So there are numerous anchors to reality in the novel, but the tornadoes whose path of destruction she charts -- and the mysterious man and his dog who sometimes accompany them -- quickly swept me away into a highly imaginative storyline.
Ben Fulgar and his dog, Kimat, seem otherwordly as they defy the rules of nature. How can they walk away from the most violent storms, unscathed? How can they have existed for centuries yet fail to show signs of age? Yet the man and his dog also appear to be of the earth itself, gaining a strange power from the storms that seem to seek them. Victoria finds her rational perspective challenged as she first follows their tracks, and then accompanies Ben and his dog on a long trek across Kansas. Seeking answers, she finds love. However, more complications follow, including the logistical and moral dilemmas of how to be with a man who lives outside the basic rules of society and who attracts such destruction. (Sure, any relationship has its challenges, but try dating someone who needs to sleep on the bare earth instead of a bed. Or who lures a tangle of deadly twisters directly to his doorstep).
TORNADO SIREN was originally published by Behler Publications in 2005, and has just been re-released as an ebook. It is now available for Kindle, Nook, and other formats (via Smashwords). Despite the philosophical undercurrent, it's a quick read, and perfectly suited for the ebook format in that regard. Highly recommended!
Ben Fulgar and his dog, Kimat, seem otherwordly as they defy the rules of nature. How can they walk away from the most violent storms, unscathed? How can they have existed for centuries yet fail to show signs of age? Yet the man and his dog also appear to be of the earth itself, gaining a strange power from the storms that seem to seek them. Victoria finds her rational perspective challenged as she first follows their tracks, and then accompanies Ben and his dog on a long trek across Kansas. Seeking answers, she finds love. However, more complications follow, including the logistical and moral dilemmas of how to be with a man who lives outside the basic rules of society and who attracts such destruction. (Sure, any relationship has its challenges, but try dating someone who needs to sleep on the bare earth instead of a bed. Or who lures a tangle of deadly twisters directly to his doorstep).
TORNADO SIREN was originally published by Behler Publications in 2005, and has just been re-released as an ebook. It is now available for Kindle, Nook, and other formats (via Smashwords). Despite the philosophical undercurrent, it's a quick read, and perfectly suited for the ebook format in that regard. Highly recommended!
March 22, 2015
I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
4 stars overall, plus an extra for originality!
What a pleasant surprise this was! I was excited to read this because I love storms and tornadoes. I don't wish the devastation and destruction on anyone, but I've always found the power of nature of be fascinating. The first few chapters of this were a bit hard for me to get into. The time jump completely threw me off at first. But around Chapter 3 or 4 when the plot really gets under way, I found myself getting sucked into the story (accidental tornado pun and I'm leaving it!)
Victoria and Ben's dynamic together and how it developed throughout the story was really well done. Ben is mysterious and quiet without being boring. I also enjoyed Victoria a lot as a protagonist. I was delighted by how well Patrick was able write a female main character and have her feel realistic and three dimensional.
I don't want to say too much about the plot for those who haven't read it yet, but it gets BIG points from me for originality. It's exciting, well paced, and at under 200 pages easy to breeze through, especially when you just have to find out what happens!
4 stars overall, plus an extra for originality!
What a pleasant surprise this was! I was excited to read this because I love storms and tornadoes. I don't wish the devastation and destruction on anyone, but I've always found the power of nature of be fascinating. The first few chapters of this were a bit hard for me to get into. The time jump completely threw me off at first. But around Chapter 3 or 4 when the plot really gets under way, I found myself getting sucked into the story (accidental tornado pun and I'm leaving it!)
Victoria and Ben's dynamic together and how it developed throughout the story was really well done. Ben is mysterious and quiet without being boring. I also enjoyed Victoria a lot as a protagonist. I was delighted by how well Patrick was able write a female main character and have her feel realistic and three dimensional.
I don't want to say too much about the plot for those who haven't read it yet, but it gets BIG points from me for originality. It's exciting, well paced, and at under 200 pages easy to breeze through, especially when you just have to find out what happens!
November 22, 2011
I could not put this book down. Every since I was a girl I've been fascinated by Tornados and this novel definitly fed into that by giving me details of storms before, during, and after. I love novels that magical things a part of the natural world and Ben is definitly magical. I also liked that there was no explanation for what Ben was and why he was. Victoria, was good heroine because she was a real person. All of the supporting characters were interesting even Victoria's overbearing parents. There's a lot of science in this novel but it is character driven and thats what makes it a good read.
August 12, 2011
Enjoyed it, deserved more than four stars, even though four stars is pretty ideal :). It was a very engaing non-traditional paranormal interracial romance :D
June 1, 2016
This was a page turner; I literally couldn't put it down because the story is gripping and compelling.
Victoria is a tornado researcher, working with the national weather services to analyze storms, document data, and search for patterns that may or may not assist in tracking severe weather. An impulsive risk-taker at heart, she finds herself in some dangerous, life-changing situations, but they lead her to Ben and his dog, Kimat, a naturalist "of sorts" who, for whatever reason, is drawn to these very storms she's after. The two fall in love, sharing an inexplicable connection, which is even harder to explain to Victoria's immediate family and friends.
For whatever reason, Ben is drawn to the tornadoes, and, at their end, he is rejuvenated and full of energy (never needing any other source of sustenance). In trying to share a "normal" life with Victoria, he is unable to chase tornadoes or be as close to the earth as he wishes to be. When a severe storm creates multiple tornadoes right by Victoria's house, he flees to lead them away from her and her neighbors, but it is not enough, wrecking devastation on her town, and hospitalizing Victoria, herself, after being buried alive in debris.
We are never given a delicate explanation of Ben's relationship with nature, or even his undying presence in chasing storms all over the U.S. for centuries, but I don't think we need one. Some things are better left a mystery, whether paranormal or supernatural, and I appreciate this mystery, but can we truly be satisfied at the novels close? Can we accept that Ben will be in and out of her life, as is necessary and customary to his ways?
Victoria is a tornado researcher, working with the national weather services to analyze storms, document data, and search for patterns that may or may not assist in tracking severe weather. An impulsive risk-taker at heart, she finds herself in some dangerous, life-changing situations, but they lead her to Ben and his dog, Kimat, a naturalist "of sorts" who, for whatever reason, is drawn to these very storms she's after. The two fall in love, sharing an inexplicable connection, which is even harder to explain to Victoria's immediate family and friends.
For whatever reason, Ben is drawn to the tornadoes, and, at their end, he is rejuvenated and full of energy (never needing any other source of sustenance). In trying to share a "normal" life with Victoria, he is unable to chase tornadoes or be as close to the earth as he wishes to be. When a severe storm creates multiple tornadoes right by Victoria's house, he flees to lead them away from her and her neighbors, but it is not enough, wrecking devastation on her town, and hospitalizing Victoria, herself, after being buried alive in debris.
We are never given a delicate explanation of Ben's relationship with nature, or even his undying presence in chasing storms all over the U.S. for centuries, but I don't think we need one. Some things are better left a mystery, whether paranormal or supernatural, and I appreciate this mystery, but can we truly be satisfied at the novels close? Can we accept that Ben will be in and out of her life, as is necessary and customary to his ways?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2007
Okay, yeah, I wrote it. But I do like it. It's a fun book, about a woman meteorologist who meets a man who claims to have a mystical connection to tornadoes. It's gotten some great reviews so far. You can read more at http://www.tornado-siren.com
April 23, 2011
The love story is very strange and different so much so that I had a little bit of a hard time wrapping my head around it. The tornado parts were well written even for some strange acting ones. If you are looking for something a little "different" to read...this is it.
February 19, 2012
I am really enjoying this book. Tornado Siren has an original plot and well developed characters. Victoria, a 35-year old modern black woman, is a storm scientist who is more comfortable with the scientific side of a storm tragedy than its human side, yet she is so compassionate. With skill, the writer has woven Victoria's back story into the ongoing story so it never feel he's stopping to explain something but instead I gain understanding as the plot unfolds. Ben is a mysterious man with brown skin but of indeterminate race, who seems ageless. Ben can apparently wait calmly for a tornado and withstand its force unscathed, a phenomenon the incurably curious Victoria can't resist exploring. I can't rate the book because I'm only about 35% through, but I already know it will be a high rating.
July 2, 2014
I won this book from GoodReads.
Beautiful. Mesmerizing. Hypnotic.
... and 98% believable.
Victoria, a tornado researcher, leads a normal life, arriving on the scene, after the touchdown of a tornado. She collects on site data, to be analyzed, and possibly help predict future storms.
She hears of a man (& his dog) who was out IN a tornado, walking around, in no apparent danger. Rumor? Impossible! - but she discovers tracks. Evidence!
This scene repeats itself in another state. Obsessed, she goes on a wild hunt for this strange man. ( & his dog)
Eventually she catches up to Ben Fulgar, and an incredible adventure unfolds.
Wow. Victoria's life forever changes. Prepare to be swept up in this beautiful story... Victoria, Ben (& the dog!)
Beautiful. Mesmerizing. Hypnotic.
... and 98% believable.
Victoria, a tornado researcher, leads a normal life, arriving on the scene, after the touchdown of a tornado. She collects on site data, to be analyzed, and possibly help predict future storms.
She hears of a man (& his dog) who was out IN a tornado, walking around, in no apparent danger. Rumor? Impossible! - but she discovers tracks. Evidence!
This scene repeats itself in another state. Obsessed, she goes on a wild hunt for this strange man. ( & his dog)
Eventually she catches up to Ben Fulgar, and an incredible adventure unfolds.
Wow. Victoria's life forever changes. Prepare to be swept up in this beautiful story... Victoria, Ben (& the dog!)
February 20, 2011
I wrote it, so I'm biased. I hope other people will find it an enjoyable read. It just came out for Kindle, Nook, and other platforms (on Smashwords)
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews