This is a post Berk wrote for Kayla Shirley. Here is the link to her blog:
http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/KaylaShirley
Now, here is the post:
THUNDER
IN A CLEAR SKY
(Or
what do teenagers know?)
The night sky
was deep black, cloudless and filled with stars. Though a thin crescent moon was just starting
to come up over the Searles Mountains, it gave little light. The lights from the chemical plant burned as
brightly as ever, but Trona, California, is such a small town, located so far
out in the desert, there is almost no light pollution. This was a perfect night for star gazing,
except for one small distraction.
Floating
hundreds of feet above the town, a small, bright reddish-white light burned
fiercely in the sky, swinging gently in the breeze and drifting slowly to the
south-east. The time was about 9:30 pm,
and if anyone happened to be outside, watching the sky, this would have been a
strange sight, especially when the small light was suddenly engulfed in a
brilliant, bright-white flash. The flash
filled the sky for less than a second, and then was gone—the small light was
gone with it. For several seconds, there
was nothing, but the deep black of the cloudless sky, when suddenly a roaring
rumble blasted across the town, followed immediately by a shock wave that
rattled windows and seemed to sock you in the chest as it passed.
Was there a
storm brewing with lightning and thunder?
Anyone stepping out onto the porch, looking for clouds, found a sky that
was totally clear and cloudless. There
was no storm.
In preparation
for the launch of our new book, Pitch
Green, Berk and Andy, a/k/a The Brothers Washburn, have occasionally been
questioned about whether in reality teenagers would really know as much about
guns as do our protagonists, Camm & Cal, in Pitch Green. In fact, not
only do our protagonists know a lot about guns, they also know a lot about high
explosives, enough to detonate a dynamite blast in the sky high above the town
of Trona.
For those who
grew up in a city, or even suburban, environment, this may seem completely
incredible, but for many of us who grew up in the desert, or any isolated rural
location, it is not surprising that teenagers would be comfortably familiar
with the use of firearms and even high explosives. In a sparsely-settled, country setting, guns
and dynamite are common tools used on a regular basis in farming, mining, road
building and other rural occupations. In
fact, it would be strange if Camm and Cal did not know how to use guns and
dynamite.
Trona,
California, is a real mining town, located in a desolate area of the Mojave
Desert, not far from Death Valley. Andy
and I grew up in that region in the 1960s and ‘70s. We spent many days exploring hundreds of
square miles of isolated desert and high-mountain country. In fact, we sometimes went days without
seeing any kind of civilization, including a paved road.
During those
teenage years, we rarely went camping or exploring without bringing our rifles
and pistols, with lots of ammo, and we always carried dynamite with plenty of
fuse and blasting caps. There is a real
science to a good explosion, and we were continually perfecting our technique. A well done dynamite blast makes most of the
pyrotechnics that we see on TV or in movies look pretty silly. There is a big difference between a fake
explosion and the real thing.
In Pitch Green, Camm and Cal know what Berk
and Andy knew as teenagers, so they know their guns and high explosives, which
is important knowledge that will come in handy as they fight the
intra-dimensional predators, coming through the Searles Mansion, looking for
easy prey in this world. Our heroes are
not city kids, and they are not afraid to use whatever weapons they might have
at hand as they face down monsters, who gladly eat ordinary humans. Don’t be surprised if somewhere, sometime,
our heroes set up a dynamite blast in the sky.
After all,
that’s what we did when we were teenagers.
Starting with a stick of dynamite, we made thunder in a clear sky, and
we didn’t have any fancy equipment or advanced technology. We did it using only common everyday items
that any teenager can readily find in the course of a normal day.
If we did it, Camm and Cal can do it too. Like I said, there is a real science to a
good explosion, and Camm is especially strong on science, while Cal has a
long-term interest in weapons. Together
they make a formidable team, doing things that any teenager could do, and, for
the benefit of our adult readers, they’ll probably even explain how it’s done.
BERK W. W.
But giveaways are different. I love giving presents. It’s the best part of Christmas and birthdays.
I make up reasons to give others presents.
My wife says she loves to see what I will come up with—and that I am
good at present-giving because I enjoy it so much. All I know is, I love giveaways.
