A Little Bit About “Storm Season”

I am often asked just how much of “Storm Season” – my first novel – is based on real life. It’s an interesting question because I believe most writers include something of their own reality in their books. There’s an old adage, “write what you know” which is why my books are about life on Hatteras Island. It is what I know.

To answer that first question, yes, there is a bit of my own personal experience in the book. Friends and family know that my husband, Dave, and I met as teenagers when we were both vacationing in Buxton. I came from the Pittsburgh area and he came from northern Virginia. Our families happened to choose the same spot over the same timeframe for a number of years. We got to know each other during the summers of 1971 and 1972, and then we went our separate ways.

For me, that was going back home, finishing high school, graduating from college, and getting on with a new life, family, and varied careers that took me to South Carolina, Illinois, Colorado, and around the globe. Dave’s family bought a motel in Hatteras and so he settled in on the island, running the Cape Hatteras Motel for more than 50 years. We reconnected when I came back to take care of my mom in 2015. She and my dad, who passed in 2011, had retired to the island in the early 90s. So, getting back together with a beach boyfriend after forty-some years is similar to what occurred with Susan and Chris in “Storm Season.” But the similarities end there, as the circumstances in their lives after they parted as young people are purely fiction, and not anything that Dave and I experienced.

What is very real are the experiences of preparing for hurricanes, living through a hurricane, and then cleaning up afterwards. In the book I mention Susan and Jo hearing the wind whistle. If anyone asks me to describe a hurricane, that’s the first thing I think of. That sound is ominous and unsettling. During a storm it is relentless.

There are the nerve-wracking days in the run-up to a storm. Today we listen to forecasts from any number of media – tradition and social. But back in the 70s hurricane forecasting was in its infancy, and so Dave shared a lot of his experiences about storm prep in those days to inform what Susan experienced.

I must admit the first time I saw “overwash” at our motel (when the ocean and/or the sound come over Highway 12) I cried. I had no idea how we would ever clean up the mess. Sand gets everywhere and, unlike snow in the north, sand doesn’t melt. But going through storms, as I did the eight years I worked with Dave, I learned a tremendous amount about the resilience of the people on this island. Almost as soon as the winds die down everyone is out and about, surveying damage, and working together to begin the clean-up. It can seem impossible at first, and sometimes damage can mean long-term issues. But, most of the time, it’s simply manual labor with the help of some big trucks that can pick up debris, haul sand, and get it off the highway.

It’s also important to mention that while named hurricanes garner most of the attention, fall and winter nor’easters can do as much, if not more, damage. One only has to witness what occurred in Buxton this past fall, and in Rodanthe in the recent past, to understand how vulnerable our coastline is.

And finally, there is one aspect of the book that is fiction but I wish it would come to pass. We don’t have a winter boat parade on the island. It could be that the weather is way too iffy, maybe many boats are in storage, or just not used during the winter months. We do have a traditional Christmas parade that is well-attended and a highlight of every December. But somehow, I wish we could see the boats all decked out in lights just cruising around the docks for the holidays.

We often turn facts into fiction. Maybe this time, fiction could become fact! We’ll have to wait and see.