On December 21st, 2006, a massive blizzard hit Ft. Collins, Colorado. It was a storm that pummeled the region and thrashed the trees across the city. Its winds blew down powerlines and the thick snowfall whited out neighborhoods, piling and drifting multiple feet high. This was a storm that challenged even the experienced citizens along the Cache La Poudre River and up into the Colorado Front Range mountains. While the snow, wind, and cold took hold of the city, a woman, who believed she was prepared, went into labor. Her apartment door was blocked by a wall of snow. She called for an ambulance, but it had no chance of getting through. The police told her to hold on. She waited, listening to the storm shake the building and felt the intensity of her contractions increase. Her phone rang and a voice said, “Put on your warmest clothes, and wait by your front door.” She did as she was told. Within the hour she heard a repeated horn blast. She opened her door and saw headlights and coming toward her over the snow was the bucket of a front-end loader. “Get in!” yelled a voice. She crawled over the wall of snow and into the bucket, which had been padded with blankets. The truck backed away from the building, turned and carved its way through the streets, carrying her aloft and swaddled as the storm wailed and walloped everything around it. The truck came to a stop beside a waiting ambulance that took the woman to the hospital where she safely delivered her baby.
If ever weather was a character in a story, this is one such tale. The weather is the antagonist, developing as the story unfolds. It runs the plot before it and shapes the actions of every other character. And need I say anything about atmosphere?! It’s not too dramatic to say in this instance that the story would never have happened if it hadn’t been for the blizzard. And I do wonder if we writers allowed more weather into our stories, what might happen? It may be merely a minor difference between light fog and thin mist or a few degrees that change a balmy conversation to a sultry argument. Weather or a change in weather is often just enough to shift a mood or an action or a tone of voice. And if you have doubts, consider these opening lines and what happens next!
The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold wet day.
The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss
Publications
Maud & Addie “Sure to enchant, Maud & Addie is a touching novel complete with old skeletons, new friends, and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.” Vivian Turnbull, Foreword Reviews. To purchase: https://regalhousepublishing.com/product/maud-and-addie/
blessed are the menial chores “Should anyone ask what poetry is, hand them a copy of this book.” Sue Brannan Walker, poet laureate of Alabama 2003 – 2012. Purchase here: https://www.writingfulltilt.com/author/
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