Reading the news about wildfires in California and Canada inspired Upstate author Veronica Henry’s new book, “A Breathless Sky.”
The science fiction novel is the second in Henry’s “The Scorched Earth” series and follows a sister and brother who take opposing sides on the fate of the human race as a climate disaster wreaks havoc. Syrah Carthan, a tour guide for the Sequoia National Park, wants to save all humans while her brother, Romelo, wants humankind to get what it deserves. To protect the forests, he’s already instigated one battle that ended in chaos and death. To reverse the near extinction of the magnificent trees, Romelo’s next move is to conspire with the sequoias themselves.
“I am very selective in what I watch, but I was watching and reading something about the forest fires happening in California and Canada,” Henry said. “What particularly struck me was what I was reading about Sequoia National Park in California and how many of them (the trees) were lost. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of acres of scorched land. (As) I came to understand the loss was going to have a significant impact on our environment, I got really curious, and that curiosity led me to do more research.”
With the spark of inspiration drawn from the reports she read, Henry reached out to a research librarian in Raleigh, North Carolina, who led her to additional information about the climate and environment. From there, she talked to individuals in the National Park Service about Sequoia National Park, and the fire department that dealt with the California fires.
After doing the research, she began to craft her novel and develop the characters by asking herself questions like “what if the trees were as angry as some of the people” and “how do the animals feel about the fires.” From those questions, she gave the trees a voice by developing Romelo and used Syrah to represent the firefighters who live there and deal with the consequences of the fires.
“All of my stories are very character driven,” Henry said. “Even though I set up the world first, my focus is on what makes those people human, what makes them act the way they do and what stories do they want to tell, both from the good guy’s and bad guy’s perspective. In all my stories, the bad guy feels he really has a point. In this story, Romelo feels what he wants to do is important because he wants to save the trees.”
“A Breathless Sky” was released Dec. 17. For more information, visit veronicahenry.net.
