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| C. Kevin Thompson |
There is little out there more trying on the patience of a
person than preparing for a hurricane. In the week to ten days prior to the
event, you are watching forecasts, being told how big the storm is, how
destructive it is. There’s the dizzying array of “spaghetti models” showing the
storm going one way, then another, and another.
At first, Hurricane Irma was going to hit New York. Be another
Sandy. Then, it shifted. The people of the Carolinas took notice. Yet again, it
shifted. East coast of Florida. West coast of Florida. Then, right up the
middle of the state.
During this time, people started to panic as Irma became the
most publicized, advertised, and glamorized storm of all time. An estimated
five million people headed north. For those who stayed, generators disappeared.
Gasoline disappeared. Store shelves looked like Looter Central. I laughed when
I went to our local store two days before the storm hit. Even when supplies are
scarce, there were kinds of bread and certain types of paper goods nobody
apparently wanted. A First-World problem, for sure.
But once you are as prepared as you can be, you still have to
live through the storm. Bands of rains influenced by Irma swept across our area
Saturday evening, Sept. 10. The outer bands got here on Sunday. By Sunday
night, the winds picked up with gusts of 50-60 mph. The power went out at 1:23
a.m., ninety minutes before the eye plowed directly over our area.
By late Monday morning, the winds were still gusty, but the
threats were gone, or so we thought. A fifty-foot oak tree that was already
leaning toward our house had shifted at least two feet more, and the roots had
uprooted partially. This was in addition to a shattered kitchen window suffered
during the peak of the storm and what I estimate is 15-20 pick-up truck loads
of debris scattered across our yard.
Our power remained off until Wednesday afternoon while heat
indexes of 102 plagued our area.
Now (Saturday, Sept. 16), we’re getting back to normal. The
Leaning Tree of Lake Thompson is gone. Tree service took it down Wednesday.
About 60 percent of the debris is picked up and stacked out by the road, but
I’m running out of lot frontage. The piles range from five to eight feet high
and are anywhere from four to ten feet wide. FEMA trucks will pick it all up in
about a month or two.
Oh, the window is fixed, too.
But one thing that still needs repair is my writing schedule.
I’m a good 10,000 words behind, and finding time to be creative is at a premium
right now. Especially when you are physically and emotionally drained. (And
yet, we didn’t suffer anything like the folks in south
Florida—Naples area—or those in Houston. Please pray for those affected.)
But like everything that is important, I’ll find the time.
Somehow. Some way. I’ll figure out how to up my word count some days until I’m
back on track. Why? Because that’s what writers do. They write. Even if it is
only ten words.
And it will probably be awhile before I complain about all the
usual, minor things I complain about that get in my way.
It’s amazing how life-changing events help to refocus our
lives.
Maybe that’s why God allows them to happen.
Something
ominous lurks under the waters.
Dr.
Evelyn Sims, a brilliant marine biologist, is being watched. Her husband's
mysterious death at sea—with the only survivor of the Greenback telling a
shocking, unbelievable tale—has thrown her personal life into chaos. Her
scientific views are being scrutinized. Her husband's office and their home are
investigated. Called in by the FBI to help solve the mystery, Evelyn is thrust
into her toughest research project ever...and forced into a maze of deception
and betrayal.
Micah
Gregson, the Coast Guard captain who rescued the Greenback, is determined to
find out why a special unit at the FBI—the one assigned to cryptozoological
cases—is involved.
Together
Evelyn and Micah will uncover a plot more deadly than anything the ocean could
ever produce. One that will either save Evelyn's life and redeem her career, or
destroy everything she—and myriad others—stand for.
C. KEVIN
THOMPSON is an ordained minister with a B.A. In Bible (Houghton
College, Houghton, NY), an M.A. in Christian Studies (Wesley Biblical Seminary,
Jackson, MS), and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership (National-Louis
University, Wheeling, IL). He presently works as an assistant principal in a
middle school.
His Blake Meyer series is out! 30 Days Hath Revenge - A Blake Meyer Thriller: Book 1, is now
available! Book 2 of the Blake Meyer Series, Triple Time, is now available! Book 3, The Tide of Times, will be out Labor Day weekend! Also, the second
edition of his award-winning debut novel, The
Serpent’s Grasp, is now available!
Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, and Criminal Minds, loves anything to do with Star Trek, and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, too.
To connect with Kevin and learn more, please visit:
Twitter: @CKevinThompson
Goodreads: C. Kevin
Thompson
