What inspired The Stormchasers?
Although The Stormchasers has a rich background of stormchasing–which was inspired by my lifelong love of severe weather–the book is really about bipolar disorder, those who have it and those who love them. I have bipolar disorder in my family, and for decades, I’ve watched the people who are most beloved to me struggle with the extreme mood swings and the devastation the disorder can cause. It’s a problem without easy solution, if indeed there’s a solution at all; in The Stormchasers, the heroine, Karena, calls her twin brother Charles’s disorder “the gift nobody wants to get given.” The people who have it often have a hard time staying on medication that evens out their moods, either because of side effects or because they miss the highs of their manias. I was so troubled by watching people I love go through this lifelong ordeal–and dealing with the ripple effects myself–that, as I tend to do with situations I can’t fix, I wrote a book about it.
Do you have any first-hand experience chasing storms? If so, what was the most memorable moment?
I do! I’ve been fascinated by storms since I saw my first tornado when I was four, while I was visiting my grandmother in southeast Minnesota (an experience I embedded in The Stormchasers). After that, I always wanted to see another, and researching The Stormchasers gave me an excuse to do that. I went stormchasing with a stormchasing tour company called Tempest Tours (www.tempesttours.com), based in Arlington, Texas and the model for Whirlwind Tours in the novel. I’ve chased with Tempest for the last five years and will be hosting my own tours for them this summer, so if you have a fascination with severe weather, come ride along! I’ve seen plenty of tornadoes, but my most memorable experience was popping a tire beneath a tornado-warned storm. The Tempest guides rescued me and my two chaser-chick passengers (I follow the tour in my own vehicle, as Karena does in the novel); they did a NASCAR change on my tire and got us out of there just as the storm started to put down tornado after tornado after tornado. I put this experience in The Stormchasers as well, and there are photos and video on my website (www.jennablum.com).
As a writer and a writing instructor at Grub Street, what is your best writing advice?
I will cite Winston Churchill: ”Never give in. Never give in. Never give in.”
You’ve taken readers to the frontlines in Those Who Save Us and the eye of the storm in The Stormchasers, what is your next project?
My third novel will be historical, as Those Who Save Us was, and it will be set partially in the fictional town of “New Heidelburg,” the setting used in Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers. I hope you’ll forgive me if beyond that I can’t talk about it; I’m jinxy about dispelling novels by talking about them before they’re written. I’m always thrilled when readers ask this question, signifying their willingness to read a third Jenna Blum novel. Thank you!
What are you reading now?
Galleys! I have the great privilege of often being asked to provide quotes for other authors’ up-and-coming books, which means I get sneak previews. Two novels to watch for: THE BIRD SISTERS by Rebecca Rasmussen (April 12, 2011) and THE LITTLE BRIDE by Anna Solomon (September 2011). Rebecca is a Twitter friend; Anna was in one of my very first fiction classes at Boston’s wonderful Grub Street Writers, over a decade ago! These are both debut novels and they are just glorious.
Tags: #jennablum, author interview, author Jenna Blum, book meme, book news, Jenna Blum, Jenna Blum author, Jenna Blum interview, Jenna Blum The Stormchasers, The Stormchasers by Jenna Blum
