The hive mind of the interwebs is a miraculous resource. The other day, I posted on Facebook and asked if anyone knew someone involved in fire services for the National 
Park Services…and a friend of a friend does exactly the type of work I needed to learn about! After some initial discussions with him, I’m knee-deep in research about the Alpine Hotshots and learning about a whole new world.
I just read the story of Ed Pulaski and the 1910 fires in the Coeur d’Alene mountains in Idaho. My hotshot contact says every wildfire fighter knows this story–and I can see why!
Read the story here. Wow. WOW.
Now I’m deep in thought about all the professions, all the subcultures, all the communities in our world–how they all have their own lore, their own heroes, their own body of shared knowledge unknown to me.
I am a reader because I want to know about other lives so different than my own. Literature allows us to enter into someone else’s mind and life. Even the most unrealistic fiction nevertheless reveals actual truth about the world and about people.
This is why I write, too. Writing pushes me to enter into someone else’s head, enriches my life with a layers of understanding.
The Alpine Hotshot research is for book three, by the way…a book I’ve drastically re-imagined in the last month (part of the reason I’ve been blogging less).
Also: Today is t-minus 11 days until the release of Dark Moon Wolf. The first couple of reviews from ARCs are up at GoodReads, which is exciting! I’m happy that the reviewers enjoyed my book.
Sarah E. Stevens 