A MEMOIR BY NANCY CANYON
Book launch for STRUCK will be September 20, 2024, 6-7 PM at Village Books, 1200 11th Ave. Bellingham, WA 98225. I hope you can make it. If you go to villagebooks.com, their events page has a link to reserve your seat. Tickets are $5 and with your ticket, you get a coupon for $5 to spend in the store after the reading. It is a good deal…since if you are buying my book, or anything else you want in the store, it is $5 off. I like bargains…ask anyone.
Book launches are a bit nerve wrecking, so afterwards we can meet up and get a beverage and celebrate a job well done. It is worth a celebration, I think, writing books. It takes years, so I hope you will toast with me later…it is Friday night, after all.
Here’s an excerpt from STRUCK:
“We wander out on the catwalk to eat dinner, pulling up seats just in time to see the first lightning strike arc across the prairie. Both of us exclaim, “Far out!” at the same time. We turn to each other, connecting with quick smiles and raised eyebrows.
The huge anvil cloud joins others, growing into a comforter of cumulonimbi—black bottoms with giant white tops blanketing the sky between the tower and Lewiston far to the west. We’ve seen a few distant flashes, but since lightning doesn’t strike until the rain falls, at least that’s what I’ve heard, we’re in no hurry to go inside. The storm’s far enough off to give us time to finish our sandwiches. As we chew, we begin to smell rain—that distant wet grass and asphalt smell everyone recognizes. The sun disappears and goosebumps run up and down my arms. It won’t be long before the first fat drops sting our faces, bare arms and legs.
Camas Prairie blurs with virga, rain evaporating before it hits the ground, hazing fields of blue camas, farms, and foothills in a wash of gray. I imagine cattle huddled along barbwire, rumps turned to sideways rain, farmers curtailing fence mending to stable skittish horses and back loaded hay trucks inside barns to stay dry.
The wind gusts. A bright bolt curves across the sky. Jack whoops. I shriek and jump up. “Come on,” I shout over my shoulder as I hurry around the catwalk to the cabin door.
Through the window I see Jack’s rebellious face loosen and his fixed expression turning to wonder. Shaking my head, I want to make him come inside, but I know he’ll challenge the elements no matter what I say. I close the windows and kneel on the bed next to my cat, watching the storm’s progress through the safety of glass panes.
Not every storm follows through, but this one appears to mean business. I can tell by the snapping flag down at the weather station that the wind is blowing toward the storm, the anvil drawing air upward, shooting it skyward on a powerful updraft. The whole prairie will soon be ablaze with flaring transformers and arcing lines. A forked bolt lights the sky several miles off. I open the window to call to Jack, but a thunderclap drowns me out. I give up, latching the window again.”
Struck: A Season on a Fire Lookout is available here or you can buy the book when you get your ticket for the book launch, Friday, September 20th, 6PM. Village Books 1200 11th St., Bellingham, WA 98225
Nancy Canyon is the award-winning author of Celia’s Heaven (novel), Saltwater (poetry), Dark Forest (short stories) and publisher of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Words (anthology). Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Writing the Land: Channels, I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State, True Stories, Raven Chronicles, and Water~Stone Review. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and a Certificate in Fiction from the University of Washington. She launched her writing career in ‘97 while studying with Natalie Goldberg in Taos, New Mexico.
Ms. Canyon works as a writing coach for The Narrative Project, an instructor for Chuckanut Writers, and as a fine artist affiliated with Women’s Painters of Washington. She is a Writing the Land poet and a member of the Forest Fire Lookout Association. She lives near Lake Whatcom in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband, Ron Pattern and their dog, Lucy. For more about Ms. Canyon, see www.nancycanyon.com
