Marilyn's Musings

The question could be taken two ways--the actual weather going on outside while you're writing, or the weather that's happening in the book. I'm going to go for the second one--how much does weather influence what's happening in the tale that you're writing. I use weather a lot to enhance suspense. In my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series, I've had a white-out snow situation, ( Intervention ), hot,dry weather that causes forest fires ( Kindred Spirits ), and too much rain causing a massive mud slide ( Raging Water.) (So you don't get confused, the e-book has a different cover.) The big weather component in many of the Rocky Bluff P.D. series is fog. Rocky Bluff is a beach community in Southern California. Fog is nearly an everyday reality first thing in the morning and at night. Fog is a fun weather element to add varying degrees of suspense.  Weather in a book will also predict what a characters is wearing: Is it approp...

No, I'm not advocating beginning a book with "it was a dark and stormy night" or any kind of weather report. However weather can add a lot to your story. Lately, in the Central Valley we've been having our annual dose of Tule River fog. If you've never experienced it, it's the most frightening stuff to drive through. Sometimes you can only see a few feet in front of you and it doesn't matter if it's day or night. I drove to a city about an hour away starting at 9 a.m. Though I always knew what road I was on, I didn't really know exactly where I was. Unless a car was right in front of me or one was passing on the opposite side of the road, it was like I was on the highway by myself. On foot this can be even more unsettling. Just think of the potential for adding fog to a mystery plot. There is fog on the California coast too, but at a different time of year. I've used it to add suspense to my latest Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel, Angel Lost , ...