




Wormwood: A Dystopian Trilogy by D.H. Nevins |
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![]() How many of you are familiar with the sensation of a true free fall? Some of you know the feeling—that heart in your throat moment that occurs when gravity sucks you towards the Earth, and the only thing slowing you is the rush of air past your body. Perhaps you know it from the drop of a roller coaster, or, for the more adventurous, maybe from a cliff jump into water, or a leap from an airplane. Kali, the main character in The Wormwood Trilogy, has a few moments of free fall within the pages of the story. I always do my best to describe things like this accurately. And I’m guessing you already know where this is going. Why do research alone when you can also draw on personal experience? Luckily, I’d had some! Of Kali's two most serious falls, one—the 'easier' one—was a tumble from a clifftop. I'd done some jumping into bodies of water from various highish cliffs and bridges, so I was familiar enough with the sensation that I could write about it. Mostly. However, I was also planning to have Kali get dropped from way up in the sky in book 2, Angel of Shadow. In the end, I decided against writing the scene that way, so Kali never experienced that massive fall. But you know who has? Me! So... perhaps I'll need to make a different character take a great tumble at another time. Cue: evil laugh! ;-) ![]() A number of years ago, my husband surprised me with an anniversary gift: a skydiving outing! This wasn't an ordinary skydiving excursion, either. The average height for skydiving is 10,000 feet (3048 metres). However, they had a special plane on this one day so skydivers could jump from 15,000 feet (4572 metres)—the maximum height allowed without requiring supplemental oxygen. This would give us almost a full minute of free fall before the deployment of our parachutes. As cool as that may sound, I panicked a bit when I found out what we were about to do. It turned out to be an incredible experience, though, and one I knew I'd be able to write about. ![]() So, how does it feel? Well, you know that crazy feeling you get when your insides seem to float up, your breath—and even your scream—seem to get stolen as you plummet through the air? Well, here's the kicker: that sensation doesn't last. I noticed it shortly after I took that first, hairbrained leap out of the plane. After the first shock of falling passed, I found I equalized almost right away. I could breathe normally. Despite falling rapidly, my heart was no longer in my throat. It was the strangest thing. The air was absolutely frigid on my skin, though. It made me think of when Superman took Lois Lane flying and how unrealistic that was. Trust me, she would have frozen up there! ![]() Now, don't get me wrong. The shock of falling is harsh. When I stood by that open door and the rushing wind practically pushed me over; when I leapt out over nothing and gravity grabbed my bones but seemed to forget to take my stomach; and when my breath caught as my only point of perspective—the plane—got smaller and smaller above me, I experienced all the sensations one might expect from such a crazy endeavor. Yet that was only about ten (long!) seconds of a full minute of free fall. It was after those ten eternal seconds that I could relax and take in the experience. ![]() Too bad for my character, Kali, that she never got to fall recreationally. Okay, wait. I’m realizing how ridiculous that sounds. Although the experience truly got the adrenalin flowing, and despite the occasional need to push boundaries, maybe Kali was right to resist any instances of free fall. Flying, however? Well, that’s a different story. Or, maybe I should say, a different newsletter!
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Before anything else, I have to say it: Bouldering and rock climbing are really hard! I have nothing but the utmost respect for athletes who have honed this skill set. And no, I am not one of those people. Not by a longshot! That said, I did have a few characters who were skilled at climbing, and who often needed to rely on their skills in my stories. Not only did they scale cliffs, but because the setting of The Wormwood Trilogy was in a ruined world, many high paths were unstable and treacherous to navigate. As an author, I believed that in order to 'get it right' in my stories, it was crucial that I fully understood what was involved, as well as the feelings a character would have while attempting to navigate those routes. Research was essential, but experiencing it was even better. Well, either that, or I'm just crazy. ![]() So, using my typical, flawed reasoning, I had to be sure I'd experimented with these things before writing about them. First up: climbing. I've only ever done bouldering and climbing in a controlled environment, such as using an indoor climbing gym and outdoor climbing walls. That was as far as my experiments got (well, in bouldering and climbing, anyway). The first, most glaring thing I discovered was that it's exhausting! I don't have the necessary upper body strength, so I got tired out at a rather embarrassing rate. In this photo, you can see that I'm about to attempt an overhang (you can tell by the pot light). Let's just say that I didn't make it any farther. Yup, that's what I get for my cocky smile! In fact, I picked up an added experiment: what it feels like to get the air knocked out of you after a fall. I was actually able to write about that sensation in my books a few times! So you know, it's all good. Aside from that, my other experiences with climbing taught me how important it is to plan your route before you commit, how to control your center of gravity, keep your body close to the wall and how to shift your weight so you can get to that next handhold. Although I wasn't very good at it, I could use all of this in my writing. Here's an example from Angel of Shadow: And although experimenting helped me write about climbing in general terms, that was as far as I could go with it. People who climb are like crazy superheroes or something. As for navigating unstable paths, surprisingly, I have more experience with this than I probably should. My husband and I are both to blame, with our love of hiking and our odd fascination with exploring natural disaster aftermaths. ![]() A few examples are: hiking through the mountains in Taiwan after a major earthquake took out roads, train tracks and trails (image right); losing our way on the Quilotoa Loop in Ecuador after heavy rains and landslides erased parts of the route (below left); and our determination to cross Ilha Grande in Brazil after rains and landslides crippled the island (below right. That's my hubby. There's actually a road buried under there somewhere). Not only am I awed by seeing the power of nature, my strange 'hobby' means that now I'm able to write about these ruined landscapes from memory—with some embellishments, of course. It truly helps that I've seen (and traversed!) landscapes with trees that are not only toppled, but buried in earth; fields of thick, grey ash from a volcano eruption; and high mountain paths that have crumbled to almost nothing. ![]() And how does one navigate crumbling trails? Well, very carefully! For one, you don't want to damage the area more. But mostly, you want to stay intact, yourself. A common misconception is to try to go quickly. This can be a mistake in most situations (although dynamic movement is better in those rare instances where you're guaranteed to slide on each step). Usually, a key component is careful—and slow—foot placement. Place your foot slowly to be sure it will 'stick' before transferring any weight. Then, incrementally shift your weight while watching that the ground will hold and your foot won't begin slipping. Repeat as necessary. ![]() However, sometimes you can't seem to climb at all. I remember this one hike in Ecuador when the trail in front of us had washed out some time before we had arrived. In this case, we needed to climb up a fairly small, but vertical wall of soft earth in order to get back to where the trail continued. It didn't look hard... until we tried it. It seemed like a great idea to kick in some footholds, but that didn't pan out. At least I could write about what I learned there. Here's Kali in Angel of Shadow, attempting to get out of an earthy crevice: We learned another lesson as we tried to get up that wall of earth in Ecuador. Although there was nothing solid to hold on to, there were some roots, at least. If you want to know how that idea went, here's Kali in Wormwood: Of course, you can tell from the picture above that personally, that my 'falling' experience only landed me on my butt! I did learn, however, that smallish roots are not secure things to hold on to—especially if the soil is soft. Speaking of falling (truly falling) does bring me to a different thing I explored on other occasions… the sensation of free fall! Those experiments, however, will have to be covered in my next newsletter. I hope you enjoyed today's issue of Experiments in Kickassary! I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. Just for fun before I go, here are a few more pictures. Riding a horse through a ravine of volcanic ash, a church buried in lava, a temple surrounded by deep fields and fissures of ash, descending a volcano (see the teeny buildings waaay below?), landslides in Brazil, and too much scree in my boots!
First, thank you for responding to my poll with your suggestions and requests. I always love hearing from you! In response: First, I’m afraid speaking about the bo staff or parkour isn’t possible - I never researched or tried either. But I’m flattered that you thought I might have done these! But... flying? YES!!! Thank you to everyone who asked about it. And you’re correct; I did experiment with the feelings of free fall (skydiving) and flying (hang gliding) — even though I forgot to include them in the poll list. I’ll be sure to talk about them and share pictures in a future newsletter. And as always, I truly appreciated your kind messages and enthusiasm for my newsletters. Thank you! Okay, onto the bow and arrow...
Anyway, Delaney is one of those people who goes all in on something, so naturally, he had a whole range of equipment for himself, his wife and their young boys. These images are from one of the times I went over to his house to get some hands-on experience with a range of bows, and the mechanics of setting up and shooting. That said, through my family's careful instruction, I did improve. If you want to learn as well (perhaps to be one of those rare people with a badass hobby), there are loads of archery clubs out there that offer lessons, coaching, and a variety of ranges for practice. Just do an internet search for one near you. If you want to teach yourself, here's a WikiHow with the basic steps: https://www.wikihow.com/Shoot-an-Arrow
Happy shooting, you kickass goddess (or god)! ![]() Ah, it's sad, but true. I suck at blogging. If there were awards for sucking at such a thing, I'd probably win. Don't throw tomatoes at me yet. Although it might have been a teensy bit of time since I last posted (2 years... cough, cough), I WAS traveling around the world for the last 9 months. Look at this pic of me in Bosnia & Herzegovina. It's proof! AND I have some big news to share about Angel of Ashes and Dust, the final book in The Wormwood Trilogy. Hint: it rhymes with "won!" More coming soon! Okay... maybe. Maybe... (Psst... seriously, though. I have a newsletter. That's the best place to hear updates. As you can see, I have good "blogging" intentions, but I've kind of been neglecting this blog. You can sign up for my newsletter through the tab at the the top of the page.) ![]() First Things First Excuse me while I break out the champagne and streamers! WORMWOOD IS NOW AN AUDIOBOOK! I really can’t believe it.
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And here's a teaser for you!!! This is the very first cover fragment from my new release, ANGEL OF SHADOW, book 2 in the Wormwood series. If you look closely, you might be able to see some elements that could be on the cover. Can you guess what it may look like?
This is also the ONLY cover fragment I will share with you. Once the event begins, ONLY HOST BLOGS WILL SHARE ANY COVER IMAGES, until the cover reveal event wraps up on December 11th. |
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