Tomorrow is the day for my first TV interview about Out of the Wind. Watch the interview live on local news and interest show Living Well. The show airs on KSN at 4:00 in the afternoon.
Tomorrow is the day for my first TV interview about Out of the Wind. Watch the interview live on local news and interest show Living Well. The show airs on KSN at 4:00 in the afternoon. Seeing all of the graduation pictures being posted on facebook, I am reminded that an anniversary date can be a moving target. Most Joplin residents have not waited until May 22 to remember the EF5 tornado that detoured our lives three years ago. In fact, this being Sunday and the date of the Joplin High School graduation, many people are remembering where they were three years ago when the sirens blared. Likewise, a number of events are help in memory of the 168 human beings who lost their lives to the storm. Rather than remember on the exact date of May 22, we remember the Sunday, we remember the school events that never came, we remember the response that took all the hot summer, and we remember the lives of those we lost. Daily, we look out at the landscape and remember the way it used to be, we look at the way it is, and we wonder what it will be. Perhaps it is a symbol for the way we should examine our own lives, looking back at what we used to be, seeing who we are today, and thanking God that we have survived (and perhaps improved), in spite of our adversities. Graduation is the first location in my book, Out of the Wind. It seemed a likely spot to begin the story of the tornado and its effect on the people in Joplin. Carly and Madison begin the story in the parking lot, after watching their boyfriends cross the stage. What lies ahead for the two girls is not what they had planned. It may be possible that no one can effectively relate what it is like to be inside the wind of an EF5 tornado. Authors have tried it. Reporters have inquired about it. Even movies have attempted to put us directly in the line of such a storm. All have failed. Perhaps that is why I chose not to title my book Inside the Wind. I recently came to the realization that Joplin's tornado of May 22, 2011, is prologue to the real story. The storm is not the climax; it is the starting point. Regardless, I still attempted to portray the Joplin storm as it happens. Again, there is no way to adequately describe, in words or pictures, what the storm really looked, sounded, and felt like. There really is no way to understand the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that comes in the immediate hours with debris still fluttering from the sky and the rumble still ringing in our ears. That part is still in Out of the Wind, but that part is just the beginning. Joplin's story unfolds in the aftermath. Joplin's story is revealed in the days and weeks after the storm. If the tornado is the main character, then the main character in this story dies in the first pages. In Out of the Wind, the tornado is not the nemesis, the antagonist, or the monster. The real monster appears in the guise of the emotions and relationships of the human characters. Get your copy of Out of the Wind and read it for yourself. Next week marks the third anniversary of the EF5 tornado that rocked Joplin. Writing Out of the Wind allowed me to reflect often on those moments, during the first days following the tornado. The photos below present some of the scenes the characters experienced in the book, but it is the emotion and the reaction that make the memories so vivid for so many of our citizens, volunteers, and passers by. Read more in my novel, Out of the Wind, a story designed to bring out the best (available on Amazon and Kindle, and in local bookstores). Surely, goodness and hope can come Out of the Wind of a horrific storm!
|
AuthorD. Ed. Hoggatt is an award-winning fourth grade teacher. Click Titles to Order Now
Archives
July 2017
RECOMMENDED READING
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea Charlotte's Web by E. B. White Chippin Cleats by D. Ed. Hoggatt Crumbling Spirit by D. Ed. Hoggatt Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Holes by Louis Sachar Loser by Jerry Spinelli Mumsket by D. Ed. Hoggatt Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Out of the Wind by D. Ed. Hoggatt Petey by Ben Mikaelsen Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman |