APRIL HENRY, WRITER
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      • Playing with Fire
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      • Run, Hide, Fight Back
      • The Lonely Dead
      • Count All Her Bones
      • The Girl I Used to Be
      • Blood Will Tell (2nd in the Point Last Seen series)
      • The Body in the Woods (1st in the Point Last Seen series)
      • The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
      • The Night She Disappeared
      • Girl, Stolen
      • Torched
      • Shock Point
    • For Adults (and Teens) >
      • Lethal Beauty (3rd in the Mia Quinn series)
      • A Deadly Business (2nd in the Mia Quinn mystery series)
      • Matter of Trust (1st in Mia Quinn series)
      • Face of Betrayal (1st in the Triple Threat series)
      • Hand of Fate (2nd in the Triple Threat series)
      • Heart of Ice (3rd in the Triple Threat series)
      • Eyes of Justice (4th in the Triple Threat series)
      • Learning to Fly
      • Circles of Confusion (1st in Claire Montrose series)
      • Square in the Face (2nd in the Claire Montrose series)
      • Heart-Shaped Box (3rd in the Claire Montrose series)
      • Buried Diamonds (4th in the Claire Montrose series)
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    • 1997 Interview with Carol Shields
    • Oregon, the Writer's Toronto
    • Stealing From Myself to Create A Character
    • Panties in a Twist
    • Heteronyms
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Oregon, The Writer's Toronto

Picture
This article originally appeared in the Mystery Reader's Journal in 2001.

I live in Oregon and set my mysteries and thrillers here. Why would I need to go any place else? Just like the film makers who have turned Toronto into whatever city in the world they need, Oregon has enough variety for a thousand writers.

If your main character needs to stumble across a body washed up on the beach, Oregon has 400 miles of coastline—and all of it public property. How about a dramatic earthquake, perhaps one strong enough to crack open an old wall and reveal a long-buried secret? No need to go to California—Oregon has experienced several earthquakes in the last decade, and seismologists say it's only a matter of time before a really big one hits. The earthquake that hit Seattle also shook up Portland. I remember the vivid and seemingly impossible sensation of the floor rippling under my feet while I watched through the eighth floor windows as the construction workers grabbed onto the reinforcing bars in the building being erected next door.

You want deserts? Oregon's got ‘em. Caves? Ditto. Mountains perfect for concealing shallow graves, lonely forests where no one will hear your poor character scream, even freak windstorms strong enough to flip semis on their sides. In my first book, Circles of Confusion, the climax takes place after a bad storm has knocked out electrical and telephone service all over the city. The storm was modeled after a real 1995 windstorm during which Portland's mayor urged all non-essential personnel to return home before the winds hit. I work in health care PR and stayed to answer calls from the media about injuries. I drove home that night through a deserted, darkened city, winding my way through tree branches, cardboard boxes, patio furniture and even a camper shell that had been blown clean off a pickup. My car was the only one on the road. It was only natural that something of what I had just experienced made its way into what I was writing.

Oregon even has freak smoke or dust storms. Thirteen years ago, one of the former killed the daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren of author William Wharton when the decades-old practice of burning grass-seed fields got out of hand, sending smoke across the freeway and causing a deadly pile-up. Two years ago, a farmer was plowing his wheat fields in dry Eastern Oregon when a sudden wind blew up, causing blinding dirt to envelope a freeway. Surviving victims described it as suddenly driving into a “brown fog.” From these horrific accidents, the seed of a story was born. What if a young woman was involved in a multi-car pileup caused by a dust storm, and the hitchhiker she had picked up was killed? What if a fire left the hitchhiker's body badly burned, so badly that it was misidentified as the driver's? And what if as a result of this same tangled 57-car pileup, this same young woman ended up with someone else's bag—a bag that contained $740,000? The answers to these what-ifs formed the basis for my new book, Learning to Fly, which will be out in May 2002.

Besides its physical attributes, Oregon offers everything from big cities (well, all right, one big city) to tiny towns that aren't much more than a gas station and a single house. And the state also comes with a number of built-in topics. Oregon is the only state with assisted suicide, and while there are a great number of checks and balances to make sure only those who really want to and are really dying check out, I'm sure there's a plot in there someplace. How about a kooky cult? The Rajneeshees took over an entire region in the Eighties, and even unleashed bio-terrorism before the word was on everyone's lips, poisoning nearly a thousand people through a deliberately contaminated salad bar. And then there are the mushroom pickers, a nouveau Wild West mix of Russian and Cambodian immigrants and dirt-poor native Oregonians, all on the hunt for the patch of chanterelles, morels, or chicken-of-the-woods that will earn them enough in a few weeks to live on for a year. That is, if someone with a gun doesn't scare them off—or worse—first.

Hmm, sounds like a good premise for a story. Better go make some notes.




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  • Home
  • Past News
  • Bio
    • Goodbye, 2021
    • How my Apple watch saved my life
    • Masks for Covid-19
    • In the name of research
    • Why I write scary things
    • Roald Dahl Made Me a Writer
    • Fun Facts about April
    • Questions teachers often assign
    • 10 Reasons I Love Martial Arts
    • Learning to Fight Back
    • Dear Teen Me
    • My Parents >
      • My Dad, Hank Henry >
        • Witnessing Nat King Cole's Greatest Hit
      • My Mom, Nora Henry >
        • My Mom and the Round Rock
    • My great-grandfather, the killer
    • I come from a long line of criminals
  • Books
    • For Teens (and Adults) >
      • Future books
      • Girl Forgotten
      • Two Truths and a Lie
      • Eyes of the Forest
      • Playing with Fire
      • The Girl in the White Van
      • Run, Hide, Fight Back
      • The Lonely Dead
      • Count All Her Bones
      • The Girl I Used to Be
      • Blood Will Tell (2nd in the Point Last Seen series)
      • The Body in the Woods (1st in the Point Last Seen series)
      • The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
      • The Night She Disappeared
      • Girl, Stolen
      • Torched
      • Shock Point
    • For Adults (and Teens) >
      • Lethal Beauty (3rd in the Mia Quinn series)
      • A Deadly Business (2nd in the Mia Quinn mystery series)
      • Matter of Trust (1st in Mia Quinn series)
      • Face of Betrayal (1st in the Triple Threat series)
      • Hand of Fate (2nd in the Triple Threat series)
      • Heart of Ice (3rd in the Triple Threat series)
      • Eyes of Justice (4th in the Triple Threat series)
      • Learning to Fly
      • Circles of Confusion (1st in Claire Montrose series)
      • Square in the Face (2nd in the Claire Montrose series)
      • Heart-Shaped Box (3rd in the Claire Montrose series)
      • Buried Diamonds (4th in the Claire Montrose series)
    • Foreign Covers
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • About My School Visits
    • A Sneak Peek at a School Visit
  • Fun
    • FAQ
    • Does Your Character Need a Job?
    • Girl, Stolen Alternative Covers
    • I Get Letters
    • Blob on the Side of the Filing Cabinet
    • Books I Like
    • JB's Cinnamon Rolls
    • Vanity Plates
    • Diary of My First Book Tour (From 2000)
    • 1999 Interview with James Lee Burke
    • 1997 Interview with Carol Shields
    • Oregon, the Writer's Toronto
    • Stealing From Myself to Create A Character
    • Panties in a Twist
    • Heteronyms
  • Write
    • How to get an agent
    • Videos with writing tips
    • Writers writing during Covid-19
    • Tips for writers
    • Story starters
    • Write what you know?
    • What if you get stuck?
    • More tips about writing
    • Need to create a fake social media profile?
    • How to start a new book
    • My daughter is 14 - how can she be published?
    • I'm a teen writer-can you give me feedback?
    • Student Writing
    • How to get it right
    • Questions about writing from two teens
    • Should I pay to be published?
  • Blog
  • Contact