Author: Karen

I'm a recently retired Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant with a passion for reading and writing. Now I have more time for writing.
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The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

My Review

Hig is a pilot who lives in a small Colorado airport hanger.  He has a dog, Jasper, and a neighbor, Bangley.  Jasper is old and Bangley is a heavily armed cynic.  The three are the only living beings in a radius of about 10 miles.  This is due to a flu epidemic followed by a blood disease.  The few people that do approach the well-guarded hanger are shot to be safe because most of the humans that Hig and Bangley have encountered were not very nice.  The two men depend on each other for survival even though they have very different world views.  The world is changed, though, now that most people are dead. 

Hig is the narrator of the story and he spends much of his time talking about the past.  He is lonely and doesn’t really know how to feel about Bangley, who has saved his life many times.  There is a compound of Mennonites who suffer from the blood disease about 10 miles from the hanger.  Hig flies patrols to watch for any trouble over a 30 mile radius.  It is on these runs that he occasionally visits the compound to bring supplies.  Bangley doesn’t trust the Mennonites. 

On one of Higs’ runs he received a radio transmission that inspired hope.  Three years later he is motivated to investigate even if it means he won’t make it back to the hanger.

One of the things that I like about this book is that the writing is concise; there are no wasted words.  That makes it move quickly.  I also enjoy the viewpoint of Hig; he is more of a soft touch than Bangley. 

An excerpt:

“Bangley a long time ago gave me a bulletproof, one of the vests in his arsenal.  He has all kinds of shit.  He said it’ll stop any handgun, an arrow, but with a rifle it depends, I better be lucky.  I thought about that .  We’re supposed to be the only two living souls but the families in at least hundreds of square miles, the only survivors, I better be lucky.”

But the pair are good for each other’s survival.  And Hig, later, learns the value of their friendship. 

The author, Peter Heller, has a long resume of adventure travel stories and contributions to Outdoor Magazine.  He has written a handful of books.  Constantin Films (of Resident Evil fame) has acquired the film rights.  You can find a YouTube trailer here. Don’t get too excited about the all-star cast; it was using film clips from several other movies. So far, there is no info yet regarding the movie. 

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Michigan’s Mackinac Island

To begin with, it’s pronounced “Mackinaw” for a reason that even the locals didn’t seem to know. It is just across Lake Huron from Mackinaw City (yes, same pronunciation; different spelling).

There are several restaurants and ice cream parlors. It was a great way to spend the day with some friends from our old Florida neighborhood.

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YouTube Learning

Just discovered Diane Callahan’s series of fiction writing videos. Just watched the “How to Write a Good First Line”.  I found it inspiring and went on to watch “All About Writing in First Person”.  Another good one for me since my novel is written in first person and it’s a bit tricky.  

I plan to watch all of her videos and highly recommend them to my writer friends.

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On the Road with Marty and Charlie

We left Tallahassee on a Sunday after much packing and planning. We both probably packed too much yet I am still missing “things”. How is it that we can live with so much and with so little and not really notice the difference. Pondering.

We have worked our way up to Michigan, stopping for a night in Acworth, GA. We use an app called AllStays, which helps us locate campgrounds. Our preference are the Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds because they are generally on the water and we get 50% off with our Senior Pass.   Unfortunately, those campgrounds are generally around dams and not all states have those.

Our second stop was just north of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky; another ACE campground called Dog Creek.  It was a nice spot but there was no connectivity.  We kept ourselves busy visiting Mammoth Cave.

Our third stop as we make our way up to Michigan was Pokagon State Park in Indiana.  Did a little bit of hiking and spent one night.  Now we are in Higgins Lake State Park.  We had to change sites once since weekends are busy and our first site had been reserved.  Another reservation had been cancelled and we got that one.  More on why WE don’t reserve sites ahead of time in a later blog.

This campground is located on the grounds where a huge CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) project had been in the early 1900s.  Now there is a Museum and Nursery that memorialize the project. The point was to reforest Michigan, who had overcut their, over logged and burned their forests leaving the land barren.  Now the land is beautiful and there are many old growth trees.  We took a hike through one such forest.

Charlie, the cat, has become a big flirt ever since we invited a couple of neighbors over to pet him. Now he can’t seem to get enough stranger affection.

For the coming week we plan to meet some Florida friends for a day or so and then head up to the UP (Upper Peninsula) for several days.

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Shimmy, Shimmy Cocoa Puffs

Published in the Charlotte Sun Herald – April 28, 1995

I never wanted any rabbits.  I made that clear.  It was the old man that got them.  He saw the boy’s face light up at the fair, trying to win one – spent nearly ten dollars.

I never wanted any rabbits.  If it had been up to me, I would have told the boy to earn some money mowing lawns or maybe washing cars.  He could have built the cage first and gone out and bought himself a rabbit.  The way I figured it, he would have lost interest after washing two or three cars.  Then we wouldn’t have any rabbits. 

I never wanted any rabbits.  The old man did.  He probably always wanted rabbits but was deprived as a child.  The old man’s daddy never took him to the fair, much less bought him rabbits. One thing his daddy did do was to take him hunting and he taught him how to skin whatever he shot. 

I never wanted any rabbits.  Two days before Easter, he brought them home, three pedigrees.  The plan was the boy would pick one to be his and the old man would take care of the other two.  That’s when the girl decided she wanted one.

I never wanted any rabbits.  The new plan was that they would work on the cage on the weekends when the old man was home.  For now they were fine on the patio chasing each other and procreating.  The old man hadn’t asked about the genders of the new family members.

Now we’ve got rabbits – lots of rabbits.  I look out over my patio watching the sun rise with all its glory and splendor.  Then I see them, little brown pellets covering the stone decking.  

And I think to myself…Cacciatore!

 © Karen J Adams August 8, 2019

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