Impending things are coming!!!

What kind of non-title is that? A pre-announcement, announcement? What things? Where are they headed?

Ok, ultimately, the title is a pre-announcement of an announcement you should expect next week. Mostly, I’m waiting on some graphics.

So, If I’m not going to announce anything this week, what is this title, and what is this blog?

Filler?

No!!! First, what is filler anyway? And second I don’t want to write the blog about filler today.

This article is my opportunity to hint at that upcoming announcement, and make note of something I have learned while writing the Junior Rangers Investigative Club Novels.

Namely: My relationship, with any park, will never be over! Yay!!!

I closed the book, literally, on writing Treasure off the Coast, back in September. (after I had to fix some editing mistakes you are still able to find in the Kindle edition.) However, that wasn’t the last time I wrote about the Dry Tortugas. I am approaching a couple of milestones with the Mammoth Cave book. Specters of Mammoth Cave (coming soonish - stay tuned.) Yet, I have no intention to stop writing about Mammoth Cave once the book is out. I am currently writing a 3rd book, based in Biscayne National Park, and expect that I will be keeping up with that park for years to come. (although ideally, the process to write the book wont take that long.) Then, and hopefully, there will be others.

Did I really just want an excuse to show off this picture again? Maybe.

A lot goes into these books. On top of figuring out the plot, the characters, and the process of writing a novel. (I’ve written a plethora of short stories, and have an ongoing series Coffee Chronicles — read it now— which is reaching novel length one short segment at a time.) But Treasure off the Coast was my first novel.) There is a ton to do. I started with the easiest park, the place I knew best. Even then, I had so much research to do, so much planning, and so much scouting. I read so many articles, talked to so many people, and looked at so many pictures and maps. (Fortunately, I got to take most of the pictures myself.) To make the books as true to life as possible, I want to learn as much as I can about each park I set one of their mysteries in.

One of the highest compliments I got from book 1 was: “It feels like being there.” And this is what I want! I also want anyone who reads these books to take away new or fun facts about the parks. (Most importantly I want them to be entertained, obviously. These are fiction books after all.

However, when I write the Junior Rangers Investigative Club books, not everything I learn fits into the story. I have to make some things up, stretch some facts, and change others. (see the back of the upcoming Specters of Mammoth Cave to learn more about how I purposefully changed some things for story and reader purpose.) More importantly, I have to leave a lot out. I don’t think I ever mentioned, in Treasure off the Coast, that there are stalagmites and stalactites growing in Fort Jefferson. even though that might have been one of my favorite odd facts about the fort. I know that I left out the fact that the world’s first nurse shark heart transplant was done on Loggerhead Key. I didn’t mention the fact that while I was doing my location scouting, the moat wall around Fort Jefferson was actually partially collapsed and closed. (I assumed that it would be repaired in the future and left it intact in the story.)

Normally, there is a bridge here.

Did you know that there was going to be a 2nd fort on Loggerhead Key? I did, but I didn’t know how to fit that in the story either. Right now there is a coral reseeding (is that what you call it? they are animals) project going on around Florida, in an attempt to repair a necessary and heavily damaged ecosystem. A lot of this work is being done in the Dry Tortugas, but I focused on turtle research instead. (mostly for the name. Dry Tortugas after all.)

I have already bludgeoned this blog with geology facts about Mammoth Cave. (More to come!!!! :-) ) I guarantee, that only a few of them will make it into The Specters of Mammoth Cave. Beyond science and geology, if you believe it is possible to share more than a fraction of the diverse history of any park in a novel, (while also tweaking some historical facts to fit the story, and noting said tweaks) then I welcome you to try. There is so much which will never make it onto the pages of the Junior Rangers Investigative Club stories.

A place of not in The Specters of Mammoth Cave

Often, what makes it into the story is product, first of what makes sense, second of what materials and information I am able to access, and third of what seems like it is the most fun for the story. (That’s why I didn’t mention Fort Jefferson’s storied history with cracking cisterns, plumbing issues don’t seem super fun, despite the fact that they were one of the reasons we never got a 3 story fort.

However, what this means, with everything missing, is that I have a lot of material left over worth writing about, and I have this website, and blog. So I have the opportunity to write about more of the things I learn than ever will fit in a book. And I’ll try and keep this blog full of fun facts, figures, anecdotes and stories.

So, expect more of those in the future. in this Title launce for a series of blogs I’m calling Park Fun Facts.

When possible I will cite sources. Typically, I will also explain things. This week I will not, because I am late.

So consider this a Park Fun Facts pt. 0 (or part 01, did I already do this?)

• The first fortification in the Dry Tortugas was on Garden Key. A British Sailing crew aboard the HMS Tyger. Sunk their ship in Garden Key Harbor, and built a fort on the island to protect themselves and their weapons/ goods from Spanish Sailors. They eventually escaped the island, (after several months,) by capturing Spanish sailing vessels and sailing them to safety.

• Large swaths of Mammoth Cave are outside the bounds of Mammoth Cave National Park. There’s a complicated inter-relationship between the people who own the lands above section of Mammoth Cave and the park. However, most of these other cave sections are on private property, so no trespassing.

• At time of this writing, I haven’t been able to find a more viable source of information, so “According to Oral History,” there are supposedly two burials on Garden Key of sailors who discovered the islands with Ponce De Leon.

• Jenny Lind, a famous singer who came to Mammoth Cave with P.T. Barnum. (and who had a much better real life story than her portrayal in the movie,) was so famous when she visited, that reverberations of her visit can still be found in the cave, with various formations named after her, including Jenny Lind’s Table, which is a rock formation formerly used as a picnic spot in a section of Mammoth Cave she never had time to visit.

• For a while, there was a saltwater crocodile living in and around the island in the Dry Tortugas. Eventually he was caught and moved to the Everglades.

And that’s all for the day. An inconsequential title announcement. and a few fun facts. Why? Because impending stuff is coming, and I hope you will stay tuned!!!