In my climate fiction series, The Steep Climes Quartet, I’m taken great pains to be realistic, and have grounded my scenarios in consensus science, although, of course, writing about the future is a matter of conjecture. One of the focusing mechanisms I deploy in these books (Kill Well published in September 2023 and the next book, Dear Josephine, is scheduled for Early Spring 2024; the other two are still TBD) is to extrapolate from what I know and to draw the circumstances of the books as tightly as possible to the individual recurring characters, and this includes being as local as possible. The action of the four books takes place in one location—Berkshire County, Massachusetts—over the next three decades. The books’ actions and the larger world are seen through the eyes of characters in their homes, their jobs, and their families to describe how climate change—today, tomorrow, and in the future—affects us as individuals and as a community. In addition to such negative weather to which climate change increasingly subjects us, I look at how all those things that are foundational to our day-to-day existence interact with household budgets and food costs and energy prices and taxes and our local infrastructure and neighbors and town governance.
One under-represented aspect of climate change in America is the costs of doing something about it, and I’ve posted We Have to Pay for Fixing the Greenhouse Gases Crisis elsewhere in the website that lays out the political importance of this messaging.
The focus is on such questions as why taxes are going up, and why food costs more, and why house insurance premiums are on the rise, and whether one can afford to heat one’s house more efficiently, or whether a parent can visit adult children who live overseas or on the other coast. The focus is on the changes we need to pursue in our homes and communities, what we need to pay attention to in our State and Federal elections, and in international and economic policies, but all from an individual’s perspective. If this sounds like our everyday lives, that is because it is, as best as I can imagine.
Can a book—a series of books, in my work—about paying bills be interesting? Can these books be an entertaining read? For a fiction writer this is the $64,000 question.
There are no heroes leading people into promised lands or unexpected utopia, or survivalists with guns and girls, or spaceships rocketing off to new untainted planets.
The Steep Climes Quartet books do contain elements of thrillers, and largely revolve around increasingly desperate efforts to pursue the end of fossil fuels. The characters, just like us, are not isolated from the world, and, like most of us, the news seeps in or floods in, depending on one’s media habits. There are characters who write the news. There are those who are involved in some efforts toward climate change progress. There are instances when climate change threatens or directly affects characters. But most important from a literary perspective are the characters—are they well-drawn and capture the interest and attachment of the reader, so that the reader wants to know what these characters think and feel and is curious about what next happens with one or another character. It is crucial for the characters to compel the reader’s interest and in ways that help keep the reader identifying with the characters’ lives.
So, hey, buy Kill Well, give it a read, and let me know what you think. I have a box of Kleenex on hand. Although come to think of it, even tissues have gone up in price.