New Book: The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain — From a tiny timber town in America’s Pacific Northwest to the halls of power, The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain is an insightful and intriguing political thriller for those who think deeply and care greatly about nature and the future.
If you are concerned about globalization’s impact on small towns, about the power, funding and influence of corporate and political alliances, then you’ll find The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain to be an insightful and intriguing political thriller for those who think deeply and care greatly about nature and the future.
I highly recommend it. It is compelling, deeply dramatic, and reminiscent of novels when they meant something. Here is the first chapter. The rest are on her Substack, linked below.
CHAPTER 1: Wildfire!
On the mountain, the wind changed direction and the man turned to face it. It was warm, menacing, carrying the familiar acrid scent of flame consuming forest.
The man climbed into his truck and threaded his way up the steep hairpin curves, slick with water coursing across gravel. He downshifted hard and the gun rack shivered behind his head, the toolbox rattled in the flatbed. Every bolt holding metal clattered and creaked in protest, and he savored the familiar rush of adrenaline. The oversized tires on his 4×4 held and the rutted logging road disappeared below.
On the peak, he stopped in a spray of gravel and mud and unfolded himself from the cab. Here the Olympic’s icy breath bit his ears and nose and he turned up the collar on his thick sheepskin coat. A sickly sun hovered eerily, shrouded in smoke, barely illuminating the waves of gray and green timberlands rolling to the horizon.
Jackson Armstrong knew every mist- and smoke-shrouded slope and valley beneath him. He knew every settlement, every campground, even the illegal ones hidden behind rocky ridge lines rising to wicked peaks of wind and snow.
He pulled off his right leather glove and fine-tuned his binoculars. Two ridge lines over, fire took its share of beetle-infested blow down. The beast gorged on fuel, making its way up evergreens which whipped wildly in protest before being lost in plumes of flame.
Fed land, he thought, studying areas where gray smoke swirled through white. There, he knew, the fire crew was making progress.
Jackson felt the northern wind quicken and turn and he studied a new glow. It coiled, billowing black smoke as it picked up speed, determined to join its mate on the far side of Hunger Mountain.
He flipped on his radio. “Captain 12, Armstrong Tac 2,” he said. A beat. Static.
“Captain 12,” crackled the voice of Tim Miller.
“Tim, there’s a new burn crossing below you,” said Jackson. “Heading up the flats to the north side of Hunger Mountain.”
“Another? What the—” said Tim as he studied the sky in his yellow and green Nomex top and pants. “How long we got?”
“Fifteen,” said Jackson. “Maybe less. Can you make the ridge?”
“We’re on it. Out,” said Tim, turning to direct his crew. “Up the mountain! Go! Go! Go!” To his radio, he said, “Command, Captain 12. Requesting water drop. North ridge, Hunger Mountain. Over.”
A short beat and a voice confirmed, “Captain 12, Command. Copy that. Water drop. North ridge, Hunger—” Static.
Tim moved up behind his crew, choosing his footing carefully, past the tree line and water trickling over rock from a fissure above.
New Book: The Dark Side of Hunger Mountain—In the Belly of the Proverbial Beast—
T. H. Platt is one of the most knowledgeable people about the catastrophe wrought in rural regions all over the world. Everyone in the fight knows her. She has written a novel that painlessly… pic.twitter.com/8FVSnh1q4X
— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) August 5, 2024
