September/October • 2020 • GASPARILLA MAGAZINE 17
Here is an excerpt from another great story,
“Red Tide and EMPs.”
“A solar fl are or well-placed nuclear bomb
from North Korea could wipe out the electric
grid, bringing an end to modern civilization as
we know it ... you’re not taking this seriously,”
she says.
True. When I was a child in the 1950s I was
convinced that every plane fl ying over our
house carried a bomb meant for me. In college,
I worried about bursting into fl ames after
reading about something called spontaneous
human combustion. As an adult living in
Indiana, I spent many nights in my basement
waiting for tornadoes to sweep me away. Now
that I am a senior living in Florida, my summers
are fi lled with thoughts of hurricanes - spurred
on, of course, by hourly tropical updates on the
Weather Channel.
I can’t do anything about bombs, fl ames, and
weather; how can I deal with an electromagnetic
pulse from the sun? Or North Korea, for that
matter?
“There was a time - not that long ago - that we
lived without electricity,” I say to my friend.
“Besides, the environmentalists would be
thrilled that our planet would be saved and
most of us would be history.
“Think of it. No cell phones, no political
commentators on television, no traffi c,” I say.
“Yeah. And no air conditioning for you fools
who live in Florida in the summer,” she
responded.
She did have a point.
Susan’s work is often inspired by other
writers.
“I am inspired by Stephen King’s style of
writing, although the book I read this winter by
him was not one of my favorites,” she said. “It
had sloppy editing errors, which always makes
me cringe, and was too long. My daughter sent
me a bobblehead doll of Stephen King and
another of Sting, my favorite singer, to get me
through the pandemic. Some days, Sting is
more inspiring than Stephen.”
She continued.
“I loved ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia
Owens, which I fi nally got around to reading
this summer. What great prose. I have
“American Dirt on the top of my stack. I
admire great writers, but I can also slog my
way through a book when I feel the author is
authentic. For instance, if the writer has worked
hard at his or her craft, been meticulous in their
editing and really cared about me as a reader.”
Her inspiration comes from her home island
too.
“There are a lot of very good writers in Boca
Grande. I certainly don’t know all of them,
but my friend Karen Snyder and I have talked
about getting a writing group together for the
last couple of years ... just to talk about our
craft. Usually writers are somewhat solitary, so
I’m not sure how well that would work. I have
enjoyed Sandy Jacobs’ writing class for the last
two years. Something to look forward to if she
decides to start another class this fall.”
Susan is busy working on her next projects.
“Funny you should ask what I’m doing,” she
said. “The virus made it impossible to say no to
writing. There is nothing else going on. So, I’m
working with my former boss on his
biography, for family only. That’s been a lot of
fun. I’m awaiting his response to my fi rst draft.
Hopefully, the limited edition book will be
done by the end of the summer.”
Susan also went back to the sequel to her
fi rst novel, “Six Weeks From Tuesday” (by E. C.
Thomas).
“I’d written a draft, gotten a lukewarm
response from Bob Vorel, one of my favorite
critics, and shelved it for four years. Now, I’m
back at it with renewed enthusiasm. I hope to
have it done by January.”
“I put my blogs aside for the summer. Those
weekly “columns” are what I’ve cobbled
together for my last two books – ‘Never Name
an Iguana’ and this newest one, ‘Rutabagas
for Ten.’ I’m planning on waiting until after the
election to start blogging again. I want them to
be fun and positive and there’s little that is fun
and positive about politics these days.”
All of her books are available at Amazon.com
in Boca Grande – at Courtyard Hair and The
Tide – and on her website, ecthomas.com.
Jonathan Herbert is an award-winning writer who
grew up in Englewood. His novels, Banyan Street
and Silver King have won multiple literary awards,
including recognition from the Paris Book Festival.
You can follow him on Twitter @herbertnovels or
on the web at herbertnovels.com
/Amazon.com
/ecthomas.com
/herbertnovels.com
