Hi everyone! And welcome to ILLUMINATE.
My husband and I embarked on a journey to fine-tune how we present ourselves as we prepare to launch our second novel (see NEWS below). Many of the tasks and suggestions from our marketing consultant make sense to me. And yet I’m struggling. Who am I really?
In the coming months, I invite you to be part of the search for me. Help solve the mystery. And since we’re all connected, perhaps you’ll find yourself as well. I hope so.
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Beginnings should start with a bang and mine was no exception: I was born during a hurricane.
HURRICANE: derived from the name for the Arawak God of Stormy Weather “Huraken”.
I looked up my hurricane; it was Tropical Storm Esther by the time it made landfall on the Gulf Coast. But in my research I discovered something bigger. In June of the same year there was another Hurricane; Audrey.
Hurricane Audrey was one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history, killing at least 416 people as it devastated the southwestern Louisiana coast. -Wikipedia
My sister was five at the time so I asked her what she remembers: “…the water in the toilet whooshing up and down as the atmospheric pressure changed! … going outside afterwards to find two huge trees fallen down behind our house.” She recalls Mom saying how worried she was because Dad was out on an oil rig at the time! Gulf of Mexico, oil rig, hurricane of the century?! I would have been out of my mind! Did I sense that, deep inside Mom’s belly?
Back to Esther, and my grand entrance… In those days, new mothers got to stay in the hospital up to two weeks after giving birth—with round the clock help for the newborn, and lots of bed rest for mom. But by the time Esther threatened, Lake Charles had experienced the devastation and an influx of evacuees from Audrey, so they were taking no chances. The hospital kicked Mom out early.
Mom brought me home to two children age 5 and 3, and a mostly absent husband. Dad, safely off the rig by this time, couldn’t stay home to help; he had to work. And being new to the town, Mom didn’t have a community yet. She was on her own.
I don’t remember anything but I can imagine this: floating around helpless in the womb, bathed in worry; remaining helpless after being born where the only way I could get attention was to scream. No wonder my brother and sister were less than fond. Had their been a fourth, another baby Rust, I might have felt the same toward them. But Julia was the end.
Did that make me what I am? Is this why I’m drawn to the strange, the unsettling when I read, when I write?
You’re the investigators. What do you think?
Writing Prompt
Look up the weather close to and at the time of your birth. Imagine how the weather affected your parents’ mood, especially your birth mother. Imagine how this connects with who you are today.
Next Month
In my next newsletter we’ll explore more of my origins, find the etymology of a new word, and offer a writing prompt. Thanks for reading.
Good news!
SAVING THORNWOOD, the second novel co-written with my husband, David Surface, will be published by Haverhill House Publishing in July 2025! It’s the story of two 15-year-old girls, Mary from the 19th century who’s been abandoned with her young brother in an alms house and lunatic asylum, and Annie from the 21st century whose father has a psychotic break and is committed to the same institution 180 years later. When they encounter each other face to face, it starts a strange friendship that changes them both. It’s a story about the stigma of mental illness across the centuries, the nature of friendship, and questioning what it means to be “normal”.
ANGEL FALLS is turning two this fall and will soon be an audiobook from Crossroad Press. And best of all, it’s read by award-winning narrator Kirby Heyborne!
CHTHONIC MATTER QUARTERLY Spring 2024 includes my story The Alien Inside and can be purchased HERE.
THESE THINGS THAT WALK BEHIND ME, David’s second collection of short fiction, is available now for pre-order HERE and will be published October 1st.
So lots of happy dancing in this household. Hope you are all well.
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