Purchase Out of the Fire, this 116-page book based on the reflections of those caught in the updraft of the seventh most destructive fire in California history. Proceeds will assist in designing and maintaining a Butte Fire website with stories encapsulated in a historic, ongoing website, helping the community heal by having a voice and sharing the insights gleaned from the fire.
Our own home was burned in the 1995 Butte Fire and the initial experience is loosely reconstructed in my short story Retirement which is included in the anthology. After losing so much, including my father’s best landscapes and all of my own art, it was difficult to find my old creativity. Sometimes I wondered if I would ever write again, but eventually I managed to do a short story and gradually got back to working on my novels.
I was so excited when I received my copy. The pictures of the demon flames and the variety of stories recounted inside are both saddening and uplifting.
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This is all that was left of our home. Taken one week after the fire.