Weather – round robin

Weather So the picture of me in Yellowstone, US, has more than a few clouds in the sky. It was, however, warm and sunny, too. Perfection. When asked the next day the young man on our raft said he expected the snow to arrive in the next week or two – never long after Labour Day.

And that’s the thing about weather it’s at the same time regular and unpredictable. That it will blanket the national parks for months is certain, but when that fall will come less so. That it will thaw in the spring is equally sure, but again when that will happen less so.

Using weather in writing is tricky, but oh so tempting. I recently recommended to my book group (we take it in turn to recommend) The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse. She uses the landscape of low-lying marsh around Chichester and creates a coming storm. She is at pains in the acknowledgements to state the storm was a fictional one. There are, however, many such in British history and not all that distant history either so we can feel that wind as it howls through the darkness and the dragging effect of long wet skirts or clinging soaking trousers. We know enough to vicariously experience the rising level of hysteria that matches the rising flood waters. And to thank our lucky stars when we wake in the morning to a cleansed countryside and a moral cleansing, too. DH Lawrence also used flooding to effect a cleansing.

Another sort of weather much exploited is over-bearing heat building to unbearable intensity before storm brings relief. Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Graham Greene all use it in drama and prose. Evelyn Waugh used a storm at sea to allow his narrator and Julia to come together in Brideshead Revisited. Somehow their ability to avoid sea-sickness gave them a glamour and superiority that the fall from marital grace should have prevented.

Weather features close to the opening of my DAISY’S DILEMMA Daisy has been trapped in the great London house of her brother the earl for a week or more. She’s recovering from food poisoning and then when she might venture out summer thunder and lightening prevents it. Daisy’s mercurial temperament is sorely tried and, clearly, she needs a strong arm to assist her into the world outside her pampered existence. Did I do it consciously? How does one know where anything in fiction comes into the brain from? Once it was down, however, I really liked it. Drama Mood and Revelation.

My fellow rounders’ writers are listed below. Do visit and see what they think, too. What do you think? Is weather used wisely in fiction? Do you use it in yours?
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse  https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Helena Fairfax  http://helenafairfax.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Dr. Bob Richhttps://bobrich18.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/oh-the-weather/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.blogspot.ca
Kay Sisk http://kaysisk.blogspot.com
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com