An Okotoks-area author has a new young-adult novel rooted in real life events.
In Escape from the Wildfire, Dorothy Bentley looks at the wildfire disaster in Lytton, B.C. through the eyes of a fictional teen whose family has to flee the blaze.
“Because I had been through the Fort McMurray wildfire, I got the idea last summer to write a general novel based on a family evacuating from a fire,” Bentley said. “I chose Lytton, then researched it, and it’s basically a true story but with fictitious characters.”
Drawing inspiration from homes she saw in the town and details hinting at the families that lived there, she crafted the story imagining an outdoors-loving teen.
“It’s a kid, but I changed him to a mountain biker, because two of my kids are into mountain biking, so I have him into enjoying the trails,” Bentley said.
“So my kids, I draw on what their interests are and what they’re like, so the main character Jack, he’s a teenager and kind of modelled on a compilation of my kids, so he’s into mountain biking, he’s into gaming, he’s got a crush.”
Given the subject matter, the author kept the material accessible to a wide demographic.
“It has a pretty wide age range because younger readers can read it, but it’s also meant to be a high interest/low reading level for older students,” she said.
Given the uptick in wildfires over recent years, the book also delves into those causes, incorporating research from experts in the field.
“This focuses too at looking at the causes of forest fires; I interviewed a forestry expert in B.C. who used to manage wildfires,” Bentley said. “Then I spoke extensively with a university geography professor, who confirmed with me the things I have in there are correct, like how biodiversity and what kinds of trees are planted affect climate change."
Books on wildfires aren’t new territory for Bentley, who previously contributed to a compilation of short stories compiled from first-hand accounts of those affected by the Fort McMurray wildfires titled Muscle And Heart - Fort McMurray Fire Stories.
“That was a fundraising project, where I was an editor and put out a call to the community,” she said. “A bunch of people sent me their stories, like what they were doing before the fire hit, and then the experience during the evacuation, and after.”
Escape from the Wildfire is available from most booksellers, including Yooneek Books in Okotoks.
More information about Bentley’s work can be found at dorothybentley.ca.
