September 27, 2017
New Story Release!
I’m excited about a new release! This is the eighth book in the “Five Alive: Stories of the Funny Sisters” series. The title is “Gale at the Ghost Town.”
In this story, the sisters walk through their town as a gale is descending upon them. A gale is a storm with winds between 50 and 65 miles an hour. It is a nautical and meteorological term. Most people refer to this today as “tropical storm force winds” because a tropical storm is defined as a storm with sustained winds between 39 and 74 miles an hour. (www.amol.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A5.html)
The storm in this story is Hurricane Irma, a powerful storm that did reach category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale (over 155 mph). Hurricanes generally lose power once they travel over land, so when Hurricane Irma hit Saint Augustine, it was a category 1 storm (75 to 95 mph).
Although the winds from hurricanes can be powerful, in coastal areas, it is usually the flooding that causes most damage. Residents in low-lying areas try to protect their houses or businesses with sandbags to keep the water out. For more information about hurricanes in general, see “Hurricanes,” one of my Home-Edge Readers!
For now, for a preview of “Gale at the Ghost Town” read below:
This day was when the colors on the radar map hid the entire Florida peninsula. Schools were closed for the hurricane, but Becky’s school didn’t take a break. She was nose-deep in her science book when Daddy announced, “Let’s go see downtown!”
“Yeah!” Shouted Kim, darting into the room in shorts and a workout top. “I’m ready!”
Becky laughed. It was cold for Florida summer and Mom came around the corner with “oh no you are not, young lady. If you are going out in this storm, you are wearing long pants, a jacket, and socks and shoes.”
Jill, who was two, came to the shoe box and grabbed her Minnie Mouse flip-flops. “Flip-floppies! Ready!” She squealed.
Tina, who was the biggest at ten, laughed and said, “but you need real clothes” and hopped like a bunny rabbit into the bedroom to find Jill’s clothes. Pull-up-only-clad Jill followed in her best froggie-attempt at bunny impersonation.
While the girls scrambled to find jeans and convince four-year-old Ellen that party dresses were not suitable for walking about in stormy winds, Mom pulled out the winter suitcase. This big fat, suitcase smelled like Grandpa and baby powder. It held all of the snow clothes. They lived in Florida so this was the bag they grabbed in winter when they decided to drive to freezing climates like Middle Georgia. The snow clothes were water resistant.
… (continued reading Gale at the Ghost Town here!)
Thanks for reading!
Type at you later…
~Nancy Tart