This is a guest blog post that I wrote for Orca Books describing my inspiration for writing my new book, Fire on the Mountain.

What comes to mind when you think of fire?

Do you picture a cozy campfire and roasting marshmallows? Or maybe the candles on your birthdays cake? Or do you imagine flames racing through a forest?

Fire can warm us and bring comfort, but it can also terrify us. Fire can bring us together and tear us apart. Fire can destroy, but it can also spark renewal.

Fire is a complex topic and I knew that writing about the Kenow wildfire that burned almost 40 % of Waterton Lakes National Park in 2017 would be a very big story – too big, in fact! My book, Fire on the Mountain, was inspired by the events of the Kenow Fire and includes lots of facts and places that readers may recognize.

Just like the real fire in 2017, my story starts with a lightning strike and ends with the wind pushing the fire far faster and hotter than anyone expected. But my story is fiction because I couldn’t fit in everything that happened during the Kenow Fire – and because I needed to tell a story.

Fire on the Mountain is about the dangers of wildfires. It’s about how wildfires can tear people apart, separate families and friends and even pets. It’s also about how animals respond to fire and ways animal families can be torn apart, too.

But the heart of the story shows people coming together to protect each other, their homes, and the natural world around them. It’s about the townsfolk preparing their homes and businesses for the fire that may rip through the Waterton townsite.

It’s about 148 firefighters who arrived from all over southern Alberta to save the town and historic sites, including the 90-year-old Prince of Wales Hotel.

And it’s about Cricket and her friends’ determination to help in any way they can, first clearing brush from around their school and then working together to feed the firefighters.

The Kenow Fire was devastating and Cricket sees a similar landscape when she returns home. The sides of entire mountains are black from valley to peak. Some forested areas are completely gone, leaving only holes in the ground where trees burned to their roots. A few buildings have been burned to the ground, too.

But there are also bright spots – like a green oasis of trees that stands untouched in a black sea of charred wood and ash, and a pond that sparkles in the sunlight, surrounded by long, green reeds. These bright spots will help the forest heal.

Will the forest be the same again some day? Probably not. But each stage of its renewal will be beautiful.