In January 2022, Pam Thorson gave me an early copy of her novel, Blood Falls to read. I loved it. Pam Thorson has crafted a very believable apocalyptic tale that had me scrutinizing news stories and current-day catchphrases. She successfully mixes intrigue, natural calamity, and character struggles with Biblical teachings on the end-times. Blood Falls is a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down story.
I knew this would be a book many of my readers would enjoy so I immediately scribbled out some questions I thought many of us would have about the story and her writing process. Below are those questions and Pam’s answers. I hope you enjoy them and check out Blood Falls.
Ida Smith
Pam, thank you for taking time to share about your new novel, Blood Falls, with me and my readers. I loved it, and wanted to share it with my readers and pick your brain on Blood Falls. First, where did the idea come from?
Thanks for the invitation, Ida. I’m glad to be here. The idea for the novel emerged from a photo I saw on the Internet. Do you ever read or see something and have the idea for a cool scene pop into your head? That’s what happened with this book. One day I read about a geographic oddity called Blood Falls—located in Antarctica—and saw the photo of red saltwater snaking down a five-story ledge of ice and across rocky terrain into nearby Lake Bonney, creating the impressive “blood falls” effect.
That one photo ignited my imagination for a murder/mystery/thriller of the Apocalypse.
At the time, however, my plan was to complete the second volume of a local history series. Then the pandemic hit in 2020, and I had to shelve the project because I couldn’t get out to meet and interview folks. That same year, I suffered a series of health issues.
Since I’d been more or less sent to my room by God, I decided to dust off that random story idea and try my hand at writing a novel just for fun. That “fun” project took me over three years to research and write.
How did you land upon the title Blood Falls?
Having been gifted the perfect site for a murder mystery, I had to go with the obvious title. I like to remind people the title is a proper noun, however, and not a sentence. There are no vampires in this tale.
There’s obviously a lot of research. How did your research inform and shape the story? Can you give us an example?
My research into both the Biblical and physical components of the story really drove the plot. As I followed the logical next step in the story line and researched the elements of that step, the details unfolded.
One example of this is the female protagonist, Adriana Caldas. As I learned what it took to be a station manager at one of the research stations inside the rough-and-tumble culture of Antarctica, the qualifications and personality needed for the job formed the basis for her character.
I want to delve a little into your process. Do you brainstorm, then research, then outline, or outline and then research? Maybe research and shoot from the hip? How did this story develop?
I wish I could tell you. I think my MO is to load up on research and shoot from the hip. A new project usually begins for me with a sliver of inspiration. I introduce that glimmer of light into a ripe swamp of ideas, swirl it around a head full of research, and let God sort it out on the page. It’s messy, time-consuming, and a bit bloody.
Having just completed an exhaustive research project for my history book on Arrow, I dove into Blood Falls with the same gusto. I wanted to place it within a particular moment in the Biblical Revelation timeline, and I wanted it to have enough authenticity to give it the realism the story deserved. I researched the Scriptures, history, and current events associated with the story line. I made copious research notes to give me the foundation for the writing. I often spent days learning enough to write a single paragraph. Then the challenge became to sort through and use the information in an engaging way on the page.
Writing fiction is much harder than writing non-fiction! I think if I write more fiction, it would be beneficial to learn how to properly outline the story. Truthfully, though, I’m probably always going to be a bit of a “fly by the seat of my pants” writer. I love the adventure and challenge of letting the plot reveal itself to me as I write.
I love the character arc for Adriana “Jack” Caldas and how you sprinkled her inner struggle throughout the story, giving us just crumbles of what haunted her. How much of that did you have outlined before writing? Did any new ideas come to you as you wrote?
I’m so glad you love Adriana. It was important to me to have a complex character, one as free as possible of caricature. She needed to be real; to have an inner struggle to pull us along. I shaped her as I wrote, contemplating the kind of woman who would be in that place at that time. The surprise for me was how her character took on a life of its own. In retrospect, I believe her story is one that needs to be told today. I still cry every time I read those later chapters, especially “Rachel’s Gift.”
Thank you Pam for sharing with us, about Blood Falls. I hope you’ll click over to Amazon and pick up a copy of this exciting new story. Check out her website at BloodFalls.net
