Ask the Author: T.L. Bodine
Answered Questions (1)
T.L. Bodine
Thank you so much for reading! I also have never been, but I wanted to do the best I could as a couch potato to get it right.
I read several books, both fictional and nonfiction, on the topic. The best of these were Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and Nick Heil's "Dark Summit," as well as "Climbing Everest: The Writings of George Mallory." I also read a bunch of articles, including Sherpa interviews, historical accounts of deaths and mountain rescues, personal accounts from bloggers, mountain adventure guide company travelogues, and so forth.
One thing that's extremely cool about writing a book like this in the modern age is that our world is so connected technologically. I was able to watch YouTube videos of climbers fitted with GoPro cameras...of airplanes taking off and landing at Tenzing-Hillary Airport...I used Google Street View to explore Nepal and even found a copy of the Lukla Starbucks menu posted online :)
I met a handful of wonderful readers from India and Nepal through Wattpad who beta-read the earliest drafts and gave feedback. None of them were mountaineers or Sherpas, but their cultural insights were invaluable to me all the same.
That said, I am certainly I've probably overlooked or omitted some important things, or portrayed some things overly simplistically, or stumbled on some detail. Having Carrie, an amateur climber with her own distorted perspective about the world, certainly helps provide some grace for some mistakes. But as much as I was able, I tried to give due diligence to accuracy and cultural sensitivity, and I'm really glad to hear it's been resonating with readers so far!
I read several books, both fictional and nonfiction, on the topic. The best of these were Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and Nick Heil's "Dark Summit," as well as "Climbing Everest: The Writings of George Mallory." I also read a bunch of articles, including Sherpa interviews, historical accounts of deaths and mountain rescues, personal accounts from bloggers, mountain adventure guide company travelogues, and so forth.
One thing that's extremely cool about writing a book like this in the modern age is that our world is so connected technologically. I was able to watch YouTube videos of climbers fitted with GoPro cameras...of airplanes taking off and landing at Tenzing-Hillary Airport...I used Google Street View to explore Nepal and even found a copy of the Lukla Starbucks menu posted online :)
I met a handful of wonderful readers from India and Nepal through Wattpad who beta-read the earliest drafts and gave feedback. None of them were mountaineers or Sherpas, but their cultural insights were invaluable to me all the same.
That said, I am certainly I've probably overlooked or omitted some important things, or portrayed some things overly simplistically, or stumbled on some detail. Having Carrie, an amateur climber with her own distorted perspective about the world, certainly helps provide some grace for some mistakes. But as much as I was able, I tried to give due diligence to accuracy and cultural sensitivity, and I'm really glad to hear it's been resonating with readers so far!
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