Comments on Writing The Color of Ash

There was a time in California when the power industry eagerly developed clusters of cogeneration electrical power plants that burned available agricultural wastes like old grape vines and materials from marginal mining operations located over deposits of peat. And there were millions of tons of discarded rubber tires known to contain huge energy reserves if only someone could figure out how to burn them cleanly.

The major waste product resulting from the combustion of all this marginal waste was an ash that, if treated properly, could be an extremely valuable soil amendment substance sought after by the agribusiness interests. But proper treatment could be elusive, and permitting the use of the material on food crops required close supervision of the whole system of waste handling. These are the basic ingredients in Amy Dillon's battle to survive in the Color of Ash.

There were many plot possibilities. One possible lucrative scenario would be for the plant to attempt to pass the disposal responsibilities of waste to a hauler who could conveniently lose part of the load between the plant and the state disposal site, thereby saving on fees at the delivery end and making money in between by selling the ash. The success of this venture would have required that the plant report less ash than actually produced, providing a hidden surplus that could be turned into cash. No one claims that this corruption was a general practice, but greedy, unscrupulous people could certainly have (and probably did) made big bucks in this way.

Being her official biographer, I followed Dr. Frenzel around during the time she lived and worked in the shadows of  the Sierra Nevada's and finally realized that there was a great story buried in the hills on the eastern side of the San Joaquin Valley. I took a lot of notes and collected a lot of information. Years later, we conceptualized the character of Amy Dillon, a young, gritty, and not so naive Texas woman confronted with a dilemma that spins out of control on her first day on the job in Sacramento. We realized that we would have to tie her background into Sam Friendly, the ubiquitous family patriarch of Concrete Evidence and the Blue Vase set in New Orleans, as well as involve the adventurer and intelligence agent, Walter Onley, who finds himself in a situation that might set him against the person he fears most.

Well, you'll have to read the book to find out what happens.

Chandler Thornton