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Comments/Q&AQuestions and Comments Click and type in a question or comment Oh and here's my email for the recent comment: pldavisgang@aol.com Mr. Lynch, I'm am amidst of reading your book right now, but I recently heard of a movie being made in Pugent sound of The Highest Tide. Do you happen to know anything about casting or auditions? I'm very interested. Thank you for writing a book that natives of Washington State can relate to! Hi, just finished reading your book a few days ago, and found your site today. I enjoyed the book a lot, as you managed to show the life of miles in so much depth. The way you developed the characters was excellent. Great read, Recomended! Fraser What state has the highest tide? On the west coast, it's Washington state, and more specifically, it's south Puget Sound, which is where I set the book. The tidal swings, from low tide to high tide, can be as much as 21 feet. hi jim, How do you as the author reinforce the metaphor of and mystery of the ocean? I really want to see this book on stage. I can't seem to find a schedule. Please help.. great book. Thank you Sally ssslater1@ comcast.net Sally, What I tried to do with the ocean and the tidal flats is just describe it all as precisely as I could. To paraphrase Rachel Carson, if you write about the ocean accurately, it can't help but be poetic. And I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but the play ran its course at Book-It Theater in Seattle by May 10. It may get another life, however. If so, I will post it. Hi i just got the book at borders and like it a lot. I'm not done with it so i don' t know if it will make my favorites list, but so far so good. Im 100 pages into it and think you should write another one Hi Jim, I just finished your book about 2 weeks ago, and I have to say, it was probably one of the best books I have ever read. I loved, how you made Miles so small, but make him do such big things. Also, many of the parts in the book made me laugh. I'm eleven, so you might think, I didn't understand the sexual references, or the drug references, but I think they just added to the book and made it better. Well thanks for writing such a great book. Nathan Nathan, you are one impressive young reader. I made Miles so small because I know how the media gets even more excited about a smart kid when the kid is tiny. But I also believe that we don't necessarily get smarter with age, and that for some of us the world never gets clearer than it is when we're about 12 to 14 years old. Thanks a lot for your note. You've got a lot of great reading ahead of you. Jim Hi Jim, I just finished reading the first chapter of your book and I had to comment on it. You use such rich detail and metaphors that my mind is able to clearly imagine the scene that's taking place. I have never written to an author before and I only began to like reading books recently (I'm 30). So, I just wanted to say thank you for writing the way you do, I can't wait to read on. Pam Thanks for breaking form and writing to me, Pam. Hopefully you will roll through the rest of this novel and many more. Jim, I just found this lovely book last week. I gobbled it right up and enjoyed every word. Reading this book brought the rhythms of those tides into my consciousness. Have you heard that scientists say that the brain isn't able to differentiate between something we experience and something we imagine? If that is true, and I suspect it is, we fiction lovers have the richest lives of all. Thank you so much for this book. Your writing slides in like butter. When is the next? Linda Linda, Thanks for your note. I like that scientist line you pulled up there, because while TIDE was almost entirely invented and not autobiographical, I thought about it so much that by the time I sat down to write it I felt like I was remembering it instead of creating it. I'm glad you enjoyed the book the way you did. I hope to have my next novel out in about a year. Jim I worked with a program in Anacortes, WA called FLIP (Fidalgo Learning about the Intertidal Project) in 2004. It was very similar to the survey you describe in your book. Upon going to look at your weak tidal life page, i realized I have an excellent picture of the orange tipped nudibranch that you describe as well as baby skates, hermit crabs and many other Puget Sound creatures. If you send me your email adress I would be more than happy to share these with you. By the way, I absolutely loved your book. I grew up on the beach in Anacortes and it was incredible that you were able to write the way that I felt about my beach. I didn't know that it was possible to use words to convey that feeling. I am a student in creative writing at the University of Montana, so I read a lot and this is by far the most excellent piece of writing I have explored in at least a year. Thank You! reed.westlin@umontana.edu Wonderful Book! I look forward to seeing images of more of the sea life described, I have been searching for all of them since reading the beautifully worded novel. I found the description of the mola mola as a 'confused alien' suprisingly heartwarming. I look forward to your next novel. Nancy Thanks a lot, Nancy. I'm working on getting more sea life images on this site, and hope to have them up shortly. And I just had a good writing binge on my next novel. So far, I'm calling it: "The Dotted Line." Jim Hello. I would just like to ask a question about The Highest Tide. What reading age do you put your book at? I really didn't write this book for a particular age. I've heard from fans of the novel who were anywhere from 9 to 90 years old. And I've loved that about it, that entire families -- from granparents to grandchildren -- have enjoyed it. Teachers have told me they think it is a good fit for good readers age 14 and older. It has been required reading for high school freshmen as well as college freshman so far. WILL THERE BE A SEQUEL? If I come up with a great idea for a sequel, yes. If not, no. Part of the thrill of writing TIDE for me was writing through a narrator who was at an age when the world felt fresh and new to him. I don't know that I want to follow his adventures beyond that stage. I will continue to give it thought, but I'm currently immersed in the research and crafting of a new novel I'm setting on the U.S.-Canadian border. -- Jim Jim, I am currently sailing around the world and I have a copy of "The Highest Tide". I grew up in Olympia and my brother and I spent lots of time in the mud and muck of the low tides of Puget Sound. I left on this trip a year after my Brother died and I have been spreading his ashes across oceans and at some of the amazing places I have been. The most recent was off the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. I read your book often. It takes me home for a little bit and takes me to a time when my brother and I were still together. Thank you so much for your book. Jeff Stewart, jeff@svsohcahtoa.com, www.svsohcahtoa.com Jeff, I'm honored that you're sailing around the world with The Highest Tide. I love it when people read it on ocean beaches, but even better while living on the ocean. It does me good to know you're out there sailing around with it like it's a living piece of Olympia on board with you. Please let me know when and if you come back through Oly. Love to talk to you. Meanwhile, may the winds be just right and at your beam. Jim Hi Jim, Your talk last night brought back some old memories of when I used to like on Hammersly Inlet. Like the Eagle resting on my dock's piling, all dissapointed that snakes it found on my dock were actually rubber ones that I placed there to keep the seagulls away, or the searun cutthroat trout that would tease me when I walked down the dock by splashing at me, only to be laughing at me for an hour later as I tried to catch it. And the sound of a low rumble in the middle of the night as my neighbor, John Hurst, was piloting his tug the Danielle with a load of logs, or the dancing lights across the bay at night in the winter when my other neighbors, Glen and Vicki Schreiber were hard at work tending one of their oyster beds. Can't forget the time when a red tailed hawk, chasing a smaller bird, didn't quite clear the house, learned real quick not to pick up such a bird that seemed dead, without gloves. And the tide, I had a bulkhead of only 4 feet, but a good rain and high tide in the winter brought on the real meaning of a waterfront home (2 feet from the house). I miss it so much, and last night brought on some wonderfull memories. Thanks Jim, I will have to get your book. Joe Barton Joe, Happy to bring back your Hammersley days for you. I've always been in interested in that inlet and looking forward to exploring it. Hi Jim, I received your book mas a birthday present from my Mother in Law in August 06, I don't know what inspired me to pick it up on Sunday night but I read it in under 48 hours.It is the first non text / technical book I have read in 20 years! I must read about 25 non fiction books a year but this just grabbed me and wouldn't let me put it down. It is a truly wonderful story touching on just how little we really know about the sea that surrounds us. I live in Huyton which is 7 miles inland from the Irish sea in north west England and have a similar love for al things nautical. Thank you for writing your book, I look forward to your new novel. Regards, William Sampson. :-) rodesby@yahoo.co.uk William, Thanks a lot for your comment. I'm glad to attract some non-fiction readers. In fact, I worried while writing TIDE that there would be too many facts, too much information for the casual fiction reader, but it seems to have worked. And as to your comment about how unaware we are of the sea around us -- Amen. Myself included. Cheers, Jim Q&A AND READING GROUP GUIDE Q -- What inspired The Highest Tide? A -- A strange deep sea fish washed up on a beach near my home, reminding me that just about anything swimming or floating in the Pacific can turn up in quiet southern Puget Sound. The next step was realizing it’s often kids who make the discoveries, which led to the creation of Miles. Q -- Many debut novels are autobiographical, especially first-person novels. How much of you and your life is there in Miles’s story? A -- Miles isn’t based on me. All of the scenes were invented, and his parents and circumstances were nothing like mine. However, I shared some of his insecurities and sensibilities, and I too felt that the world was stunningly in focus at his age. Q -- Clearly you admire Rachel Carson’s work. When did you first read her, and did you always intend to give her work such prominence in The Highest Tide? A -- Like most people, I knew Rachel Carson for “Silent Spring,” her expose on pesticides. I didn’t realize she also was a brilliant oceanographer who’d written three bestsellers about the ocean and sea life. I didn’t know how powerful her writing was. One of the biggest breakthroughs during the writing of The Highest Tide was when I decided to pass my obsession with her work to Miles. Q -- You write so vividly about marine life. What inspired your fascination with the water’s edge? A -- It began in my childhood, but I’ve been lucky to live near a Puget Sound beach for the past seven years. The more you learn about the tidal world the richer it gets. And part of what I set out to do was to capture the humbling sensation that you feel while walking alone on an ocean beach. Q -- What sort of research did you do for the novel? A -- I read marine biology books, sex guides and interviewed a psychic. I explored tidal flats during the day and at night with a headlamp. I interviewed experts on flotsam and tidal currents and spent a lot of time with a state biologist who has given tidal tours to teens for the past 20 years. Q -- What is your advice to aspiring fiction writers? A -- Think your stories through before you try to create them. And write about what fascinates you. If your subject gets more interesting the closer you look at it then maybe you’ve found material that will be worth the sweat. When it’s not going well, lower the bar and keep writing. BOOK GROUP QUESTIONS 1. Does The Highest Tide remind you of other novels? If so, which ones and why? If not, what makes it unique? 2. At one point, Miles comments that adults are usually more interested in what kids are going to become than what they are. Is Miles an extraordinary child or is he simply another example of the innocent wisdom of children that adults often overlook? 3. The characters in this book are a study in contrasts: Miles’s best friend is an elderly housebound woman, his first love is an unstable older girl, and his own parents are as indifferent as he is impassioned. What can we learn from such starkly contrasting individuals, and how do their relationships shape the book? 4. Why do you think Miles and Florence are so close? What do they offer each other? And what does Kenny Phelps, Miles’ foul-mouthed sidekick, add to the novel? Humor? Realism? 5. Miles has a knack for rescuing people and creatures, or at least trying to. Recall as many rescues or attempted rescues as you can. What does this trait tell you about Miles? 6. Channel 7’s story about the “remarkable Olympia boy” makes much of Miles’ gift for finding and seeing marine life that others can’t. Florence, too, knows what others can’t know. What does the novel say about this ability to see or know things others can’t? Is it a gift or a particular kind of attention? 7. The novel is rich with imagery and metaphors. What do you think the giant squid symbolizes? What metaphors or symbols stood out for you? 8. Do you think this novel carries an underlying environmental message? If so, what is it? 9. Near the end of the story, Miles says, “In the space of a summer I’d learned that everything was changing, including me.” How has Miles changed during the summer, and why? 10. In the final scene, Miles and Angie ride the outgoing tide in her canoe, and Miles quotes Rachel Carson: “For all at last return to the sea – to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.” Angie tells Miles that she and the sea will wait for him. In what ways is the scene symbolic? What possible interpretations does it suggest? |
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