Here’s the set-up:
“Strangers in the Gale is an ambitious and intriguing novel, combining two popular themes. Rebellion of the virtuous few against an oppressive government has drawn great stories from the imaginations of a myriad of authors and screenwriters from Heinlein to Collins, while also happening to be the subject of a goodly percentage of current headlines and network news bites. And the interaction between human inter-planetary colonists and indigenous life forms is the subject of at least as many “rollicking good tales,” albeit without as many real-time analogs. This book evokes some of the best examples of the Niven/Pournelle colony world collaborations, combined with the sort of imaginative flash and stand-out character development epitomized by masters like Varley and Zelazney.” – Chaz Walton
* * *
An unconscious girl found on a clump of floating kelp radically complicates Bernardo’s life. By all accounts, Ondas is supposed to be uninhabited. Why is the League government hiding the existence of the seafarers? In his quest for answers, the young biologist becomes entangled in a broader conflict that is about to take a recently colonized world to war. Bernardo is swept into a secret world of rebellion and espionage, and uncovers a genocidal policy by his government directed against the child’s aboriginal culture. On this water world fraught with ubiquitous storms, Bernardo, a few of his colleagues, two enslaved technicians, and an enigmatic mystic fight for the girl’s survival and that of her people, discovering a long-forgotten truth that will shake the foundations of worlds.
* * *
I wrote my first novel, Strangers in the Gale, while living among indigenous people of the Andes Mountain and the nearby Argentine Chaco. Their lives motivated me to write a story with a unique cultural perspective on liberation, friendship, and a spiritual connection to the natural world. Having lived among Native Americans in remote areas of South America, I have been fortunate to experience unique customs and traditions, as well as the consequences of colonialism for indigenous cultures. Coming to know people who live on the margins of modernity was a life-altering experience and has broadened my imagination, particularly as a writer.We humans are indeed amazingly adaptable and creative beings, yet we universally share the need to find meaning and purpose through stories. I was told many stories that helped me learn how to cross a raging river, best carry an infant, avoid piranha bites while fishing, and how to see the UFO that lives behind the volcano. In sharing my life with people of different cultures I became a better person, and learned why fellowship has always been a central part of storytelling. In my mind they all come together as one very good year of my life.
My experiences in South America so touched my imagination that I chose to express my experience by writing a science fiction novel. One of the reasons I am an avid fan of the genre is because it allows us to envision human potential in wonderfully liberating ways. Strangers in the Gale, though set in a far off imagined trinary star system, represents the human response to living within a conquered and marginalized culture, and the spirit to transcend that adversity through the forging of common bonds.
* * *
Joe lives in a small town in Pennsylvania with his wife, Laurie, and son, Paul. As a geographer he teaches as adjunct faculty, and he also co-owns a small, independent used book store and gift shop. Joe has traveled extensively in the U.S. and abroad, and has lived in Italy, Canada and Argentina. He is an avid hiker and nature lover, enjoys the practice of martial arts, and occasionally loves to get his hands dirty behind a potter’s wheel, in a woodshop, or some other interesting manual endeavor.
