When we think of courage, there are often images of running toward fire or pulling comrades to safety at risk to one’s safety. There’s another facet to courage, though, one that is more subtle and quieter, the kind that pushes someone to go back to a place or a project they thought had defeated them.
For Whitefish-based author Christine Carbo, writing her novel, “The Wild Inside,” presented a challenge requiring the bravery to go back to a craft she left for a decade.
“The urge to write hit me again after 10 years of not doing it,” Carbo said last week, sitting in her Pilates studio.
After answering the call to write again, Carbo penned “The Wild Inside,” a story of suspense and intrigue set in Glacier National Park, published this month by Atria Books, a subsidy of Simon and Schuster.
The novel follows the story of Ted Systead, a special agent for the Department of the Interior who is called to Glacier Park after a person is first tied to a tree and then mauled to death by a grizzly bear.
Carbo takes creative liberties with Glacier Park’s real law enforcement setup, adding park police to the existing ranger system to allow for more layers in her mystery.
But one of the most intriguing aspects of the book is Glacier Park as a character itself; Carbo said she reads novels wherein the setting plays a major role, like a city or a romanticized country, and one day realized she lives in such a place.
“Glacier Park is really wild,” she said.
Instead of being the gorgeous source of inspiration most know it to be, Glacier Park is a dark, fearful place for Carbo’s main character, whose father was killed there in a bear mauling when Systead was 14.
“Glacier’s the last place he wants to come, because he’s got demons there,” Carbo said.
Writing the novel meant coming full circle for Carbo, who had written other novels in her 20s but never had them published. She also taught English at Flathead Valley Community College for about 10 years, but when she became a single mother, being an adjunct professor didn’t cut it.
“I started to do a lot of technical writing to supplement my income, and that was monotonous,” Carbo said.
With new parenting challenges, she had less time for creative writing. The amount of technical writing she did ended up causing a twinge in her should, which she worked out by joining a Pilates class.
She took to it well, and started her own studio about 10 years ago. The work took brainpower, but was mostly physically based, giving her mind the time it needed to recoup and drum up the story for “The Wild Inside.”
Writing a novel is a feat in itself, and getting it published is a rarity. Carbo not only scored a deal for this novel, but also for the follow-up novel. The second book will include many of the same characters, but Carbo will follow a different protagonist.
She has also finished a third book.
Carbo held a release party for her novel on June 16 at Tupelo Grille, and has several readings around the state and the West coming up, in Bozeman, Missoula, Billings, Seattle and Scottsdale, Arizona. She will also take part in ThrillerFest in New York City from July 7-11.
“The Wild Inside” is available for purchase through major booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as local bookshops in Montana, such as Fact and Fiction in Missoula and BookWorks in Whitefish.
And while writing a novel had her confront a medium she thought had deserted her, getting that novel published is the reward for her courage.
“Probably since my early 20s, I have had this notion that I wanted to be a novelist and get published,” Carbo said. “It feels great; it’s a dream.”
For more information on Christine Carbo, visit www.christinecarbo.com.