Bell Bridge Books

I LEFT OUT THE EVIL ELF

by H.W. Buzz Bernard

Despite there being a warm and fuzzy Hallmark Channel Christmas moment in BLIZZARD—you know, a crackling blaze in a huge stone fireplace, the aroma of gingerbread and German stollen wafting through a warm house, and outside a polar gale rattling the limbs of skeletal trees—the book is a thriller.

I mean who wouldn’t want to go on a buck ninety-nine, wind-whipped, bullet-riddled odyssey in a Mercedes Geländewagen through the worst Southern blizzard on record?  And that’s not to mention the wolf pack escaped from a game reserve, drug-smuggling outlaw bikers hunkered down in a north Georgia “castle”—guys with names like Psycho, Cave Man, and Grizzly—and a pretend cop who carjacks my protagonist.  I probably should have crammed an evil elf into my cast of characters, but alas, I didn’t.

Of course, I had to coat my post-Christmas drama with my trademark pushing-the-envelope meteorological icing.  So I imagined Boston’s “Blizzard of ’78,” (which I experienced) displaced to the Deep South.  That storm, which is still considered Boston’s greatest, shut down the city for a week.  So you can imagine—well, I certainly did—what an event like that would do to Atlanta where even a forecast of snow flurries triggers more panic than a Zombie Apocalypse.

If you’re from or have visited places in northeast Georgia or the western Carolinas, some of the locales the drama sweeps you through, besides the ATL, may be familiar: Clayton, Georgia; Westminster, South Carolina, and Durham, North Carolina.

Like all of my novels, BLIZZARD is meant to thrilling and fun.  After all, as a novelist, I am in the entertainment business.  The book is designed to appeal to both your holiday spirit and your eagerness for adventure, and maybe even your sense of humor here and there.

As the dealer who leant the protagonist the Mercedes over Christmas vacation noted, upon seeing the SUV returned with shot-out windows, crumpled fenders, and a dead teddy bear in the rear seat: “So your Grandma in Durham, she was pissed, huh?  Late with her Christmas gifts?”

Remember, you can find out what this is all about for just $1.99 . . . until New Year’s Eve.

Pick up BLIZZARD for only $1.99 til the 31st!

And don’t forget to grab the rest of H.W. Buzz Bernard’s  Weather Series books!

by H.W. Buzz Bernard

Okay, I admit it.  Even though I’m old and cranky, I still harbor a bit of nostalgia when it comes to the December holidays.  I love the trappings of a traditional Christmas: melodious carols, twinkling lights, a nip in the air.

(But egg nog?  Forget it.  Gimme a shot of Jack on the rocks instead.)

Anyhow, there’s a heartfelt, evocative Christmas scene in Blizzard, one I truly enjoyed writing. It flowed from memories of Christmases past in another time and another place, when I dwelled not in the South, but in a location closer to the North Pole, New England.  (Which is as near Santa’s digs as I ever want to get.)

Now I live in Atlanta—and have for many years—where frigid December holidays are as scarce as Democrats.  So to write my scene, I journeyed into times gone by.  I felt the warmth of blazes crackling in stone fireplaces, sniffed the aromas of gingerbread and fresh-cut fir wafting through happy homes, and peered out windows to watch Siberian winds whipping over icy ponds.

But why, you ask, would a thriller writer be, well, thrilled to paint a Currier & Ives scene with words?  I had a purpose, of course.

I placed my protagonist, a decent man and loving father and husband, in an “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” moment of holiday warmth and tranquility before thrusting him—purveyor of Grinchiness that I can be (ain’t being a novelist fun?)—into a frozen nightmare of violence and death.

Think he can survive?  You can find out for only $1.99. Just click the cover!

Today is National Weatherman Day and to celebrate, why not pick up a couple books written by an actual weatherman? 

After all, without them, we would never be prepared for all of this crazy weather we always have!

So show your appreciation for once upon a time weatherman – Buzz Bernard – today! 

In early 2009, after 13 years with The Weather Channel, Buzz Bernard retired from the network as a senior meteorologist. Prior to joining The Weather Channel, he served as a weather officer in the U.S. Air Force for 33 years, retiring with the rank of colonel and having received, among other awards, the Legion of Merit.

Prior to becoming a novelist, Buzz published five nonfiction books about weather and climate. He’s had first-hand experience with hurricanes, having penetrated the eyewall of such a storm with the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters. That mission wasn’t nearly as exciting–or as terrifying–as the one described in Eyewall, but he did get an up close and personal look at how the job is done.

Besides his trip with the Hurricane Hunters, Buzz has flown air drops over the Arctic Ocean and Turkey, and was a weather officer aboard a Tactical Air Command (now Air Combat Command) airborne command post (C-135). Additionally, he provided field support to forest fire fighting operations in the Pacific Northwest, spent a summer working on Alaska’s arctic slope and served two tours in Vietnam. Various other jobs, both civilian and military, have taken him to Germany, Saudi Arabia and Panama.

A native Oregonian, Buzz attended the University of Washington in Seattle where he earned a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science while also studying creative writing. After leaving active duty with the Air Force, he and his wife Christina lived in New England and suffered through its winters for two decades before heading for the warmer climate of Roswell, Georgia, near Atlanta. It’s much warmer there!

Make sure you go grab Buzz’s weather based novels – EYEWALL and SUPERCELL – off of Amazon TODAY! 

Just click the links!

Let the scary summer beach reading begin! H.W. “Buzz” Bernard’s top-notch thriller novel, EYEWALL, is now on sale!

At Amazon.com here

Featured in the BRUNSWICK (GA) NEWS today; see Buzz interviewed on NBC Channel 41 Macon, GA the week of May 2.