by Tina Whittle
Tai’s gun shop resides in my imagination; the city of Kennesaw is real, however. You’ll find it slightly northwest of Atlanta, and it really does have a city ordinance requiring every head of household to maintain a firearm and ammunition. The city also has a store specializing in Confederate memorabilia—Wildman’s Civil War Surplus (although any resemblance between Tai’s shop and this one is purely coincidental).
As much as possible, I try to include current cognitive and neurological information about recovery from a traumatic brain injury and the neuroplasticity of the human brain. Enclothed cognition is a real thing, as is Trey’s ability to detect lies, although science can’t yet provide a clear how or why on the latter (it is linked to language processing difficulties, that much is clear). For an excellent first-person account of one scientist’s recovery from a TBI, read The Ghost in My Brain by Clarke Elliot, a professor of artificial intelligence at DePaul University who shared his harrowing, humorous, and profoundly moving story of life after a debilitating concussion.
Trey’s ergonomic tracking processor is, alas, still in the developmental phase, although it shows great promise as both search-and-rescue equipment and as an earthquake detection device. His Urban In-Ground Target Detector is also more theoretical than actual, although military-issue prototypes exist. (Like Tai, I have no idea where he gets these things.)
His ability to track sharks on his phone is totally real, however, as is Mary Lee the great white shark. Though not an app, the Global Shark Tracker lets you follow her and hundreds of other sharks on your computer or smartphone, and in the process, learn more about one of Earth’s most magnificent and unfairly maligned creatures. Visit www.ocearch.org to see the Shark Tracker in action, and follow @MaryLeeShark on Twitter for a deepside perspective on our world.
Tai’s Savannah and the real Savannah both include Bonaventure Cemetery, which is the final resting place for not only Gracie Watson but other notables, including Johnny Mercer. River Street exists (although Soul Ink does not), as does the DeSoto Hilton, which does indeed have a lovely independent bookstore across the street—the Book Lady Bookstore. Although I wouldn’t recommend using it as a surveillance site, it is a marvelous place to spend some quality hours among books both spanking new and previously loved. And if you have Tai’s taste in drinking establishments, visit the Bar Bar on Julian Street. If you have Trey’s, don’t. Just…no.
While Savannah’s historic district’s squares and parks are easily explored on foot, to see the Lowcounty marshes, rivers, and shores, you should get yourself on the water. And there’s no better guide, both inshore and off, than Captain Judy Helmey of Miss Judy Charters. Like Captain Lou, she’ll be glad to carry you on the fishing trip of a lifetime, and unlike Captain Lou, she’s real.
Finally, though I have visited some nastiness upon the fictional versions of the Savannah Metro Police Department and the Chatham County Detention Center, in the real world, I have met only good people doing hard jobs with professionalism and respect. At both places, there are hundreds of dedicated people working hard to keep citizens safe, and they have my highest respect.
Thank you for sharing your time with Tai and Trey and the rest of their people, including me. If you’d like to read more between-novel short stories about my protagonists (including the epilogue to Reckoning and Ruin where Tai finally gets her fingers on the Ferrari), you can visit the Other Writings Section of my website—www.tinawhittle.com/pages/otherwriting—or Wattpad: www.wattpad.com/user/TinaWhittle.
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