Geauga County—where this novel takes place and where my parents and three younger sisters resided in 1978—is snowbelt country in the best of times. During the White Hurricane, the city of Chardon came to a standstill for days.
At the time of the blizzard, I was a college student safely ensconced in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, renting a room from one of my father’s old fraternity brothers. And while I didn’t experience the worst effects of the White Hurricane, the frightening stories my parents and younger sisters told for years to come were destined, one day, to find their way into one of my books.
For readers who lived through the real White Hurricane, I hope you won’t mind that I moved the historic storm to present day for the purposes of my story. None of the characters depicted here are based on real people, and I took artistic license by creating fictional establishments on and near Chardon Square. Any errors in fact made to describe Ohio’s storm of the century rest solely with me.