Rachel Clark tells us more about her characters in The Blackfish Prophecy

Welcome to the book tour for The Blackfish Prophecy by Rachel Clark. Today she is telling us a bit more about her main characters Miles and Terra and her dreams of turning their story into a movie. There's also an excerpt for you to enjoy before you download your own copy, as well as a great giveaway. Remember to follow the tour and leave Rachel your questions and comments along the way!

How did you come up with Miles and Terra’s characters for your book, The Blackfish Prophecy? Who are they and who would you cast to play these two characters if your book was made into a movie?

What a great question! Wow, it’s funny. I always knew Terra’s character. I had the idea for the book about 20 years ago, and Terra’s character was there from the beginning. She is probably a lot like me, and lives in a childhood setting that I – as a biologist- would have loved to grow up in. Writing Terra’s character is a little like writing about myself.

Miles is another story. He arrived out of nowhere as I began the book. He surprised me at every turn. And yet I felt like I knew him so well already. Miles is and was completely unpredictable but with a huge heart willing to take risks to do the right thing for those he loves. He does not give his heart easily but when he does, it’s for good. I adore Miles, and my sense is he came from somewhere ancient.

If The Blackfish Prophecy was made into a movie, I’d love to see it animated – my dream studio would absolutely be Pixar, for so many reasons!

I will have to think about who I would cast as human actors for these two! I’m not sure yet… But If I could choose someone to play Tiluk it would be Xiuhtezcatl Martinez of Earth Guardians. Xiuhtezcatl is an incredible, powerful indigenous climate and Earth activist who looks (and lives!) almost exactly the way I have always imagined Tiluk.

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

The Blackfish Prophecy

Best friends Terra and Tiluk live alongside the wild orcas of Washington State. On the other side of the continent, Miles wallows in anger and self-pity fueled by his parents' divorce. In a moment of harrowing fate, their lives converge when Miles witnesses a captive orca brutally kill his trainer at a marine amusement park.

When Miles contacts Terra and her family of whale biologists to better understand the "killer" whale, the three teens soon realize they are more linked to each other - and the whales - than they ever imagined. Driven by a primal urge to connect with the highly-evolved consciousness of the orca, the teens take extraordinary risks to challenge big business and renew lost traditions.

Their journey is set to restore an ancient mystical bond between humans and whales that ultimately reveals The Blackfish Prophecy…a revelation about Terra - and those like her - that's about to change everything.

Read an excerpt:

He wasn’t sure whether the fence was supposed to keep people out of the swamp, or keep the swamp away from the people. The snakes were seriously getting out of control. You couldn’t live in Florida and not know about the yellow anacondas, Burmese pythons and boa constrictors. They were a huge problem since they’d been accidentally introduced. The snakes loved it here, and they didn’t have anybody to eat them, so they were pretty much everywhere. He’d heard rumors at school about snakes that had even eaten little kids. Sometimes he’d just come here and stare over the fence, peering from the concrete stronghold of their subdivision into the dank, vegetation choked, black‐watered quagmire. The swamp creeped him out but, at the same time, it pulled at him, beckoning somehow.

The sidewalk was much smoother than the pavement, and he rocketed past all the backyards, blipping from fence to fence at high speed. He veered into the swamp on the fenced walkway that linked the back edge of his massive development to the business district on the other side of the swamp.

There was trash everywhere in here; soda bottles, needles, plastic bags, broken glass. This pathway smelled even worse than plain old swamp; like exhaust and beer mixed with the smell of a dead body rotting in mud. He raced past a couple of sleeping old homeless guys on benches, relieved it was getting lighter outside. He never came here in the dark.

Once he hit the business district, everything clicked. I’m going to OceanLand. He hadn’t realized it until that very moment. He slowed for a fraction of a second, Seriously Frost? Umm, Duh! YES! It was only a couple of miles from their house, which was one reason their mom took them so often—she’d bought a family membership after the divorce. Broken family membership, more like. He whipped through the back parking lots of the Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s and Exxon. When he got to Wal‐Mart, he knew he was close. Slowing, he narrowed his eyes and scanned the OceanLand perimeter. First was the gigantic parking area, which is what people saw when they pulled in. It was so big you could plunk down a freaking small town on that lot with room to spare. Behind that was the park itself, which was enclosed by a huge 12‐foot‐tall solid wood fence that snaked back into thick vegetation. Miles’ gaze fell against the trees back there, and instinctively he pushed his board toward them. But this time his foot came down carefully, gently. He’d gone on high alert. He was pretty sure that OceanLand wouldn’t want people sneaking around back there, especially after that Harvey Mott guy managed to get himself killed. Not to mention Dusky yesterday. The hair on the back of Miles’ neck went up as he realized what he was about to do. He pressed his mouth tight in resolve. I am doing this.

Book Links:

http://www.rachelclarkauthor.com/

https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781945419003

https://www.amazon.com/Blackfish-Prophecy-Terra-Incognita-Transition/dp/1945419008/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27227443-the-blackfish-prophecy

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-blackfish-prophecy-rachel-clark/1123608352

https://shop.whales.org/the-blackfish-prophecy.ir

https://twitter.com/BlckfshProphecy

About Rachel Clark

Rachel is a writer and biologist. As a kid she got hooked on all things animal, vegetable, and mineral. To complicate matters, she was hatching up stories before she could hold a crayon. Once she discovered biology it was all over. Ever since her first class in 7th grade when she refused to dissect a frog, a little voice in her head said: You gotta share this amazing stuff about how nature works, and ask if we really need to harm it. The little voice only got fiercer once she went to college and worked with captive dolphins and Beluga whales, then got to see wild killer whales only a few weeks later. From then on it was an all-out quest to convey the wonders of nature, while pointing out the serious problems of our very bad habit of dominating others and the Earth. She’s been a card-carrying science writer for twenty years. The Blackfish Prophecy is Rachel’s first book.

These days when Rachel is not writing, reading, dreaming, or speaking, you can find her sculpting an unruly assortment of moose-pruned orchard trees & berry bushes, gathering veggies & eggs in her micro-farmyard, foraging for mushrooms, and feasting on local food with friends.

She is a lifelong yogini, devoted pack mate to her free-spirited Canid, and mama bear who's sustained by treks deep into the Pacific Northwest with her increasingly feral family. Rachel drives a 100% electric zero-emission car, and her family's home is powered by renewable energy. Their little house is nestled on an urban lot they tend for kids' play, territory Animalia, sequestering carbon, and a food forest to augment the bounty of local growers.

Her work is fiercely aligned with the science of Life, harmony & justice for all: the enduring dream of Earth.

Rachel Clark will be awarding 1 signed paperback of the Blackfish Prophecy 1 bookmark for The Blackfish Prophecy, 1 Orca-themed or book-themed mug to one randomly drawn US winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway