Behind The Obsidian Secret and The Lava Tube Mystery
From Research to Story
The story of The Obsidian Secret began with a fascination with Medicine Lake and the remarkable landscape surrounding it.
I used to camp at Medicine Lake with my grandparents. Those trips gave me a personal connection to the landscape long before I began looking at it through the lens of archaeology, mythology, history, and storytelling.
Medicine Lake is a place where several worlds seem to overlap. Ancient volcanic activity created lava flows, caves, obsidian deposits, and a vast landscape shaped by fire. People have lived in and traveled through this region for thousands of years. The Modoc homeland and the archaeological record provide another layer of history, while traditional stories and modern legends add still more mystery.
Following the Evidence
Medicine Lake has plenty of mysteries, but not every mystery needs a supernatural explanation. The volcanic landscape itself can seem mysterious. Lava tubes disappear beneath the ground. Obsidian can be found throughout the region. Ancient artifacts provide evidence of people who lived, traveled, hunted, and traded across this landscape long before modern roads existed.
The book is fiction, but the setting is real. The volcanic landscape is real. The obsidian is real. The caves and lava flows are real. The archaeological history of the region is real. And the cultural traditions and historical events connected to the Medicine Lake Highlands provide a much deeper story than anything I could invent.
Why Medicine Lake?
Medicine Lake is sometimes overshadowed by the much more famous Mount Shasta. But the two landscapes offer very different stories. It is quieter and more remote. Its mysteries are not necessarily obvious from the surface. Some are hidden beneath the forest, inside lava tubes, or within the archaeological record.
For me, that made it an ideal setting for a story.
Creating the Story
I chose Medicine Lake for the first two books because I already knew the area. I grew up camping there with my grandparents, so the landscape was familiar to me before I ever began writing about it. It was also the perfect place to learn the process of creating a book series. Mount Shasta has an enormous body of mythology and paranormal lore, and I knew I wanted to explore it eventually. Medicine Lake was less overwhelming and gave me the opportunity to develop the characters, mysteries, and storytelling process first.
But Medicine Lake has something of its own: an eerie atmosphere that doesn’t need to be invented.
The remote forests, volcanic landscape, lava tubes, and quiet isolation naturally create a sense of mystery. Although Medicine Lake is less well known than Mount Shasta, I think it is just as fascinating and just as eerie. These first books allowed me to return to a place I knew from childhood and turn that familiar landscape into a story. The book stories will eventually get over to Mount Shasta but I need some practice first!
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