Narrows plots and subplots

Several people have asked me about how I came up with the plots for the Narrows Escape. Obviously, the hike itself came from my personal experience 20 years ago. It was easily the scariest experience of my life, which made it a natural starting point for the DTB Cousins series. Since it occured when we were adults, I had to move it up almost a decade to start the series at the point where I wanted it to begin. As I did some background research on the summer of 1983, I realized that it was one of the worst flood years in the history of Utah, which inspired my prologue with the mudslide destroying Devin's family's home.
With the main conflict of Man vs. Nature established, I started looking for subplots that each of the DTBs could face. This was essential since I didn't just want to write exciting adventure books; I wanted to teach values that I've learned from my own life's experiences.
Devin's rivalry with Shane developed slowly over several early drafts of the book. In real life, my cousin Darin always seemed to get along with his brothers, at least from my long-distance observations. Yet, I know from my own experiences how competitive brothers can be, so I decided to make that Devin's main struggle - since he was the one with a brother close in age. By building up that rivalry over the course of the book, I was able to make it's resolution one of the key values taught by the book: that no matter how conflicted we feel towards one of our family members, we need to love them unconditionally.
Trey's conflict was struggling to fit in. In creating my character bios, Trey's interests varied more than the other two, so I thought it would be interesting to see how it would affect the club dynamics if he felt isolated from his cousins during the one time of year when the three of them got to spend together. Therefore I used an injury to accomplish that. Although it didn't cause any real rifts between the cousins, it did allow me to develop and differentiate my characters more. It also created some additional tension during the hike, and allowed me to split the DTBs up leading up to the climax. The subtle message here is that it is okay for best friends to be different, and pursue unique interests independent of their best friends. We'll see how this theme continues to affect the DTBs over the course of the series.
Brady's main conflict is dealing with his fear of water on a hike where he is forced to confront it constantly. Phobias are real, and can seriously cripple someone emotionally if they allow the fear to reign supreme. One of my grandmothers had clausterphobia, and I once had the occasion to observe her confront it directly on a trip back East. As we were climbing the Statue of Liberty, she started to feel panicked in the tight stairwell. She realized however that she couldn't allow her fear to overcome her, for her own safety as well as that of her grandchildren who were crowded around her. As I heard her evaluate this experience after the fact, I was impressed by the power of her inner struggle and how she dealt with it in this critical situation. When having Brady confront his fear, I originally had him rescue a family member. However, I thought it might be even more powerful if he had to overcome his fear in order to rescue a total stranger, particularly one who might pose a threat.
The other main plot line deals with the mystery surrounding the bank robbers. This was the last major subplot to be added to the book. After years of rejection letters, I decided that my book needed something more, particularly at the end to keep the conflict going to the very end. I decided that adding a mystery might be the best way to accomplish that. Using bank robbers allowed me to tie this book in with the DTB books we wrote as kids.
There may be other minor subplots, but these are the major plot lines I tried to develop. I hope that the end result is both a fun read and provides some food for thought.
Brad Allred