After writing the first several drafts of The Narrows Escape, I had the opportunity to watch my Uncle Merlin's slide show from the trip. While doing so, I took copious notes of everything he captured on film. This picture inspired one of the key plot twists in The Narrows Escape - together with the following picture:
Originally, the injured hiker found at the bottom of the waterfall was found with his wife. After adding the whole mystery plot line, I changed the scene with the injured hiker, particularly the dialogue between him and the rangers. If you go back and reread the dialogue in retrospect (after having read the ending), keeping these pictures in mind, it changes the whole nature of the conversation. Whenever I talk to someone who has recently read the book for the first time, I question them on when they figured out certain elements of the mystery. Thus far, no one seems to have picked up on the subtle hints contained in this particular dialogue. Of course, I wasn't expecting anyone to in the first place. Still, it was necessary to tie the whole story together.
I love these interesting tidbits!
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