Press kit

lisa hatfield

Short Bio:

In the Ready to Go? novels, Lisa Hatfield shares emergency preparedness ideas so people like you will be ready for natural- and family-related crises and be able to help yourself and others in the middle of chaos. 

 

Longer Bio:

Lisa Hatfield- Author, To Starve an Ember and To Melt A Snowdrift

Lisa is on a mission to get more regular people to take responsibility for their own safety when it comes to natural disasters, instead of pretending nothing bad will ever happen.

Lisa is an idealist and a risk-reduction evangelist, sharing emergency preparedness ideas with her community so people will be ready for disasters and be able to help themselves and others in the middle of chaos.

Wildfire is unavoidable, and we have 43 million homes in the U.S. nestled in among the trees and grassland. More homes and lives could be saved if residents learned to play by wildfire’s rules. Lisa has been teaching about wildfire risk reduction and defensible space since the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire, and now she wrote a novel, To Starve an Ember, to share the facts about preparing for wildfire in an engaging way.

Lisa has witnessed four wildfires very close to her home and does wildfire property evaluations and tree cutting work with Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church Emergency Preparedness Group.  She teaches Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) with Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management and reports on the public meetings of local government entities in Our Community News. She knows denial is disastrous. That’s why she’s writing the READY TO GO? series of novels, the first one is about wildfires, and coming soon she’ll cover blizzards, flooding, and other types of family disasters too.

Lisa Hatfield’s “Ready to Go?” series:

  • Book One: To Starve an Ember

    a gripping novel about wildfires and family disasters. “He thinks wildfires are his greatest enemy, but he doesn’t see the historic hurt smoldering inside himself.”

  • Book Two: To Melt a Snowdrift

    will pull you into the world of blizzards, 18-wheelers, and communication problems between an artsy wife and her easy-going husband. “She’s just along for a fun truck ride, but it spirals into chaos. Can Anna excavate her bravery and creativity from the snowdrifts to survive the mountain snowstorm?”

  • Book Three: (about Hurricane Katrina) coming next year

 

Suggested Interview Questions about novel #1, To Starve an Ember

  • Tell us about your background. What inspired you to write the novel To Starve an Ember?
    • As a newbie to Colorado 30 years ago I didn’t even know what wildfires were. The first grass fire I saw, I didn’t even call 9-1-1. We just watched it burn toward my house.
    • Since then we’ve had the Hayman Fire, Waldo Canyon, Black Forest, and many others which have all blown burning embers onto my deck at my house.
    • Since Black Forest, we formed a church group to help clean up all the burned trees and help people get a fresh start so they don’t have to keep reliving that devastation and tragedy. Home insurance doesn’t usually cover doing landscaping repairs.
    • I’ve gotten involved in doing public education on what people can do to reduce the chances that their home ignition zone will actually ignite during a fire. We also work with Community Emergency Response Team to do public education. But it’s hard to get people’s attention.
  • Why did you choose to write a novel and not just a step by step instruction manual?
    • I didn’t make anything up. It’s all true. I know story telling sticks in people’s hearts longer than a lecture.
    • The part that will take your breath away is the descriptions of how the fires burn through different neighborhoods. Help people visualize.
    • Help people see how they can be safer by taking away fuel from smoldering embers.
    • Through story it tells, it’s going to help firefighters do their job and be safer when a wildfire comes.
  • What does the title mean?
    • Double entendre with the title – literally, don’t let the embers find something to eat when they land on your house or in your yard. But also about emotional parallel of painful memories in your soul, and if you let them smolder inside you they’ll eat you up.
    • It’s not about preventing wildfires. That’s not possible or desirable. We need wildfires.
    • In my town we have 20,000 houses and six fire trucks. You do the math.
    • It’s full of people you’ll want to get to know better. I bet you have a lot in common with them, how they deal with both family disaster and natural disaster.
    • It’s pretty intense in some places, and the scenes of destruction are vivid.
    • There is no violence. Just flawed people trying to do their best.
  • What are some tips you have for people to stop home from igniting when a wildfire is nearby?
    • 43 million homes in the Wildland Urban Interface, within a few miles of a natural area.
    • Mow the grass around your house. Even grass fires can destroy homes.
    • Rake out the pine needles and leaves from touching your house and get them out of the gutters.
    • Make sure your roof is not cedar shake but is Class A.
    • First 5 feet around house should be a “fuel free zone.”
    • Next 30 feet out should be “discontinuous fuels” – we are not saying to clear cut. We should look at vegetation in the Home Ignition Zone. If a spot fire starts in that zone, will the fire get drawn toward your house? Or will it run out of fuel and go out?
  • People like to have trees for privacy. See video called “The landscape that inspired the novel” on your website. You have to take out a lot of trees correct?
    • Colorado State Forest Service says there’s a limit to the number of Ponderosa Pine trees that can grow on an acre of land. 300 trees is too many, they are stressed out. They will compete for water and nutrients. It would be better to have 10% of that so they can really thrive and be healthy trees with branches.
    • Fire could come through and thin them out. Or you could thin them out yourself and choose which trees to keep.
  • Tell us some more about your book.
    • It’s available online through LisaHatfieldWriter.com but also the big retailers.
    • This book is going to save lives and property.
    • I hope we can get people to see not to be fatalistic about fires and prepare ahead of time for emergencies.
  • What do you hope people will take away from this novel?
    • You’ll see how it’s possible to discover who you are really meant to be and live a more satisfying life by getting out of denial and confronting issues, starving the embers of buried problems that affect you are today.
    • You’ll see that wildfires don’t burn through every neighborhood the same way, and there are things you can do to increase your chance of survival and whether or not your home can defend itself while you are safely evacuated.
    • Book Group Discussion questions are available on http://lisahatfieldwriter.com/book-table/ under To Starve an Ember
  • Future books coming up?
    • Series is called Ready to Go? and the third novel will be about Hurricane Katrina and surviving both outer and inner storms in your life. IThe main character will be Jessie, whom you’ve already met in the first and second books, but in this third book she is a middle school girl.
    • The series is all about preparation – wildfires, blizzards, floods, hurricanes, and dealing with your family! Denial is disastrous.
    • Sign up for my newsletter at LisaHatfieldWriter.com to get a free short story called “Just a Little Grass Fire” when you subscribe to my newsletter.

 

Suggested Interview Questions about novel #2, To Melt A Snowdrift

  • What inspired you to write the novel To Melt A Snowdrift?
    • The 2019 Bomb Cyclone in Colorado: why were so many people caught unprepared even though we had warnings!?
    • As with wildfire preparedness, there are many small steps you can take that could help you if you’re trapped in a blizzard.
    • There is more help to share regarding speaking up for yourself and parenting yourself with love and respect.

 Lisa in the media, interviews, and presentations:

  • Colorado Wildland Fire Conference, presenter, Fort Collins, CO, April 2023. “To Starve an Ember: a ‘novel’ outreach tool.”
  • Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) National Conference presenter, Galveston, TX, August, 2022. “Wildfire and You: The Story of the Flying Ember,” with the ember as the protagonist of this short tale.
  • “Step into the Light” radio with Patti Shene, October 25, 2022, Episode #211, To Starve an Ember: a novel adventure story about a wildfire with a deeper meaning. https://pattishene.com/stepintothelightradioshow .
  • “NerdNite Colorado Springs” presenter, June 15, 2022 – “Wildfire and You: The Story of the Flying Ember,” with the ember as the protagonist of this short tale. https://www.facebook.com/nerdnitecos/ 
  • “PPLD’s Mountain of Authors,” June 18, 2022 – Library 21c – Local Author Showcase with To Starve an Ember, https://research.ppld.org/mountainofauthors 
  • Barnes & Noble – my second book signing, Aug. 6, 2022, noon to 4 p.m., 1565 Briargate Blvd., Colorado Springs.
  • Gazette/Tribune interview with Heila Rogers, Jan. 25, 2022

     

    Book Excerpt from Chapter 8, To Starve an Ember:

    He yelled a war cry no one could hear but him…. “What’re you waiting for? Let’s go to work!” Prentice got in his truck, with the horn still blaring, and drove along the cul-de-sac.

    For each house he considered trying to save, he took three seconds to do structure triage. Is it a well-maintained property that could possibly be defended? Can I get up the driveway and still get back out again if those trees are on fire? Can I even see the house from the road? For most houses near Bixby’s, the answer was no. I wonder if all the work we did at Bixby’s will help him, since he’s surrounded by people who haven’t done anything.

    These were the very same questions the firefighters would ask when and if they arrived there with crews. Garnet’s fire department only had a handful of fire engines and brush trucks, but there were almost a thousand homes in Majestic Estates and thousands more north and east. The owners of the private property who had made no attempt to start the work left firefighters no choice but to move on.

    The firefighters needed to focus on the properties that had a chance, where the owners had invested time to clean it up already. Those houses might even defend themselves. Drawing the line here instead of there meant saving, or losing, another half-million-dollar home. Or a whole street full of them.

    In the distance, he heard the noise of the engines as they pumped limited amounts of water on the grass ahead of the main flame front, not to put it out, but to moisten the fuels in front of it and slow down its spread. They were also probably lighting backburns in strategic places to create a line of defense they could control, trying to stop the main grass fire from widening.

    As he worked, Prentice pictured the crews south of him, evaluating their situation. They were two or more blocks closer to the main fire than he was. The visibility had dropped so he couldn’t even see the house next door. “I should just get out and quit messing around.” But he couldn’t help himself. The world wasn’t saved yet.

     

    Contact for Free Books

    Write to me at Lisa@LisaHatfieldWriter.com for copy of e-book, paperback, or the audiobook (narrated by Lisa Hatfield)

     

    Some of the Amazon and Goodreads Reviews & Testimonials about To Starve an Ember

    “Lisa brings accurate knowledge of the wildfire threat that confronts anyone who lives in a rural area and weaves it all into an interesting story. In the book, I met characters and heard excuses I’ve heard many times during my 30 years as a Forester and fire mitigation expert.” —  David Root, Colorado State Forest Service

    “Uncomfortably accurate.” — Matthew Nelson, Forestry Administrator, Woodmoor Improvement Association

    “So nuanced and relevant.” — Natalie Barszcz, Our Community News, www.ocn.me

    “The Brilliant Book About Emergency Preparedness You Never Knew You Needed. To Starve an Ember immerses you in the world of the southwestern United States and the very real threat of wildfires. Entertaining, educational, and at times sobering, Lisa Hatfield’s real-world experience with wildfires shines through her writing. As readers journey along with Prentice, they will learn so much about how to prepare for and possibly prevent wildfire damage. I am very thankful to Ms. Hatfield for educating me on topic I knew very little about. I truly believe this book can be a powerful tool to save lives and property as she has stated. Can’t wait for the next book in the Ready to Go series!”  — Joseph H

      “A lot more Embers here than just those of the wildfires! Wow! This is an amazing novel, and written by a very deft hand. There is much here about wildfire preparedness, and the prior reviewers have admirably detailed those parts of this novel. Beyond the wildfire and emergency preparedness tips (which are excellent!) however, there are human embers smoldering which really pulled me into the story and kept me reading far past my bedtime. I often found myself pausing to reflect on my own family’s story as the book’s characters reflected on theirs. So many things rang true for me and I found myself by turns laughing, crying, shaking my fists at the characters, and, in the end, nodding in appreciation at the wisdom they (and I) gained. Highly recommended!” — Randy P.

       

       

       

      Some of Lisa’s other publications about wildfire and general preparedness:

      Lisa has written literally hundreds more articles in Our Community News www.ocn.me since 2012 about deliberations of local government entities and community events.

       

      Lisa’s ready to speak on these topics (in person or on Zoom):

      • Reducing Your Home’s Ignition Potential in Wildfire – 30 minutes, for homeowners near natural areas including forests and grassland. Based on Dr. Jack Cohen’s flying embers research. 30-minute video https://youtu.be/dH0B7QICgoA.
      • Wildland Fire Assessment Program, Home Assessment Checklist on the Home Ignition Zone and Hardening Your Home Against Flying Embers – 120 minutes, for homeowners near natural areas including forests and grassland. National Volunteer Fire Council’s (NVFC) Wildland Fire Assessment Program (WFAP)
      • Ready, Set, Go! – 60 minutes, for homeowners near natural areas. Wildfire is coming. Are you ready? Plan. Prepare. Stay aware. Based on International Association of Fire Chiefs material and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concepts of general preparedness.
      • “CERT Wildfire Evacuation with Animals,” 60-second video https://youtu.be/FZVCtiQLSOQ
      • Solar Oven Cooking demonstration. See https://www.ocn.me/pdf/v19n4%2028.pdf#search=%22solar%20oven%22.

       

      Experience & Training

      • Witness to numerous Colorado wildfires, from civilian point of view.
      • Co-founder of the Emergency Preparedness Group of Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church (TLUMC EPG), facebook.com/TLUMCEPG.
      • Community Emergency Response Team, Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management, instructor. https://admin.elpasoco.com/pproem/cert/
      • Woodmoor Improvement Association Forestry & Firewise Volunteer
      • Pikes Peak Region Office of Emergency Management residential evacuation drill, CERT volunteer doing credentialing
      • National Volunteer Fire Council’s (NVFC) Wildland Fire Assessment Program (WFAP) property wildfire risk assessor
      • Wildfire Adapted Colorado’s Neighborhood Ambassador Training, wildfire risk reduction empowerment for individual “spark plugs” in neighborhoods
      • NFPA Home Ignition Zone: Assessing Structure Ignition Potential from Wildfire, property wildfire risk assessor, nfpa.org/Training-and-Events/By-topic/Home-Ignition-Zone

       

      Awards

      • TLUMC EPG was award Recognition for Outstanding Training (of civilians) by Fire Adapted Colorado (FACO) in April 2023 at Colorado Wildland Fire Conference.
      • TLUMC EPG was awarded the National Wildfire Mitigation Award in a February 22, 2020, stateforesters.org/newsroom/partnership-announces-2020-wildfire-mitigation-awardees/
        • to honor and recognize individuals and organizations for innovation, dedication, and leadership in wildfire mitigation.
        • TLUMC EPG is now promoting and supporting neighborhood mitigation projects across northern El Paso County and Colorado.
        • See 90-second video including Lisa “TLUMC EPG 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Award” https://youtu.be/468uSpc4lMM
      • Woodmoor Improvement Association – President Award & Vincent Elorie Award
      • Black Forest Together Volunteer Award
      • Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce 2020 Volunteer of the Year ocn.me/pdf/v20n12%2023.pdf
      • Gleneagle SERTOMA Club 2021 Service to Mankind Award Honoree

      Lisa Hatfield

      Photo by David Futey
      This is Lisa after winning Volunteer of the Year from TriLakes Chamber of Commerce:

      Our Community News shirt – as reporter and managing editor

      woodsmen helmet used for chainsaw and chipping work to do wildfire risk reduction and wildland fire forest clean up

      Lisa_Hatfield woodsman helmet 1600x2400

      This is Lisa and Casey, who is now famous for his roles in To Starve An Ember and To Melt A Snowdrift…. and of course, for being a Good Dog.

      Lisa_Hatfield with dog Casey

      Denial is disastrous.

      So, are you READY TO GO?

      Lisa Hatfield is on a mission to get more regular people to take responsibility for their own safety when it comes to natural disasters, instead of pretending nothing bad will ever happen. Lisa has witnessed four wildfires very close to her home and learned about the others around the world. She does wildfire property evaluations for anyone who asks and disaster recovery and tree cutting work with grassroots volunteer church mission groups. She teaches Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) with Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management.

       Affiliations & Training

      Fire Adapted Colorado
      National Fire Protection Association