Our nuclear security has been compromised and that really is a dangerous situation because all of our nuclear sites are nuclear power plants, or they are a theoretically defunct site like where nuclear Hanford doesn’t occur anymore, but it represents three super-fund sites that need to be cleaned up because of the amount of nuclear waste. What has been a really good outcome of [writing this book] is this being in the news again, people are starting to understand what a threat the amount of nuclear waste that’s already been created can be to the public at large, because nuclear waste is volatile.
Kay Smith-Blum, a former fashionista and Seattle School Board President, spends her days debunking the tropes of the mid-20th-century history. An odd dream and the recent upheaval over leaking radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear site compelled her to write, TANGLES, named 2024 Book of the Year by the Literary Global Book Awards and Best Debut Fiction by the American Writing Awards 2024.
“Bombs never kill the enemy.”
Watch the trailer and hold your breath: https://vimeo.com/friendlyvoice/review/1029359982/5264a1924a
Kay Smith-Blum, a recovering retailer and lifelong environmental advocate followed a dream, literally, down the rabbit hole called Hanford. TANGLES is her third manuscript. the recent upheaval over leaking waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear site compelled Smith-Blum, to daylight the little-known story in a way that would educate, entertain readers and redefine historical fiction by showing the deeply human impacts on the bystanders, rather than the famous names that line our history books. Her jam is debunking the tropes of mid-20th century – think the fictional picture-perfect lives led in Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver.
A sunrise writer, Smith-Blum serves on the Scholarship Committee of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, volunteers most years at the PNWA annual conference, co-editor of award-winning Feisty Deeds Anthology, serves on the Portal Park Steering Committee advocating for the preservation of the last green space in the heart of Downtown Seattle and takes copious “adventure walks” with her seven under the age of seven grandchildren.
An Austin, Texas transplant, Smith-Blum has lived in Washington State for four decades. She works out her writer’s block in her sons’ gardens (which she designed) and lap pools wherever she travels. Find her swimming seaside in Carmel every October for her annual self-styled writing retreat For more info on where and when to meet KSB https://www.kaysmith-blum.com/events-1
Awards for TANGLES:
Book of the Year for 2024 Literary Global Book Awards,
Best Debut Fiction 2024 the American Writing Awards
Best Cross-Genre novel 2024 by the Independent Press Awards
Best Adventure November 2024 International Impact Awards
Bronze medal 2024 Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Adult Book and the
Bronze medal 2024 Steinbeck Literary Category, the Historical Fiction Company
Finalist Feathered Quill Best Fiction 2024
Pending, Short List Chanticleer Best Wartime Fiction and Best Literary Fiction 2024
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