Ian Lindsay: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Rockin' Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave. Oh, listen! Bringing stories, making waves. No missing, spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics, alright. Join the ride, it's gonna feel just right.

Peter McCully: Welcome to the Pulse Community Podcast, where we bring you the heartbeat of the mid-Vancouver Island area. I'm here with my co-host who's been practicing his victory dance for the Whalers fundraiser—even though it's not a dance competition—it's Dave Graham.

Dave Graham: Hey, it never hurts to be prepared, Peter. Besides, my touchdown shuffle has been perfected over years of watching football from my couch. And here is my partner in podcasting who once tried to explain the offside rule to me using salt shakers in Mabel's cafeteria—it's Peter McCully.

Peter McCully: Well, that was a low point for both of us, Dave. The salt shakers kept sliding off the tray, and you never really did understand the concept.

Dave Graham: I have come to terms with the fact that some things in sports will forever remain beyond my grasp, besides the fact that I was given a body more appropriate for playing—I don't know—darts or maybe cribbage. On this episode, Michael Pedersen, the president of the Oceanside Football Association, is going to talk about the fundraising dance for a new field house at the Ballenas Secondary School in Parksville.

Michael Pedersen: We're throwing a fundraiser on September 6th at the Jensen Center, which includes an awesome country band and lots of things to do for the general public to come out, have a great time, and support the initiative.

We have a fabulous country band coming out. They're called Kind of Country. They play all the latest country hits, and they mix it in with a bunch of classic hits that everyone loves. So if you like coming out to watch live music and you like to dance a little bit, this is the perfect opportunity to go out and have a good time and to support a good cause.

This event is not only a fundraiser for a field house, it's also the 25th anniversary of Ballenas Whalers Football. So we are wrapping the two ideas together. It's primarily a field house fundraiser, but we're also welcoming all the alumni from the Ballenas Whalers over the last 25 years to come out, celebrate, see your old friends, and have a good time.

Peter McCully: Brian Wilford, who has worked as a print journalist for many years in the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area, has published his first novel. Since humor often cuts through political noise, Wilford harnesses it to full effect in "Rise of the Jellies," a satire.

Brian Wilford: It was going to be either science fiction or fantasy, and it couldn't really be fantasy because I wanted it to be grounded in the real world, in the present time—that these flying jellyfish are really doing this to present-day Qualicum Beach, and then, as the book unfolds, throughout the rest of the planet.

The science fiction aspect allowed me to get into what's happening in our world and all of those sorts of things—with the agriculture and the increasing power of corporations, who are really running the world and will do so increasingly in the future.

Dave Graham: Brian Wilford coming up on The Pulse. In this episode, we'll be hearing from Taimi Mulder. Taimi's a seismologist based in Sidney. She left a message on our "Speak to Us" line about the recent tsunami alerts and about tide levels in Port Alberni and Tofino on a future episode of the podcast.

Peter McCully: We recently got out of the studio and stood down by the ocean in Parksville to talk to visitors to the mid-Vancouver Island area to see where they're from, what brought them here, how they like it, and much more.

Dave Graham: Joe Straka, vice president of Oceanside Classical Concerts, will be here to talk about their outreach programs, including an instrument lending program for students and a music scholarship program. And there's a new program this fall that will see Oceanside Classical concerts live-streamed to seniors' facilities in the Parksville-Qualicum Beach area.

Peter McCully: The Heels, a female country trio with roots in Qualicum Beach, will be joining us on a future edition of The Pulse podcast.

Dave Graham: Congratulations again to Marcy Sojstrom, the winner of our BeachFest Rocks Contest. The prize package includes three days of fabulous music, a couple of beach chairs, a cooler, $50 on a Smile Card—all courtesy of Thrifty Foods in Parksville.

Peter McCully: Thanks to everyone who entered. We have a new contest for you for the month of August. It's the Pulse Podcast Grill, Chill, and Fill Contest. We're giving away a Paderno portable propane grill, an Igloo cooler, and a $100 Smile Card from Thrifty Foods in Parksville. Enter either through our website, thepulsecommunity.ca, or our Facebook page at The Pulse Community.

Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard-to-source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high-quality, responsibly sourced products and is committed to providing outstanding value and personalized one-on-one service to all of our customers: homeowners, do-it-yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752-3122.

Thrifty Foods Parksville: At Thrifty Foods, we love to help nonprofits, charities, and schools. Our Thrifty Foods Smile Card bulk program allows organizations to immediately save up to 6% on the purchase of Smile Cards in bulk, allowing you to keep more money in your organization's pockets. Ask for details at Thrifty Foods in Parksville.

Dave Graham: Peter, I'm watching summer fly by, and I'm realizing why my list of summer activities remains largely untouched.

Peter McCully: Oh, why is that?

Dave Graham: Yeah, well, I'm not in my twenties anymore. My energy just isn't what it used to be, you know?

Peter McCully: You haven't been in your twenties for a while now, right?

Dave Graham: Naps. I need more naps.

Peter McCully: Well, we need you awake for just a few more minutes. For now, you'll want to hear what our next guest has to say. Here's Marilyn to make the introduction.

Marilyn: The Ballenas Whalers are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a homecoming in September. It is also a fundraiser to help build a new field house. Here to talk about that is Michael Pedersen, the president of the Oceanside Football Association.

Peter McCully: Welcome to the podcast, Michael. Thanks for having me, Peter. You've got a very large event planned for the first week of September at the Jensen Center, raising funds for the Ballenas field house. Tell us about that.

Michael Pedersen: I'm personally with the Oceanside Lions, and we work closely with the Ballenas Whalers. We have a project we're trying to push through where we want to build a field house at Ballenas Senior Secondary. It would be next to the new track in the new field. And we're throwing a fundraiser on September 6th at the Jensen Center, which includes an awesome country band and lots of things to do for the general public to come out, have a great time, and support the initiative.

We have a fabulous country band coming out. They're called Kind of Country. They play all the latest country hits, and they mix it in with a bunch of classic hits that everyone loves. So if you like coming out to watch live music and you like to dance a little bit, this is the perfect opportunity to go out and have a good time and to support a good cause.

Peter McCully: You have some sponsors on board, Michael.

Michael Pedersen: We do at the moment, and we're working on a few more. First up is Sleeman's, who's sponsoring the whole event. We have a stage sponsored by Black and White Event Rentals. Hotel Fang is giving people coming in from out of town discounts on hotel rooms, the Shady Rest, and 100.7 The Raven so far.

We also have food by Señor Hogs, which is a local caterer right here in the Oceanside area. This event is not only a fundraiser for a field house, it's also the 25th anniversary of Ballenas Whalers Football. So we are wrapping the two ideas together. It's primarily a field house fundraiser, but we're also welcoming all the alumni from the Ballenas Whalers over the last 25 years to come out, celebrate, see your old friends, and have a good time.

Peter McCully: Tell us about the field house itself, Michael, that you're trying to raise funds for. What would the facility mean for football or sports in general in the area?

Michael Pedersen: The truth is that both organizations—the Oceanside Lions and Ballenas Whalers—have never really had a facility. And the thing about football is, when you have teams come up-island, you need a washroom for one thing, a place for the players to change, a place for the organizations to leave their equipment—just a kind of general-purpose building, as we refer to it. A field house.

So really, what we're doing is trying to get a field house built. We already have an area that's been allocated to us from the school board, thankfully, so that both clubs can really utilize it and benefit from having a field house, which is field-side right there for parents, for players, and for coaches.

Peter McCully: What's the biggest obstacle so far in getting a field house built, and how do you hope the anniversary celebration and the fundraiser will help move the project forward?

Michael Pedersen: The project has been green-lighted from the school board, so that was probably the first obstacle. They're on board with us, and they're supporting this, but it really comes down to money.

We have a lot of alumni and local businesses who are volunteering their time and efforts to help build the field house, but it still comes down to paying for the materials. So at this point, we're trying to do fundraising so that this project can move forward and benefit not just Oceanside football, but the community in general.

Peter McCully: If someone listening hasn't been involved in football but cares about youth development in the community, how would you explain why they should support the field house project and attend your fundraiser?

Michael Pedersen: Firstly, if you just want to go out and enjoy country music and have a good time, then this is definitely the place to be on September 6th, whether you're into football or not.

By coming out to the fundraiser, you're in effect going to be supporting Oceanside Football next to Ballenas, and all of the kids and everyone in the organizations will benefit from it. But like I said, this is really for the community in general. This will be a field house that'll be accessible to the greater community at large and really leave a legacy for years to come in the Oceanside area.

Peter McCully: You mentioned that this is a 25th anniversary, a homecoming of sorts for Oceanside football. Can you take us back to the very beginning? What was the vision when Ballenas Whalers were established 25 years ago, and how has the program evolved?

Michael Pedersen: I wasn't around at the time, but I have read deeply about it.

First of all, community football was established in 1999 by a father-and-son team, and the father, Joe Martino, still lives in Nanoose Bay here and is still in contact with the community groups. The Ballenas Whalers started in the year 2000, so that makes this year 25 years. And I would say the evolution of football has gone from really a startup to now having established organizations that are respected throughout their leagues, with kids who compete and love playing football.

Peter McCully: Michael, you've played football yourself?

Michael Pedersen: I did. I actually grew up in Winnipeg, so I played for a couple of clubs over there, but football has always been in my life. And now that I have kids and they showed an interest in football, naturally I jumped back in myself and got involved.

Peter McCully: And as president of the Oceanside Football Association and part of all of the celebration of the 25 years, there must have been hundreds of young people in the area who have come through those programs between the Ballenas Whalers and the Oceanside Lions.

Michael Pedersen: It might be fair to say even thousands. Your standard football team has sometimes up to 40 players, 50 players. Over 25 years, and community football originally in Oceanside had multiple teams, not just the two that we have today, plus you've got the two teams with Ballenas. So it's probably fair to say thousands of kids have gone through the program and benefited from what football has to offer.

Peter McCully: For parents who've watched their kids and their neighbors' kids go through the programs, what do you think they'd say has been the most valuable aspect beyond just learning the game?

Michael Pedersen: You know what? The thing about football is, it's really a team sport. It's really a community sport. We always like to tell the kids that they're not just teammates, they're family. And when you play a sport like football, it requires a lot of dedication and a lot of work. And I think the values that football instills in kids and that they take with them beyond football and beyond school are things like hard work and teamwork, respect, leadership. They're all great values that are expected from the kids on the football field, and I think when they learn that at a young age, it carries along with them throughout life.

Peter McCully: Michael, for young families in the Oceanside area who might be listening, what would you want them to know about what football can offer their children beyond just playing the game?

Michael Pedersen: If you're not familiar with football, but you're looking for an activity for your kids that will benefit them physically and mentally, football's a really good opportunity and a really good option for kids to jump into.

The thing about football is, at first, it can seem a little bit intimidating, especially since it's a complicated game. At any given time, there are 12 kids on the field, and the kids all have to work together as a unit in order to be successful on the football field. And I would say that if your kid needs an opportunity just to get out and become physically healthy, to make friends, to make community, and to find something that's really healthy and positive to become excited about, football's a really great sport.

You can start at about the age of grade five. We do flag football for the young ones, and then we move into the tackle programs as they get older. And you'll find that a lot of kids at first—they'll come, they're shy, they don't quite know what's going on, and they're a little bit nervous about joining a sport that looks so complicated. But the pattern that we see is most kids come, they play a few games, they start to figure it out, they start to make friends, and then they become passionate about playing football.

Peter McCully: Michael, how about fall registration for Oceanside football?

Michael Pedersen: For the kids, we're kicking off the fall season starting on August 19th. We still have some space available for our teams, so if kids are interested, you can always look us up—Oceanside Lions Football Club—and click the registration link and check it all out.

A nice thing about football too is it's surprisingly inexpensive to play. We supply all of the equipment, we supply everything. All you need is your own cleats and a water bottle, and the rest comes from us, and then it's at a really good price. So check us out online. If you have any questions about registering, you can always message us on Facebook or send us an email.

Peter McCully: The field house fundraiser is September 6th. This is a licensed event.

Michael Pedersen: It's a licensed event with sponsors, so it is for adults only. As much as we love them, going out with my spouse and some friends is also a good time. So this is what we're hoping to do: put on a really fun, fantastic event for adults, 7:00 to 11:00 PM, September 6th at Jensen Center. It's gonna be a blast.

Peter McCully: Folks can look in the show notes, and we will have a link to where you can buy tickets. Thanks for your time today, Michael, and good luck with the field house fundraiser.

Michael Pedersen: Peter, I appreciate this opportunity very much. Thank you as well.

Dave Graham: Thanks to Michael Pedersen for being on The Pulse podcast. Proceeds from the fundraising dance will help fund the much-needed Ballenas field house project. To find tickets, go to Eventbrite and search for "Whalers football." As fun as it looks, I think the window for me playing contact sports has probably closed.

Peter McCully: We're all breathing a sigh of relief, Dave, but I thought you played football in high school.

Dave Graham: Oh no, I did not play football in high school because I played soccer in elementary school, and I actually got quite seriously hurt.

Peter McCully: Seriously?

Dave Graham: Oh, I wouldn't kid about personal injury.

Peter McCully: No, I mean, you got seriously hurt?

Dave Graham: Torn ligaments, surgery. I wore a cast for months. Then there was all the physio, and so no, I did not play football. I figured playing football would probably just break me right in half. But looking on the bright side, soon I'm gonna be old enough to play pickleball.

Peter McCully: If you'd like to be part of the podcast, click on the contact link on our website and use our "Speak to Us" option to send a voice message. If you have an event to announce, a comment on a topic, or you know a story we might want to look into, speak to us.

Dave Graham: Or you could just send us a good old-fashioned text message. Follow the contact links from our homepage. While you're there, we encourage you to sign up for the Pulse Community Newsletter with advanced notice of podcasts and contest opportunities. The Pulse homepage is thepulsecommunity.ca.

Peter McCully: Sidney seismologist Taimi Mulder left us a message.

Taimi Mulder: Hi Peter, this is Taimi Mulder, your local earthquake gal. I'm an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada. I was just looking at the tidal records at Tofino and at Port Alberni. And interestingly enough, it is now day nine after the magnitude 8.8 Russia earthquake.

Interestingly enough, the waves are still reverberating about the ocean, and you can still see them superimposed on top of the topographical graph at Tofino and at Port Alberni and at many other tidal stations up and down the coast. It takes approximately one and a half hours for the tidal wave to transit from Tofino up to Port Alberni.

The maximum wave heights occurred at quite different times. At Tofino, the maximum wave height was at 4:33 AM on July 30th at 0.8 feet, and at Port Alberni, the maximum wave height was at 5:19 PM on July 30th at 1.7 feet.

We see it as the wave hits the outer coast—that was around about 0.8 feet, certainly at Tofino. Going into Port Alberni, there's actually a lot of buildup. It's an 80-kilometer-long fjord, takes a long time for the waves to traverse that. As that fjord shallows, the waves have nowhere else to go but up, and so you get quite a lot of amplification by the time you get to the end of the Port Alberni channel. Their maximum wave height was 1.7 feet.

So by the time it came around to Nanaimo, it was very small—the maximum wave height. But what I find very interesting is it's easily 24 hours later. The initial earthquake occurred at 4:24 PM on July 29th. For example, at Port Alberni, the maximum wave was at 5:19 PM the next day.

If you are on the outer coast when there is a tsunami warning or a watch or an advisory, I suggest that you be very careful for a good 48 hours afterwards—the general 24 to 48 hours. Be very careful around the water. Many of these effects last. It's day nine, and we're still seeing very small reverberations of the tsunami in the wave record.

I did want to read out the tsunami alert so there'd be some understanding. A warning is the highest level of alert, and this was issued for the Alaska region: dangerous coastal flooding, powerful currents are possible. Move to high ground or inland. An advisory is the next level down. BC was under an advisory for the 8.8 earthquake for most of the time period. That is: strong currents and waves dangerous to those in or very near the water are possible. The recommendations: stay out of the water, away from beaches and waterways.

Stepping down from that is a tsunami watch. A watch says that a distant tsunami is possible in the first hours after that earthquake. The first hour or so, BC and the West Coast goes under a tsunami watch, and then that was upgraded to an advisory. A watch says a distant tsunami is possible, and the recommendation: stay tuned for more information and be prepared to act.

Most of the time when there's a large earthquake worldwide, the National Tsunami Warning Center issues an information statement, which is: no threat or very distant event, and a threat is not yet determined. And for that, you can just relax.

Fireside Books: There's exciting news for book lovers. Fireside Books in Parksville now has a second location in Port Alberni. The Bookworm used books are just $5 each, and be sure to ask about their volume discounts. The Bookworm, on the corner of Redford and Anderson, open seven days a week from 10 to 5.

Fireside Books at 464 Island Highway East in Parksville is a book dragon's dream come true. Browse their extensive collection weekdays from nine to six and weekends 10 to 5. Both locations make growing your personal library easier than ever: new books, used books, activity books, puzzle books, and much more. Order online at firesidebooks.ca, and your books will be waiting when you arrive. Ask about returning books for a book credit. Fireside Books and The Bookworm—two locations, one amazing adventure in browsing.

Ian Lindsay: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate.

Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Peter McCully: Thank you for listening to the Pulse Community Podcast. We're focused on the people and stories of the mid-Vancouver Island area, but we're also serving up stories for youngsters with our CuCu Kid Stories.

Dave Graham: Yes, Peter McCully narrates the stories about Gracie the Eskimo dog. In a recent episode, Gracie and her human companion Peter go to the boardwalk in Parksville and meet people from all over. The messages within touch on hospitality and sharing.

Peter McCully: Our other series is The Mellow Submarine, featuring Dave Graham narrating the stories about Captain Dave and his first mate, Larry the Lobster. In their latest story, they go to a kitchen store and learn that the best ingredients in any recipe are love and friendship. You'll find our CuCu Kid Stories at cucukids.com, also on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube.

And now here's Marilyn to introduce our next guest.

Marilyn: In the green room is Brian Wilford, who worked as a print journalist for 35 years before retiring. He has been deeply concerned about climate and environmental issues for many years. Since humor often cuts through political noise, Wilford harnesses it to full effect in "Rise of the Jellies," his first novel.

Dave Graham: Welcome to the podcast, Brian. It is good to see you again. It has been a little while. We used to share office space.

Brian Wilford: Yes, yeah, we did. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here.

Dave Graham: I'd ask what you've been doing in retirement, but I suppose you've been spending a lot of time writing a book, huh?

Brian Wilford: Yes, and I've been really enjoying retirement. It's just such a privilege to be able to have enough money to do whatever you like. I just get up and play every day. It's really—I'm really loving life. The book took a number of years to do, that's for sure.

Dave Graham: And here's a question I've never asked before: What sparked the idea of flying jellyfish as a global threat?

Brian Wilford: I was reading an article about what jellyfish are doing in the ocean, and because the ecosystems have become unbalanced—the oceans are polluted, overfished, warming, acidic—lots of species don't like that, but jellyfish thrive in those conditions. They've been around for 600 to 800 million years. They go back before Pangaea. They've survived the asteroid and freezing and heating, and they're thriving in the ocean, and they're changing the oceans. They're changing the food chains. They're changing the ecosystem.

But the person writing the article said all of this is out of sight and out of mind because it's underwater, and it's really hard to get people's attention. That was really interesting. And then after reading the article, I was sitting up in bed with the light off one night, propped up against pillows, thinking about it and trying to think of how to bring this to people's attention. And the idea came to me: what if the jellyfish could pop out of the ocean and rise up into the sky and actually do to the surface world what they're doing in the ocean?

The idea wasn't that they become malevolent marauding monsters like Godzilla going around trashing everything, but they do actually what they're now currently doing in the ocean. And the thought made me kind of giggle. There were a lot of problems with the idea, a lot of questions that needed to be answered and solved in order to make it come off. But yeah, that was how it started. I just started thinking about: Why would they pop out of the ocean all of a sudden? How would they do that? How would they live? All that kind of thing. And I had to answer all of those questions.

Dave Graham: How much of your background in print journalism had to be brought to the fore in order to be able to produce this book and work through these problems?

Brian Wilford: Certainly the research. Journalists, as you would know, are good researchers. We're used to finding out information and knowing where to look, so that was certainly a help. It was also a help to have the discipline to write every day. Also, there's a structure to storytelling that's not the same structure as journalism necessarily, but that certainly was all a big help. Mostly the kind of focus and the discipline and the idea of sitting and writing—that's how that helped.

Dave Graham: As for the discipline, did you set yourself a goal as to what you had to accomplish or how long you had to spend at it, or how many words to produce in a day to consider it successful?

Brian Wilford: No, that would be a daunting way for me to take on a project. I just looked at it as a fun project. I was gonna have fun doing it, and if it ever stopped being fun, then I wouldn't do it anymore. It's something I always wanted to do, even as a younger man. I looked at Canada and the book world and thought that it would be almost impossible or really unlikely to write fiction and make a living in Canada at the time. There was maybe Pierre Berton and nobody else, or even Margaret Atwood at that time—I don't think she was making a lot of money.

And so that was actually why I, in part, turned to journalism—to print journalism—because it was writing, which I liked to do, but I could make a living at it.

Dave Graham: Nice to hear you're doing it on your terms now, huh? And it's gotta feel good.

Brian Wilford: Yeah, it was challenging, and it involved a lot of research and really challenged my abilities as a writer. I had to learn a lot about book writing, and it turns out print journalism and book writing are really not the same thing at certain points. Journalism helps a lot and gives you the confidence in writing, but it isn't quite the form that the industry wants as well. So it was a real learning process for me as well, which is part of the joy of doing it.

Dave Graham: I made the natural assumption that most of your research and learning would be based on jellyfish and their biology and the ocean environment, and here you are telling me you're learning about writing.

Brian Wilford: I'm not a scientist, but I really wanted to get that stuff right. So the research was an ongoing part. It wasn't like you do the research first and then turn around and write, though I did probably have 20 pages of notes by the time I started writing. But it was just constantly researching and writing at the same time—Wikipedia and scientific papers online and all that kind of stuff.

The research would give me ideas and send me off in new directions, but I did have problems to solve: Why Qualicum Beach? And why are they flying? And all that kind of stuff.

Dave Graham: The flying jellies seem to represent broader environmental consequences of human interference with nature. Was that part of the intention right from the get-go?

Brian Wilford: The book is a satire on the human response to climate change. We've known for a long time—I forget when Al Gore came out with "An Inconvenient Truth," 2004, 2006, somewhere back then—but we've known even before that the planet was warming and the cause was the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. The emissions have done nothing but go up and up and up, and so the problem of flying jellyfish is basically the problem of climate change and the same approaches. That was basically part of the premise.

Dave Graham: You're tackling corporate agriculture, climate change, ecosystem collapse, speculative science to create a powerful tool for environmental messaging. My hat's off to you, sir.

Brian Wilford: It all just came together. It just turned out that way. I guess it existed in my head that it was going to be a satire, but it turns out that in the book world, satire isn't really much of a book category. It's very minor. It was going to be either science fiction or fantasy, and it couldn't really be fantasy because I wanted it to be grounded in the real world, in the present time—that these flying jellyfish are really doing this to present-day Qualicum Beach, and then as the book unfolds, throughout the rest of the planet.

The science fiction aspect allowed me to get into what's happening in our world and all of those sorts of things, with the agriculture and the increasing power of corporations who are really running the world and will do so increasingly in the future.

Dave Graham: I want to talk a little bit about one character. It sounds like she might have come from a Bond movie: Dr. Honey Purcell, the jellyfish queen.

Brian Wilford: She was based on an actual marine biologist in Tasmania, Lisa-ann Gershwin. She's done TED Talks and written a couple of books, so she is a serious scientist, but she gets called up every once in a while on Australian TV whenever there's a big swarm of jellyfish or a bad sting or something like that.

So yeah, she was an inspiration for that character. There are lots of characters in the book who are inspired by somebody or even sometimes a couple of somebodies, but it's a funny process. They become their own people as the book unfolds. None of the characters are really anybody, and they actually start to drive the narrative. It's the characters who move the story along in different directions, and it's up to me to stay true to the characters: Would this character say this or do that? And so that's part of how the story moves along.

Dave Graham: Did you anticipate that?

Brian Wilford: Not to the extent that it happened, no. It was an odd feeling that the four main characters were actually writing the book and not so much me.

The premise of climate change and global warming and what the jellyfish are doing in the ocean is all kind of very serious and heavy. And if I were to start talking about what the jellyfish are doing in the ocean, your eyes would start to glaze over really quickly, and your listeners would start to be looking around for other things to do.

So I wanted it to be fast-paced and some humor in there and have it go along like a beach read. I thought that it had to become like a dialogue-driven story.

Dave Graham: Why Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island as the setting?

Brian Wilford: I think that came out of "I should write what I know." It could have been maybe more lucrative to set it in New York City or Los Angeles or something like that, and if Hollywood ever gets a hold of it, maybe they'll move it there instead from a quaint small Canadian town. But the book is in part an ode to not just Qualicum Beach, but to this area. I really like it here. It was fun for me to set it there and have things happen in locations that I know and people would recognize.

Dave Graham: Also, it seems that flying jellyfish seem actually a natural progression from Sharknado, don't you think?

Brian Wilford: I learned from a review, actually, that was done of the book, that there is a genre where you would take this sort of monster-type thing and it gets into a lot of gore and Texas Chainsaw Massacre stuff, and the reviewer said something like, "Oh, and Wilford doesn't go that way. Instead, he goes to Susan Juby or Woefield Farm." I don't know if you're familiar with those books at all. It was a real compliment to be compared to Susan Juby. She's a pretty good writer, but especially because I really wanted to stick to the true jellyfish science as much as possible, even though they're up in the air and flying around. It doesn't get into horror-type stuff.

Dave Graham: Until Hollywood gets their hands on it. But don't you worry about—no. The book manages to be both funny and genuinely concerning. How did you balance the humor with all the seriousness?

Brian Wilford: It wasn't really a matter of balancing. It was more a matter of weaving. That had to be part of the tone of the book, just to keep the story moving along and keep people's interest. And I have a side of me that's goofy, and so I had to try to have funny things happen in there, and I think it really helps move the book along as well.

Dave Graham: Did you need to research crisis management or how the community responds to crises?

Brian Wilford: No, not really, but both the media and the small-town politicians and so on—the media can go into a feeding frenzy over anything from Cabbage Patch dolls to Taylor Swift. It doesn't have to be a wildfire or an earthquake or anything like that. Local politicians are the same. They—I think they would respond to a crisis such as a wildfire or flying jellyfish in the same way that they would respond to a zoning amendment application or something like that if they have the same way of operating and the same kind of personalities.

And so it really wasn't like crisis management sort of thing. It's just that, from my years of working in media and attending hours and hours of endless council meetings, that's just the way they are.

Dave Graham: Did you have an ending in mind when you began?

Brian Wilford: Pretty much the ending was dictated by the premise that this is a satire on climate change. I don't want to say precisely what the ending is, but yeah, I knew pretty much what the ending was gonna be right from the start, at least not necessarily in detail because that gets formed as the story goes along, but certainly I had an idea of how it was gonna turn out.

Dave Graham: Now, here's where it becomes clear that I have yet to get my hands on a copy of this book, but did you leave yourself room for a sequel?

Brian Wilford: It could have a sequel, but to me it seems like it would be just more of the same, and so that doesn't really interest me all that much. I'd rather go on to other things. I could try to do a jellyfish cookbook with the left-hand pages having color pictures of jellyfish, which are really quite beautiful creatures, and the right-hand page being recipes, all of which would involve deep frying and lots of sauce and a warning to be sure to scrape off the slime and the stinging stuff. I'm not sure that would sell all that well, but if Hollywood did come along with, say, "This flying jellyfish franchise is gonna be bigger than Star Wars, here's $10 million, write a sequel," okay, I didn't part with all this time.

Dave Graham: Obviously, aside from the entertainment value, what do you want readers to take away with them from reading "Rise of the Jellies"?

Brian Wilford: Gee, entertainment, right from the start, was job one. You have to enjoy something, you have to make some sort of connection with it, and I thought about, you know, what entertains me? And all of those things have to be involved: interesting characters. And so there's nothing besides entertainment—it just depends how you define entertainment, I guess.

Dave Graham: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder there. It's art, Brian. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you so much.

Brian Wilford: Oh, and thank you.

Peter McCully: Check your local bookstore for a copy or go to riseofthejellies.com.

Oh great, now I want jellyfish jelly. Oh no, I'll never try that again. What do I want to hear about this? Let me answer that one: No. Hey, maybe if we head to the cafeteria, Mabel could help you out.

Dave Graham: I wonder what Mabel's version of jelly might be.

Peter McCully: Well, she's already done jellied eels.

Dave Graham: Oh, there it goes. Just lost my taste for jelly.

Peter McCully: How about a jelly donut?

Dave Graham: No, I was mistaken. Jelly sounds good again. Skip the fish. Lead the way.

Rockin' Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen! Bringing stories, making waves. No missing, spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics, alright. Join the ride, it's gonna feel just right.