Can Fiction Activate Readers to Get Behind a Cause?
- rolynnwriter
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
What impact can a novel have on an important social/environmental issue?
Historical works.
Documentaries.
Fiction.
Does one genre deliver the truth and push change more quickly than the other?
If Rachel Carson had written a fiction account of SILENT SPRING, would more people have been moved to activism by the perils of DDT on the natural world?
My fourteenth novel and second in my National Park series, is TO KILL A CONDOR. Yes, you caught the nod to Harper Lee’s novel, a masterpiece on prejudice in our society. My story, however, is centered on America’s California condors dying of lead poisoning. When Sable Chisholm, Law Enforcement Ranger, is emergency-assigned to Pinnacles National Park, the problems there are grave. Bees are dying off in huge numbers, and California condors, suffering from lead poisoning have died.
Central to the problem is hunters and fishermen who refuse to switch from lead ammunition and tackle to brass ammunition and tackle. Some don’t believe the science even if the facts are obvious; others think when the government puts regulations on ammunition and tackle, they must resist or lose more rights to bear arms. Meanwhile, vultures like the California Condor are still on the brink of extinction after soaring over our world for hundreds of thousands of years.
I’m a hopeful creature, thinking my story might persuade some to hunters and fisherment replace their lead with brass. At the very least, I’m counting on my readers to contribute to the Ventana Wildlife Society, a program which releases condors raised in captivity to the magnificent Pinnacles National Park.
This fine organization offers you more about the plight of the condor and their dogged mission to save the species. You can even adopt a condor! https://www.ventanaws.org
Watch a PBS film about the condor here:
Watch a condor release here:
This amazing group lost its Federal Funding at the end of 2025.
Here’s the website for Friends of the Condor: https://www.friendsofcondors.org You’ll learn about the specific condors in each area of the West Coast.
I promise you this: I will do all I can to help the mighty condor; I hope you will as well!
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