Local setting for Edmonds author’s first novel ‘Grey Sky’

Tammy Snow

Edmonds author Tammy Snow has been an avid reader since winning her first “bookworm” contest in the first grade, so you can understand her excitement about publishing her first novel, “Grey Sky,” which came out Tuesday.

The book tells the story of Sky Griffin, a former police officer who moved from Salt Lake City to Seattle. Sky’s mother, MiMi, goes missing during a ferry ride from Kingston to Edmonds. Sky is convinced that somebody has either harmed or taken her mother. Sky leaves the love of her life and her young son to goes undercover in hopes of discovering what could have possibly happen to her mother, and she learns things that she never imagined possible.

We conducted an online interview with Snow, a 14-year Edmonds resident, about her book, which will be available at the Edmonds Bookshop (and a book signing has been scheduled there for June 16).

Q: Please tell us about yourself. How did you end up moving to Edmonds 14 years ago?
A: I grew up in Provo, Utah and was working at a software company there when I got a call from a former colleague inviting me to interview for a job in his group at Microsoft. I flew up and spent two intense days interviewing before being offered a job. I fell in love with the Puget Sound area during that first trip, and I really liked the experience at Microsoft so — aside from having to move away from my growing-up family — it was a no-brainer to take the job. It didn’t take long after moving to the area that I knew I wanted to live in the Edmonds area so, in spite of my realtor really pushing me to buy on the Eastside, I focused my house-hunting efforts in the Edmonds area.

Q: This is your first novel, but had you done other types of writing before this?
A: Not really—unless you count school papers or professional documents written on the job.

Q: How did you come up with the characters and plot for Grey Sky, and what inspired you to set this story in Edmonds? Or does the book title say it all?
A: I had an experience a few years back where we took my mother-in-law on a trip over to Kingston and when we returned to the car, the mother-in-law was nowhere to be found. We ended up having to start to drive off the ferry without her, but luckily she had found a crew member and was waiting for us at the end of the boat. It turns out that she had gotten separated from us and couldn’t remember exactly where we parked. We had a great laugh out of it but it set my imagination off on thinking what it might have been like if we didn’t find her. The two main characters and their son are loosely based on my own family and all of the other characters are have personality traits of someone I know.

Having the bulk of the story set in Edmonds was easy for me. I love the area and I’m most familiar with it so it was easy for me to picture the story taking place here. The title of the book definitely refers, to an extent, to the grey sky we often have here, but it has more to do with the fact that Sky, the central character in the book, is faced with a few grey areas that create some interesting challenges for her.

Q: Is there another novel in your future any time soon?
A: I hope so! I’ve started working on three novels and made a decent dent in the follow-up to Grey Sky. I really enjoyed the process of writing the book and hope to be able to experience the rush again.

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