The Blue Beacon

An Interview with Jordan Green

Late last summer, Jordan Green published The Blue Beacon, an animal adventure novel set in the post-human ruins of the Pacific Northwest. After two decades as a journalist and author, The Blue Beacon is Green’s first novel, and the beginning of a longer series called the Cascadia Chronicles. We talked to Jordan about writing the novel, the successful Kickstarter campaign that got it off the ground, and what’s next in the series.

Can you start by giving a brief overview of The Blue Beacon and the bigger idea behind the Cascadia Chronicles?

The Blue Beacon is an adventure story about four mammals—a badger named Eola, a marten named Arrick, a raccoon named Bajo, and a mysterious squirrel named Ophir—on a secret mission, carrying invaluable news. The book is set in a post-human world where mammals have built a society in our ruins. The world is inspired by classic animal-adventure stories like the Redwall series, The Rats of NIMH, and Watership Down off a greater conflict, so I’m working on a sequel that will build off the first book. The world of Cascadia is too rich and intriguing not to explore further.

Why write an adventure story like this for kids?

Growing up, I loved any story with animals and I always wanted to build my own world. Animal characters tend to have a heroism and tenderness that I’m drawn to as a storyteller. They’re traditionally more authentically cooperative and good. And I think we’re in an era where antiheroes are overplayed. Young readers could use more heroic heroes.

What are some of the major themes you’ve weaved into the story?

Friendship and loyalty are major themes. There’s a coming-of-age element, as the main character is a female badger journeying to find out her direction in life. There’s also a calm-before-the-storm element, where the characters have important news, so the reader is experiencing a world on the brink of cataclysm.

Oregon and food feature heavily in the story. Why do you use nature and mealtime so prominently throughout The Blue Beacon?

Oregon and food are major themes! I’ve always heard you should write what you know, and focus details around aspects of the world you especially understand. Well, I understand food and the landscape of Oregon really well, and it’s fun for me to depict that and set readers’ stomachs rumbling.

What are some of the influences behind writing this?

I love classic fantasy series like The Chronicles of Narnia and the The Chronicles of Prydain, but Brian Jacques’s Redwall series is the most direct influence. His animal adventures are very dear to me. There were swords and bows, but there were always these great feasts to get me hungry. And Jacques’s good guys were genuinely good.

I wanted to experience a rendition set in the American West, because I feel like our geography is more varied and there are unique North American species that never found their way into Jacques’s books. I wanted a Redwall set in Oregon, and this is where my imagination led.

What do you hope your readers take away?

First, I hope they leave my stories feeling highly entertained. Beyond that, I hope they develop a renewed passion for the natural world, from true-life animal species to a fantasy landscape based on real geography. I also hope they finish some of these chapters feeling hungry for a great meal.

When publishing this, you used a number of new ways to get the story out there, including Substack, AI art, and Kickstarter. What was that process like and how did it help build community around your story?

I used Substack (CascadiaChronicles.com) and Instagram (@jordangreenwords) to communicate with my readers leading up to the launch of the Kickstarter. Learning the landscape of crowdsourcing and campaign building was a major process. It took me a couple months to prepare and build the pitch.

Kickstarter was super rewarding, though. I mean, we raised enough for a strong first-print run, which was the goal, but there were plenty of other successes. I was very happy with my campaign and learned a lot in building it. After I showed up with a strong campaign design and solid support, Kickstarter was excellent at sharing my campaign to others. Seeing the book’s readership extend well beyond my regular readers already feels like confirmation this artistic vision was worth following.

Readers can buy The Blue Beacon at cascadiachronicles.myshopify.com or on Amazon.com. Ebook is available on Kindle, and an audio version is available on Audible.

Jordan Green is a native Oregonian and a US Army veteran who writes at the Green Room and the Cascadia Chronicles on Substack. A columnist and contributor to Willamette Week, his work has also appeared in Tucson Weekly, Relevant Magazine, and elsewhere as a ghostwriter. He founded the Burnside Writers Collective with Donald Miller, which he edited from 2004–2013, and is a co-author of Besides the Bible: 100 Books Which Have, Should, or Will Change Christian Culture. The Blue Beacon is his first novel. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with his daughter.