Darren Campbell
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 05/98) - Tristan Rhodes got quite an introduction to Yellowknife.

After arriving in the city on July 22 to do research for a novel he is writing, Rose found himself smack dab in the middle of the North's fire central.

Yes, Rhodes was planning to camp near Prelude Lake for his research when he learned that the 145,000 hectare Tibbitt Lake fire was threatening the Ingraham Trail, including the Prelude Lake area.

But after talking with the RCMP and getting a good idea of the fire situation, the 50-year-old American decided to camp at the lake anyway. He said it was a great situation to be researching his novel in.

"This is the ideal time (to be here). I can exploit this in the novel," said Rhodes. "That will be a whole chapter-the Yellowknife fire."

Rhodes, who was born and raised in New York City, is currently working on a novel for young adults that is tentatively titled, Northern Lights.

The book is a story about a terminally ill boy from Los Angeles who has learned he has less than a year to live. He is then taken on a camping trip through Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories by his uncle, who fled the United States and came to Canada in the 1960s because of his religious beliefs.

The camping trip Rhodes is on now will be the basis for the one the boy takes in the book. He will be in Yellowknife until early September after spending three months camping in Alaska and Yukon.

A touring classical musician since the age of 16, Rhodes left that career in 1994 after burning out and decided to turn his love of writing into a career.

He said he recently sold one novel entitled, Visionquest, and is working on getting Northern Lights published as well.

Rhodes said the fiction he writes always deals with tough, contemporary issues.

"I try to give people the tools to fight themselves out of a tough situation," said Rhodes.

He said Northern Lights is a book about balance. The uncle tries to give the ailing boy, who has lived in the city all his life, as large a picture of life as possible before he dies.

"It's a book of passage, of learning the tools of self-reliance and of generosity," said Rhodes.

He noted that wherever he has seen true human kindness and generosity, it has almost always been in rural settings, not urban ones.

And he has found that theory to hold true during his stay in Yellowknife -- whether it be the RCMP or park officials who kept a close eye on him during the height of the fire threat, or the staff at the city's library he visits six days a week.

He said he has been impressed with the diversity of the city and the honesty and generosity of its people.

"This town capitalizes on what it has and doesn't pretend to have what it doesn't," said Rhodes.