Central Coast author Sharon Sheltzer’s new young adult romance and adventure novel, Lady of the Waves: Love in the Time of Climate Change, opens with a bang. Twelve-year-old protagonist Aallotar, on vacation with her Finnish family in Thailand, heads to the beach with her mother. “We only have another week in paradise,” her mom says. Suddenly, the sea begins to recede as a tsunami forms. What follows is a gripping disaster sequence written with cinematic intensity as the massive wall of water sweeps over Aallotar and her mother, separating them and destroying the resort and village.
The backdrop is based on a real event. On Dec. 26, 2004, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed 227,989 people in 14 countries—the single deadliest natural disaster in history.
It’s a traumatic event that begins a decade-long story as Aallotar processes her loss, embarks on a science career focused on mitigating natural disasters, and strikes up a slow burning romance with 14-year-old Daniel, who she meets in the aftermath of the tsunami when he arrives in Thailand with his parents—therapists there to help kids process trauma. In adulthood, Daniel becomes a climate activist, and he and Aallotar rediscover one another at a global climate summit.
Sheltzer’s novel focuses on worthy themes: “Resilience, that would probably be No. 1,” she said. “The importance of family, that power comes from education. Also, redemption versus revenge. Empathy is the key to developing passion. Aallotar eventually gets there.”x
Where to get it
Los Osos author Sharon Sheltzer’s young adult romance and adventure novel, Lady of the Waves: Love in the Time of Climate Change, is available in Morro Bay’s Coalesce Bookstore and Los Osos’ Volumes of Pleasure, and online through the publisher, 12 Willows Press (12willowspress.com), or other online retailers. Learn more about the author at sharondsheltzer.com.
Aallotar is angry at what happened to her family, but through the course of the story, she learns to channel her anger into something positive and hopeful. It’s a great read, and the climate angle is right in Sheltzer’s wheelhouse. She’s a member of The League of Climate Fiction Writers, and she’s had a lifelong interest in environmentalism.
“When I was in architecture school, I immediately decided that that’s where my interest was,” she said.
After graduating, Sheltzer lived and worked in San Francisco before moving to the small town of Three Rivers, where she “had the opportunity to open my own business, and people there were environmentally leaning, and so I had an opportunity to specialize in construction types, like off-the-grid solar, rammed earth, straw bale, and SIP [structural insulated panel] blocks. My career was very much oriented in that direction, and I felt the responsibility to make sure that my buildings were energy efficient.”
It took a local writers conference to inspire her to transition from writing articles and a Substack about environmental concerns to taking on novels.
“I recently retired when I moved here, and honestly, I just thought, whatever I do in the next phase of my life, it has to be creative because that’s where I get my energy from. I love being creative, so I sat with it for a little while, trying to figure out where I wanted to put my creativity, and I gave myself a birthday present to go to the Cuesta College Central Coast Writers Conference, and that cemented it for me.
“It was just a natural that I would write about environmental subjects,” she continued. “And it makes me feel like it can still make a difference, you know? If I can reach out and tell stories and have people connect with the narratives and see themselves in that narrative and find agency, that’s my goal.”
While living with her husband in Visalia, Sheltzer discovered Los Osos and the Central Coast through a friend.
‘If I can reach out and tell stories and have people connect with the narratives and see themselves in that narrative and find agency, that’s my goal.’
—Sharon Sheltzer, climate novelist
“It had everything that we dreamed of. It was laid-back, very dog centered, very water centered. We’re both water people, dog people, and it was a little bit more liberal than the valley with a lot of outdoor activities. People were super active here and interested in the environment, birding and hiking, and boating, things like that. It was just an absolute no-brainer for us.”
Lady of the Waves was also informed by experiences from Sheltzer’s past.
“When I was in architecture school, I did a semester at the University of Maryland and was inspired by the designer of the Vietnam Memorial, [Maya Lin]. She was a 21-year-old girl, and she had an impact on me. Then I was listening to an NPR special, and it featured another award-winning young lady who had designed an underwater catchment system in Thailand to help in case of tsunamis. I filed that away.”
These remarkable real-life women helped inform Aallotar, but personal experiences also played a part in the story.
“I [hosted] a foreign exchange student from Finland, and a foreign exchange student from Thailand, and we spent quite a bit of time in Finland in a non-touristy kind of way, so the places I describe are real,” Sheltzer noted. “I also knew about the tsunami and had seen some scenes from it, and it impacted me. I thought, ‘What would happen if I was in there, and what would have happened if this woman’s [catchment] design had been implemented? Would it have helped?’”
She wanted a coming-of-age story for Daniel and Aallotar, but also the climate change coming-of-age story.
“For me personally, I became aware of climate change from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in 2006,” she noted.
Sheltzer hopes her novel will spark an interest in climate science, and despite a renewal of climate change denial and the gutting of environmental protections by the Trump administration, she remains hopeful.
“There’re lots of studies that continue that are finding remarkable solutions. Just last night, I saw a special on how China has discovered how to manufacture an alternate plastic made of 100 percent bamboo plus a couple of chemicals that are natural, and they’re starting to do it,” she said.
“There’s bad, plenty of bad out there, and then there’s good. We’re retrograde right now because of our politics. But in other countries, they’re proceeding, and there’s a lot of smart people all over the world working to make things better.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sept 3, 2026.
