I of the Hurricane: Eating Up a Storm by Sema Gurun and Stephanie Rugoff

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Jeyran Main

Kali developed I of the Hurricane over the course of years. She based it on her beloved dog Hurricane and their experiences living in Southern California. She kept an ongoing journal of the daily adventures of her pets, especially her most imaginative one, Hurricane. She included Hurricane’s day-to-day interactions with her other pets – namely, her dog named Prince and her two cats, Thunder and Lightning. Eventually, she pulled these sketches together in the form of a manuscript as she felt these stories were so amusing that she wanted to share them with others and spread the affection evidenced between humans and animals. When Kali died in 2012 she left that manuscript to her sister, Sema Gurun, and her friend, Stephanie Rugoff.

We formed Sasfork Productions in order to carry out Kali’s wishes to publish her writing. The I of the Hurricane manuscript was very long so we decided to utilize just a piece of it that concentrated on Hurricane’s tender exchange with her adopted mother, Kali, and Hurricane’s love of food. The plot entails the instant love that takes place between a young pet store employee and a small white puppy she takes home. Aptly called Hurricane, the pup lives up to her name by sweeping up the household with her love of food and her wisecracking attitude. While being marketed primarily as children’s fiction, Kirkus Reviews pointed out, “Many dog lovers will undoubtedly recognize their own canines’ behavior … in this story for all ages.”

With the help of our editor, Jim Whiting, we came up with a subtitle – Eating Up a Storm – to add to the main title Kali had developed. So, this volume is called I of the Hurricane: Eating Up a Storm. We took this course knowing that there was enough material left to do several sequels with emphasis on other areas of Hurricane’s life.

Kali, also known as Zeynep Seba Gurun, was born in Turkey and grew up in New York City. After completing her fine arts studies at Syracuse University, her passionate interest in nature and animals led her to locate to the countryside and finally to California where she found Hurricane – or rather, Hurricane found her.

Kali always enjoyed writing and was known among her friends as someone who wrote letters that read like memoirs. In fact, she wrote this book in the voice of Hurricane, as a dog’s humorous personal narrative. We, Sema and Stephanie, like to joke that the book is written not in the first person but in the first dog.

Our website KaliandHurricane.com links to all the online stores selling our book, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, etc. You can also ask your local bookstore to order it from Ingram or the online dealers.

Please visit and “like” the I of the Hurricane Facebook page. In addition to messaging us there, Sasfork Productions can also be reached by email at Sasfork@yahoo.com.