"Ghost Stalker" was published via Outskirts Press,
July 18th, 2009!
Find it at www.amazon.com.
A Synopsis of Ghost Stalker:
Why do people like to read stories of a man's ability to rise above a government's tyranny?
The joy of victory!
Everyone likes to experience that feeling, even if it's just a taste of that triumph. Perhaps some believe that their reading of such stories might strengthen even their own resolve in a similar situation. Whatever that reason is, the fact remains that people enjoy seeing a heavy-handed bully fail at the hands of a single, cunning hero.
"Ghost Stalker" is a story based on a man who might have lived if Jeremiah Johnson had produced a child with a particular Blackfoot female who claimed to have been his woman. Subsequent incidents and adventures that occur throughout the book could easily have happened to anyone raised in the old ways on a reservation, weaned on the Vietnam conflict, and then rejected by his own country via its laws that seem so unfair. He is a man who cannot seem to find a home in a land that he should be able to call "home".
It is the narrative of Jeremiah "Jerry" Johnson-Eagle, a half-Blackfoot whose story includes his worries and frustrations, his pursuers, and the woman he learns to love. There are spectacular mountain vistas, sad defeats, vicious hand-to-hand combats, a manhunt that comes down to one man against another, kidnappings, personal victories, cunning strategies, and even the unique viewpoint from an animal's perspective.
I envision this novel as one which is timely on the present wave of mistrust against the American government and will hold its own with those readers who enjoy a slightly different view of the "man-versus-heavy-handed-government" genres.
With planned sequels, a chain of these stories may gain a place with any popular series of novels with similar subjects.
Ghost Stalker II, Alaskan Odyssey
(a tentative title)
Can the Ghost Stalker find his rest, happiness, and a home in the last frontier of Alaska?
And what about the FBI's hunt for him? New problems and adversaries surface.
More than half-finished!
UPDATE! This novel is currently being written and no longer on hold!
PREFACE
From my childhood I have had one good friend whose past was laced with the culture of a Native People. I couldn't understand, as I grew older, how he had little or no interest in his family's background. So I took up the challenge of finding out more about the Native American culture. I took college courses that investigated the past as well as the challenges of the every day contemporary political environment of Native life in the United States. I went as far as subscribing to a Native newspaper, "Akwesasne Notes "
Having identified myself with and feeling a kinship to Native American causes, I eventually considered even adopting far more than just a sympathetic feeling. I was feeling an attraction to live in the old ways and to be inducted by the Sun Dance into a Native religion. Since life often does not parallel idealistic viewpoints, I opted for homesteading in Alaska as an alternative to backpacking there from Montana and living in a teepee on some obscure federal parcel. I may have been considered by some as nuts, but I wasn't CRAZY!
Frankly, I will always prefer life in the wilds. The lifestyle left me in the best physical shape of my life and I realized that the lack of amenities are a great advantage, not a disadvantage. But I've learned that teaching others skills to deal with the harshness of such lifestyle is far more reasonable, hence my website that offers survival tips and information.
The reason for this book comes from several people I've known through the years, beginning with my close friend and ending with a man who has taught me to unselfishly share my accrued knowledge. Several characters in this book are compiled from a variety of my relationships, both male and female. There is not one specific person in this book who matches any living person intentionally.
I hope the reader is incensed by the things that incense me and the main character, Jerry Johnson-Eagle. But, also, realize that this man is a product of his upbringing and his surrounding. He often doesn't know any of the alternatives that we hwo are living in a modern culture take for granted.
Once upon a time I adhered to that philosophy, going from Ohio to Colorado, then on to Utah, Montana, and finally, Alaska. Each step took me closer to an environment that spoke to my very soul, but I soon found out that some wilderness was no longer in existence. It has changed over the years with the onslaught of the environmental movement, which inspired people to seek wild land.
Now, thanks to realty companies and the rich people they cater to, virtually NO wild land exists on either the front or back ranges of the Rocky Mountains. Without our national park system, some areas today would be surveyed, parceled out, and sold to the highest bidder. Soon, all lands along highways and secondary roads in Alaska may succumb to this insane thought pattern.