Title: The Recluse
Author: Philip R Morehouse
ISBN: 13- 978-1461101055
Page count: 389
Genre: Fiction; Action/Adventure
Book Price: $14.98
Kindle Price: $4.99 or Free with Kindle Unlimited membership
Author Bio:
Philip R. Morehouse was born in the mountains of upstate New York, where he started his life's training and adventures on a family-owned farm. His grandfather mentored him throughout his youth and taught him to fish, trap, and hunt. These skills were crucial to the extended and immediate family's survival.
After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Navy, where he received special military survival training. His ship was later involved in the Cuban Blockade, the Missile Crisis, and to rescue of Americans from Haiti during the Dominion/Haiti Crisis. He would continue to serve an extended hitch during the Viet Nam War. After returning home, he married and joined the Army National Guard, serving in various aerial photography assignments.
Among many other jobs, he has worked as a professional writer and photographer for over 45 years. Now with his family grown and on their own, he pursues what he loves most - writing true-to-life, survival, adventure-type stories.
Tell us about your book:
This is a story about Torrie, a young college coed who leaves her home and boyfriend behind to join her parents in a research project in the vast, untamed northern stretches of British Columbia. But after a killer storm strikes, Torrie, believed to be dead by her parents, leaves for home, when in actuality, she is alive, having been saved by a recluse who the "Flat Landers" believe is the legendary "Big Foot".
Torrie's and the recluse's worlds collide, and out of this unusual partnership, she is forced to learn how to survive, training that enables her to fight her way back to civilization. Along the way, she learns the startling truth about her benefactor and the deadly danger that is stalking him, and she knows that she is the only person who can save him. Will she get back in time?
How long did it take to write the book?
I started the book on a yellow legal pad while attending college and raising three children. I worked on it during their afternoon naps until it was time to prepare their supper. The story progressed over several months and then again much later; it was typed into a computer using PageMaker as a word processor. This process ended after having worked on it for a total of approximately five months. Again, ten years later, I would pick it up, convert it to Microsoft Word, and edit it several more times over two more years. I would not touch it again until the fall of 2010, at which time I worked on it for over a year with two editors and a cover illustrator/formatting it before it was finally published nearly 20 years later.
What inspired you to write the book?
I think writing this story was eccentrically an escape mechanism, a sort of a daydream about what it would be like to survive in the back woods of a remote wilderness where no one else has ever been, with little more than my bare hands, a knife, and carbine. Since I've had survival training, it was not much of a stretch to project myself into that kind of environment. Using my knowledge of the subject matter, the various characters came into being as the storyline took its course. I never know ahead of time how a story will end or how the plot will manifest itself. It just naturally occurs, and I am as much a captive of the plot as are my characters and readers, and just as surprised with the ending.
Talk about the writing process -
Did you have a writing routine?
Did you do any research, and if so, what did that involve?
Yes, as I mentioned above, I would take up my ballpoint pen or pencil and a legal pad clamped to a clipboard and write for a few hours every afternoon while my children took their naps. My research was done using library books and drawing on my survival knowledge gained both at home and during my time in the Navy.
What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?
Perhaps given any situation, no matter how seemingly hopeless, one must never give up – there is always a way to succeed if you try hard enough. Also, I would hope that my readers are entertained by the story and that they take away from the experience the lessons taught about survival should they ever find themselves caught in a similar situation.
Where can we go to buy your book?
My book is available online through Amazon.com as a softcover or a Kindle download. It can also be ordered through one of their local bookstores using the ISBN-13: 978-1461101055.
Any other links or info you'd like to share?
Excerpt from the novel:
Carefully so as not to get any hair on the meat, she skinned the hide back and was preparing to cut long slices from the hind quarters when the snap of a limb breaking behind her warned her louder than words that danger was very close. Before even turning to look, she dropped her right shoulder causing the 30-30 to roll off her shoulder and fall into her hands. As she spun around, her finger instinctively pushed the safety off. She had practiced this move again and again until she had it perfect, and today it would save her life because not more than forty yards away and rapidly narrowing the distance was the biggest Grizzly bear she had ever seen.
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