People often ask me why I’ve set two of my novels in Canada
while I live in down south in Texas. I guess the simple answer is I love the
remote wilderness and Canada has plenty of it. It is also rich with Native
American legends about mysterious creatures that inhabit those woods. My novel Dead of
Winter is set in Ontario and builds an epic mystery around the Wendigo
legend.
My new novel The Devil’s
Woods is set in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. In the novel,
there’s an ancient forest that exists at the back of a Cree Indian reservation
that is completely unknown to most of the world. But the Cree people have
feared it for centuries. They call it Macâya Forest. Animals stay clear of it
too. The townspeople of a nearby logging town called Hagen’s Cove know that
those woods are responsible for the countless people who have been disappearing
around those parts since the 1800s.
My story’s main character is Kyle Elkheart. He’s half Cree
and was born on the reservation. When he was a child, his parents got divorced
and his white mother moved Kyle and his brother, Eric, and sister, Shawna, to
Seattle to live with an abusive stepfather. Now, all three of the Elkheart kids
are adults trying to make it in the world. When they learn that their Cree
father has disappeared, Kyle and his brother and sister fly a seaplane to the
Canadian wilderness. Traveling with them are Eric’s girlfriend, Jessica, and
Shawna’s boyfriend, Zack. When the five arrive at the Cree village set deep in
the wilderness, Kyle begins to see clues to an unsolved mystery that spans
decades and he learns the real reason why his tribe fears Macâya Forest.
As for why I write about Canada ... well, while living in
Texas is nice, we don’t have mountains here and there are no ancient forests
where man has not tread. I once traveled to British Columbia, visiting
Vancouver and Whistler and I’ve hiked around the Rocky Mountains. The mountain country
north of the U.S. border is breathtaking and a beautiful place to visit in my
mind as type at my keyboard in Dallas. The Canadian wilderness is also so vast
and remote that it’s ominous when you find yourself far away from civilization.
The native tribes feared the legendary creatures of the forest. And if you
enter the Devil’s Woods, you will discover there are some places in the world
where man is considered prey.
The Devil's Woods is now available at Amazon and everywhere books are sold.
No comments:
Post a Comment