My goal as a writer is to create thrilling, character-based stories set principally in Montana and the west, where natives and anglos are compelled to confront a dangerous but spiritually infused world lurking beneath the dominant safe society we all assume is invincible.  In the process, they learn from one another and overcome personal demons and historical trauma.  This motivation lead me to write a debut eco-thriller novel – Buffalo Dreamers — about Sam Comstock, a young Iraq war vet who finds healing from his suicidal PTSD condition through involvement and growth with Native peoples and culture.

            My formal training was at Stanford University, where I majored in biology and studied creative writing with Scott Turow and was strongly influenced by the Kiowa writer, N. Scott Momaday, and the western icon, Wallace Stegner.  Later, I worked as a river guide on the great western rivers and in Alaska, owned and operated a working ranch in Montana near the Cheyenne Reservation, and have spent many seasons as a volunteer fire lookout on Mount Tamalpais overlooking the San Francisco Bay Area and Pt. Reyes.  Along the way I earned a juried writing award from the Marin Arts Council, and served as Chairman of the Board of the Museum of the American Indian in Marin County, California, where I live.  My professional work in public affairs and community involvement are assets for conducting readings and media interviews.  A good example of this was participating in the Western Literary Association annual conference in Missoula, where I was invited to be a panelist and speaker.  I presented a reading from Buffalo Dreamers, and discussed my tribal experiences. That presentation is the basis for what I intend to use when my novel is published.  In my estimation, it was favorably received by my fellow panelists, by other writers and academics in attendance, and perhaps most significantly by a large contingent of Blackfeet natives down from the reservation in Browning, MT.  They appeared skeptical initially, then appreciative of my words and demeanor.  I should emphasize that I do not wear turquoise nor do I sport a ponytail, and my native characters are as individual, flawed, and unique as the non-natives; in other words, real. 

            While writing a deeply researched history of my ranch – Tipi Ring Ranch, Before and After the Buffalo Years – I was visiting friends in Lame Deer MT, tribal home of the northern Cheyenne.  I met Phillip Whiteman, a champion bareback rider and Cheyenne cultural leader, who invited me to participate as the sole Anglo on the mid-winter Fort Robinson commemorative run from Nebraska, 400-miles in subzero weather back to the Cheyenne Reservation.  The run honors the 1879 late night escape from the fort, and the massacres and epic flight through Pine Ridge and the Black Hills of South Dakota, across a corner of Wyoming, and eventually back to Lame Deer.  No one can read of that harrowing experience and not be moved to tears by the courage and perseverance of the few remaining survivors.  How does a people survive the PTSD of an entire societal beat down?

            These experiences co-mingled with memories of growing up in Ishi country in northern California, ancestral home of tribes long since consumed by genocidal blood-madness.  My own father suffered from near-suicidal PTSD from his war experience.  Perhaps that is why he instilled in me an appreciation for Native struggles.  This was also true for the Washoe tribe at Lake Tahoe, who traveled between the Nevada lowlands in what is now Carson City, up to Da-oh-ah-ga (Lake of the Sky) on a winter-summer cycle, until gold was discovered and their serene life came to a crashing halt.  I studied the Washoe language at the tribal headquarters, and came to appreciate their deep spiritual connection with the Lake, which is the basis for my second, fully written novel, Peyote Moon.  This second novel, along with four additional fully conceived novels, focus on Sam Comstock, his journey, and the intense life-threatening struggles he overcomes along the way.

            Through Sam and his conflicted relationships with various tribal members, most importantly, an evocative romantic interlude with a young native Lakota woman, we come to understand that we all have much to learn from our native neighbors who were treated so poorly but who have so much to give.  We may even discover our own inner buffalo spirit.

Series Overview:

The Sam Comstock novels are thrillers where everything is at risk with no certainty of a survivable outcome for Sam and his band of allies. Technology, armament, and personal fighting skills play an important part, but the key distinguishing drivers in the Sam Comstock series are environmental and metaphysical, including predator-prey relationships, habitat, geology, Native culture, and indigenous belief systems. These factors can be used as weapons for good or evil and are the critical determinants of a successful outcome. The novels are deeply set in my personal home territory embracing Montana, the Great Basin, and northern California, and can best be described as exciting, entertaining, and enlightening. Native American and indigenous cultures play a central role in each of the novels, arising out of my strong associations with the Cheyenne and Washoe tribes.

The protagonist for the novels is Sam Comstock, a flawed but attractive Iraqi war vet from outback Nevada who is drawn into the contemporary crises and grand landscapes of Montana and the far West. Sam was a Marine sniper in Iraq, which grew out of his ranching and hunting upbringing. He is aided and abetted in each novel by his Viet vet boss BJ, and a somewhat deranged bloodthirsty associate, Oxnard. Although Sam is employed in various capacities by wildlife management agencies, he is generally incapable of working within the law enforcement system, and often finds himself at odds with criminal justice. The characters who inhabit Sam’s world are indigenous to the landscapes he travels: Indian shamans and reservation junkies, bikers and cowboys, a mother who manages a brothel and a hi-tech brother who uses his fortune to reintroduce Grizzly bears into the wilds of Lake Tahoe. Sam experiences powerful romantic relationships with a variety of women who face their own demons and identity issues: a Sioux alpha female with a PhD in wolf behavior; a Washoe shaman who utilizes diabolical “water baby” spirit creatures to thwart an abusive and corrupt chief; a Siberian Chuckchi native who represents a green power venture that is a Trojan Horse for gaining control of Montana based nuclear arms; and a young Mayan mother trying to eke out a better life for her six year old daughter in the face of genocidal attacks.

The through-line for each of the novels is Sam’s personal journey, which tests the limits of his physical and emotional endurance. Along the way he heals some PTSD scars while opening new wounds, and comes to understand – and ultimately accept – that his journey is the path of a Cheyenne warrior moving through the great circle of power and life: from warrior, to lover, to sage elder, and ultimately to a feared and respected leader.