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author
Gary Bloxham
My life has revolved around family, work and the outdoors. As my passion for writing has grown, I’ve found these three areas are usually thematic to my stories. My first priority has always been fa...view moreMy life has revolved around family, work and the outdoors. As my passion for writing has grown, I’ve found these three areas are usually thematic to my stories. My first priority has always been family, but as the owner of a machine tool sales company, work often conflicted.Over the years, I’ve enjoyed Chukar hunting in the hills north of Weiser, Idaho; the setting for my novel. Many of the adventures of Ash, the protagonist in Murder in Wolf Valley, were taken from these experiences. One scene was inspired by a winter hunt where I was forced to hike out of the backcountry in a blizzard, guided by my German Shorthair, Cocoa. In the failing light and heavy snowfall, her help in finding a safe trail was crucial.The outdoors is a wonderful way to escape the humdrum of life, and for me it is a family affair. When our daughter was sixteen and our son twelve, we loaded backpacks, and with my wife, the four of us hiked north following the old smugglers’ trail across Washington’s Pasayten Wilderness into Manning Provincial Park in Canada. Cocoa took it as her duty to protect us. Over the years I’ve led adventure hikes of fifty to a hundred miles. The journals from these trips provide both settings and characters in my stories.One activity that has impacted my writing more than anything else over the last ten years, is my participation in the Ravenna Writer’s Workshop. Their critiques of my work have definitely improved the quality of my writing. Fortunately, I have been able to retain a few of my most treasured shortcomings.view less