Let Him Go Wild--A Coronado Trail Adventure

In "Let Him Go Wild," park ranger Wade Conrad searches for black-market wildlife traders in Arizona's White Mountains, while Jesse Hayduke, paroled from jail, labors uneasily at a golf course along the Coronado Trail. Until he meets the course cart-girl, Ruby Martinez, a young woman of Apache-Mexican heritage, who takes a liking to Jesse and shares with him the healing powers of the wilderness and a respect for wildlife-especially for Perrito, a curious coyote pup that friends Jesse after a trapper takes away his family. When the human-coyote connection has its tender moment, Jesse strays over the natural divide between people and wild creatures. He has to learn to "do no harm" and allow Perrito to go his own way in the wild. But it is through Perrito that destiny calls Jesse and Ruby to face the malicious animal trapper and his illegal wildlife captures at his remote encampment. Wade, tracking Jesse, reaches the appalling camp and confronts the trapper for a reckoning over his cruelty and killing.

I pivoted to write about wildlife and conservation, including my eco-adventure novel, Wild Call to Boulder Field. I am a writer who loves critters. I try to show this through my words as much as my physical presence, and I am an ardent fan of wildlife, nature and the Earth. I consider my proudest achievements rescuing, or helping to rescue, more than a few lost dogs. My wife Kathleen Alden and I live in Tucson, but we escape to Arizona's White Mountains. It's a daily dog walk to the Sitgreaves National Forest, where coyotes, bears, wild horses, and other creatures are often spotted. I used to be an avid Pickleball player, and I like to unwind with a crossword puzzle.