Pursued

About the Book

The challenge for me in writing this book was to blend factual incidents with fictional characters and events in a way that would be entertaining as well as educational for the readers-- regardless of their background and experience. Although the active characters and events described in this novel are fictional, they are based upon real incidents and real people. The depiction of their ancestors is factual and taken from history, news articles and internet interviews. After the book was written-- in a surprisingly short time-- I found some errors in the information I had received. It took weeks of travel and many interviews in British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, Alberta and Alaska to sort out the truth. Interviews with geologists, archeologists, historians, pilots, and airplane mechanics were all necessary to authenticate some of the scenes in this book. The places depicted actually exist-- I have been there. In a few cases the names have been changed to protect the owners of various facilities. The Characters-- both human and animal-- and the actions depicted in this novel are based upon real life incidents. Humans are a very complex species and how they act in private may be entirely different from the image they present in public. It has been said that we all have demons inside that we must deal with. I have attempted to expose some of the demons inside the principal characters and to show how they coped-- or in some cases could not cope with them. To a certain extent this book is a survival guide. It pits man against man, emotion against emotion, man against animal, and man against nature in all its fury. Most of all, it is a book about being PURSUED. Man is PURSUED by man, man is PURSUED by animal, man is PURSUED by nature and the elements, and man is PURSUED by himself-- and the demons within him. A complex series of events brought the passengers together on this doomed flight into the Arctic winter night. You will get to know each intimently by the end of the book. How was the pilot able to find a place to land in the ice and snow? How did they survive that 40 degree below zero weather? What did they do when they found 60 million dollars in Mafia money hidden in the plane? How did they get back to civilizaiton? You will find out when you read this book.

About the Author

Wayne Smith has traveled from the jungles of Mexico to the Arctic regions of this continent. He has hiked and backpacked thousands of miles of backwoods trails including the Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and King Crest Trail. He is a survivor of a bear attack in Canada in 1972 and returned to that location again in 2001 to relive the event. He bares the scars left by an encounter by both a bobcat and an alligator. By education, Smith holds a doctorate in Social and Behavioral Science. He has much knowledge about human behavior and interpersonal relations. His post graduate studies in criminal behavior were inspired by his being witness to nine homicides in a two-year period. He has also been in a shoot out with three felons that were attempting to rape and murder two of his daughters. To date Smith has sold over 2,700 newspaper stories and radio scripts. All of his stories are based upon his personal experiences with both man and beast. At age 70 Smith says, “I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do when I grow up.”