Michigan Writers

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Comment by Len McDougall on January 27, 2013 at 12:55am

An excerpt from my new novel, available for pre-order now (hardcover only). http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mackinac-incident-len-mcdougall...

 "Richarde made the decision for him. Reaching with his left hand to undo the button-fly of his cargo pants, the Canadian stepped away from the others to relieve his bladder. Rod watched in horror as Richarde walked directly toward where he hid behind the juniper bush. As the man approached, as if following some sort of beacon, Rod's hand unconsciously went to the hilt of his Power Eagle survival machete.  By itself, the twelve-inch blade slid slowly from its sheath, sounding as loud as a manhole cover dragging across concrete to Rod's heightened sense of hearing. His eyes widened in fear as Richarde stepped around the evergreen, hand already reaching into his open fly. Their eyes met, and for a brief moment Richarde froze. Then his opposite hand fell to the nine-millimeter Beretta pistol tucked into his waistband. Richarde drew the pistol, but he twisted its butt outward as he pulled, and the front sight snagged against fabric. He yanked it free.  Too late. Rod's Power Eagle flashed upward in a wide arc of its own volition, and the high carbon steel blade rang as it sank deep into the Canadian's neck, severing his spine, and nearly removing his head from his shoulders. "

Comment by Len McDougall on January 21, 2013 at 9:42am

American Frontiersman magazine (national), premier issue

Comment by Len McDougall on January 21, 2013 at 9:40am

Ironic.  This group has the most members of any on MyNorth, yet no one has written a sentence on it but me in a month.  Writers write. 

Comment by Len McDougall on December 1, 2012 at 9:38am

The biggest problem with learning to write is that it isn't a skill that you can learn. You can learn to be a machinist, an accountant - or a professor of literature. But a writer is a writer with no more training than learning to read. Like a musician or any other artist, a writer has a natural innate talent for stringing words together in an entertaining way. A writer breaks the rules of proper grammar and not only gets away with it, but is praised for it. The late Professor William Shaw, who taught Creative Writing at Nothwestern Michigan College, who got me started writing professionally (i.e., for a paycheck), and to whom my very first book was dedicated, couldn't write well enough to get published. Even though he'd taught English in Great Britain. When he advised me in 1982 to "...quit college and write full-time," my response was "Are you f****ing nuts?" Now, fifteen books (none self-published, by the way) and a thousand articles later, I'm convinced that he was indeed nuts. And so am I, apparently.

Comment by Len McDougall on November 30, 2012 at 10:30pm

This full-color book is the perfect guide for anyone interested in learning how to track animals and read their signs. It offers an introduction on the principals of tracking and reading sign by looking at tracks, prints, gaits, scats, scents, and animal behaviors. It provides the reader with tracking and stalking techniques such as cold hunting, camouflage, and using the stump method. Over twenty different animals are profiled, including New World Moose, American elk, and Whitetailed deer. Each profile lists basic characteristics, tacks, habitat, diet, behaviors, and common relatives. Tracking is the definitive one-stop guide for any person looking to track and read sign while exploring or hunting in the outdoors.

Comment by Len McDougall on November 30, 2012 at 10:27pm

Almost every man (women are saner) dreams, at least once in his life, of getting away from it all, deep into the woods, and going it alone. Expert tracker and woodsman Len McDougall shows us the way in THE LOG CABIN .
In the Spring of 2001, Len packed a grubstake and a couple of loads of handtools, and went deep into the North Woods. Using only the materials available on site and what he could carry in on foot, he pitched a tent to tide him over until the roof was up. Then he cut a few trees, built his own cabin, dug his own well, and lived a year in splendid isolation before returning to the hubbub and pleasures of Petoskey, Michigan. He had no phone, no electricity, no computer, no distractions of civilization--not even a radio (until he dragged in a car battery to power one). An inspiring narrative of self-reliance redolent with a rugged individualism that hasn't yet entirely vanished from the fabric of American life, suffused with a deep love for nature and its creatures, THE LOG CABIN is both the journal of that adventure and a great reference for building your own retreat.

Comment by Len McDougall on November 30, 2012 at 10:19pm

 

 

 

 

 

THE MACKINAW INCIDENT

A thrilling new novel from author Len McDougall

 

 

 

Publication Date: August 1, 2013

 

A veteran survival instructor’s skills are put to the ultimate test when he is confronted by a team of murderous al-Qaeda-trained terrorists hell-bent on destruction.

In the north Atlantic, fifteen miles off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, a Soviet-era diesel submarine off-loads four men before being intercepted and sunk by a U.S. Navy hunter-killer sub patrolling the area. The men make up a team of al-Qaeda-trained specialists skilled in the black arts of terrorist warfare, and they're headed by a sadistic psychopath who has billions of dollars in oil money with which to indulge his murderous fantasies.  If their plan succeeds, it will cost the lives of thousands of Americans.

Only Rod Elliot, a reclusive, aging ex-con turned survival expert, stands between them and one of the most devastating plots ever hatched by the deviated mind of a killer: to blow up the five-mile-long Mackinaw Bridge and detonate enough plutonium to contaminate the area with radiation for decades. When a murderous encounter with the bomb-toting terrorists occurs during a survival class deep in the woods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Elliot finds himself in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with no alternative but to go head-to-head with these ruthless killers. Rod Elliot may be the only person who in a position to stop them. But our reluctant hero is outnumbered, outgunned, and in way over his head.

Due to Elliot’s checkered past, law local enforcement officials arbitrarily blame him for the terrible crimes that are committed by the terrorists over the next few days. Only one cop, a seasoned FBI agent named Colyer, thinks there is more here than meets the eye.  Colyer believes that Elliot is innocent and he's willing to prove it.  But local cops consider him an outsider, so he's operating mostly alone, with no help.  Can Special Agent Colyer connect the pieces of this elaborate puzzle and catch up to Elliot and the terrorists before it's too late?

 

 

 

 

About the author:

 

Fans of the outdoors are familiar with the books, magazine articles, and beautiful photography of Len McDougall.  A veteran survival instructor, magazine writer, author of more than a dozen nonfiction books about the great outdoors, and himself given up for dead in the winter woods on two occasions, this is McDougall's first novel.  His expertise and knowledge of the backwoods are evident on every page, and the many adventures of his own life are interwoven expertly into every aspect of this very believable story. 

 http://www.amazon.com/Mackinac-Incident-Thriller-Len-McDougall/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/len-mcdougall?store=book&keywor...

 

Comment by Michael Coburn on January 22, 2012 at 10:56am

Thank you for allowing me to join the group. I shall look forward to reading the posts and sharing ideas. Michael Coburn

Comment by Michael Lee Seiler on January 17, 2011 at 10:45am

my biggest problem lately is that I can't seem to find the time to do anything creative. I'm casing the "I gotta do this next" list around far too much. Thought I had this week off, for the most part to find out otherwise. For those of you close enough to Boyne City, we do have a Writers's Circle meeting every 2nd Tuesday from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm at the Boyne Arts Collective. It can help if you need some "live" response to queries, and we're currently working on a project as a unit. just a thought.

Comment by Deb Fellows on November 20, 2010 at 7:32am

I think it would be wonderful if this becomes a place people post their work and get feedback. The people who join this group and who will join are all interested in writing so, while it is public, it isn't completely accessible without being a part of the group. I do like your idea, Dean, of requesting readers to give feedback. I think without that, people read as readers and have their own experience with the work without expressing it. Plus, everyone is so busy. Writing meaningful feedback can take a bit of thoughtful time and often people would rather write nothing than something trite. That said, the worst thing that happens is people interested in read your work.

I do think people often respond to solving a problem, so if there is question attached, it gives people a very accessible way to get involved. It could be a great dialogue.

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