My Current Writing

My New Novel: The Rhythm of Leaves

This is my first novel. The scene is 2006, Southeastern Colorado, in a small town named Mandala. It sits at the foot of the Rockies and the edge of the Great Plains and much of middle-America. After her husband is killed in an accident in Alaska, Clara Jennings returns with her 14 year-old son, Joel, to her hometown to take up her new job as pastor of The Church of the Holy Promise. Some locals, including her father and the local newspaper editor, become angry when she begins holding peace meetings in the church. According to their view it's not proper to hold peace meetings (even in a church) during a time when the country is at war. My small town becomes divided and subsequently suffers a storm of fear, anger, and distrust regarding what it means to be a patriot, a Christian, and a responsible American citizen.

I have written it five times and hopefully will be receiving additional editorial help from John Daniel who helped so much with Jumping Fire. If things go well the book could be out by the end of 2007.

T-Hanger Days (Also a novel)

I return to the summers of 1973 and 1974 and attempt to tell the story of what happened in the years that became known as the T-Hanger Days. I have 460 pages of the initial manuscript. That was prior to postponing the work in order to do my novel, The Rhythm of Leaves. The T-Hanger Days were Alaska Smokejumping at its wildest and most free-wheeling time, post Vietnam with several Vets carrying a lot of pain. It's also the beginning of the construction of the Alaska Pipeline. There are so many wonderful and funny stories in smokejumping. During those summers the Alaska crew jumped down south out of Redmond, Winthrop, and La Grande so this book should also have a flavor of down-south smokejumping. It was during those years that many in the book Jumping Fire came to meet and know each other. Such people as George Steele, Davis Perkins, Rod Dow, Erik The Blak, Bob Quillin, Don Bell, and Paul Sulinski. This is a story of what happened when a group of rebels and incorrigibles--those smokejumpers unwanted at other jump bases come under the leadership of a man that understood the capacity of the human spirit when freed to express itself without fear of oppression. It is a story of people and their capacity to not only to perform minor miracles parachuting to forest fires but more, to heal wounds, celebrate the value of individuality, and make themselves well in the process. It could be out--if it ever gets out, in three years. Again, I'll need luck.

Murry A. Taylor has been a smokejumper since 1965. He divides his time between Alaska and northern California. Jumping Fire is his first book. Taylor's e-mail address is: murrytay@sisqtel.net • All photographs by Mike McMillan/Spotfire Images • Site by Visual Contact