I'm honored!
I'm honored to now be a Goodreads Author! My new novel, Almost Human has been out since May 2015 and I'm excited to have a forum to talk about it.
I got the idea for this book many years ago. I was working as the technical adviser and chimp trainer on a movie that starred Karen Allen and Armand Assante. One evening we were out relaxing after a long day of filming on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a few drinks, Armand commented on how human-like my chimp, Mike seemed. I put on my university professor hat and began pontificating on all the traits we humans shared with chimps including my work as a linguistic research assistant on a project in Reno that had successfully taught chimps to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) as used by the deaf.
At one point, Karen interrupted me and asked that given the similarities, could a human and chimp breed? I remember feeling uncomfortable about answering the question at the time but pointed out that several well know scientists believed it may have been attempted by the Soviets in the late 20's or early 30's on a research vessel that mysteriously sunk without a trace. I realized what a great story that would make.
That evening after the bar closed I went back to the chimp compound and wrote the second chapter where Dr. Turner is lecturing about the similarities and differences of chimpanzees in a University lecture hall at the University of Nevada, Reno. I had worked there on the signing chimp project. I wrote that chapter in about 1984 or so, on an old Royal typewriter.
Just before dawn, as I finished writing, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” played on the radio. I put another page in and wrote the first chapter before going to work.
Almost Human is a thriller where creatures with the enormous strength and power of a chimpanzee and the intelligence and size of a human are sought out and discovered in a remote compound in equatorial Africa.
The special bond between trainers and their animals is central to the story.
Drs. Ken Turner and Fred Savage follow rumors of chimp-human hybrids. The scientists want to study the hybrids, but government operatives want to exploit them. The resulting conflicts threaten Turner and Savage’s research and their lives, as well as the lives of many others.
The big question is can they stop the murderous onslaught in time?
I got the idea for this book many years ago. I was working as the technical adviser and chimp trainer on a movie that starred Karen Allen and Armand Assante. One evening we were out relaxing after a long day of filming on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a few drinks, Armand commented on how human-like my chimp, Mike seemed. I put on my university professor hat and began pontificating on all the traits we humans shared with chimps including my work as a linguistic research assistant on a project in Reno that had successfully taught chimps to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) as used by the deaf.
At one point, Karen interrupted me and asked that given the similarities, could a human and chimp breed? I remember feeling uncomfortable about answering the question at the time but pointed out that several well know scientists believed it may have been attempted by the Soviets in the late 20's or early 30's on a research vessel that mysteriously sunk without a trace. I realized what a great story that would make.
That evening after the bar closed I went back to the chimp compound and wrote the second chapter where Dr. Turner is lecturing about the similarities and differences of chimpanzees in a University lecture hall at the University of Nevada, Reno. I had worked there on the signing chimp project. I wrote that chapter in about 1984 or so, on an old Royal typewriter.
Just before dawn, as I finished writing, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” played on the radio. I put another page in and wrote the first chapter before going to work.
Almost Human is a thriller where creatures with the enormous strength and power of a chimpanzee and the intelligence and size of a human are sought out and discovered in a remote compound in equatorial Africa.
The special bond between trainers and their animals is central to the story.
Drs. Ken Turner and Fred Savage follow rumors of chimp-human hybrids. The scientists want to study the hybrids, but government operatives want to exploit them. The resulting conflicts threaten Turner and Savage’s research and their lives, as well as the lives of many others.
The big question is can they stop the murderous onslaught in time?
No comments have been added yet.
