In the spring of 1984 I was working in Silicon Valley as a software systems analyst for a major computer manufacturing company, when my lifelong dream of living in Colorado came true. Apple had just run it's famous “1984” ad during the winter Olympics in Sarajevoto announce a new era in personal computing, and camera technology was also undergoing a revolution.The mainframe computer company I was working for transferred me to the Denver area, and I soon purchased my first professional quality 35mm camera.
Thirty years later, cancer had claimed my wife, the Great Financial Crisis had taken my home, and I still remember sitting in a coffee shop at sunrise, staring out the window wondering how to start over. I still had an old Windows PC and my camera, which they would have to pry from my “cold dead hands.” I had recently opened a WordPress account to practice my writing skills, and answered a call for writers at an online news agency. My test article was accepted and soon I was also writing a sports column for the Gazette. A new career in photojournalism was off and running, and I never looked back.
A few years later I combined my love for nature photography with writing, and self published my first book Twenty Years of Digital Photography. I followed that up with two more photo books to cover my entire range of interests, one on wildlife, and the other on extreme photography in the Rocky Mountain winter. During those years of study in the wilderness, I had become acutely aware of pervasive inhumane treatment of our beautiful wildlife at the callous hand of the government, in coordination with greedy ranching and hunting lobbies. I wondered if I could write a book that might turn a distant problem in people's minds into a more personal issue for those who might not normally be interested.
I eventually decided upon historical fiction as the vehicle to communicate the story, and launched my recently completed War on Wildlife series. The saga begins in the San Francisco Bay Area with Spirit of the Wolf, continues in Colorado with Thundering Hooves, and concludes with my eclectic cast of characters fighting to save Colorado's reintroduced wolves, as a modern day range war between wildlife activists and ranching interests threatens to destroy the program before it has a chance to succeed.
Editor's Note: learn more about Steven by visiting https://swkrullimaging.com/