David Fowler

The adventures of Jack White Deer as depicted in my first mystery novel, Cloud Swallower, and the second, Descent,take place in the southwest, the part of the country I retired to after 35 years in secondary education. My first job was at the Hawaii Preparatory school on the Big Island of Hawaii with the rest of my career spent at a secondary independent school in New Hampshire, Proctor Academy. After spending 3 year in the US Marine Corps,my more formal educational training was in history receiving a BA degree from Colby College in Maine and an MALS degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In 1971 I was given the opportunity to be Proctor's Head of School for 24 years retiring in 1995. One of the more important influences on my educational outlook was the impact of participating in the Outward Bound schools,learning by doing. One of the many programs at Proctor that I supported was an attempt to reach out to Native Americans. Most of our contact was with the Sioux of South Dakota and through the help of educators Albert White Hat of the Rosebud reservation and John Around Him of the Pine Ridge reservation. These men opened a cultural window that most of us had not looked through before. My experiences with these men have had a great influence on my writings regarding their culture. On my retirement to New Mexico I came in contact with other Native Americans, the pueblo Indians. In my first year in New Mexico , I was offered the opportunity to work on water quality issues on some of the pueblos giving me the opportunity to observe pueblo life and to enjoy the company of those I worked with. The death of a twin brother on one of the Native Americans I worked with was the spark that set in motion the Cloud Swallower mystery. My association with the Sioux and the pueblo Indians gave some cultural texture to the story. The protagonist in both mysteries is Jack White Deer, Pueblo Indian, Dartmouth graduate, environmentalist, and amateur detective.

Unfortunately, Jack , due tho his exposure to the white(Anglo) world had a struggle in connecting with his culture and part of both books reveals his struggle to reconnect with his people's culture. The novel Descent finds Jack once again confronted with a mysterious murder. The fear of a terrorist attack on nearby Los Alamos weapons lab, home of the first atomic bomb, gives some intensity to Jack's investigative work. This story taps into my experiences in the independent school environment. I have always been told to write about what you know which i have done. There is,however, another valid view, write about what you don't know which forces one to discover knowledge through new experiences. In Descent, a shaman plays a key role, but I had no idea about shamanism so I spent a weekend in a workshop on shamanism, a powerful new experience. Paragliders are a part of the story. I knew nothing about this form of flight so I went off to the Santa Barbara hills for a week of paragliding lessons. I hate heights, and after that experience of gliding 300 - 400 feet above the earth, I still do, but I had a new experience to write about with authenticity. I hope you enjoy the books.